Cigarette, cigar, and pipe-smoking are so debilitating that the
immediate cessation of the habit is always the first step of any
program to improve one's health - even more important than vitamins,
diet, or exercise.
International studies of millions of people by government, industry,
universities, and private research institutions have determined that
smoking can cause:
stained teeth, fingers, and hair;
increased frequency of colds, particularly chest colds and bronchitis;
asthma;
neuralgia;
gastrointestinal difficulties, constipation, diarrhea, and colitis;
headaches;
nausea;
convulsions;
leukoflakia (smoker's patch);
insomnia;
heart murmur;
Buerger's disease (inflammation of blood vessel linings);
shortness of breath;
arthritis;
smoker's hack;
nervousness;
wrinkles and premature aging;
tension;
gastric, duodenal, and peptic ulcers;
lung cancer;
cancer of the lip, tongue, pharynx, larynx, and bladder;
emphysema;
high blood pressure;
heart disease;
artherosclerosis & arteriosclerosis (thickening and loss of
. elasticity of the blood vessels with lessened blood flow);
inflammation of the sinus passages;
tobacco angina (nicotine angina pectoris);
pneumonia;
influenza;
pulmonary tuberculosis;
tobacco amblyopia;
impared hearing;
decreased sexual activity;
and mental depression.
Blood flow to the extremities is decreased (cold hands and feet). One
puff lowers the temperature in the fingertips 1ºF to 3ºF in 3
minutes.
Nicotine affects the nerve-muscle junctions, causing tremors and
shaking. Nicotine causes narrowing and constriction of the arteries,
adding to the heart's load. Nicotine, through its ability to stimulate,
causes excitement and anxiety. But the effect wears off, often a period
of depression follows, whereupon another cigarette is taken. Nicotine,
an insecticide, makes the blood more viscous and decreases the
available oxygen. It also adversely affects the breathing, sweating,
intestinal, and heart actions of our autonomic nervous system, probably
due to hindering the blood flow to the nerve centers in the brain.
Two to four cigarettes in a row increase blood fats 200 to 400%. The
average smoker (30 cigerettes per day) has 4 to 6 times the chance of
having heart disease if he's in the 45-54 year age group.
If the mother smoked during pregnancy, her baby will average 6 ounces
less and its pulse will be 30% faster than a non-smoker's baby, and
there'll be withdrawal symptoms in the baby after birth. Premature
birth has been related to smoking by the mother. There is a direct link
between parents' smoking and children's respiratory disease.
Smoking causes widespread permanent destruction of the tiny air sacs
(alveoli) and narrowing of small blood vessels in the lungs, decreasing
the oxygen supply, requiring a higher blood pressure, thus causing
extensive circulatory problems and premature heart attacks. Smokers
have difficulty running and exercising.
The cilia are tiny, delicate, hairlike coverings on the thin membrane
of the surface of the lungs and trachea that, by means of their
whipping, beating action, produce an upward current of foreign material
and mucus from the lungs which is then swallowed or expectorated. This
is the way the body cleans the lungs. This delicate lung-cleaning
mechanism, in a cigarette smoker, at first paralyzes, then
deteriorates, and is eventually made inoperative, through the complete
destruction of the cilia. The smoker then must resort to coughing as a
lung-cleaning method. This isn't efficient, and more than a cupful of
tars will have accumulated in his lungs by the time of his premature
death.
Air pollution (auto exhausts, industry wastes, etc.) increases the lung
cancer rate of the smoker, but not of the non-smoker. Apparently, the
lung-cleaning cilia are alive and working for the non-smoker.
The time to recover from any specific ill, whether caused by smoking or
not, is much longer for the smoker. Often, a non-smoker will survive a
sickness from which he would have died had he smoked.
The non-smoker has no need to spend money to buy cigarettes, matches,
lighters, holders, ashtrays, or to spend a dime a mile for that special
trip to the store. Just the cigarettes alone amount to an average of
$250 per year, after taxes - wasted. Add another $250 if the spouse
smokes. This is hard-earned, after-tax, money of yours, used to pay for
the above smoking paraphernalia - plus tax! (Please note: these are
1971 figures.)
By dying earlier, the smoker will lose many tens of thousands of
dollars in social security and other benefits which will naturally end
up in the pockets of the non-smoker. The cigarette tax is more money
from the smoker to the non-smoker.
The smoker is sick more often, explaining why he misses an average of
7½ work days per year, usually with a loss of pay, while the
non-smoker will miss only 4½ days.
The smoker must spend valuable time looking for ashtrays, cigarettes,
matches, retail stores, vending machines, or change for these machines.
He experiences displeasure if they aren't immediately at hand. Just the
process of deciding on "which brand" wastes vast amounts of mental,
physical, and financial resources.
The overall bad health of the smoker results, on average, in a decrease
of 8.3 years in his life expectancy, or about 12 to 14 minutes per
cigarette. Just in lost social security income alone, this amounts to
about a 5¢ a cigarette. The actual cost of each cigarette when you
include extra medical expenses, lost pay, etc., is of the order of
25¢ per cigarette (1971 figures).
Just the extra medical expenses alone can be expected to eventually use
up all of a smoker's hard-earned savings, already depleted by the high
cost of smoking. By the time non-smokers get sick, Medicare will foot
their medical bills.
The smoker's body requires more sleep every night. This extra sleep
must come from his spare time. Besides needing more sleep, smokers
don't sleep as well.
Smoking destroys vitamins, particularly vitamin C and the B's. Smoking
has induced cancer in dogs. Insurance rates can be higher for smokers.
Some 100,000 doctors stop smoking every year.
Foods will taste much better to non-smokers. Many subtle flavors and
aromas will be savored if your nasal and oral senses are freed of the
effects of harsh chemicals, coal tars, and other combustion products.
How long has it been since you've experienced the smell of fresh-cut
grass or the delicate taste of lobster from Maine or Nova Scotia?
Other disadvantages of smoking: You must always carry cigarettes and
matches; your pockets bulge - or there's less space in your purse;
smelly breath; smelly house; smelly clothes; messy rugs and furniture,
often burned; cigarettes lying around for kids to smoke (and matches to
light); you're a bad influence on kids; you're held in low esteem by
your kids and your friends (even your smoking friends); the inside of
your home and auto windows need cleaning more often; death or property
loss due to smoking in bed.
Some 120 persons have died in two airline crashes that have been
attributed to ashtray and lighter-fluid fires. Cigarette smoke collects
with lint and is known to gum up delicate mechanisms such as aircraft
controls.
Smokers get into more auto accidents due to being less alert, having
slower reflexes, and also due to fussing around while driving (lighting
up, etc.). In Czechoslovakia it's illegal to smoke while driving.
Accident-proneness has been related to smoking.
A non-smoker would have to put on an additional 150 pounds in order to
increase his mortality rate to that of an average smoker.
The fact that the tobacco industry provides work, that wouldn't exist
without it, is a myth. The money now wasted on tobacco, if diverted
elsewhere, would create a wealth of new job openings in industries
producing goods and services more useful to the society than
cigarettes.
Smoking makes a person irritable and argumentative, partially due to a
subconscious knowledge of all of the above facts. Smoking has been
related to brain damage and premature senility.
A smoker needs much more food and sleep since nicotine makes his body
work harder and less efficiently and his heart beat faster, thus using
more fuel and energy. This, together with the fact that a smoker loses
much of his appetite and his taste for food, explains why smokers have
less trouble keeping their weight down. When one quits smoking, it's
IMPERATIVE that the intake of food is drastically reduced in order to
keep the body weight normal. Having to eat less is of course an
additional saving of time and money.
Wouldn't it be nice if everyone quit smoking? There'd be less general
litter, no more butts, ashes, or wrappers in the streets, grass,
urinals, etc.; no more smoke in restaurants, theaters, airplanes or
buses; a more alert society, with more spare time to enjoy or improve
their lot in life; fewer auto, plane, on-the-job, and household
accidents; fewer forest fires; less air pollution; lower auto and life
insurance rates; and fewer people coughing and spitting in public. By
inflicting smoke on your non-smoking friends, it's been shown that even
THEIR health and life expectancy are adversely affected.
Notice how many of your friends have quit smoking in the last 5 years.
They're the smart ones (and you know it). Lower intelligence has been
related to smoking. In fact, smoking is both a cause and an effect of
lower intelligence, just as smoking is both a cause and effect of lower
income. The (smoking)-(lower-intelligence)-(lower-income)-(more
smoking) vicious circle can unknowingly spiral a brainwashed young
person down and down into the depths of poverty and despair. He'll not
be as physically or mentally able to cope with life's challenges. Our
successful capitalistic system is based on competition, and the
physically-mentally handicapped smoker inevitably ends up at the bottom
of the heap. So get smart, today, now, and join the happy, healthy
ranks of the non-smokers.
Quitting the Filthy Habit
The smoker's body cells have become addicted to nicotine, and to quit
smoking won't be easy, since withdrawal symptoms can be expected. Here
are some helpful tips that might ease the quitting process:
If you're a light smoker, you should quit immediately, only moderately shocking your system.
The heavy smoker should allow two weeks for cutting down, then quit
completely. An extended cutting-down period only prolongs the pain.
Prepare for an agonizing month or two, though you might get off easily.
The close family must give up, too, at least in your presence. It'd of
course be best if the whole family quit at once. The pain and agony
you'll suffer can be relieved completely in most persons by taking
vitamin C to bowel tolerance. That means to take as little as one gram
or as many as fifty grams (50,000 milligrams) every day until you reach
the point of liquid diarrhea, then decrease the amount until your
stools are normal. But "normal", for many smokers, means frequent
constipation. Stools must always be soft, never, ever, necessitating
any straining.
If anti-smoking drugs help (Nikoban, Bantron, Pronicotyl), good, but be
prepared to find they won't. Vitamins C and B1 and tranquilizers often
help to decrease irritability and other withdrawal symptoms.
After eating don't sit down. Take a walk instead. Try to avoid
situations that you associate with smoking, such as sitting in your
favorite chair, particularly after dinner. Try to avoid situations that
are conducive to smoking, such as bars, meetings, and boredom. Don't
invite smoking friends over during the critical first few months.
Never, anytime, let them smoke in your soon-to-be smell-free home. In
fact, after you've quit for a few months, you'll notice how your
clothes still have a strong residual smell of an ashtray. It may be
necessary to clean or clear away every source of that smell, usually
from carpets and clothes. Then get ready for a new life of clean lungs
and great health. Your non-smoking friends won't avoid you anymore now
that you no longer smell like an ashtray.
When you get that urge to smoke (and you will), drink some water. If
that doesn't work, suck a prune and keep the pit in your mouth for an
hour. Try the buddy system: phone a friend who's also trying to quit.
Think of the satisfaction of not having given in to that filthy urge.
Think how bad you'll feel if you do give in. Think about how your
cigarette money helps support those hypocritical tobacco companies
whose income is derived at the expense of the health, wealth,
happiness, efficiency, and resources of the addicted smoker.
Keep this sheet with you at all times, and re-read it when necessary,
to refresh your memory of all the ugly disadvantages of smoking, and
all the advantages of not smoking.
Try to avoid calories, but if you find that substituting food for
cigarettes helps you give up smoking, then by all means have an apple,
gum, beef jerky, or a prune. If at all possible, exercise a bit every
day, especially when you get the urge to smoke. It's a good substitute,
and you'll find that exercising comes much easier as a non-smoker.
After giving up, that filthy urge may remain for several years, so
don't start again. Some people are lucky in that after a few months the
thought of smoking makes them sick. But don't bank on being lucky.
Cigarette displays, cigarette ads, cigarette machines, anything having
to do with smoking, must be looked upon in your mind as existing only
for those poor unfortunates who are addicted to that filthy habit.
Life's too good and too short to waste on that filthy habit.
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