The main cause of preventable disease and death is smoking. Smoking has a negative effect on every part of your body and causes several life-threatening diseases. It's one of the main causes of cancer, heart disease, stroke and emphysema. It increases the risk of developing diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, ulcers, vascular disease and gum disease. Smoking causes people to age early, causes wirinkles, gives you bad breath, and makes your teeth yellow. Yet only 1 in 10 smokers can quit, and most smokers have to try quitting several times before they succeed.
Addiction
Nicotine in cigarettes is an addictive drug--as addictive as cocaine and heroin. Nicotine moves from your lungs to blood vessels to your brain seconds after you inhale, giving you all kinds of good feelings. Both a stimulant and a depressant, it increases your heart rate so you feel more alert, then makes you feel depressed and tired so you want another one to get your energy and good feelings back.
Habit
Smoking becomes a habit. Most people who smoke automatically reach for a cigarette after eating, drinking alcohol, while driving and as soon as they wake up. When someone else lights up, you usually join them. These situations along with certain places like bars and restaurants, called triggers, cause you to smoke without even thinking about it.
Heredity
Three separate teams of scientists discovered a gene that makes people more dependent on smoking and less likely to quit. The 2008 study on this discovery showed people with this gene are also more likely to get lung cancer. If you smoke and both your parents pass this gene on to you, there's nearly a 1 in 4 chance that you'll develop lung cancer.
Physical and Mental Effects
When you try to quit, physical and mental symptoms of withdrawal begin. You may have headaches, stomach aches, sore throat, dry mouth, depression and lack of energy. You can feel nervous, irritable and hungry all the time. You may cough a lot, become constipated, have difficulty concentrating, and have a hard time sleeping.
Type of Tobacco Smoked
A 2006 report in ScienceDaily showed smokers of menthol cigarettes were less likely to try to quit smoking than smokers of non-menthol cigarettes. Researchers measured the relationship between exposure to menthol cigarettes and quitting. Smokers of menthol cigarettes were twice as likely to relapse after quitting.
