Top 10 Reasons to Stop Smoking Now
One summer morning, just a little after 10 am, we finished one of our torrid sessions on autopsy, and we were all getting ready to leave. One of my favorite Professors in medical school takes this class. She also lectures on pathology, and I wanted to consult her on a particular issue. When I found her, she was smoking, and she had to stamp the butt and attend to me quickly. She promptly warned that I should never result in smoking as I was leaving, which was a surprising gesture for me to see. This was because this was not the case for me growing up in my neighborhood. People smoking around you tends to encourage you to do the same. But I think the times are changing, most people involved in smoking now realize the havoc it causes and the dangers it exposes them to. Below are some of the reasons for someone already involved in smoking cigarettes to stop immediately.
- Cigarettes Can Put Your Sexual Life On Fire: When referring to this kind of fire, it does not relate to that of sexiness, and it does not represent that of a spectacular performance. Here what it means literally is that one’s sexual life becomes gravely endangered in a way fire threatens anything due to its character to consume and destroy things. The erectile dysfunction has been found to be often related to most individuals who are smokers. Most people that were able to improve their situation only became successful after cessation of smoking.
- Dating: If one already has a spouse and erectile dysfunction surfaces it could be strain the relationship. If the significant other discovers it has a link to the individual’s hobby of smoking, just due to that reluctance, one may end up losing the partner. This leads to the state of being single and the search to find a soulmate. Before discovering that noble character or value in a person, the first thing that draws people to one another is an attraction. The next phase will be to maintain such attraction till a more concrete characteristic is discovered, even if one looks as handsome as Cristiano Ronaldo or as ravishing as Priyanka Chopra if people perceive an offensive odor around it sends them straight to the hills for safety. So if one smokes often, there is no hiding the scent even if you keep covering it with perfumes. No matter how exotic the cologne is, there is always that moment when one lets the guard down, and the actual nature is exposed. Most people will be estranged from someone who smells terribly. They fear the kind of social nuisance that the person will exhibit as they become more comfortable in the relationship.
- Light a Cigarette and Lose a Year: If one has witnessed one’s mother go through Menopause, then one will be able to relate to the fact it is not a pleasant ride. Before someone just entering menopause adjusts to the changes going on in their body it takes a while. A lot of the times, the people that suffer the consequence of these changes are the ones around. Sometimes, it affects the relationships with spouses or even the children and most people look to avoid that. So it becomes a bit weird that knowing smoking cigarettes can make one old faster, get females to reach menopause faster and yet you do not want to quit. Alright, what about the damage to the skin, having a wrinkled face does not exactly represent a young look.
- The Zombie-life: Yes, one practically prays for sleep that won’t come. Researchers found out that the nicotine in cigarettes is the most likely agent that causes insomnia in people suffering from the disorder. The sad part is that numerous disorders come up when an individual does not get adequate sleep. So, one can not sleep and even when awake one is not up to the optimal level of wakefulness and activity. If one notices that there has been a cycle of late nights and short sleep, then it is time to cut smoking.
- Infection: Studies have shown a clear connection between risk of being infected with pneumonia-causing bacteria in patients that smoke in contrast to those that do not. The immune system gets weaker that it systematically becomes less able to carry out its duty of fighting diseases not just that of pneumonia.
- You Can Still Avoid Cancer: I was fortunate to be a part of a team of professionals that researched the relationship between lung cancer and smoking. In this study, the recurrent solution that keeps coming up is abstinence. If something is preventable, then one should make an effort to stop it from happening instead of fighting to cure or manage it. The argument put up by most people we surveyed was that they have friends and family that have been smoking and have been cancer free all their lives. Obviously, there is always an exception in life, that is how evolution and preservation of what we have in the world now happens. But putting one’s life on the line on such a lousy bet is not safe. Better safe than sorry, it is real that smoking modifies our respiratory organ making it more susceptible to infections and cancer.
- Save Money Off Cigarettes: This is pure. I once watched a video on YouTube about women calculating how much they have spent on sanitary pads for 20 years and they came to the conclusion that they could have built houses. They can’t stop having their monthly cycle unless they become pregnant or remove their ovaries to save money up. But all a smoker needs to do is to start saving every amount of money that goes into purchasing packs or sticks of cigarettes, and you will be amazed and smile to the bank, striking things initially thought impossible, off your bucket list.
- Avoid Addiction: There’s no more straightforward way to say this, run from it if you are not an addict already. One may not understand the challenges addicts go through, most of the time they want to quit but the mind has already been compromised, and professional help becomes the only solution. This always come at a price, so why not safe oneself of the horror and struggle simply.
- Endangering Others: One of the other studies I was took part in was that of second-hand smoking. One can write a book about the risk a smoker is exposing himself or herself to, but the sad thing is that the people around them are even in graver dangers. The dangers go as far as the child in the womb. When smokers smoke in a confined area with people there, they not only partake in the smoke but also in danger and at times they may not even realize the gravity of the situation. Stop for them if not for yourself, don’t let them pay for your actions.
- Mouth Odor: I bet it is much easier to write than to talk, if I haven’t brushed my teeth and I’m coming up to talk about these same things, my credibility already comes into question. The same goes for everyone, stop smoking so that you can be respected and listened to; there are countless ways to get relaxed and be happy.
Smoking can be avoided, stopped and replaced. I once lived a cold country, and I was encouraged to smoke, but I realized that I could warm myself up by drinking a cup of hot tea. Habits die hard, but the brave and courageous can make positive changes that last forever.
References
Buczkowski, K., Marcinowicz, L., Czachowski, S., & Piszczek, E. (2014). Motivations toward smoking cessation, reasons for relapse, and modes of quitting: results from a qualitative study among former and current smokers. Patient Preference And Adherence, 1353. http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/ppa.s67767
Ten Reasons to Quit Smoking. (1995). Preventive Medicine, 24(1), 96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/pmed.1995.1015
Zamosky, L. (2016). 10 Reasons to Quit Smoking: Cost, Smell, Wrinkles, and More. WebMD. Retrieved 7 February 2018, from https://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/features/is-smoking-dragging-you-down#2
