A doctor was wondering why his patient had such a bad asthma attacks that she needed multiple hospital admission even though he put her on effective medicaton.

Investigation had ruled out that the girl did not take her medication as instructed. This carried on for 2 years.

Miracle happened. The girl started to get better and it was around the same time that the  doctor noticed that the grandpa was  bringing her for consultation and not her mum. He found out that both parents were posted to China to work, and the girl now lives with grandpa. Upon more probing, doctor discovered that both parents were smokers and grandpa stayed clear of cigarettes.

Well, the girl is a victim of passive smoking.

The harm of passive smoking is first discovered by Japanese reseacher, Takeshi Hirayama in 1981. He found a link between lung cancer in non-smoking Japanese women and her husbands who were smokers. The link has since been confirmed by many studies and new scientific evidences.

Even if parents smoke outside the house, the levels of respirable suspended particles including nicotine were still higher in the homes. Boston researcher, Jonathan Winickoff coined the term “3rd hand smoking” as the cocktail of toxins linger in carpets, sofas, cloths and other materials even days after the cigarette is put out.

(information adapted from “Mind & Body”, 21 Jan)

Additional reading:

Quick Smoking Today

Hypnosis To Change Your Life by Steve G Jones.

Read more: Quit smoking for your kid’s sake

By Robert Henderson

Are you a smoker who needs one more reason to quit? If so, perhaps the information in this article can help move you to action. You are undoubtedly well aware-unless you live in a media-free cave-that smoking can cause a number of serious health conditions. Among them are the usual suspects-cancer, heart disease and pulmonary illness-but recent research has uncovered yet another to be added to the list. Diabetes, say medical experts, has a strong correlation to smoking, and in fact, smoking is now listed as one of the primary risk factors for developing the disease.

According to the American Journal of Epidemiology, people who smoke 16-23 cigarettes a day are three times more likely to develop Type-2 diabetes than nonsmokers. Prolonged smoking at similar rates of consumption may even cause that number to rise. The numbers are indeed overwhelming. Diabetes is yet another dangerous condition that people can help prevent by putting the cigarettes away for good.

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease of the pancreas, an organ located behind the stomach and essential to the digestive process. When functioning normally, the pancreas releases insulin into the blood. Insulin helps break down the food you consume and aids in the way the body uses these substances.

Diabetes is the inability of the pancreas to either produce insulin altogether or to produce enough of it. It is a serious illness which can cause many long-term complications such as eye disease, kidney problems, heart disease and neuropathy.

The Dangers

The dangerous chemicals released through smoking have been found to increase the likelihood for adult-onset Type 2 diabetes, and combined with other risk factors could prove to be especially harmful.

Below are some of the risk factors listed by the American Diabetes Association:

• Family history of diabetes
• Obesity
• Alcohol Abuse
• Smoking
• Stress
• Age (Increases with age)

Smoking not only increases your chance of getting diabetes, it can create special problems for those already dealing with the illness as well. Smoking elevates the risk of bringing about some of the more serious complications listed above such as nerve, kidney and eye damage and can make managing diabetes particularly troublesome.

While some will have no say in their diabetes due to hereditary, the best way to prevent the disease is to avoid or eliminate the risk factors from your routine. A complete cessation from cigarettes is a good start. Along with proper weight management, avoiding smoking and refraining from drinking alcohol in excess may help you to avoid this harmful disease.

Additional reading:

Quick Smoking Today

Hypnosis To Change Your Life by Steve G Jones.

Read more: Diabetes and Smoking

I like Disney cartoons since young but I didn’t know Goofy had a dark past until I saw this video. Well, it just goes to show smoking can get people on the dark side.

Like claudiokun2007 said at YouTube: “It was an attempt to ridicule smoking and how desperate is a man who becomes dependent on nicotine in some dry burning mix of leaves”. Yet regrettably, kacpt said “Walt Disney is going to hell for this video. this cartoon is why i started smoking. 18 years ago.” It is sure weird to have Goofy asking for weeds but Aethumus commented that “Weed used to be slang for a self-rolled cigarette. It didn’t change into a marijuana connotation until the early to mid sixties.”

Perhaps the video was made in 1951 but it would better for Disney to send a clearer message. We have folks at YouTube wondering if this video is pro-smoking or anti-smoking.

Technorati Tags: Goofy Smokes, Goofy Disney, Goofy:No Smoking

Read more: Oh No, Goofy Smokes?!

A Tiny Cigarette can do Great Harm to YOU!

Harmful chemicals in a single cigarette will eventually cause you excruciating pain and lots of money … … and worse, a premature death
Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals. At least 400 are poisonous and more than 50 are cancer-causing. So the health authorities all over the world are NOT exaggerating when they claimed that smoking harms nearly every organ of the body; causing many diseases and reducing the health of smokers in general. Just in United States of America alone, the adverse health effects from cigarette smoking accounts for an estimated 438,000 deaths, or nearly 1 of every 5 deaths. It is also true that more deaths are caused each year by tobacco smoking than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.

If you are wondering if you should stop smoking, perhaps after reading the information you will decide to quit smoking immediately.

1. What’s inside a stick of cigarette

TAR
Tar is a black and sticky residue where the road construction workers used to spread and cover road surfaces. Tar is the main culprit for clogging up the lungs and cause lung cancer. It contains many cancer-causing substances such as:

NICOTINE
Nicotine is a strong and addictive drug which can stimulate heart rate and cause blood pressure to rise. When you take nicotine, it will increase the stickiness of blood, decrease the diameter of your blood vessels and you could be a easy victim of stroke and heart attacks.

CARBON MONOXIDE
Carbon Monoxide is exactly the same gas found in your car’s exhaust smoke. When consumed by your body, carbon monoxide will deprive your brain, muscles and body tissue of oxygen. You heart will have to work much harder to enable your body to function. An over-worked heart can lead to heart attacks or stroke. After some time, there is less air entering your lungs as your airways are all swell up. With airway choked up and an over-worked heart, smokers will definitely suffer from shortness of breath and lack of stamina.

2. What’s the Harmful Effects of Cigarette Smoking?
Knowing that the same tar that’s used to cover road is inside the cigarette may not be repulsive enough for you to give up smoking.

Knowing that smoking can cause you headache, loss of taste sensation, pain, ailment and sickness may still be insufficient, but you should at least know what will eventually harm you if you keep to your daily

The following information is from an article at Health Canada Healthy Living website http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca

Cancer

• Cancer is the second leading cause of death and was among the first diseases casually linked to smoking.¹
• Smoking causes about 90% of lung cancer deaths in women and almost 80% of lung cancer deaths in men. The risk of dying from lung cancer is more than 23 times higher among men who smoke cigarettes, and about 13 times higher among women who smoke cigarettes compared with never smokers.¹
• Smoking causes cancers of the bladder, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx (voice box), esophagus, cervix, kidney, lung, pancreas, and stomach, and causes acute myeloid leukemia.¹
• Rates of cancers related to cigarette smoking vary widely among members of racial/ethnic groups, but are generally highest in African-American men.⁵

Cardiovascular Disease (Heart and Circulatory System)

• Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.¹ Cigarette smokers are 2–4 times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than nonsmokers.⁶
• Cigarette smoking approximately doubles a person’s risk for stroke.^7,8
• Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries). Smokers are more than 10 times as likely as nonsmokers to develop peripheral vascular disease.⁹
• Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm.¹

Respiratory Disease and Other Effects

• Cigarette smoking is associated with a tenfold increase in the risk of dying from chronic obstructive lung disease.⁷ About 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung diseases are attributable to cigarette smoking.¹
• Cigarette smoking has many adverse reproductive and early childhood effects, including an increased risk for infertility, preterm delivery, stillbirth, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).¹
• Postmenopausal women who smoke have lower bone density than women who never smoked. Women who smoke have an increased risk for hip fracture than never smokers.¹⁰

3. Questions you are likely to ask …

1. How to quit smoking?
2. How to help someone to stop smoking?
3. Are there any smoking aids
4. What is the painless way to stop smoking?
5. Is there such a thing as an easy way to quit smoking?
6. Does hypnosis and hypnotherapy help to stop smoking

There are many ways to quit smoking but I prefer the painless way with no withdrawal discomfort. The process of stop smoking is already painful enough for most smokers, it’s no point choosing a method that inflict more pain. I would advise you to quit smoking painlessly. Check it out now by clicking here.

References

1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2004 [cited 2006 Dec 5]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/sgr_2004/index.htm.

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Productivity Losses—United States, 1997–2001. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report [serial online]. 2002;51(14):300–303 [cited 2006 Dec 5]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5114a2.htm.

3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health United States, 2003, With Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans. (PDF–225KB) Hyattsville, MD: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics; 2003 [cited 2006 Dec 5]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/tables/2003/03hus031.pdf.

4. McGinnis J, Foege WH. Actual Causes of Death in the United States. Journal of the American Medical Association 1993;270:2207–2212.

5. Novotny TE, Giovino GA. Tobacco Use. In: Brownson RC, Remington PL, Davis JR (eds). Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Control. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association; 1998;117–148 [cited 2006 Dec 5].

6. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking—25 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 1989. DHHS Pub. No. (CDC) 89–8411 [cited 2006 Dec 5]. Available from: http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/B/B/X/S/.

7. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Tobacco Use Among U.S. Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups—African Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 1998 [cited 2006 Dec 5]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/sgr_1998/index.htm.

8. Ockene IS, Miller NH. Cigarette Smoking, Cardiovascular Disease, and Stroke: A Statement for Healthcare Professionals From the American Heart Association. Journal of American Health Association. 1997;96(9):3243–3247 [cited 2006 Dec 5].

9. Fielding JE, Husten CG, Eriksen MP. Tobacco: Health Effects and Control. In: Maxcy KF, Rosenau MJ, Last JM, Wallace RB, Doebbling BN (eds.). Public Health and Preventive Medicine. New York: McGraw-Hill;1998;817–845 [cited 2006 Dec 5].

10. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2001 [cited 2006 Dec 5]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/sgr_2001/index.htm.

Quit smoking painlessly – Check it out now by clicking here.

Technorati Tags: harmful effects of smoking, harmful chemicals inside cigarette

Read more: How and How Much a Tiny Cigarette Can Harm YOU!