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For the smoker & non-smoker alike, know WHAT SMOKING DOES?

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Addictive Habit

Smoking is one of the most insidious habits inculcated by humans, polluting the lungs of the smoker and bystander alike. Smoking cigarettes, cigars or hookahs are equally deleterious to your health.

A Fad Best Extinguished

Smoking normally starts as a fad and is associated with being cool and stylish. Smokers do not realize that they have an undesirable breath and hygiene. Their body odor is unpleasant and their clothes are tainted with toxic chemicals that are expelled with perspiration. However, by the time the uninformed and gullible minds recognize their mistake, smoking has already become a deeply ingrained addiction. Yet a smoker can kick the habit if they have the desire too.

One Puff and the Damage Is Done

Once a cigarette has been puffed, it matters little whether you inhale the cigarette smoke or not, as the fresh air that you breathe in thereafter gets polluted on mixing with the pernicious tobacco smoke that is already present in your mouth or nostrils.

Lethally Cancerous

Approximately 85% of all lung cancers are associated with smoking. Cigarettes contain about 4000 elements in them of which 200 are extremely harmful. Some of the most toxic elements are nicotine, acrolein, arsenic, cadmium, lead, tar, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, phenol, methanol etc. These elements are so dangerous that larger quantities can instantly kill a person. Smoking kills smokers and non-smokers slowly but surely, in the process making them sick and prematurely old, while physically and mentally making them weaker.

The Deadly Poison

Dr Norman Walker says, Carbon monoxide is even more lethal a poison than nicotine. After air has been inhaled and utilized by the body, it results in the accumulation of debris in the form of carbonic acid gas. Since the air channels in the lungs of smokers have been blocked with polluted air, they are unable to provide sufficient oxygen for the needs of the body. To meet this deficiency, the body takes atoms of oxygen from the unexpelled carbon dioxide (present as the lungs have been blocked), to form carbon monoxide. Carbon dioxide is a poisonous gas which cannot sustain life, while carbon monoxide is much more deadly. The body can tolerate 50 parts of carbon monoxide in one million parts of air without it being endangered. But in a room filled with tobacco smoke, levels of carbon monoxide can easily reach 75 to 90 parts per million, precariously endangering the lives of all those present there.

Avoid Smoke-filled Atmospheres

Dr Walker suggests, If you ever find yourself in a stuffy room with insufficient ventilation or an environment which is laden with cigarette smoke, exit as soon as an opportunity arises, and then breathe out forcibly to expel the foul air from your lungs. Polluted air is heavier and tends to settle at the bottom of the lungs. By forcefully breathing out, you ensure that the foul air doesn’t get tightly packed into your lungs, thereby giving fresh air a chance to enter.

Barely Alive

Dr Walker says, “Your lungs are like bunches of grapes, only these are microscopic in size. These bunches are so small, in fact, that there are 400 million bunches in your lungs. One bunch could just about slip through the eye of a small needle. If you smoke, you have never appreciated the importance of your lungs. Your lungs can keep you young or they can age you so fast that the result would he pitiful.

When we breathe air which is saturated with tobacco smoke and alcohol fumes, it tends to pack these little bunches in our lungs so tightly that air and oxygen cannot get through. It is only the fact that Nature endowed us with more than 400 million such bunches that so many people are living today. Correction: that so many people are existing today. An amazing number of these who are walking around today died when they were 30 or 35 years old, and are waiting to be 50 or 60 before they are buried.”

Disrupts Hormonal Functions

Dr Walker warns, Adrenaline is the hormone secreted by the adrenal glands and regulates various functions in the human body such as peristalsis, menstrual activity, and stimulation of the muscles and nerves. It is involved in the dilation of the pupils, the normal functioning of the reproductive organs as well as in the repair and regeneration of the cell and tissue structure. It also exerts a great influence on the balance of elements such as calcium, phosphorus, chlorine and sodium.

The malfunctioning of the adrenal gland can sometimes be responsible for low blood pressure, tumors, convulsions, and intestinal disturbances. Adrenaline also has ominous consequences on our physical and mental well-being. During emergencies, adrenaline can be a life-saving hormone, while in situations of fear and great emotional distress, it is a deadly poison

A healthy body produces just enough adrenaline for the body to efficiently carry out all its activities. Smoking has an extremely detrimental effect on the proper functioning of the adrenal glands. Dr. Norman W. Walker wrote, “Death from excessive anger, fright or excitement could readily be caused by too much adrenaline getting into our blood stream and not being diluted quickly enough.”

Dr. Walker voices, “As a matter of fact tobacco smoke contains two particularly vicious irritating poisons, nicotine and acrolein. This is carefully omitted in cigarette advertising. Inhaling this smoke stimulates an excessive secretion of adrenaline.”

A Murky Picture of the Lungss

cancerous-lungs

When autopsies were conducted on the bodies of those who smoked regularly, they brought to light the fact that a large number of air cavities in the lungs called alveoli had been destroyed. They also established that the color of the lungs was black as coal due to the presence of noxious chemicals from tobacco smoke.

Premature Aging

One of the important functions of sodium in the body is to eliminate carbon dioxide. A deficiency of sodium results in bronchial and other lung problems, which are intensified by the presence of tobacco smoke in the atmosphere. Dr. Walker says, “If you smoke you never appreciated the importance of your lungs. Your lungs can keep you young or they could age you so fast that the results would be pitiful. Women who smoke, for example, age years every year that they smoke, and it soon hardens their features.”

Smoking Deadens Sensation

At a 25th year school reunion, many classmates were meeting each other for the first time since they left school. One classmate who had always been an outstanding athlete, particularly stood out in the group, due to his youthful looks and vigor.

However, a mere three years later he was a different person altogether; he had aged considerably and his entire demeanour was tense. His father had passed away a short while ago, and the pressures from added responsibilities in life made him resort to smoking. His once toned skin now bore the scars of cigarette abuse and looked worn out, while his bright eyes had lost their sparkle and were partially red. The greatest irony was that he had taken up smoking in order to soothe his frayed nerves.

Dr. Walker proclaims, “People who smoke in order to ‘soothe their nerves’ do not know what they are talking about. The sense of relaxation from smoking is purely a delusion and self-deception.” It is pertinent to note that various actions in the body emanate from or are controlled by the nerve centre; breathing is one of the most important of these actions. Smoking deadens the very nerves that smokers are trying to soothe.

Stub the Butt Before it Snuffs You

cancerous-lungs

Most people quit smoking from the shock of being inflicted with deadly ailments like heart attacks, tumors or cancers. You do not have to wait for such a calamity to befall you before taking the decision of stubbing the butt; QUIT SMOKING NOW! Do it if you have an iota of respect for your body and also for the health of others.

Nature Heals Best

Smokers can never fully appreciate the various flavors of food as smoking impedes their taste buds. It has been found that when a combination of celery with carrot and other juices are drunk in sufficient quantities, many of the ailments and deficiencies caused by smoking tobacco can dissipate, but don’t wait until it is too late.

Smokers Should Have Courtesy for Non-Smokers

To quote Dr. Walker, “Unquestionably, the most insidious, repulsive, disgusting and disagreeable pollutant of the atmosphere is tobacco smoke. A smoker has no idea of how offensive tobacco smoke can be to a non-smoker.”

Passive Smokers Suffer too

A non-smoker present in a room filled with tobacco smoke is subject to the same toxic poisoning as a smoker. The health of individuals is in their hands, they have a right to do whatever they feel like with it, but it is equally the birthright of every non-smoker to have clean air. It is a mystery as to why anyone would want to harm themselves, anyhow that is their own business, but to cause injury to others is morally and ethically wrong. Hence, to subject people to tobacco smoke is nothing short of a crime.

In the year 2010 alone, six million deaths in non-smokers have been reported due to second-hand smoking. This is only the reported data that has been linked to the insidious effects of cigarette smoke. The actual symptoms of secondary smoking are vast and varied and are generally attributed to other causes.

Dr. Walker declares, “Don’t be ever afraid or ashamed to ask people not to smoke in your office, home or apartment. I will not permit ANYONE to smoke in my car, in my home, or on my premises.”

Tertiary Smoking

The effects of tobacco smoke do not end once a room has been aired, as the toxic chemicals infiltrate every porous substance present in it such as furniture, curtains etc. As long as the smoke stink lingers, fumes are still being released into the atmosphere. Though the harm is not immediately visible (as in the case of direct or secondary smoking), nevertheless, its consequences are insidious to the health of the occupants.

Wrecks Families

Smoking can ruin a relationship and destroy a marriage. Smoking tobacco is the worst gift parents can give to their unborn child, as well as to their children during their growing years.

Worst Gift to Your Offspring

A mother who smokes exposes her child to all the dangers that are caused by cigarette smoking. The quality of air, water and food consumed by the mother and her emotional and mental well-being are crucial to both her health and that of the child in the womb. Cigarette smoking degenerates the efficacy of the blood and severely damages the health of the fetus, which could be born mentally or/and physically impaired for no fault of its own.

Wrong Example to Children

Children are excellent at mimicking their parents. If parents smoke, children too would mimic them, as they would not realize that cigarette smoking is harmful to their health. Setting the right example can mean a lifetime of good habits for you and your children.

An Obsessive Craving

Dr Walker states, “Tobacco has an evil insidious hold on people. Many have smoked until they developed cancer of the throat, underwent an operation, lost their power of speech, were rendered physically unable to smoke again, yet the intense desire for tobacco did not leave them, even at this stage they wanted to smoke.

The insidious damage to a smoker’s lungs and to his bloodstream, to his endocrine glands, to his cerebrospinal fluid, etc., makes no impression on his smoke bewildered mind. The pollution of his blood with the consequential effect of impairment on his health, mentality and longevity give him no concern.

Anyone who desires to live a HEALTHY VIBRANT LIFE and has any consideration for other people, CAN give up smoking if they want to badly enough.

Clean Air: Our Greatest Asset

People living in large, crowded cities can very rarely be free from cigarette smoke. Laws promulgated to protect non-smokers are very limiting as they do not prevent smokers from smoking in their houses, on the streets or even in their cars. Tobacco smoke flows into our homes from the neighbourhood and there is little we can do to prevent this. However, the situation is far worse in densely populated areas where tall skyscrapers are built next to one another and cigarette smoke streams out of numerous windows, polluting the atmosphere. Those looking for clean air can find it in the vast expanse of the countryside.