1. Be around for your kids – Maybe you don’t think that lighting up that cigarette is cutting years off your life. You probably don’t give it much thought. But the truth is that smoking reduces your lifespan by an average of 13 to 15 years. If you’re a heavy smoker and think you’ll be around to see your kids and grandkids grow up, that’s not a very likely scenario. Half of all regular smokers will eventually die from smoking addiction. Is that butt worth it? You can quit now – even if you’re older and have smoked for years — and your circulation will improve immediately and your lungs will begin to repair the damage done by smoking. Within one year, you’ll cut your risk of heart disease almost in half, and diminish the risk of stroke, lung disease and cancer. Even older, long-term smokers benefited from quitting smoking. Among smokers who quit at age 65, men gained 1.4 to 2.0 years of life and women picked up 2.7 to 3.4 years.
2. Breathe easier – Wheezing, gasping for breath and other breathing difficulties can be virtually eliminated if you decide to quit smoking and stick to the plan. One study found that middle-age smokers and former smokers with mild to moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (commonly known as COPD) were able to breathe easier after they quit smoking. Interestingly, the women showed twice as much improvement as the men in the study after one year of quitting smoking.
3. No more incessant coughing and spitting up phlegm – One sure sign of a chronic smoker is that awful smoker’s cough. Ditto the constant coughing and spitting up phlegm. Sometimes you cough so hard that you make yourself sick. Nausea frequently accompanies all this built-up congestion and phlegm. Imagine what your lungs feel like! Excellent reasons to resolve to quit smoking now.
4. Keep your cognitive abilities intact – Research shows that smokers who quit have better memory and reasoning skills than those who continue to smoke. This makes sense, since smoking blocks the carotid artery, cutting off blood supply to the brain’s cells. Long-term smoking has harmful effects on memory, problem-solving, ability to think clearly, and IQ.
5. Be more confident – When you do decide to quit smoking, just knowing that you are doing something great to improve your health can boost your self-confidence. This is an added inducement to keep on going with your smoking cessation plan. It’s like the second-wind you get in an endurance race – except this is a race for your life.
6. Be kind to your heart, lungs, and other organs – Heart health, along with that of your lungs and other organs are greatly affected – and not in a good way – when you continue to smoke. Rack up years of constant smoking and you’re looking at some serious damage to your overall health. Smoke from cigarettes, cigars and pipes is as bad for your heart and arteries as it is for your lungs. Don’t feel like you can play that game of pickup basketball with your buddies like you used to or catch the ball with your children? Maybe you’re not as able to do the things you like and have resigned yourself to a less active lifestyle. If you quit smoking, you can likely regain some of your stamina. If you make the decision to stop smoking, it’s the biggest health gift you can lavish on yourself. Secondhand smoke is also damaging to your health. So, when you quit, avoid being anywhere near others who smoke. It certainly seems worth strongly considering the choice to quit smoking today.
7. Rest easier – Did you know that people who smoke are more likely to snore than nonsmokers? Smoking – and snoring at night – is also linked to daytime drowsiness. Catch up on your winks and wake up feeling more alert and well-rested. This is another excellent reason to quit smoking now.
8. Be a role model – Instead of preaching something you don’t do yourself, when you quit smoking you’ll be a great role model for your children and others in the family. Did you know that when you quit, your spouse is 67 percent more likely to quit as well? Not only that, but research shows that your example of quitting smoking is likely to result in 36 percent of your friends quitting too.
9. No more chilled out in winter – Forget about that freezing feeling in winter. That’s another benefit if you quit smoking. Because your blood is circulating more and your heart and lungs are getting the right amount of oxygen, you’re improving your body’s internal thermostat. Think of it this way: you’ll be able to toss those hand-warmers.
10. Have a healthier mouth – Smoking puts you at risk for cancer of the mouth. In addition, tobacco smoke can also cause bad breath, tooth decay and gum disease. Smoking makes your teeth yellow and discolored. But you can put a stop to the damage with the decision to quit smoking now.
11. Take care of breast health – Females who smoke have a 25 to 32 percent greater risk of developing breast cancer. There’s no simpler way to put it. Do yourself a huge favor and make the decision to quit smoking now.
12. Have a better chance of getting pregnant – It may not be the first thing you think about when you’re mulling over the idea of getting pregnant. When you’re contemplating starting a family, one of the best things you can do is to quit smoking. That’s because smokers have a greater risk of being infertile.
13. Maintain hair color longer – Research shows that cigarette smokers are four times more likely to have their hair turn gray early. Unless you want to keep the hair color industry profitable and don’t mind monthly (or more frequent) touch-ups, giving up smoking can allow you to keep your natural hair color longer. It’s just another reason to quit smoking now.
14. Love that clear skin – Who doesn’t appreciate having clear skin, especially if you’re a female? When you smoke, what happens is that the toxins in cigarettes change the oil secretions in your face. And don’t forget about the stains on your fingers from all that nicotine. Ugh – that’s so unsightly. There is a way out of this, however. You can kiss those many breakouts good-bye if you give up smoking for good.
15. No more tobacco smell on clothes and hair – When you’re deep into your smoking addiction you probably don’t notice or even think about the smell that clings to your hair and clothes. You don’t, but others do. Once you stop smoking for good, you won’t be able to tolerate that smell anymore. You’ll need to have the clothes that you haven’t worn in some time that have been hanging in your closet dry cleaned or washed and it’s probably a good idea to have the house aired out, the walls and curtains washed, and so on. Don’t forget about your car. Cigarette smoke sticks in the car too. The good news is that once you quit smoking for good, you can say good riddance to that old tobacco smell.
16. Feel great about your willpower and determination – Quitting smoking isn’t easy, and it certainly does involve a great deal of willpower and determination. Smoking is an addiction and while you don’t ask to have an addiction, you do make the decision to quit. Only you can do that. Sometimes it takes a little longer for some smokers to come to this decision than for others, but the fact of the matter is that it’s never too late to quit. Refer back to some of the statistics that show benefits for even long-term smokers in their mid-60s and you’ll see that there’s always good that comes from quitting smoking.
17. Think about your pets – What do you think happens to your pets, your precious kitty and dog, from your second-hand smoke? The fact is that second-hand smoke puts your family pets at risk for cancer. And both dogs and cats are affected. Sure, they’ll still come to you for a pet or a treat, but they can’t tell you that your smoking is killing them. Think about your pets and make the decision to quit smoking now.
18. Save money – Think about the thousands of dollars you’ve spent on cigarettes in the past. That’s money that literally went up in smoke, never to return. The only residuals you have from smoking all those years are bad ones – the effect to your health chief among them. Once you make the decision to quit smoking now, you’ll be putting some savings away or finding good use for the money elsewhere.
19. Ability to feel relaxed and satisfied – Remember how often you felt the craving to smoke, and constantly felt unsatisfied? Never being relaxed unless you were smoking? Always feeling like you had to have a cigarette to be in control? Those unnatural feelings will be a thing of the past once you make the decision to quit smoking now and follow through with a well-crafted plan to put your intention into action.
20. Enjoy the taste of food again – It’s probably been a long time since you were able to enjoy your meals. That is, to really enjoy the taste of the different foods, to appreciate the flavors and textures of all that you eat – instead of just eating because you have to. Even if you don’t think that you’re missing anything, you’ll be pleasantly surprised once you give up smoking for good and suddenly realize just how fantastic food tastes. It will be like you’re born again, just beginning to figure out what different foods taste like. This is another very good reason to quit smoking now.

There are many more reasons to quit smoking now, including never having to experience the taste of cheap tobacco; headaches and dizziness; painful heartburn at night and after drinking coffee; being easily winded; taste of copper in the mouth; colds and bronchitis that never seem to go away; increased heart rate and sweating; increased rate of hypertension; high rate of anxiety; feeling dependent on nicotine; having to rush out to get cigarettes at all hours; having to crack the car window in all kinds of weather; smoking alone when others are non-smokers; throbbing headaches and migraines, and never getting all you want done because of all the time you’ve wasted smoking.

Doesn’t this sound like there are plenty of reasons to re-think whether smoking is such a good deal after all? In fact, after reading through this, you may have already come to the conclusion that quitting smoking now is something that you’d really like to do.

Now, what?

The best recommendation is to talk with your family doctor or healthcare professional. Make a plan and talk with your doctor about implementing it as well as resources to help you quit. There’s lots of help available online as well, including the Freedom from Smoking online program through the American Lung Association.

Remember the A’s from the American Lung Association:

Avoid the situation.

Alter the situation.

Choose Alternatives to smoking.

You can do it. Believe that you can, but don’t get discouraged if it takes you more than one time quitting smoking to quit smoking addiction for good. Sometimes it takes four or five attempts to put smoking behind you. That’s why support is so essential. Join a support group once you’ve quit so that you can have those reinforcements and ongoing encouragement as you begin your new life smoke-free and healthier.

As the ones who’ve quit say, keep trying to quit until you quit for good. But we’d add to that these words once again: You can do it. Believe that you can.

Nicotine and the Brain

Scientists are now closer to fully understanding the effects that nicotine has on the individual smoking. While they have long known that cigarettes provide a pleasurable response and a relief from anxiety, a new study appearing in the July 27 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience has shown that those two responses are the reaction of one specific receptor in brain cells.

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, led by Tresa McGranahan, Stephen Heinemann, PhD, and T.K. Booker, PhD, found that removing a particular nicotinic receptor from brain cells in animal models reduced their desire for nicotine. The receptor produces dopamine, a chemical that is released when the brain is responding to a reward.

In addition, the animal models did not exhibit a reduction in anxiety-related behaviors that are usually evident after nicotine use. Smokers often cite anxiety relief as a reason for using cigarettes on an ongoing basis.

Implications for Nicotine Addiction Treatment

The findings are important because they provide evidence for the belief that the rewarding and anxiety-reducing reactions related to nicotine are isolated to one set of brain cells. This information could prove very valuable in the treatment of nicotine addiction.

In order to determine the effects that nicotine has on certain brain receptors, the researchers developed mice that had a mutation preventing them from being able to produce the alpha4 receptor on only dopamine brain cells. The mice that had the mutation spent less time seeking out nicotine when compared with normal mice. In addition, the researchers noted that the mice with the mutation did not exhibit a change in anxiety-related behaviors normally observed in mice that have been exposed to nicotine.

McGranahan explained that the discovery of the receptor responsible for two main factors involved with nicotine addiction may provide a significant key to addressing nicotine dependence. McGranahan notes that diseases resulting from cigarette use cause more than five million deaths every year.

Scientists hope that the findings will help lead to the development of a medication designed to inhibit the brain cell receptor responsible for reward and anxiety reduction, providing cigarette smokers a useful tool in cessation attempts. A related drug may even help doctors treat anxiety disorders, which may also decrease the number of people who take up smoking.

Two studies profiled on The Chart, a CNN Health site, documented new reasons for those with children to consider giving up their smoking habit. The studies are both from the American Academy of Pediatrics, examining how secondhand smoke affects American children in their learning behaviors and their attitudes toward the use of cigarettes.

Increased Risk of Neurobiological Disorders

The first study, from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Tobacco Free Research Institute in Dublin, Ireland, found that children exposed to secondhand smoke at home had a 50 percent increased risk of meeting criteria for at least two childhood neurobiological disorders when compared with children who were not exposed to smoke at home.

The researchers used 2007 data obtained from the CDC and the National Center for Health Statistics. The analysis showed that nearly 5 million children under the age of 12 are exposed to secondhand smoke at home. In addition, 8 percent of those exposed (approximately 274,000 children) have learning disabilities like ADHD.

The authors of the study point out the support that the findings have for encouraging families to volunteer to implement a smoke-free at home policy. The impact on public health for pediatric mental costs would be dramatic, besides the very personal impact on the individual families that can prevent the development of a neurobehavioral disorder in their children.

The article included information about the costs of treating a child with neurobiological disorders. Treating a neurobiological disorder can cost about $14,576 per case, totaling about $9.2 million nationwide each year.

Desensitized to Cigarette Smoke

In a second study, children aged 8 to 13 from households with at least one adult smoker were found to be 78 percent less likely to begin smoking if they described the smell of cigarette smoke as “unpleasant” or “gross,” when compared with children the same age who had a more passive description of cigarette smoke.

The study shows that the perception of secondhand smoke as a negative part of smoking may work as a protection against the initiation of smoking at a young age. It may lead to a type of targeted prevention effort.

University of Cincinnati researchers, together with those from Florida State University and the University of Vermont, say that U.S. adults who receive a diagnosis for asthma had a 1.26 higher likelihood of being a smoker, or having a history involving nicotine dependence at some period of their lives. For people who don’t have asthma, the association wasn’t there.

The connection between having asthma and a smoking history was more pronounced when looking at nicotine dependence habits during the past year. For those who said they had been dependent on smoking during the previous year, an asthma rate of almost three times higher was reported.

The data source for the study comes from the National Comorbity Survey-Replication, a broad study that looked at national patterns of health and illness among the U.S. adult population. Published in the Journal of Health Psychology, the findings may help draw new attention to connections between asthma and smoking. In about 50 percent of the survey responses, people with asthma said they started using cigarettes before they received a diagnosis for asthma.

Asthma was believed to affect more than 300 million people worldwide in 2010. Symptoms include chest tightness, difficulty breathing, shortened breathing, wheezing or coughing. In 2009, it is believed that approximately 250,000 people across the globe lost their lives to asthma.

It’s an attitude Kathryn Weaver, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, N.C., says is related to fatalism. The patient may believe that they are too far advanced for smoking cessation to have any positive effects on their condition, and many may not even attempt to quit, according to Weaver’s comments in a HealthDay News report.

In reality, there are many positive outcomes that can come from stopping smoking for lung cancer patients, says Weaver, lead author of the study that explored the smoking behaviors of nearly 750 people with cancer and their caregivers. During the study, researchers found that 18 percent of these patients kept smoking following their cancer diagnosis, and as many as 25 percent of the people who are their caregivers kept smoking as well.

Continuing to smoke increases the patients’ likelihood of being diagnosed with additional forms of cancer and can hinder the effectiveness of treatments. Smoking can also lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), which makes respiration even more difficult for the patient. Lung cancer patients who smoke may also suffer from higher levels of pain, lack of sleep, appetite reduction and increased levels of fatigue.

The ramifications of continuing to smoke following a cancer diagnosis go beyond the health effects and can bring strong feelings of guilt, shame and the negative emotions associated with blame, says Weaver. Strong family and physician support is a key factor in encouraging patients to kick the habit, and the time after the cancer is diagnosed can be ideal for talking about quitting.

In the U.S., at least 80 percent of the 200,000 diagnoses for lung cancer given each year are connected to smoking.

The new study found that teenagers with certain gene variants were three times more likely to start smoking regularly in adolescence, and two times more likely to be regular smoking in adulthood, compared to those who don’t carry the gene variants.

The variations in a set of dopamine-related genes were associated with the risk of starting to smoke, and the genes had a stronger impact on beginning to smoke in adolescents than in adults. Those with the variants were 1.3 times more likely to start smoking in their teenage years.

The other set of genes were associated with the nicotinic cholinergic receptors, which are targeted in the brain during smoking. Variations in these genes contributed to the likelihood of smokers continuing the habit into adulthood, as it more strongly influenced adults than adolescents. People with these variations were 1.3 times more likely to be heavy, persistent smokers as adults.

Dr. John Krystal, Editor of the journal Biological Psychiatry, said that the dopamine-related genes may be more closely association with the risk for addiction in the context of pleasure-seeking, and cholinergic receptors, which have been associated with mood, cognition, and addiction, could contribute to self-medication as it relates to addiction.

These findings could help scientists create tests for those who want to know about their susceptibility to nicotine addiction and tobacco-related diseases. It could also help develop medication that could target an individual’s response to nicotine.

Source: Science Daily, Different Genes Influence Smoking Risk During Adolescence and Adulthood, March 31, 2011

Many studies have found associations between smoking and deficits in attention and memory in adults, but UCLA researchers wanted to compare brain function in adolescent smokers and non-smoking adolescents, focusing on the prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain that controls decision-making and other executive functions), which is still developing in adolescents.

The study found that the greater a teen’s addiction to nicotine, the less active the prefrontal cortex was, which suggests that smoking during adolescence can affect brain function.

Senior author Edythe London, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, said that because the prefrontal cortex is still developing during adolescence, smoking can influence brain development and affect the way the prefrontal cortex functions, which could affect decision-making later in life.

For the study, 25 smokers and 25 non-smokers between the ages of 15 and 21 performed a test called the Stop-Signal Task, which activated the prefrontal cortex, requiring them to inhibit their responses. The test, which was performed while the participants were undergoing a brain scan, involved pressing a button as quickly as possible every time a lighted arrow appeared, unless an auditory tone was played. This tests the participants’ ability to inhibit their actions.

The level of the participants’ nicotine dependence was tested using the Heaviness of Smoking Index (HSI), which looks at how many cigarettes a teen smokes per day and how soon after waking his or her first cigarette is smoked.

The researchers found that the more the teens smoked, the less activity in the prefrontal cortex. Despite these lower levels of brain activation, both the smokers and non-smokers performed about the same on the Stop-Signal Task.

London, who is also a professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute, said that the researchers were surprised to find little difference between smokers and non-smokers on the Stop-Signal Task. She said this suggests that the motor response of smokers can be maintained by some sort of compensation from other brain regions.

She added that affected development of the prefrontal cortex has been found to be a cause of poor decision-making in teens. This can influence the ability of adolescents to make rational decisions, including the decision to stop smoking.

London said the most important finding is that as the prefrontal cortex continues to develop in adolescence, smoking could influence brain development, affecting the function of the prefrontal cortex. This may lead the teen to continue smoking instead of making the healthy decision to stop smoking.

She added that the fact that smokers and non-smokers performed about the same on the Stop-Signal Task suggests that early interventions during adolescence may prevent the transition to occasional smoking to addiction in later years.

Source: Science Daily, Tobacco Smoking Impacts Teens’ Brains, Study Shows, March 2, 2011

Recent research says that the harmful consequences of smoking on the body’s cardiovascular system happen even with occasional or low levels of cigarette use, and that even a little exposure to second-hand smoke can significantly raise a person’s chances of death from cardiovascular disease.

Published in Circulation:  Journal of the American Heart Association, the research report analyzed data from more than a million U.S. adults. Major highlights from the report include the fact that even smoking three or less cigarettes daily caused a person’s risk of dying from cardiovascular disease to climb by 64 percent.

Additionally, people smoking around a half a pack of cigarettes daily – equivalent to eight to 12 cigarettes – had nearly an 80 percent higher chance of dying from cardiovascular disease. For smokers taking in a pack per day, results said they had a much higher likelihood of fatal cardiovascular disease – around 100 percent higher.

The conclusion researchers arrived at is straightforward: there is no level of cigarette smoking, nor level of breathing in air polluted by smoking, that is considered safe. Bodily responses to even a few cigarettes can include elevated blood pressure, abnormal platelet activity and inflamed tissues. Smoking also creates particulate material in the lungs, which can significantly impair the function of the heart and blood vessels. The accumulation of particulate material from smoking is a major factor in the development of disease in the cardiovascular system.

In addition, researchers urge people to avoid breathing air polluted by smoking, because the air will be contaminated by harmful fine particles. Changes in public policy are also called for to help eliminate second-hand smoke from public spaces.

Researchers hope the report will encourage a stronger focus on inside air quality as a preventable element in the development of cardiovascular disease, especially because the report’s findings are believed to represent only a small picture of the negative impacts from second-hand smoke.

Quitting smoking is one of the hardest habits to break, but the effects can be immediate, say health experts. Just days after stopping smoking, the nerve endings damaged from smoking start to repair themselves, blood pressure levels begin to return to normal, and heart rate declines to a more normal level. Many states have banned smoking in restaurants and bars, and more states are working toward the measure as research continues to highlight the deadly effects of smoke.

Smoking is especially dangerous to children in the home, because their lungs are still physically developing. Second-hand smoke is linked to severe asthma symptoms in up to one million children. Up to 300,000 infections of the trachea, bronchial tubes and lungs for children less than 18 months old are believed caused by secondhand smoke.

With more and more evidence pointing toward imminent health dangers for even moderate smokers, and dangers to the people around them, experts hope policy changes will work to create safer air to breathe nationwide.

Depression is thought to impede on a smoker’s chances of quitting. However, compared to mild depression, major depression can greatly increase the risk of failed quit attempts even more, based on the study’s latest findings.

Researcher Kiandra Hebert of the University of California at San Diego and colleagues analyzed data collected on smokers from the California Smokers’ Helpline, a hotline that receives calls mostly from heavy smokers and smokers on Medicaid. The researchers discovered that 17% of smokers who contacted the helpline had mild depression while 24% had major depression. Among the entire population, more than half of the smokers had reported attempting to quit smoking after having contacted the helpline. In a follow-up survey two months later, the smokers with major depression had a poorer quit success rate than smokers who had mild depression or no depression. While one in three smokers who were either non-depressed or had mild depression were able to maintain abstinence, only one in five smokers with major depression were able to quit.

According to a press release from the journal, 400,000 smokers will contact quit-smoking helplines (also known as “quitlines”) in the U.S. per year. Based on their study’s findings, the researchers estimate that 100,000 smokers with depression do not receive the treatment they need to help them successfully quit. Quit-smoking helplines, although they provide a much needed outreach service to those who wish to quit smoking, do not screen smokers for such psychiatric conditions as depression. Because depression is already thought to hinder a smoker’s ability to successfully quit, the new study reveals that major depression poses an even greater risk to smokers’ cessation attempts. The researchers suggest that assessing for depression could aid smokers who seek cessation treatment, but that this type of assessment should be reciprocated among services for both smoking and depression in order to better meet this need. For example, an integrated health care model could help individuals who seek help for a particular service can also evaluate clients for other disorders and refer them to further health services.

The researchers’ study is available online and in the January 2011 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
 

Researchers compared the cortical thickness of smokers and non-smokers who didn’t suffer from medical or psychiatric illness, and found that smokers had cortical thinning in the orbitofrtonal cortex. The cortical thinning also correlated with the amount of cigarettes they smoked per day and the amount at which they were exposed to cigarette smoke over their lifetime. This suggests that heavier smoking was associated with more cortical thinning.

Because the orbitofrontal cortext has been associated with drug addiction, the study suggests that smoking-related cortical thinning may increase the risk of addiction, including smoking.

Dr. Simone Kühn said that the brain region that was associated with cortical thinning has been linked to decision making, impulse control, and reward processing, which could explain how addiction manifests, adding that in a follow-up study, the researchers plan to look at the positive effects of quitting smoking on the brain.

John Krystal, M.D., editor of Biological Psychiatry and professor and chair of Psychiatry at Yale University, said that the findings underscore the importance of explaining how important abstaining from smoking is to adolescents, as smoking could negatively change important regions of the brain—especially since the brain is still developing in adolescence.

Source: Science Daily, Smoking May Thin the Brain, December 2, 2010