Dangers Posed By Smoking on Women's Health

Everybody is aware of the dangers of smoking. It is absolutely damaging to the human body. While carcinogens in cigarettes pose a hazard to everyone, women are three times as likely as men to get aggressive forms of lung cancer and more likely to develop it at an earlier age. Women are also more likely to die of lung cancer than breast cancer.
Quitting smoking is easier said than done. And women, it turns out, have an even harder time quitting than men. Stronger withdrawal symptoms may be attributed to hormones or the bigger nicotine dose absorbed by smaller female bodies. Regardless of women's age, the dangers of smoking contribute to infertility, anxiety, blindness, and osteoporosis. Pregnant women who smoke risk not only their health but their babies' as well. Second hand smoke affects the children and other people around mothers who smoke.
Smoking is a vice that almost always begins during adolescence. When teenagers finish from high school without ever smoking regularly, they probably never will. However, while boys and girls are equally likely to start smoking, the latter get the worse health complications. Young people may exhibit symptoms of addiction within a few days or weeks right after they started smoking.
While cigarette smoking was rare in women during the beginning of the 20th century, the tobacco industry realized the potential of women as a market for the expansion of the cigarette industry. In fact, tobacco companies launched the campaign slogan “Instead of a sweet, reach for a smoke” to encouraged women to smoke so as not to gain weight. This was followed by “You've come a long way, baby” as a tribute to the burgeoning women's liberation movement.
These marketing campaigns not only depicted women smokers as beautiful, independent and fun, but also sent subliminal messages that smoking helps women control their weight. Cigarette ads are banned in kids and teens magazines but billion of dollars are spent on t.v., billboards, and adult magazines which can easily be accessed by the youth.
Since 1987, lung cancer has surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States. About 87% of all lung cancer cases in America is directly attributed to smoking. Smoking causes heart disease, which is the number one killer of women in the U.S.  The dangers of smoking contribute to respiratory diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis, as well as many kinds of cancer.
Women who smoke also harm their appearance as smoking speeds up the aging process and produce more facial wrinkles, gum disease, dental decay, and halitosis. Mental health is also affected due to depression and anxiety disorders. Women are more likely to be depressed than non-smokers, and that women with anxiety disorders are more likely to smoke.
Some women, however, are finding creative ways to break the habit for good. Engaging in activities where smoking wouldn't fit, such as exercising, biking, mountain-climbing, as well as turning to a non-smoking lifestyle that includes going to smoke-free places with your kids.
The dangers of smoking for women has increased attention and awareness from women's organizations, resulting in a number of projects that focus on supporting tobacco cessation efforts specifically for women.

Dangers Of Smoking

Almost everybody knows that smoking is bad for the health. Images of blackened lungs line school hallways and hospital waiting rooms, but despite this people continue to take up smoking. This may have to do with the pervasive romantic image of smoking -- an image that has nothing in common with reality.

There are many ways to take tobacco. You can chew it, inhale it through the nose, and smoke it in the form of cigars or cigarettes. No matter how it's taken it is dangerous, but because smoking is the most popular way to consume tobacco it has also received the greatest attention from the medical field and the media.

When a smoker inhales a puff of cigarette smoke the large surface area of the lungs allows nicotine to pass into the blood stream almost immediately. It is this nicotine "hit" that smokers crave, but there is a lot more to smoke than just nicotine. In fact, there are more than 4000 chemical substances that make up cigarette smoke and many of them are toxic.

Cigarette smoke is composed of 43 carcinogenic substances and more than 400 other toxins that can also be found in wood varnish, nail polish remover, and rat poison. All of these substances accumulate in the body and can cause serious problems to the heart and lungs.

Cancer is the most common disease associated with smoking. Smoking is the cause of 90% of lung cancer cases and is related to 30% of all cancer fatalities. Other smoking-related cancers include cancers of the mouth, pancreas, urinary bladder, kidney, stomach, esophagus, and larynx.

Besides cancer, smoking is also related to several other diseases of the lungs. Emphysema and bronchitis can be fatal and 75% of all deaths from these diseases are linked to smoking.

Smokers have shorter lives than non-smokers. On average, smoking takes 15 years off your life span. This can be explained by the high rate of exposure to toxic substances which are found in cigarette smoke.

Smokers also put others at risk. The dangers of breathing in second-hand smoke are well known. Smokers harm their loved ones by exposing them to the smoke they exhale. All sorts of health problems are related to breathing in second-hand smoke. Children are especially susceptible to the dangers of second-hand smoke because their internal organs are still developing. Children exposed to second-hand smoke are more vulnerable to asthma, sudden infant death syndrome, bronchitis, pneumonia, and ear infections.

Smoking can also be dangerous for unborn children. Mothers who smoke are more likely to suffer from miscarriages, bleeding and nausea, and babies of smoking mothers have reduced birth weights or may be premature. These babies are more susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome and may also have lifelong health complications due to chest infections and asthma.

It is never too late to give up smoking, even those who have smoked for 20 years or more can realize tremendous health benefits from giving up the habit

4 Tips For Smoking Cessation

Tip 1: Rise above the cravings

Imagine the cigarettes as crutches. You’ve always had these crutches to lean on and soon, it becomes impossible to walk without them. The important thing to learn is that as soon as you walk on your feet again, they’ll quickly regain strength. It may be a little known fact, but about half of what a smoker inhales from his cigarette is pure air. The next time you’re hit with a craving, take some deep breaths and relax. You will soon be able to rise above the craving, feel refreshed, and move on.

Tip 2: All the reasons to quit

Why do you want to quit? Do you have children? Do you want to live to see your grandchildren? Are you sick of the smell? Whatever your reasons are, write them down. Keep a daily journal of how you feel and in the very first entry list in bold letters every reason you have for quitting. List things like health reasons, expense, inconvenience, bad breath, or other reasons and make the list as long as possible. Also be sure to list how you WILL feel when you’ve kicked the habit.

Tip 3: The good, the bad and the ugly

After you complete your lists of reasons you want to quit and how you’ll feel after you’ve quit, make a list of the consequences of not quitting. Have other smokers in your family gotten cancer? Have they died? Do they have to speak through a hole in their neck? Will you be unable to pay off debt because you’re always buying cigarettes? Whatever you consequences, be sure to list all of them. As above, be sure to list the consequences (good consequences, of course) of quitting. Keep them to look forward to.

Tip 4: Break time!

Most smokers agree: a cigarette is a break. When quitting, give yourself breaks, but do something. Go for walk, eat a piece of fruit or drink some juice. This is critical because the body will be going through changes expelling all the accumulated poisons. The fruit will aid this process in many ways.

Good luck!