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Learning why smoking gets into your daily routine is the first step on the way to changing that bad habit and getting back to a healthy lifestyle. Learn about nicotine and how it works in the body and how this is just part of the problem.
Used in moderation, nicotine is not harmful, and according to some researchers maybe helpful in improving memory and learning ability, perhaps by stimulating the flow of adrenaline. Nicotine also stimulates the adrenal glands, causing blood vessels to constrict and skin temperature to drop. Interestingly enough, nicotine is thought to get into the system through the membranes of the mouth and related areas. Thus, a person who holds an unlighted cigar in his mouth may absorb nicotine. While a little nicotine is not harmful, most steady smokers absorb too much nicotine for their own good. Lung cancer kills over 85,000 persons a year, about 80 percent of whom are cigarette smokers. Also, cigarette smoking is believed to be a primary cause of emphysema (a disease that decreases efficiency of the lungs) which kills over 15,000 persons a year. Approximately 100,000 cigarette smokers die from heart attacks each year. In their book Vigor for Men Over 30, the authors, Drs. Warren R. Guild, Stuart Cowan, and Sam Baker, suggest these tips on giving up smoking: Try a program of enjoyable physical activity. They suggest that if the urge to smoke becomes overpowering, the smoker should take a brisk walk, do a set of invigorating exercises at home or in the office, or engage in an enjoyable sport.
Don’t use anti-smoking drugs or other nostrums without a physician’s advice. Such devices may do more harm than good. Your physician is the one who can advise you on the best way to cut down on smoking, and he can help you cope with any withdrawal symptoms such as nervousness, dizziness, or insomnia.
Don’t try to cut down on too many things at the same time. Concentrate on cutting down on your smoking, and relax about cutting down on diet and drinking, too. One reduction at a time is best.
You’ve got to quit completely. Like the alcoholic, you’ve got to say, “This is my last cigarette”—and mean it.
Quit when there’s a major break in your routine. The recovery from an operation or illness is a good time to stop. After you have established the habit of not smoking, make that habit a part of your daily life.
Try something different a throw desire off the track. Take a shower—you can’t light a match under water. Also, you can’t hold a cigarette if you’re playing table tennis or practicing your golf swing. It’s never too late to quit and quitting especially becomes important when you approach thirty for health and financial reasons.
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