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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Why And How Smoking Should Be Curbed? Cigarette smoking, or in short smoking, is one of the most common forms of recreational drug use. More than a billion people in the world are smokers. Smoking is bad for the health because it virtually harms nearly every organ of the human body. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the United States. More than 480,000 Americans are killed each year as a result of smoking. A 2007 report revealed that, about 4.9 million people worldwide die as a result of smoking every year. Smoking causes 87 percent of lung cancer deaths. It is also responsible for many other cancers and health problems that include lung disease, heart disease, blood vessel disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Smoking is a risk factor in Alzheimer's disease, too. Meanwhile, female smokers have a greater chance of certain pregnancy problems or having a baby die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The secondhand smoke, or so-called passive smoke, created by smokers could affect non-smokers who can get many of the same problems as smokers do. Quit smoking seems to be the only way to prevent from getting all those diseases mentioned. The earlier one quits, the greater the health benefits. While some benefits of quitting smoking occur quickly, others happen over time.
For instance, the risk of heart attack drops sharply just a year after quitting. The chance of having a stroke would lower to about the same as that of non-smokers after 2 to 5 years. Within 5 years of quitting, the likelihood of getting cancer of the mouth, throat and bladder is reduced by 50 percent. Diabetics who quit smoking begin immediately and have better control of the blood sugar levels. More importantly, smokers who quit would help protect their family, friends and coworkers from possible health risks that are linked to secondhand smoke. Many governments have installed laws to stop people from smoking in indoor public places like bars, pubs and restaurants. The purpose is to make smoking more inconvenient and to stop harmful smoke being present in enclosed public places. In the meantime, anti-campaigns have been introduced to stress the harmful long-term effects of smoking. In 2012, the CDC introduced its "Tips From Former Smokers" campaign, which is its first and largest national advertising effort to discourage people to smoke. The $54 million campaign triggered an increase of 200,000 calls that were directed to quit lines. In 2013, a similar 12-week campaign attracted over a million and half smokers who made a quit attempt. Over 100,000 people quitted successfully and permanently because of that campaign. While smoking is at its lowest point with just 18 percent of Americans are smokers, the CDC is determined to bring the figure even further down with the similar campaign that features regretful smokers. This year, CDC again introduces a new 20-week anti-smoking campaign featuring 5 former smokers. It looks at 2 conditions newly linked to smoking: blinding eye disease called macular degeneration and colon cancer. Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 65, and colorectal cancer is one of the top causes of cancer death in the United States. A former smoker who had macular degeneration confesses that she needs to get 2 eye injections every month in order for her to see the sun and the water. She regrets that she started smoking since she was 15. Her mother was a smoker too and she thought she was cool to smoke. The other former smoker got colon cancer because of smoking. She needs to use a colostomy bag after undergoing colostomy. Colostomy is a surgical procedure to bring one end of the large intestine out through an opening (stoma) made in the abdominal wall. Stools moving through the intestine drain through the stoma into a bag (colostomy bag) attached to the abdomen.
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