Don't Smoke

The first “Life’s Simple 7” step to living a better life is “Don’t smoke.” We checked out the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) health effects fact sheet on Smoking And Tobacco Use and here are a few of the very good reasons why we should all heed #1 of the Simple 7 steps:

Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Smoking causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general.

Smoking causes death.

•The adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for more than 440,000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths, each year in the United States.

•More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.

•If nobody smoked, one of every three cancer deaths in the United States would not happen

•Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men1,2 and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women.

•An estimated 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking.

Smoking and Increased Health Risks

Compared with nonsmokers, smoking is estimated to increase the risk of—

•Coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times,

•Stroke by 2 to 4 times,

•Men developing lung cancer by 23 times,

•Women developing lung cancer by 13 times and

•Dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times.

Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease

•Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.

•Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries) and puts smokers at risk of developing peripheral vascular disease (i.e., obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs that can cause a range of problems from pain to tissue loss or gangrene).

•Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm (i.e., a swelling or weakening of the main artery of the body—the aorta—where it runs through the abdomen)

If you would like more info on smoking and its ill effects, go to CDC’s home page. If you would like to sign up for a HealthPro course, schedule one at hpec.org or call  951-279-6110.