SmOKING & TEENagers

we love u madam....

2008-10-17T05:12:00.000-07:00

two three cats running,
it can't be same wit the stripe cat,
two three can i finding,
it can't be same wit the lovely Kemboja that i had....

thankzzz for being my lecturer.....

post by nazirah

When You Smoke Cigarettes Your Baby Also Smokes Too!!!!

2008-10-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

If you smoke during pregnant, your baby born may be born underweight (under 5lbs.) and this situation is not healthy. Apart from that your baby may be die before being born or your baby may die during first year of life,be born premature or being retarded mind, have small lung and die,suffer respiratory problems, have learning problem later on and so on...

start healthy life today.... it start from your self

2008-10-14T19:31:00.000-07:00

One may not be very surprised to know that nearly 75% of the people active smokers want to quit but they find it difficult to say the least. However, it is not difficult to quit smoking if a person wishes to do so. The first step required in order to quit smoking is to be honest to you and stop befooling yourself. Only very few people are able to do so without assistance or medication for that matter.

post by NAZIRAH

Conclusion of smoking..

2008-10-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

Smoking is a habit which individuals find difficult to quit. Many people make preparations for months in their effort to get rid of the habit, making painstaking plans to eliminate their dependence on nicotine. However making an effort to give up the habit of smoking all on a sudden is far more likely to yield satisfactory results.

Spontaneous efforts to end the habit of smoking have a greater rate of success in comparison to planned attempts made by individuals to give up the habit.

This can be attributed to the fact that prior planning gives rise to tension, making it difficult for smokers to kick the habit. Giving up the habit of smoking is one of the most crucial things that an individual can probably do. Quitting smoking ensures a longer and better life. People who quit smoking have reduced risks of suffering a heart attack, stroke or cancer. Pregnant women who give up smoking enhance the likelihood of having healthy baby.

In order to quit smoking individuals should prepare themselves for the move. It is imperative that one should get support for their endeavor to quit smoking. One should learn new skills and behaviors in order to give up smoking for good. One should obtain medication and utilize it properly. A person should be ready to face tough situations or a relapse. With a view to quit smoking one should fix a quit date. An individual should also make an attempt to alter one’s surroundings by removing the entire stock of cigarettes along with ashtrays in the home. A person must also prohibit others from smoking in one’s home. It is advisable to assess past efforts in giving up smoking and take into consideration what worked and what did not.

Bad Smoking Habits

2008-10-14T06:49:00.000-07:00

Smoking itself is a bad habit, but if you can’t give it up, you can at least cut back on some of your bad smoking habits. Do you smoke in bed for example? That’s not only a bad habit but also a dangerous one, as many house fires start because someone fell asleep with a lit cigarette still between his fingers.

Reaching for a cigarette first thing in the morning is another habit which you should try to get out of. Try doing some deep breathing exercises instead. Smoking in the kitchen, especially when you are cooking is also something which should be avoided, as ash can easily fall into the food.

Not paying attention to when and how often you smoke is another bad habit and one which can mean you are smoking a lot more than you think. So make a note of every cigarette you smoke for a week and notice when you smoke unconsciously, that is without noticing you’re doing it. Once you are fully aware of your bad smoking habits, you can start to do something to change them and you should be able to cut down substantially in the process. If you smoke when talking on the phone, keep your cigarettes and ashtray out of reach. If you go out drinking with friends, make a conscious effort to smoke less – the pub is the place you are most likely to smoke too much.

Smoking around babies or children is another bad habit and one which could have serious consequences for their health, as passive smoking has now been proved to cause the same illnesses as active smoking. If you smoke in public places, then you need to be careful not to blow smoke in the faces of non-smokers around you as this is putting them at risk and is also extremely unpleasant as it can irritate the eyes and nose, as well as making their clothes smell.

If you can’t give up completely at least give up some of your bad smoking habits

Choosing The Right Time To Quit

2008-10-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

When you finally decided to quit smoking, that will be a historical day of your life. It is never easy to choose the right date so below are some guidelines on which days you should choose to quit smoking and which days you should not.

The days you should avoid are the days when you are experience either one of the following events:

A big event such as an upcoming marriage, graduation, finals etc.
A loss or traumatic event, such as a death in the family or a divorce
Other particularly stressful events in your life.

However, the days you should choose are as below:

Your birthday
New year
World No Tobacco Day

Smoke Away asks: Why haven’t you quit smoking yet?

2008-10-14T06:15:00.000-07:00

The makers of Smoke Away would like to drive the point home visually for those of you out there who just don’t get it. So we start by saying, “What the hell is your problem?” Are you the type of person that reads something like this and says,”Hmmm, that’s not a bad idea!”

Or maybe this looks really sexy to you and makes your mouth water at the prospect of puttting another cancer stick in your mouth?

mmmm.. yummy isn’t it? or perhaps you are the type of person where one of these phrases makes sense to you? What is it going to take to get through to you?

Ohhhh ok we get it, you don’t think there’s really anything bad in a cigarette other than the nicotine…OK then don’t worry about the butane, the cadmium, the stearic acid, the industrial solvent, the insecticide and the toilet cleaner, the vinegar, the sewer gas, the arsenic, the carbon monoxide, and the rocket fuel that is in each and every cigarette.

But what are a couple of cigarettes going to do to me? Well lets look at the anatomy of your typical female. Now keep in mind, cigarettes are not choosy, they’ll poison and pounce on anyone who chooses to light up. But lets look shall we? Starting from the head on down we have wrinkles, the inability to smell properly, bad breath, yellow teeth, the inability to taste correctly, gum disease, a persistent hacking cough, a nice persistent back ache, more fat, the inability to go to the bathroom properly, lower chance of having a child, and slower wound healing. Mmm.. makes you want to run right out and smoke doesn’t it?

Lastly lets look at some quick statistics of just what cigarettes and second hand smoke and its ilk do to people. Choose to pick your poison?

Listen, we don’t care HOW you quit smoking. In fact, the makers of Smoke Away would love for you to use our product, but more importantly, we want you to quit smoking using ANY product. Just quit. Not for us, for you, your family and your friends. If you want to talk to some people that have stopped smoking using our product, or people that are still in the throws of quitting, or people who have just plain quit, Try the Smoke Away Support site. Good Luck.

Smoking - its a matter of life and death

2008-10-14T06:10:00.000-07:00

The Trust’s total no smoking ban is now in place at Bassetlaw and Montagu Hospitals and DRI. Smoking is outlawed in hospital buildings and grounds, and in Trust vehicles and other office premises. The ban took effect from midnight on Wednesday 30 May in time World Tobacco Free Day on 31 May.
For one patient, giving up smoking was a matter of life and death and there was no question but to give up.
Former miner, Ron Poulston, who is now retired, was attending the Chest Clinic with Consultant Physician, Dr Trevor Rogers, when he was told some home truths. Ron explains: “I was told in no uncertain terms that my emphysema would get worse and that I only had a 25% lung function left. Dr Rogers started talking about lung transplants. It’s the last thing anyone wants to hear and it came as such a shock.
“I knew there and then the damage was irreversible and I had a choice - I either carried on and risked death or I stopped smoking.”
Ron remembers well the date he stopped smoking: it was 22 January 1999 at 10.25am - the time that he had the bad news from Dr Rogers. Ron made the decision instantly to stop and has stuck to it ever since. He said he still misses the pleasure of smoking as his generation grew up thinking it was cool to smoke.
But there have been benefits. Ron added: “Smokers can’t begin to imagine how things smell and things taste different. Another benefit is the cost factor: look at the ridiculously high cost of smoking. I feel a lot better than I would have done if I had carried on smoking.
“Finally, if you can you want to avoid ever hearing the words ‘irreversible’ and ‘incurable’, now’s the time to stop.”
Dr Rogers is the Trust’s lead physician for lung cancer. He is in no doubt about the link between smoking and ill health. He sees patients with the early symptoms of lung cancer: “Lung cancer is almost entirely preventable. People must stop smoking and make some ‘lifestyle changes’ – but there is help with smoking cessation.
He advises going to see a family doctor quickly with any worrying symptoms: “Early reporting of symptoms is important. Shortness of breath, coughing, coughing blood, and unexplained weight loss or tiredness – with any of these symptoms, see your GP straight away. Early treatment can mean a much better chance of recovery.”

Conclusion

2008-10-13T23:06:00.000-07:00

Smokers have made it clear that smoking does have its benefits, but all of the dangerous effects clearly outweigh any positive elements smoking may have. Sure you can lessen your stress and keep your weight down, but increasing your risk for such a high number of health risks just isn’t worth it. Knowing this, if you don’t currently smoke don’t pick up the habit. If you do currently smoke, pinpointing what you think are the benefits of smoking can be a very good way to help you quit. Doing this will allow you to replace cigarettes with a healthier alternative.

If you smoke to help fight stress, try going for a walk, playing with an animal, or taking time to do something you love instead of smoking a cigarette. Are you a smoker with depression? Taking a medication like Zyban will help you quit smoking by lessening withdrawal symptoms while also fighting depression. Are you afraid that when you quit smoking you’ll gain weight? Chew a piece of gum or have a piece of fruit or other healthy snack when your appetite kicks in.

If you’re a smoker and want more information on effective ways to quit, please visit the following link that has many useful tips: http://www.smokefree.gov/quit-smoking/index.html

Smoking is Anti-Social

2008-10-13T22:59:00.000-07:00

I am not a smoker and I am totally anti-smoking. I cannot understand why smokers wish to have a habit that could cause them various health problems and even kill them. I think smoking should definitely be banned in public. It is the most anti-social but accepted pastime. It is unfair that non-smokers can't go to pubs without being surrounded by other people's smelly cigarette smoke, that causes their clothes to stink of fags. There are also the potential health risks of passive smoking. If people wish to participate in this filthy habit, they should do it in their own homes where they are not harming others.

Smoking in public

2008-10-13T22:38:00.000-07:00

Ok I don’t care if you smoke or not. You can kill yourself with your own hands for all that matters I DON’T care BUT please when you are in public, just don’t do it!

I was in a cafe yesterday, and I felt suffocated in there, everyone was smoking. I don’t get why people come to eat AND smoke. Isn’t a restaurant a place to eat? I noticed that here, more women than men smoke. Most of them wear trendy cloths and are stick thin. I don’t know what’s up with that but anyways, don’t they think of how much they annoy and harm non-smokers, kids, older people, sick people and pregnant ladies?

… Do You Know What Can Happen to other people while inhaling that filth?

1. When people smoke, those around them are affected both by smoke from a burning cigarette and by second-hand or passive smoke- this is the smoke that the smoker blows back out after inhaling.

2. Passive smoke is worse than the smoke that a smoker inhales from a cigarette- passive smoke is much more concentrated.

What happens to children when they are around passive smoke:

✦ More respiratory illnesses, including asthma
✦ Growth may be slowed
✦ Increased chance of having chronic lung disease as an adult

I hope this country, the one I come from and the one I am currently living in, considers banning smoking in public places.

IIUM Smoking Zone ???

2008-10-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

Mon, Dec 18- Quite a number of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) students are seen to smoke in the public area openly without fear towards any actions that might be taken upon them due to the lack of authority inspection.

These students are brave to reveal their obsession without even care neither the IIUM rules and regulations, nor the privacy and rights of other students.
The most popular spots for these smokers are the open air dining cafeteria, such as Bassbusa, Kyros Kebab, Economics café and Nescafe.

Nadhila, 24, Psychology student said, ”It is inappropriate to smoke openly in the campus since it polluted the academic surrounding.”

“It is good if other students are brave enough to approach and admonish those smokers directly. Although it is not a major problem in IIUM, but the danger due to the exposure is there.” she added.

Nadhila’s statement is agreed by Suhaina, 21, also a Psychology student by insisting that smoking is clearly prohibited in the campus, and it is unethical to grab the rights of others to inhale the fresh air.

“Students always mumble saying that they don’t have enough money, but actually they are wasting money for cigarettes.”

“There is no good of smoking, where as it would lead to erectal disfunction as well.” she said.
According to Arifuddin, 23, Bachelor of English Language (BENL) student, “I’m not a smoker, so I don’t like smokers too.”

“Passive smokers have larger possibilities to get the impact compared to the first degree smokers. They smoke, but we are the victims since we consumed the poisonous air that they released.” he added.

However, Abdullah, 23, Information Communication Technology (ICT) student brought up a different view,”It is individuals’ rights, and I think IIUM should provide a specific place or a smoking area for the students to smoke.”

Smoking

2008-10-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

This is a 4 years-old child of a Taman Negara jungle tribe (Malaysia). She's smoking a well known brand of cigarettes. After see this picture i very sad because just 4 years old child already smoking, why parent didn't stop her?Hoped one day she'll aware.

SummARY

2008-10-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

Art depicts the moment of everyday life and its surrounding is known as genre. Is is occur in all periods history of art, culture and parts of the world. Art from China is depicted the social issues. Artist also depicted a delightful scene of daily activity. On the other hand wealthy people paid artist s to illuminate books, especially prayer books. Further more; Egyptian presented the afterlife by painting on the tomb walls known as Meketre. Artists also have often turned the art to stories for subject matter. According to this, many artists never lose their interest in everyday thing.

post by NAZIRAH

art & RELIgion

2008-10-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

post by NAZIRAH

Health Hazards of Tobacco

2008-10-08T03:54:00.000-07:00

Smoking is a health hazard because so many people lose their lives due to smoking-related diseases. Smoking affects different parts of your body such as the heart, lungs, and brain. The chemicals and poisons in cigarettes can cause emphysema, bronchitis, heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, and cancer. One in two smokers dies prematurely from smoking. Lung cancer accounts for 22% of cancer deaths, and it is the most common type of cancer. One in four people that develop cancer get lung cancer.

Also 90% of the people who get cancer of the mouth and throat get it because they used tobacco. Different types of cancer also include liver, stomach, bladder, kidney, and cervical cancer. Forty years of smoking causes a 60% greater chance of getting breast cancer. And if a person smokes a pack or more a day the risk is 83% higher.

There are 1.1 billion tobacco users worldwide. Smoking can also ruin your appearance by staining your teeth, yellowing your fingernails, and causes wrinkles, gum disease, tooth decay, and bad breath. Smoking can cause a decrease in athletic performance, such as not being able to run fast or jump as high. Chronic coughing, more phlegm in your mouth, and asthma are also effects that smoking can have on your body.

The following pictures are very graphic. If you are at all squeamish do not look at the following:

Gangrene - due to decreased blood flow caused by smoking

Mouth cancer and Lip cancer

Lip cancer caused by years of smoking

These picture came from smoker's body parts. These are actual images and have not been enhanced or altered in any way.

Is this what you want your body to look like?

Smoking Athletes?

2008-10-08T03:46:00.000-07:00

In fitness world, many athletes do exercise with supplements, steroids or spandex. On the contrary, it is the almost incredible combination of exercise and smoking. However, there are people who do both. They compete in marathons and triathlons and go hiking and train at the gym, and also have a pretty steady cigarette habit.

For example, “At the Pikes Peak Marathon, A nonsmoker won, and the three smokers who ran never finished the race. A smoker did beat to the top, but decided to smoke a cigarette instead of heading back.” It shows that nonsmokers are better than smokers at Marathon, triathlons and something like that. In other words, smoking doesn’t have any good things for athletes and it is just one of bad habits.

So, the smokers have different point of view about their habit. Some think it doesn’t matter and others think when they should try to quit. But for now, smoking and exercise continue to run in synchronization.

MY OPINION:

There is no reason why people do exercise and smoking? It is so bad for our lungs and body. Can they say, they really do exercise for their health? Of course, smoking and exercise is better than smoking and sitting. However, it is obviously not the smartest thing, and these athletes could probably do better if they didn't smoke.

Moreover, smoking causes consistent damage to the body. If someone is exercising and smoking they have serious issues on a number of levels, including a strong possibility of mental illness. Actually, many people have lung cancer or emphysema because of smoking. So, I think the best way is that smokers stop smoking even if they don’t exercise. To stop smoking is the first thing!

Disadvantages of Smoking

2008-10-08T03:36:00.000-07:00

Do you know quitting smoking is very easy, knowing how to quit it. It's just your mental thinking that is stopping you to stop smoking. There is a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy available using which you can easily stop smoking without any side effects.

Smoking is very dangerous for your health. There are only disadvantages of smoking. I can't find any single advantage of smoking. However if you ask smoker, "Why do you smoke? What you will get by smoking a cigarette?" Well, they will tell you lots of benefits of smoking. Some of them are smoking makes you relax, smoking reduces stress etc...

Cigarettes are made using tobacco. Tobacco contains nicotine. Nicotine is very harmful drug for your health. When you smoke a cigarette, you are not taking only nicotine inside your body but you take thousands of other chemicals also.

At the time of smoking, you are taking carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in to your lung through tobacco burning. This carbon dioxide will be mixed with your blood and slowly it will reduce your efficiency of doing work. I mean you will feel tired. You cannot run as fast as non smoker can run. Smoking will create breath problems. Another problem with smoking is that it may increase your blood pressure. Chances of heart attack will increase with smoking. Chances of being diabetic patient will be more. Chances of lung cancer will be more in smoker because of carbon monoxide and nicotine.

Your immune system will also be affected. Smoker feel elder than non smoker of their age. Resistance power against diseases will be reduced.

Another issue is that work capacity of your brain will be reduced. Study shows that smokers will start losing their memory at the age of 50. Stress problem is common in smokers. Sometimes it leads to minor depression. Smoking creates only problems. So be deterministic and quit smoking for good.

STOP SMOKING, EASY, QUIT SMOKING, SIMPLY !

2008-10-08T03:34:00.002-07:00

If you are on the path or have decided that you want to or are going to quit, this is it! Cutting down/Butting out for good, led you to picking up this guide to learn more. Natural curiosity brought you this far. Stay tuned to learn HOW.

Some fear for their health and do not want to die and once they hear the facts it is enough to let them make the final decision to STOP SMOKING.

Maybe your own coughing has led you to realizing that you are in fact gambling with your own life and longevity. You have had enough and want to quit! You might also have a negative effect by this destructive habit on the people around you including your kids and family.

There is MORE to quitting smoking than simply stopping you need to unlock the secrets of not returning to bad old habits that do tend to die rather hard. Many fail at trying to quit, have and will down the line. Your story and path need NOT go down that road.

Diagnosing and treating a condition or addiction for that matter, might require some intensive therapy and intervention to get the desired outcome, success and results. There are limitations, pros and cons to every conceivable method of coping with substance abuse and nicotine-type addictions.

Hypnosis has been proven to be quite effective, however it cannot cure all ills, nor is it the quick-fit, silver-bullet solution some make it out to be. Realistic expectations, good know how and disciplined, consistent good choices will all do their part to get you where you need to be/go!

Utilizing and optimizing techniques like relaxation, induced, guided, hypnosis and even self-hypnosis, making the most of the body, mind connection and interrelatedness to get results can work wonders. This might be leading to behavior modification of some bad habitual tendencies and actions. These are at the very center and core of some of the most advanced techniques of cessation treatment for smoking.

Safe for all and not dangerous or harmful in any way, shape or form, there are lots of options and applications for this natural process, tried and true accepted method of practice.

Many want to be assured that the treatment that they seek are right for them, that there are some standards and measurements, rules of thumb that apply to and help all.

2008-10-08T03:23:00.000-07:00

This section of the exhibit on anti-smoking campaigns scrutinizes the political, social, and psychological messages utilized by anti-tobacco educators since the 1960s in print advertisements, posters, and billboards, in order to examine how traditional values, cultural conditions, and medical knowledge are conveyed in print media. The exhibit includes images of the cigarette, the smoker, the nonsmoker, smoke-free environments, and celebrities in a variety of campaigns created by voluntary organizations, professional advertising firms, and governmental organizations.

In the first half of the twentieth century, anti-smoking messages emphasized primarily moralistic and hygienic concerns. Anti-tobacco crusaders saw the cigarette as ungodly and unhealthy. Although medical objections to smoking remained implicit in their arguments, activists did not have any medical consensus behind them. In fact, medical opinion was generally noncommittal until the 1964 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health, which consolidated and legitimized 15 years of growing evidence of the dangers of smoking to health.

The 1964 Surgeon General's report marked the beginning of a transformation in attitudes and behaviors related to cigarettes, but smoking norms and habits yielded slowly and incompletely. Despite legislative restrictions on advertising in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the persistent and pervasive marketing of cigarettes continued in different forums. Still, grassroots activists, professional consumer advocates, and the public health bureaucracy remained inspired by scientific and social interest in the hazards of smoking. Their collective anti-smoking campaigns have employed a variety of educational, clinical, regulatory, economic, and counter-advertising strategies.

Only half hour of passive smoking 'damages heart'

2008-10-08T03:16:00.000-07:00

Passive smoking for just 30 minutes can damage the heart, according to a study which immediately prompted new calls for more California-style restrictions to stop non-smokers being exposed to fumes.
Japanese doctors said they had evidence that the coronary circulation of healthy non-smokers was affected so badly by short exposure to fumes that parts of their hearts looked no different from that of smokers.

The team from Osaka city university medical school, reporting in the Journal of the American Medical Association, used ultrasound imaging to check chambers, valves and other parts of the hearts of 15 non-smokers and 15 "healthy" smokers, with an average age of 27, before and after exposing them to 30 minutes of passive smoking.

They measured the so-called coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR), which indicates how well cells that line cavities of the heart and blood vessels perform.

"Our data revealed that temporary passive smoking abruptly reduced CFVR in non-smokers but did not affect CFVR in active smokers. This provides direct evidence of a harmful effect of passive smoking on the coronary circulation in non-smokers."

The authors admitted however that the study did not allow them to assess the long-term effects of passive smoking, or for how long the CFVR was reduced in non-smokers. "These effects may be worth testing in a long term trial."

The American Heart Association has suggested that risk of death from heart disease might be increased by 30% among those exposed to smoke from other people's tobacco at home and by more in those who endure "secondhand" smoke at work.

An editorial accompanying the Japanese study said the findings "add to the evidence that everyone should be protected from even short term exposure to toxins in secondhand smoke".

One of the editorial's authors, Stanton Glantz, of the University of California will tomorrow be the first witness at an inquiry into smoking in public places by the Greater London assembly.

Action on Smoking and Health said: "If something as hazardous as cigarette smoke was leaking from a pipe in a factory, inspectors would close it down, yet there are still 3m non-smokers in Britain that are frequently or continuously exposed to tobacco smoke at work."

The Department of Health said a survey this summer would review how many restuarants, pubs and other licensed premises were following voluntary codes on providing more non-smoking areas.

Exposure to smoking can make you deaf

2008-10-08T03:11:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week BBCi carried an article Smoking link to hearing problems. A fetus whose mother smoked during pregnancy or teenagers who smoke are at risk from experiencing "auditory attention deficits".

To quote the New Scientist:

Nicotine may cause the teenage brain to develop abnormality, resulting in changes to the structure of white matter [brain] ... Teenagers who smoke or whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are more likely to suffer from auditory attention deficits ....

Prenatal and adolescent exposure to tobacco smoke were associated with changes in white matter in brain pathways that relay signals to the war.

This had picked up on earlier research by Jacobsen, et al at Yale University, carrying on from previous work that stated in terms of prenatal exposure to nicotine:

... clinical studies have linked maternal smoking during pregnancy with persistent deficits ... [in] auditory processing in offspring. (Fried et al, 1997, 2003; McCartney et al, 1994)

And similarly for teenagers:

Nicotine is also disruptive to adolescent brain development (Abreu-Villaca et al., 2003) ... Neurodevelopment continues through adolescence.

Reduce Smoking, Boost Heart Health

2008-10-08T03:02:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK - Smokers who quit or even just cut down on cigarettes can begin to reap the health benefits within a few months, new study findings suggest.

In the study, individuals who gradually quit smoking saw improvements in risk factors for heart disease, including lower cholesterol and carbon monoxide levels. The findings may encourage some of the millions of smokers worldwide to cut back on tobacco, which will cause an estimated 10 million deaths a year by 2030, report researchers led by Dr. Bjorn Eliasson from Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden.

"Smoking reduction results in improvements in established cardiovascular risk factors...which has the potential to benefit individual and public health," the authors write.

Over 4 months, 33 adults who had smoked 15 or more cigarettes a day for at least 3 years reduced and tried to quit smoking. To help curb their cravings, they used a nicotine-containing nasal spray manufactured by Pharmacia Consumer Healthcare, which funded the study.

After 9 weeks, participants had cut their smoking in half, on average. Levels of carbon monoxide declined by about 17%, while total cholesterol and LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels also fell. Meanwhile, HDL ("good") cholesterol rose, and the blood's capacity to transport oxygen also improved, Eliasson's team reports in the August issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research.

Carbon monoxide is a byproduct of tobacco smoke that has been found to boost cholesterol, levels of white blood cells and other risk factors for heart disease. The gas can also impair the blood's ability to transport oxygen throughout the body, which may raise the risk of heart attack.

According to previous research cited in the report, reducing total cholesterol by up to 9% and reducing LDL cholesterol by just 1% can lower a person's risk of heart disease.

"Reduction (of smoking) is a step in the right direction, especially for those that are not quite ready to stop yet," Eliasson told Reuters Health, although he added that it could be difficult for some people to maintain a lower level for a long period of time.

Ways to Quit Smoking

2008-10-08T02:57:00.000-07:00

Very Hard To Quit Smoker who are able to quit without help consist only about 5 percent. The success rate averages about 30 percent for people who combine pharmacologic therapy with support and counseling from a health care provider.

Pharmacologic Therapy

"Pharmacologic therapy, in addition to support and counseling, is the state-of-the-art treatment right now,'' says Dr. Hurt, who leads a team of Mayo scientists evaluating smoking cessation therapies. "It's a pretty small price to pay for an increased success rate." If you've failed in past attempts to stop smoking, there is still hope for success.

Cigarette Substitutes

Richard D. Hurt, M.D. says the most promising smoking cessation medications currently available use means other than cigarettes to deliver smaller amounts of nicotine to the brain or alter the release of brain chemicals to mimic the effect of nicotine. The treatments are short-term. Their purpose is to relieve the withdrawal symptoms that make it so difficult to stop smoking. Not Well-Established The least hairy, unshaven areas are best. The optimal length of treatment is not well-established; it depends on the individual needs of each person. The usual length of treatment is 6 to 8 weeks. Advantages: There are few side effects. It's easy to use and only needs to be applied once a day. Disadvantages: Dosage is less flexible than other products, and the nicotine is delivered relatively slowly to the brain. Mild skin rashes are common.

Nasal Spray

The nicotine in Nicotrol NS is sprayed directly into each nostril. It is absorbed through nasal membranes into blood veins, returned to the heart, then sent to the brain. The spray provides a quicker delivery system than nicotine gum, although not nearly as quick as a cigarette. The usual dose - one spray into each nostril - is 1 milligram (mg) of nicotine.

Eight Doses Per Day

People typically are directed to start with one to two doses per hour, with a minimum of eight doses per day and a maximum of 40 doses per day. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for instructions. For most people, use of the spray should be reduced 6 to 8 weeks into the treatment.

Advantages:

It's flexible in schedule of use. It delivers nicotine rapidly for quick reduction in cravings. You can use it in response to urges to smoke. Disadvantages: During the early days of treatment, it can be irritating to the nose, causing a hot, peppery feeling along with watery eyes, runny nose, coughing and sneezing.

Smoker's Nicorette Gum

The strategy for using nicotine gum is to "bite a few times and park it between the cheek and gums," says Dr. Hurt. That's because nicotine from the gum is absorbed through the lining of the mouth. It's not absorbed from the stomach. If you chew the gum rapidly and swallow the saliva, you may become nauseated - and you'll not get the desired level of nicotine.

Dr. Hurt

Marketed as Nicorette, the gum comes in 2 mg and 4 mg doses. Dr. Hurt says the 4 mg dose is more appropriate for heavy smokers. When properly used, it takes about 30 minutes to absorb all the nicotine from the gum. Advantages: It's convenient and flexible in schedule of use. Disadvantages: You can't eat or drink anything when the gum is in your mouth. If you have dental problems or arthritis of the jaw joint, it may be best to avoid nicotine gum.

Anti-smoking posters

2008-10-08T02:49:00.000-07:00

Our students were invited to create posters for an anti-smoking contest. Would you still want to smoke after seeing these?

Smokers and Ex-smokers

2008-10-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

Smokers always feel that smoking helps them in getting rid from unhappiness, stress, boredom, anxiousness and loneliness. The life without a cigarette means complete boredom and frustration. Most of the smokers feel that they will put on weight after quitting cigarette. They can work faster and better after a puff of cigarette. While smoking they can be more sociable. Smoking is also a way to celebrate on special occasions. Smokers feel that everything loses its charm without smoking. They are unable to enjoy social gathering, fun, games, drink, or even the company of their spouse. According to this data of smokers, smoking has so many great attributes.

However, one more data contradicts this data. In America, almost 33, 000, 000 Americans have quitted smoking and are leading a healthy life. A non-smoker would never be able to understand the great qualities of cigarette. However, the ex-smokers are well aware of these wonderful qualities. Still they have decided to quit. Are these 33, 000, 000 people mad?

These people are not mad, but they understood the disadvantages of smoking. They had also gone through the painful withdrawal symptoms of Nicotine. Still, they managed all the pain. They fought not only with the physical addiction, but also with the psychological addiction. The psychological addiction is a little tough, but they managed that too. They convinced themselves fully about the bad consequences of smoking. This demands a lot of firm determination from their side and a positive approach.

These smokers must be appreciated for coming out from this addiction. The earlier phase of quitting makes smoker a little insecure. However, you must have confidence on yourself that it is possible to live without cigarettes.

Once come out of the tight and dangerous grip of smoking. You will understand that you were on a wrong track. You were living in the world of misconceptions. After quitting smoking, they will realize that life without smoking is healthier, calmer and beautiful.

It depends on the ex-smoker, whether he/she wants to smoke again or not. Now, it demands a logical reasoning from you. However, many smokers again start smoking. The cause for their again taking up smoking is that they forgot the bad consequences of smoking. There is one more cause of taking up smoking again is the urge that they are unable to resist.

Therefore, all ex-smokers have two choices, either to quit it or to start smoking again. It is useless to be an occasional smoker, as it is also harming you a lot. Thus, make a promise of not letting even a little bit of Nicotine into your body.

Be my friend, stay smoke-free

2008-10-04T05:16:00.000-07:00

Smoking is an addictive behaviour. Most smokers start smoking in their adolescence. Smoking causes about 5 million deaths worldwide every year. It's estimated that 1 in 2 smokers will die from tobacco related cause.

Peer pressure is one of the ways in which one is influenced to smoke, but peer pressure can also be one of the ways to encourage a smoke-free lifestyle. Therefore, if used positively, peer influence can be tapped to bring about positive results.

This year's National Smoking Control Campaign, is focusing on involving youths in promoting a smoke-free lifestyle. The objective of this competition is to encourage students to think of ways to encourage their peers to lead a smoke-free lifestyle. Although the theme of this year's campaign is "Be my friend, stay smoke-free" students can also think of ways to encourage others whom they have a close relationship with such as their family members of relatives to lead a smoke-free lifestyle.

Stop smoking

2008-10-04T04:54:00.000-07:00

1. YOUTH STATISTICS

2. MALAYSIA SMOKING STATISTICS

Here are more smoking statistics from Malaysia:

*Every day about 50 teenagers below the age of 18 start smoking.
*Smoking is estimated to have caused more than half a million coronary events.
*Smoking rates are highest in rural Kelantan and lowest in urban Penang and Sarawak.
*Malaysia has been dubbed the "indirect advertising capital" of the world. Some of the tobacco
industry's most blatant efforts to target young people can be seen here.
*At least two tobacco companies were among the top 10 advertisers in recent years.

My advice: Smoking is a highly dangerous activity. You are not only putting your own health and future in danger, but you are also harming your loved ones. They breathe in your secondhand smokemore than anyone do. Think, before you satisfy your daily craving of nicotine.

Yuck! You put that in your mouth?!

2008-10-04T04:47:00.000-07:00

Smoking affects these parts of your mouth:
A. Lips.

B. The floor of the mouth, under tongue.

C. The tongue.

D. The palate.

E. The root of the tongue.

Smoking causes oral cancer.
Smoking is dangerous for your teeth and gums. The teeth may fall out, as smoking can cause periodontal disease. Smoking delays the healing of wounds, and stains the teeth, gums and fillings. The worst consequence is the increased risk of mouth cancer.

Periodontal disease is a condition where the tissues that support the teeth - the gums and the bone - slowly deteriorate, and the teeth become loose and finally fall out. Anyone can suffer from periodontal disease, but smoking increases the risk. Heavy smokers are six times more likely to suffer from periodontal disease than non-smokers.

The risk of contracting periodontal disease depends on how much you smoke. If you smoke 30 cigarettes a day, you are six times more likely to contract periodontal disease than a non-smoker.

If you smoke 10 cigarettes a day or less, the risk is still three times higher than for a non-smoker.

If you smoke, the risk of contracting cancer of the mouth is four times higher than for a non-smoker.

Daniel radcliffe dubbed 'Harry Puffer' with smoking habit

2008-10-04T04:39:00.000-07:00

Radcliffe, is reportedly smoking up to 20 cigarettes a day on the set of the next Harry Potter instalment, reports celebrity gossip websites including Showbizspy.com.

The hard word on Radcliffe, 18, comes as Hollywood movie star Patrick Swayze recently announced he was dying from pancreatic cancer and was globally shamed for being caught smoking in public with the disease.

A source said: “Daniel has recently been smoking up to 20 cigarettes a day.

“Every time they call ‘Cut’, he lights up.

“It’s disgusting.”

“Friends and co-stars including Rupert Grint have been warning him about the dangers of smoking.”

But he doesn’t seem to be taking any notice.

Close friends fear Daniel’s unhealthy habit could ruin his clean-cut image - and have now warned him not to be seen puffing in public.

“He’s been having late nights out with stars like Kevin Spacey and Stephen Fry and seems to have picked up bad habits from the luvvie set.”

Last week, a nervous Radcliffe turned to the cancer sticks when he had to perform a tricky stunt himself because his double was absent.

The source added to British newspaper The Sun: “He was sparking up constantly.”
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The effects and dangers of smoking

2008-10-01T19:26:00.001-07:00

Immediate effects of smoking include:

One cigarette immediately raises your blood pressure and heart rate and decreases the blood

flow to body extremities.

Brain activity and the nervous system are stimulated for a short while and then reduced

A smoker may experience dizziness, nausea, watery eyes and acid in the stomach while or after smoking

Appetite and senses, such as taste and smell are distorted

Other effects of smoking include:

Shortness of breath

Persistent coughs

Yellow stains on fingers and teeth

Changes in appearances such as facial wrinkles and rubber-like skin

Bad smelling breath, clothes, hair, home, car, and everything around

Decreased sense of taste and smell

Weakened immune system compares to nonsmokers

Possible impotence in men

Women who smoke arss fertile than women who don't smoke

These three images illustrate the effects of smoking on the epithelial cells of the bronchi.
Image on the left shows normal healthy cells in contrast to the images on the right where the cells have become cancerous.

Smoking Increases Risks for:

Respiratory infections such as pneumonia and chronic bronchitis
Emphysema
Heart attacks and coronary disease
Cancers such as lung cancer, throat cancer, mouth cancer
Stomach ulcers
Peripheral vascular diseases

Other Dangers of Smoking:

Smoking during pregnancy can adversely affect the health of the unborn child
Second-hand smoking is as dangerous as the first-hand smoking
Smoking in a room separate from children and others does not necessarily avoid second-hand smoking, because carcinogens can seep into furniture and walls

Smoking kills

2008-10-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks I am not smoking, even not tryed.

Here is some cool flash site with cigarege researches, results.

I hate when people smoke near me. Or when you are walking in the town and some guy smokes before you and I must go another way longest one. Or when mother or father of little children smokes near his child. The best what they can do is get gun and shoot him, I think it is the same what they are doing.

PEOPLE PLEASE DON`T SMOKE.

Snuffing Out Smoking!

2008-09-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

Why the world wants smoking bans
On any given day, 45 million adult smokers light up despite the known dangers of smoking cigarettes. Americans typically view smoking as an individual choice that needs to be respected just like the myriad of other harmful behaviors society tolerates. Nevertheless, there is strong societal pressure to curb the sale and use of cancer-causing tobacco products. This raises the question, should the government be able to regulate our unhealthy lifestyle choices? While other decisions of personal health may be left to the individual, in the case of smoking the government has made a popular case that “lighting up” affects others in a unique way. This fundamental argument has been playing out on the national stage in the politics of smoking bans.

The Science of Smoking
In the last twenty-five years, tobacco companies and anti-smoking non-profits alike have educated the general public on the dangers of smoking. Most people are aware that smoking on a regular basis is unhealthy, but popular beliefs about the effects of second-hand smoke are more varied, and for good reason: the public receives mixed information. According to Dr. Cheryl Healton, the CEO and president of the American Legacy Foundation, the parent company of The Truth campaign, about 50,000 Americans die each year due to excess cancer, heart attacks, asthma, low birth weight, and other problems caused by second-hand smoke. Most organizations against smoking regulation disagree. They claim the science behind statements like Healton’s is inconclusive. Many scientific organizations however, are confident in the results. In 2002, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, analyzed most published research concerning tobacco smoking and cancer. One correlation observed in the study was “a statistically significant and consistent association between lung cancer risk in spouses of smokers and exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke from the spouse who smokes.” Proponents of regulation have cited such evidence in calling for a ban against smoking in public places. In addition to sparing passersby from second-hand smoke, public smoking bans may aid smokers in their quest to quit. Dr. Eric Westman, a nicotine and smoking cessation researcher at Duke University, has helped people overcome nicotine addiction for fifteen years. He explains that smoking bans help people quit not only because they make smoking illegal in certain situations, but also because they increase the social stigma of smoking. An internal Phillip Morris document corroborates this observation, finding that individuals who face workplace smoking bans “consume 11 percent to 15 percent less than average and quit at a rate that is 84 percent higher than average.” Many countries have already instituted wide-ranging prohibitions on public smoking. Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Malta, Italy, and New Zealand have already established countrywide smoke-free laws. France and the United Kingdom are soon to enact their bans. In 2004, the small country of Bhutan went as far as to ban all tobacco sales. The United States, however, has typically been more skeptical of such legislation and currently only eleven U.S. states have bans on indoor public smoking, though many cities have enacted their own bans.

Saving Smokers from Themselves
While there are strong arguments for regulation of public smoking, consequences for the health of the individual are not necessarily enough to justify legislation. For instance, if bans or heavy regulation were applied to other health-related behaviors, such as overeating, many more people would claim that the government had overstepped its authority. Why is smoking any different? When asked this question, Dr. Healton replied, “obesity does not harm the health of others.” She alludes to a key aspect of bans: they typically only outlaw smoking in public arenas, where one’s decision to smoke inhibits another’s freedom to eschew second hand smoke. Take, for example, the newly-proposed city-wide bans on the use of trans-fats in restaurants, a type of lipid that has been linked to cancer. Trans-fat bans parallel smoking bans in that the government is intervening to curb the effect of the actions of others, whether an individual or a business, on citizens health. However, it is important to note that in these cases the government is only legislating in the public realm: individuals are free to eat what and how much they want, while similarly, smokers can smoke in private areas. The Future of Smoking Bans While it can and has been argued that bans on public smoking overextend the government’s power over the private lives of its citizens, strong scientific evidence support the conclusion that allowing individuals to smoke can violate the health of innocent bystanders. In an interview, Dr. Healton predicted, “the global trend will be greater restrictions on where one can smoke.” Across the world, this seems to be coming true, and with increasing regulation, the Marlboro man may soon be off the open plain, and resigned to smoke in the privacy of his own home.

Yeah i smoke

2008-09-29T23:58:00.000-07:00

I've been smoking cigarettes for about two years now. Every day i say i'm gonna quit but i never do... everyday i go out and buy me a new pack of newports. That stuff is killing me but i love it... well mostly when i drink which is not often. when i have a pack i find myself smoking just because their there, and when i dont have them i'm on the move looking for them. I hate the smell of them, like when someone is smoking around me it stinks. I like this site... This is the 1st of many

Stop smoking in days! The little pills that could

2008-09-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

"I think I can, I think I can. I know I can, I know I can."
I failed again.
But no more.

No longer will you have to recant the mantra from the little train that could. You can stop smoking, eliminate your cravings and lose the rebound effects commonly associated with smoking cessation, like weight gain and substitute vices.
How? The smoking cessation pill, Chantix.
I was speaking with one of the correctional officers who took the challenge as part of his new year’s resolution. What he had to report was amazing.
First, he stated that he had no cravings or desires to smoke by day 3. Secondly, he did not notice any new behaviors to replace his prior smoking habit. He had to think about what he would do to replace it, not that he’s doing anything now.
He states that the smell of cigarette smoke is revolting to him and he doesn’t think about smoking anymore.
Impressive!
With the price of brand name cigarettes in Michigan pushing 6 bucks a pack, Chantix could not have come on the scene at a better time. If you only smoked 1 pack per day, you would pay less than that for a month’s supply of Chantix. And what I am hearing from the field is that most stop smoking during that first 30 day supply.
Not so with Zyban. Most REDUCE their use of cigarettes and continue to smoke. I rarely have had a case of someone on Zyban that quit within 90 days, let alone 30 days.

Smoking kills almost a million in India per year

2008-09-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

“Smoking is harmful to Health” - This is a statutory warning printed on all cigarette packets. Yet the question arises as to how many people pay heed to this warning. Statistics will reveal a very small number. Majority knowingly jump in the fire or continue to smoke, risking even the lives of those around them, due to passive smoking.

A recent research has revealed that smoking kills almost a million people in India per year. More so the high smoking risk among Indians was a surprise when actually Indians start smoking at a later age and even smoke less than their European and American counterparts.

Also smoking results in most Indians dying from Tuberculosis rather than cancer as Indians prefer Beedis, that are traditionally leaf wrapped and hand rolled rather than manufactured brand filters. And since most of them never quit till death, the risk just doubles.

The study also revealed that almost 120 million people smoke in India, majority being men. Due to smoking most men in India get infected with asymptomatic tuberculosis - that is, smoking damages the lungs to such an extent that the latent infection cannot be sustained, eventually leading to death.

Illiteracy is one of the evil causes of smoking, for half of the Indian smokers are illiterate and barely 2% quit smoking in their lives. For the other half literate people who continue to smoke in spite of being aware of the dangers involved, the Indian health authorities are rooting for tobacco companies to print images of diseases that are tobacco related. But politicians want to save their vote banks in the name of protecting jobs of tobacco workers.

The research which was recently published was based on a study of the smoking history of 74,000 Indian who had recently died and 78,000 Indians living.
Well research or no research, smoking is injurious to health - is a known fact. And yet people continue to...smoke!

Smoking accessories

2008-09-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

paper : Very thin sheet of paper that is wrapped around the tobacco.

tobacco: Product made from the dried leaves of a nicotine-rich plant; the leaves are treated and made into cigars or cigarettes for smoking.

seam : Line along which the cigarette paper is sealed.

filter tip: Tip at the mouth end for capturing some of the smoke’s toxic substances.

ashtray: Receptacle into which smokers empty their pipe or leave the remains of their cigar or cigarette.

ash: Residue left from burned tobacco.

butt: Unburned portion of a cigar or cigarette.

Stop Smoking Hypnotherapy

2008-09-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

Stop Smoking with hypnotherapy- no nicotine patches, no gum and absolutely no withdrawal symptoms required!So what if it really is that easy? What if all your beliefs about how hard it's going to be to stop smoking are completely false? What if, after just one stop smoking hypnotherapy session, you can easily become and remain a happy, confident and relaxed non-smoker?Through Hypnotherapy I help your unconscious mind to disregard those old false beliefs about smoking and swap them for beliefs and habits that are altogether more relaxing and far more fulfilling. So as a result, the all too familiar withdrawal pangs of irritability, mood swings and cravings, the primary reasons why people fail to permanently quit smoking, are replaced with a feeling of well being and confidence, with you always in control.

It's easy to stop smoking!

2008-09-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

It has been around 18 months since I gave up smoking and every time I meeta smoker they always ask how I did it. I have to say it took me threetimes before I eventually gave up for good.
There were lots of different factors that led me to even start thinking aboutgiving up; however the main one was my own health. Other reasons includedmy children, they kept telling me I was going to die and got quite distressedabout it; the smell in the house; the smell on my clothes; feeling like a leperwhen going outside to smoke. There are a million reasons to give up andonly one reason to continue and that is addiction.

I used to tell myself I could give up if I really wanted to but I didn’twant to. The truth is I did want to but felt it would be too hardand I didn’t want to fail, so it was easier to say I enjoyed it too much. Ienjoyed the supposed feeling it gave me after dinner, with a cup of tea, whilsthaving a drink etc. However when I realised it was me who was creatingthis feeling and not the cigarettes things started to change in my way of thinking.
I began telling myself it was easy to give up smoking and after about 2 monthsI gave up for good and haven’t looked back since. I worked on mybelief system about giving up smoking and convinced myself it was going tobe easy and when the time came it was easy.

My tips for giving up smoking would be:

Give yourself compelling reasons to give up, don’t do it for otherpeople, and do it for yourself.
Set a date about 2 months in advance of when you will give up and tellyourself every day you are going to give up on that day.
Don’t try patches or gum with nicotine in it. Once youtold yourself for two months when you will give up just give up
Tell yourself every day it is easy to give up smoking; your brain willreally start to believe it after a month or so.
Tell your friends and family you will be giving up on ‘that date’,this gives you a little pressure and shows your friends and family you arecommitted.
Break the old patterns of behaviour surrounding your smoking e.g. if yousmoked after your dinner at night, go for a walk instead or go clean thebathroom. Pretty soon your mind will get out of the old habit and startforming new habits.

It is easy to give up smoking, however we have been conditioned to believethe opposite is the case. Our mind will believe whatever we tell it tobelieve and adjust our physiology and cravings accordingly. When youtell yourself it is easy to give up smoking for two months, it will be veryeasy on the day to give up, you have to believe it.

Smoking and mouth cancer

2008-09-27T03:47:00.000-07:00

New research in the UK has revealed that smokers are unconcerned with the effect of their habit on the oral cavity. In particular they seemed to be aware of the damage // that smoking caused to the tongue or jaw or the lip and even the teeth, but were strangely reluctant to change their habits. This is of particular concern to the oral and maxillofacial surgeons, who are launching a massive awareness campaign as a part of the Mouth Cancer Awareness Week. Surgeons will visit schools and educate adolescents about the effects of smoking on the mouth and in particular its relation to oral cancer. “Smoking among adolescents is rising. Kids want graphic images and powerful images, they like to know that if they do this we will get that,” said Iain Hutchison, a maxillo facial surgeon based at Barts and the Royal London, Hospital and a member of Saving Faces, the Facial Surgery Research Foundation. “We know it is much more difficult to quit smoking than to never start, so this is the place to start making sure these children don’t ever smoke.” He says that children are very impressed with the graphic images and go home and tell their parents about it. “By educating the kids we are also educating their parents about smoking and mouth cancer,” Hutchinson points out. It is estimated that about 4,300 new cases of oral cancer occur in the UK every year and a majority of them are linked to smoking. Research conducted by dental plan provider Denplan shows that smoking and drinking increases the risk of oral cancer by 30 times “Symptoms of mouth cancer vary widely in look and feel, making early self-detection difficult. That’s why regular visits to the dentist remain crucial for detecting the disease because dentists are trained to spot the signs,” said Dental advisor Dr Henr Clover.

qUit & StoP....

2008-09-27T01:37:00.000-07:00

Below, some tips to help you quit smoking are listed. First and foremost, set a quit date and quit COMPLETELY on that day. To prepare for that day:

Identify the times you are most likely to smoke. For example, do you tend to smoke when feeling stressed? When you are out at night with friends? While you are drinking coffee? When you are bored? While you are driving?

Keep a diary to help you determine such risky times. Record each time you have a cigarette, including time of day and what you are doing.

Make a plan about what you will do instead of smoking at those times that you are most likely to smoke. For example, drink tea instead of coffee -- tea may not trigger the desire for a cigarette. Or, take a walk when feeling stressed. Remove ashtrays and cigarettes from the car. Place pretzels or hard candies there instead. Pretend-smoke with a straw.

Let all of your friends, family, and co-workers know of your plan to stop smoking and your quit date. Just being aware that they know can be a helpful reminder and motivator.

Prior to your quit date, start reducing your cigarette use, including decreasing the number and strength of the cigarettes. However, DON'T do this simply to make your diary "look good!" Get rid of all of your cigarettes just prior to the quit date and clean out anything that smells like smoke, such as clothes and furniture.

Other tips that can help you quit and stay quit include:

Enroll in a smoking cessation program (hospitals, health departments, community centers, and work sites frequently offer programs).

Ask your health care provider for advice, including whether prescription medications (such as bupropion -- Zyban or Wellbutrin) are safe and appropriate for you.

Find out about nicotine patches, gum, and sprays.

Try hypnosis -- it works for some people.

Avoid smoke-filled settings and situations in which you are more likely to smoke.

Exercise to relieve urges to smoke.

The American Cancer Society is an excellent resource for smokers who are trying to quit, and the Great American Smokeout can serve as a useful catalyst for some smokers.

post by Nazirah

2008-09-27T01:31:00.000-07:00

The bus driver announces that smoking is prohibited and punishable by a fine of several hundred dollars.

Suddenly, a baby starts crying."Come on kid," the bus driver said "you're only 6 months old, you can make it without a cigarette."

post by Nazirah

Graphic "Smoking Teens" Show

2008-09-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

The images typically elicit a gasp or "ugh" from youngsters. Yet they can't help looking more closely at the "Iowa Smoking Teens," altered images of two teens that show the effects of smoking--from blackened lungs to a 20 percent increase in the risk of cataracts to "dead toes."

The innovative images of two teenagers, one male and one female, appear on life-sized cutouts and a poster (18" by 24") to illustrate how cigarette smoking and other nicotine use affects the human body, often causing disease. The visual materials are effective educational tools for the Thoracic Oncology Program within Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa. Online images allow viewers to click on each of the body parts or organs to learn more about the serious health risks associated with smoking cigarettes.

The posters target teens because 90 percent of people who smoke start by the time they are 18, said Renee Gould, A.P.N. with the UI Thoracic Oncology Program. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one in three adult smokers began the habit at the young age of 14.

"Smoking is a pediatric disease," Gould said. "Unfortunately, our program doesn't see smokers until they're about 40 years old and have been smoking the majority of their lives."

Gould and colleagues take the life-sized cutouts and the posters to schools, state fairs, and health fairs. "If we can keep one person from smoking by showing these striking images, it's worth our visit," Gould said.

The images on the posters include photos (used with permission) of diseased organs and body parts from actual patients. For example, the "dead foot" that appears on the young man was taken from a patient who even volunteered to show the image to his granddaughter's class to help promote the non-smoking message. Nicotine use can result in poor circulation, causing tissue death in extremities like the toes.

Lou Halsch, former coordinator for the UI Thoracic Oncology Program, came up with the visual idea when she saw a life-sized cutout of Hayden Fry, former UI football coach, at a local grocery store. Previously, she had noticed that most anti-smoking visuals of tissue samples were too small for audiences to see and appreciate.

With the help of a UI pathologist and his library of specimens and the skills of a graphic designer, the group added the vivid images of diseased organs and body parts to the previously healthy appearance of life-sized models, two seniors at Iowa City West High School.

"I thought it would really be awesome to make a life-sized teen. Then, they were so popular, and people were asking how to get them, so we reduced the image size and put it onto a poster," said Halsch, who now works in graduate medical education for UI Hospitals and Clinics.

Halsch said that it is not necessarily the cancer aspects of the realistic images that make kids "sit up and take notice."

"Guys really pay attention to the photo showing impotence from nicotine use," Halsch said. "For other kids, it's the premature wrinkling, change in voice quality or staining on fingers that makes an impression on them."

The posters are used by teachers in their classrooms and, at fairs, grabbed up by a range of people--from grandmothers to college students who take them home to show their loved ones or roommates who smoke. The posters also have the positive effect of getting some teens interested in the health care profession, Halsch added.

Stopping's Hard but it won't kill you

2008-09-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

An information and support pack for young people who want to give up smoking. "Stopping's Hard" is a unique 24 page illustrated booklet written especially for 11 to 16 year olds to help them plan and prepare to stop smoking.

Smoking cigarettes is a nasty habit

2008-09-25T06:58:00.000-07:00

This is how lung cancer looks:

Cigarettes are a weapon, they kill, they destroy lives, consume the smoker lungs and make them non-functional, cigarettes make the teeth and nails yellow, the skin wrinkles, it's hard to walk fast, it's difficult to run, to do any kind of sport or physical activity because it feels like the lungs just can't expand anymore and the gasping for air starts. The risks for a heart attack increase immensely for a smoker, and the mortality rate as well.It's hard to quit smoking, but it's not impossible.

Let us start promoting our disgust against this nasty habit. Do you all agree?

Quitting smoking can kill you

2008-09-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

Both parents died of smoking-related Cancer.

In 182 of the 312 cases they had treated, an habitual smoker of at least a pack a day, for at least a quarter-century, had developed lung cancer shortly after he gave up smoking.
They reasonably surmised, that a biological mechanism protects smokers against cancer, which is strengthened by years of determined smoking. But when the smoker quits, “a surge and spurt in re-activation of bodily healing and repair mechanisms of chronic smoke-damaged respiratory epithelia is induced and spurred by an abrupt discontinuation of habit,” and “goes awry, triggering uncontrolled cell division and tumour genesis.”

Your actual mileage may vary.

The same general principle would apply: that a body long accustomed to a (frankly addictive) substance, goes haywire when the substance is removed. Verily, in the good old days, people instinctively understood things like that, without the need for medical research. And it was inconceivable that, for instance, hospitals would prevent patients from smoking, who were already medically challenged on other fronts.
More widely disseminated medical literature has documented other risks of non-smoking, that include neurotic depression, violent irritability, and obscene weight gain. But these tend to be discounted because they lead to death only indirectly.

But ladies, don’t forget that smoking add about 10 years to your apparent age.

In the past I have flagged U.N. statistics showing that life expectancy was nicely proportional to tobacco consumption, internationally — so that e.g. Japan and South Korea were respectively first and second in BOTH life expectancy AND tobacco consumption. Whereas, the lowest tobacco consumption was in “basketcase” Third World countries, where we also found some of the shortest life expectancies.
I think we could also find historical statistics showing that there is a reliable, worldwide relationship between rising tobacco consumption, and rising life expectancy, nation by nation, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

If they keep smoking...

2008-09-25T06:37:00.000-07:00

Bromenn Regional Medical Center in Bloomington, Indiana, is FREAKING TEENS OUT about smoking cigarettes by showing them what they'll look like eventually if they keep smoking. A teens picture is fed to the software, which generates two pictures: The teen in 40 years without smoking, and the teen after 40 years of smoking. If I were a teenager, I wouldn't want to grow up to look like either of these freaky-looking dudes.

My opinion:

I am never going to smoke after seeing this picture. I'll show this picture to my friend because she's on the brink of straiting to smoke. Definitely show it to your friend, please quit it.

Smoking Kills !!

2008-09-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered why with so much anti smoking campaign and rising of taxes by the goverment but still the numbers of smoker increase with each passing day ? The answer is the weak anti-smoking campaign they are using. Now we will analyze why Malaysia Anti smoking campaign is not good enough.

1) Tak Nak Campaign
Why is it not effective ?

2)The rise of cigarettes price.

The damaging effect of smoking harms ...

2008-09-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

This undated photo released by Egypt's Ministry of Health shows one of a series of four new tobacco warning labels which will appear on packets of cigarettes sold in the country.

Offering a cigarette is as common a social gesture as a handshake in Egypt, but starting Aug. 1, cigarette labels in Egypt will be required to carry images of the effects of smoking: a dying man in an oxygen mask, a coughing child, a fetus with a warning of the harm to pregnancy, or a limp cigarette, symbolizing impotence.

Message in Arabic reads "Warning, smoking damages the health and causes death. The damaging effect of smoking harms the smoker and the non smoker. Smoking causes diseases of the heart and circulatory system".

Effects of Smoking on Memory

2008-09-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

Despite popular believes, tobacco does not seen to improve memory performance. Although some researchers argue that Short Term Memory can be increased with the use of nicotine, they did not experiment on non-smokers so a difference can be establish. Therefore, it is difficult to assess if nicotine really enhance memory-scanning.

Another study on memory and nicotine was made using a PET scan. This experiment showed that nonsmokers who were given nicotine before a specific test were actually doing better on that test than ex-smokers. However, the weak results of this study confirmed that the correlation between tobacco and memory was too unclear to be declared reliable. The lack of nicotine effect in ex-smokers could be explained by tolerance. Overall, we might be tempted to say that tobacco was the cause of memory improvement in all these experiments, but the results are so unclear that nobody is willing to claim this statement as true.

In contrast, we cannot prove that smoking decrease memory activity. So far, no studies were able to demonstrate that smokers have more difficulties in doing a memory task compared to non-smokers. Indeed, researchers are now trying to prove that a chronic use of tobacco can have a negative effect on memory performance.

Stop smoking: Is it really worth it to stop smoking?

2008-09-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

You have been thinking that it’s time to quit smoking. But maybe you’ve been thinking that its time to quit smoking ever since you started and you are still smoking. You know that the health benefits of quitting are incredible. Still, you are smoking a cigarette or thinking of smoking one right now. Have you examined your reasons for not quitting? Maybe you think you can’t handle the withdrawal symptoms.

Try looking at it this way: Smoking cigarettes is like pointing a gun at your head. The gun won’t go off until ten or twenty years have passed. The thing is that the gun will go off eventually. How many years have you been smoking? Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, forty? However long it’s been, the time to quit smoking is now. Really, it was yesterday, but now will have to do. Put that gun down. Stop embarrassing yourself in public. When nonsmokers see someone smoking, they make judgments about it. Stop giving them a reason to judge you.

Not only is there an increasing social stigma attached to smokers, but the health benefits of quitting are endless. Do it now. Don’t keep putting it off. You know that your body can’t handle smoking without taxing years off of your life. If the financial cost hasn’t caused you to stop smoking, then quit for the sake of the health benefits from quitting. No one thinks that it is easy to stop smoking, but it is worth it to quit smoking and quit committing slow and painful suicide.

• If you stop smoking, you will also eliminate over four thousand different poisonous chemicals from your body.

• If you quit smoking, you will be able to eat comfortably in any restaurant whether they allow smoking or not. You will also not have to wait for a seat in the smoking section if the state or country you are in allows for smoking in public eateries.

• If you stop smoking, you will be able to save a percentage of your income. You can put the money that you have been spending on smoking into a jar or a savings account. At the end of a year, you will probably have enough money to make a very nice purchase or go on vacation.

• If you quit smoking, you will not repel nonsmokers who see you smoking or smell the smoke on your clothes and skin. Smoking is such a stigmatized habit now that you will surely see a difference in the way that the world interacts with you if you stop smoking.

• If you’ve been smoking for many years, imagine what you have been missing out on in fragrances and foods. Maybe you don’t really know what different spices taste like because your taste buds and sense of smell are overloaded with the many different poisons that are in tobacco products. If you stop smoking, you will find out what fragrances you have been missing out on.

The health benefits of quitting are important. The social and financial benefits are also important. Quitting is important, but it is not easy. You will not only face the psychological struggle when you quit smoking. You will also face some physical challenges. Some of these common physical and psychological challenges are listed below.

• When you stop smoking, you might find yourself feeling depressed.

• When you quit smoking, you might find that you are struggling with insomnia or changes in your sleep patterns.

• You might find that you are cranky, frustrated or irritable when you stop smoking.

• You might find that your appetite is greatly increased, and this could lead to some weight gain when you quit smoking.

If you really think that you cannot handle the physical and psychological challenges, there are various methods that people have found to be very helpful when it was time to quit smoking. Research a bit on the new and powerful methods to stop smoking.

The high cost of smoking

2008-09-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

The costs add up: Cigarettes, dry cleaning, insurance -- you can even lose your job. A 40-year-old who quits and puts the savings into a 401(k) could save almost $250,000 by age 70.

If the threat of cancer can't persuade you to quit smoking, maybe the prospect of poverty will.

The financial consequences of lighting up stretch far beyond the cost of a pack of cigarettes. Smokers pay more for insurance. They lose money on the resale value of their cars and homes. They spend extra on dry cleaning and teeth cleaning. Long term, they earn less and receive less in pension and Social Security benefits.

Indeed, being a smoker can not only mean you don't get hired -- you can get fired, too. After announcing it would no longer employ smokers, Weyco, a medical-benefits administrator in Michigan, fired four employees who refused to submit to a breath test. It began testing the spouses of its employees, too, levying an $80-per-month surcharge on those who don't test clean.

Overall, 5% of employers prefer to hire nonsmokers, according to the most recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, and 1% do not hire smokers. A few examples:

1. Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Michigan stopped hiring smokers for full-time positions at both its Michigan campuses.

2. Alaska Airlines, based in Washington state, requires a nicotine test before hiring people.

3. The Tacoma-Pierce County (Wash.) Health Department has applicants sign an "affidavit of

nontobacco use."

4. Union Pacific won't hire smokers.

That same poll found that 5% of companies charge smokers more for health-care premiums. The costs don't stop with your paycheck. Figures from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids assert that smokers cost the economy $97.6 billion a year in lost productivity.

That's based on the number of working years lost because of premature death. (The Bureau of National Affairs says 95% of companies banning smoking report no financial savings, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce finds no connection between smoking and absenteeism.)

An additional $96.7 billion is spent on public and private health care combined, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and each American household spends $630 a year in federal and state taxes due to smoking.

Health Effects of Smoking Among Young People

2008-09-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

Among young people, the short-term health consequences of smoking include respiratory and nonrespiratory effects, addiction to nicotine, and the associated risk of other drug use. Long-term health consequences of youth smoking are reinforced by the fact that most young people who smoke regularly continue to smoke throughout adulthood.
Cigarette smokers have a lower level of lung function than those persons who have never smoked.
Smoking reduces the rate of lung growth.
In adults, cigarette smoking causes heart disease and stroke. Studies have shown that early signs of these diseases can be found in adolescents who smoke.
Smoking hurts young people's physical fitness in terms of both performance and endurance---even among young people trained in competitive running.
On average, someone who smokes a pack or more of cigarettes each day lives 7 years less than someone who never smoked.
The resting heart rates of young adult smokers are two to three beats per minute faster than nonsmokers.
Smoking at an early age increases the risk of lung cancer. For most smoking-related cancers, the risk rises as the individual continues to smoke.
Teenage smokers suffer from shortness of breath almost three times as often as teens who don't smoke, and produce phlegm more than twice as often as teens who don't smoke.
Teenage smokers are more likely to have seen a doctor or other health professionals for an emotional or psychological complaint.
Teens who smoke are three times more likely than nonsmokers to use alcohol, eight times more likely to use marijuana, and 22 times more likely to use cocaine. Smoking is associated with a host of other risky behaviors, such as fighting and engaging in unprotected sex.

post by, Lai

I'll quit in a year or two when I'm ready.

2008-09-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

A lot of people put off quitting smoking, thinking that they'll do it when the time is right. Only 5% of teens think they will still be smoking in 5 years. Actually, about 75% of them are still smoking more than five years later. If you smoke, it will never seem like the right time to quit and quitting will never be easy. The longer you smoke, the harder it will be to stop and the more damage you will do to your body. Here are some reasons to quit sooner rather than later:

Most teens would rather date a non-smoker.

You'll save money if you quit smoking. A pack of cigarettes costs about $5.00. Even if you only smoke a couple packs a week, you're spending about $40 per month and $480 per year on smoking. Think of all the other things you could use that money for.

You only have one pair of lungs. Any damage you do to them now will be with you for the rest of your life.

The longer you smoke, the better your chances are of dying from it. One out of 3 smokers die from smoking and many more become very sick. Think about your friends who smoke. 1/3 of them will die from smoking if none of you quit

Smoking can have serious effects on your life. The longer you smoke, the more damage you do to your body and your health. Most people who begin smoking as teens say that they wish they had never started. The decision to start or continue smoking is all up to you and no one can make you stop, but you should think really hard about whether it is the best thing for your body and your life.

post by,Lai

I know smoking is bad for me, but I really like it.

2008-09-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

Many teens like the feeling that smoking gives them. This good feeling is from the nicotine in the cigarettes. Some teens think smoking will help them lose weight or stay thin. Many teens also feel like smoking gives them a sense of freedom and independence, and some smoke to feel more comfortable in social situations. If this sounds like you, you should stop and think about whether the things you like about smoking are really worth the risks.

Nicotine can make you feel good, but is feeling good (a feeling you can also get from healthy activities like playing sports) really worth all the bad things cigarettes do to you? If you smoke, you'll get sick more often. You also have the chance of getting lung cancer or emphysema, which will make you really sick for a long time before you die. If you are very sick, that good feeling from nicotine won't seem so important anymore.
Smoking doesn't really help people lose weight. If that were true, every smoker would be thin.
Smoking lowers your hormone levels.

post by, Lai

Cigarette Smoking Among Teens

2008-09-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

THE chances are high that Filipino children aged 11 to 16 have already have tried smoking cigarettes. The probability that a child has already lighted his first stick--or worse, is a full-blown smoker--is even greater when members of his family are smoking, too. And then, of course, there is peer pressure.
A Youth Tobacco Survey by the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) Philippine Chapter among grade school and high school students in Metro Manila has reinforced what many people have been thinking all along about youth and smoking.
The survey of 2,932 respondents with an average age of 13, from twelve elementary and secondary private and public schools in Metro Manila was conducted by the ACCP after a series of "tobacco or health workshops" in these schools from 1998 to 2001.
The ACCP survey results approximate the findings of an earlier study made by the health department last June on the same issue in selected secondary schools nationwide, said Dr. Antonio Lopez, an undersecretary at the Department of Health (DOH), one of the panel reactors.
The ACCP survey was presented last August 4 at a forum in Mandaluyong City. Although the audience, composed mostly of parents and medical doctors, appeared troubled by the information, they did not seem surprised by the results. They had heard it all before.
The Youth Tobacco Survey showed that cigarette smoking is "high, and use of other tobacco products is moderately high."
According to the study, majority of the students surveyed started smoking in their early teens. A third of the respondents (29.6%) aged 10 to 20 admitted that they have tried smoking. Of these respondents, 18.8% are current smokers, with 4.7% smoking at least one stick of cigarette per day.
Of the current smokers, 62.7 per cent are in private schools.

post by, Lai

What do all these chemicals do to my body?

2008-09-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

As you might imagine, even small amounts of the poisonous chemicals in cigarettes can do bad things to your body. Here are some facts about what smoking cigarettes does to you:

Smoking makes you smell bad, gives you wrinkles, stains your teeth, and gives you bad breath.
Smokers get 3 times more cavities than non-smokers.
Smoking lowers your hormone levels.
When smokers catch a cold, they are more likely than non-smokers to have a cough that lasts a long time. They are also more likely than non-smokers to get bronchitis and pneumonia.
Teen smokers have smaller lungs and a weaker heart than teen non-smokers. They also get sick more often than teens who don't smoke.

post by, Lai

Why is cigarette smoking bad for me?

2008-09-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that smoking can cause cancer when you get older, but did you know that it also has bad effects on your body right now? A cigarette contains about 4000 chemicals, many of which are poisonous. Some of the worst ones are:

Nicotine: a deadly poison
Arsenic: used in rat poison
Methane: a component of rocket fuel
Ammonia: found in floor cleaner
Cadmium: used in batteries
Carbon Monoxide: part of car exhaust
Formaldehyde: used to preserve body tissue
Butane: lighter fluid
Hydrogen Cyanide: the poison used in gas chambers

Every time you inhale smoke from a cigarette, small amounts of these chemicals get into your blood through your lungs. They travel to all the parts of your body and cause harm.

post by,Lai

Girls May Smoke to Stay Thin

2008-09-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

Teen smoking is still a big problem, but why? A new study finds that, for girls, the main motivation may be weight.
Over the past few decades, public health officials have tried to understand the teen psyche -- what makes teens smoke, even when they know the health risks?
Today's study examines what others have hinted at -- this issue of weight concern. Is being thin the prime reason why teen girls begin smoking?
Researchers surveyed a group of 273 randomly selected teen girls living in Massachusetts -- all between 12 and 15 years old -- asking them a variety of questions about their weight, their thoughts, and their habits:
"How important is it to you to be slim or thin? Have you been depressed? Have you had trouble sleeping? Do you smoke? Do you think you will try a cigarette soon? If one of your best friends were to offer you a cigarette, would you smoke it?"

Four years later, researchers surveyed the teens again to determine who had become a regular smoker.
Teen girls who attached great importance to being thin were four times as likely to become established smokers, reports researcher Kaori Honjo, PhD, with Okayama University in Japan.
Girls less concerned about their weight were less likely to become teen smokers, Honjo reports.
The study, published early online, will appear in the September 2003 issue of Tobacco Control.
In the first survey, one in eight girls was overweight, and at least 75% had tried to diet. Yet most of them -- 80% -- did not believe that smoking was a way of keeping weight off.
Four years later, one in four girls -- 23% -- had become an established smoker, meaning they had smoked 100 or more cigarettes by that time.
The high value placed on thinness seemed to predict who would become a teen smoker. Of those who eventually progressed to smoking, just 7% considered thinness to be unimportant; 93% of the teens who did not become smokers did not consider thinness important, the report states.
One in four of girls who eventually became teen smokers rated thinness as moderately important; 30% of those teens who eventually took up smoking rated thinness as extremely important.
Girls with weight concerns are likely to diet, and if they think smoking will also help them get thin, they will try that too. Negative body image and poor self-esteem are probably part of the scenario, Honjo states.

post by,Lai

Why do teens start smoking?

2008-09-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

Teens give many reasons for why they start smoking:

"My friends smoke."
"I just wanted to try it."
"I thought it was cool."
"My parents smoke."

One of the biggest reasons teens start to smoke is peer influence. Teenagers are more prone to peer pressure. Over 70 per cent of teens say that having friends who smoke and/or peer pressure is the number one reason for starting to smoke.

Another main reason that youth smoke is that adults do.

posy by,Lai

Cigarrete Smoking among Teens..

2008-09-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

Cigarette smoking is a habit that kills approximately million of people per year. It is surprisingly being picked up by myriad amount of children every day. Smoking becomes a growing trend in the youth community. The number of young smokers have been increased in most American middle schools and high schools. Both girls and boys are smoking because they think it is cool. The four reasons that cause many teenagers to start smoking are peer-pressure, image projection, rebellion, and adult aspirations.

Approximately 3,000 teenagers pick up the smoking habit each day in America. That is roughly one million new teenage smokers per year. About 60% of all high school students try smoking by the time they are seniors because they think it is a cool thing to do (Johnston.) In 1996, smoking rates are 21 percent among eighth-graders (13-14 years old), 30 percent among 10th-graders (15-16 years old), and 34 percent among 12th-graders (17-18 years old). These rates are impressively high, especially when compared to the fact that about 25 percent of all adults are classified as current smokers according to the National Health Interview Survey.

post by, Lai

The Link Between Smoking & Pain...

2008-09-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

While previous studies have suggested links between smoking and pain, especially chronic back pain, most of these studies did not factor out lifestyle factors, such as on-the-job manual labor, as a possible contributing cause.

The present study consisted of questions about pain in the low back, neck, and upper and lower limbs during the past 12 months; smoking habits; physical activities at work; headaches; and tiredness or stress. 12,907 subjects, including 6,513 who had smoked at some time, among whom 3,184 were current smokers, completed questionnaires. Smoking habits were related to age, social class, report of headaches, tiredness or stress, and manual activities at work.

The survey found that smokers complain more often of discomforting or disabling musculoskeletal pain than never-smokers. They found that, compared with those who had never smoked, current smokers had about a 50% higher incidence of reporting pain in the past year preventing activity, meaning pain so severe it precluded the individual from going to work or performing housework or hobby activities.

Pain at all sites--lower back, shoulders, elbows, hands, neck and knees--was higher in smokers, even ex-smokers, than people who never smoked. What's more, this association held in both those who had physically demanding jobs as well as those who had white-collar or other jobs that did not require heavy lifting or moving. Since the association was found even in ex-smokers, this suggests that smoking may, according to the researchers, cause long-term damage to muscle tissues or changes in the neurological pain response.

Smoking Will Kill 1 Billion People

2008-09-10T07:18:00.000-07:00

One billion people will die from tobacco-related causes by the end of the century if current consumption trends continue, according to a global report released Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO).

At a press conference held in midtown Manhattan, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose charitable organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, contributed $2 million to conduct the study, joined top WHO officials to present the findings. Among the litany of sobering statistics: 5.4 million people die each year — one every six seconds — from lung cancer, heart disease or other illness directly linked to tobacco use. Smoking killed 100 million people in the 20th century, and the yearly death toll could pass 8 million as soon as 2030 — 80% of those deaths will be in the developing world, where tobacco use is growing most rapidly. "We're on a collision course," said Dr. Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative.

In my Opinion:

If you don't smoke you are not out of harms way yet. Passive smoking is breathing in another persons cigarette smoke off the end of the cigarette. It is just as dangerous as inhaling from the cigarette. It can cause bodybuilders to have irritation to the eyes, nose, throat, increase acute respiratory illness, headaches, dizziness, sickness, coughing, wheezing, asthma, allergies, increased risk of CHD, and reduced levels of capacity of lung functions.

Bodybuilding As A Quit-Smoking Method?

2008-09-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

A mandatory gym program, as absurd as it may sound to some, might just provide part of the answer for one who is oblivious to, or lacks the motivation, to quit smoking. Through a sustained weight-training regime, one would begin to take greater pride in their physical appearance and performance levels.

This might force them to confront the realization that smoking is detrimental to their health. They will feel tobaccos negative effects in a more pronounced way, as their performance suffers and their results are not as forthcoming as they otherwise should be. Indeed, the average non-exercising smoker does not have such a bench mark to which they can compare the before and after effects of smoking.

Left: Healthy lung vs smokers lung. You decide.
For example, when demand for oxygen is elevated, such as during exercise, this increased resistance is more noticeable. Reduced lung capacity can cause a smaller volume of oxygen to reach the alveoli, resulting in impaired gas exchange and less oxygen in the blood. A heavy set of squat, for example, will completely frustrate the bodybuilding aspirant who chooses to smoke. Ultimately a decision will need to be made and, if this person chooses to continue with training, smoking cessation will necessarily need to take place.

One has the feeling that smokers are not entirely conscious of exactly what their habit is doing to them. Becoming knowledgeable in the areas of human physiology and health, through extensive study, or simply joining a gym and taking a vested interest in what many take for granted (their health), could be a realistic first step.

Bodybuilders, by virtue of their commitment to physical excellence, typically do not smoke (at least as far as my observations are, and much anecdotal evidence is, concerned). Smoking not only reduces ones capacity to perform the work required to obtain a great physique, it also directly prevents cellular growth and restricts oxygen and nutrient uptake (to mention but two limiting factors).

The painless way to quit and stop smoking for good

2008-09-10T07:06:00.000-07:00

You're thinking about giving up smoking. Well, not giving it up entirely, perhaps, but at least cutting down on the number of cigarettes you smoke each day. You've opened this book, at any rate, because you're somewhat uneasy about the reports linking smoking with several serious and unpleasant diseases. Or because you've heard that smokers tend to die at an earlier age than non-smokers.

Or maybe it's because you awaken in the morning sounding as if you had swallowed a fistful of gravel. Or because that persistent cough your dog recognizes when you're a block away is not exactly your idea of an endearing trademark. Or perhaps your mate complains that you snore—yes, you—and that it's all because of too much you-know-what. And maybe it's because you're just plain tired of being told that all your ills come from excessive smoking. Besides, suppose they do!

Do we really live in a world of cigarettes?

2008-09-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

Within an hour of my earnest decision never to smoke again, I began to itch for a smoke, and that powerful desire would never subside or fade. When the phone rang, when a visitor came to my office or home, when I ran into a momentary work problem, when I was at a party, even when I first opened my eyes in the morning—I thought of a cigarette.

Contrary to the wonders promised to follow my emancipation from nicotine, I did not sleep better, my food did not taste better, my thoughts were not clearer, I did not feel more vigorous—I was, in essence, 165 pounds of body and mind almost exclusively devoted to thinking about the cigarette I wanted but could not have.

In the fine tradition of people who have given up smoking, I gained weight whenever I stopped. In order to substitute something for the cigarettes I craved, I chewed gum at the rate of about three packages a day (which, after all, added only 60 calories) and kept some gumdrops at my desk (but they're only 30 calories each).

And as a substitute activity during moments at the dinner table that might otherwise have been occupied by tapping a cigarette from the pack, lighting it, puffing it, flicking ashes from it, putting it in and taking it from the ashtray, and finally stubbing it out, I ate a little more bread than usual at lunch and dinner. (But those extra rolls and slices of toast and even the larger-than-usual desserts didn't add more than 300 extra calories daily.)

Calories adding up
However, since it takes only 3,600 extra calories (whether in a day, a week or a year) to add one extra pound of fat, I gained. I gained, to be precise, at the rate of about two pounds a week. Soon the tailor had to open seams and shift buttons . . . and then when even my "expanded" wardrobe became uncomfortably tight, I simply started smoking again. "Anyone knows," I explained to myself in justification, "that it's worse for a man in his fifties to be heavy than it is for him to smoke'

While all this was going on—the unfulfilled desire, the gaining of weight—I was neither a particularly endearing companion nor a productive co-worker. How could I be? If you tie the most rollicksome pup in the world just far enough from a bowl of food for him to see the dish but not taste its contents, he’ll rapidly become a barking, yapping, whining, snarling, jumping, lip-curling cur. Cigarettes were eternally on view for me—but, so to speak, "out of reach." So I barked and snarled and growled.

Not until the day you quit smoking do you realize that we live in a world of cigarettes.

Some tips for parents to help teenager smoking.....

2008-09-07T20:37:00.001-07:00

1. Educate your child about the dangers of smoking early on.
2. Be a good example. Only 2 percent of smokers have parents who don't smoke. (Mayo Clinic).
3. Don't leave cigarettes where children or teens may have access to them.
4. Teach the teen or child refusal skills

quit sMOking: Self CONtrol Therapy

2008-09-04T23:40:00.000-07:00

I have learnt about Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura. In that theory, Bandura introduce two significant concept, observational learning and self-regulation.The ideas behind self-regulation have been incorporated into a therapy technique called self-control therapy. It has been quite successful with relatively simple problems of habit, such as smoking.

1. Behavioral charts. Self-observation requires that you keep close tabs on your behavior, both before you begin changes and after. This can involve something as simple as counting how many cigarettes you smoke in a day to complex behavioral diaries. With the diary approach, you keep track of the details, the when and where of your habit. This lets you get a grip on what kinds of cues are associated with the habit: Do you smoke more after meals, with coffee, with certain friends, in certain locations...?

2. Environmental planning. Taking your lead from your behavioral charts and diaries, you can begin to alter your environment. For example, you can remove or avoid some of those cues that lead to your bad behaviors: Put away the ashtrays, drink tea instead of coffee, divorce that smoking partner.... You can find the time and place best suited for the good alternative behaviors: When and where do you find you study best? And so on.

3. Self-contracts. Finally, you arrange to reward yourself when you adhere to your plan, and possibly punish yourself when you do not. These contracts should be written down and witnessed (by your therapist, for example), and the details should be spelled out very explicitly: “I will go out to dinner on Saturday night if I smoke fewer cigarettes this week than last week. I will do paperwork instead if I do not.”

You may involve other people and have them control your rewards and punishments, if you aren’t strict enough with yourself. Beware, however: This can be murder on your relationships, as you bite their heads off for trying to do what you told them to do!

post by nazirah

2008-09-03T07:54:00.000-07:00

Those with the habit made you curious to know, just how much money goes up in smoke, if you smoked for years just think about the cash. Do you want a pile of money or a big pile of ash? So please choose to live healthy and never smoke.

Is smoking around children child abuse?

2008-09-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

Second Hand Smoke

Do you think people who smoke in a room with their children are guilty of child abuse???
Second hand smoke has been proven to be more harmful than regular smoking. This is something that has been on the radio, tv and in the newspapers, yet people continue to smoke around their children.

Is this any worse than the lead that we find in toy products or on our walls or in our schools?
How about the harmful chemicals kept under the kitchen sinks?
Every time a person breathes in second-hand smoke, over 100 harmful chemical agents - carcinogens and toxins are consumed. Some of these carcinogens include benzene, 1,3-butadiene, benzoapyrene, 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone and many others.

Negative Effects Of Second Hand Smoke

There is no doubt within the international scientific community that second-hand smoke causes heart disease, lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), asthma and middle ear infections in children and various other respiratory illnesses. It has also been linked to stroke, low birth weight, spontaneous abortion, negative effects on the development of cognition and behavior, exacerbation of cystic fibrosis and cervical cancer.
During the past two decades, numerous scientific bodies have concluded that second-hand smoke is dangerous to health.

Teen Girls Smoke Themselves Thin

2008-09-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

Smoking and eating: a classic combination. Weird how more of one makes you do less of the other. Teen girls seem to have caught on to this link too (not teen boys though, more on that in a second).

Florida researchers, who wanted to see whether the desire to lose weight played a role in tobacco use among teens, have found an association between dieting and regular smoking. Teen girls in the study who started dieting during the study wound up being regular smokers at almost two times the rate as the girls in the study who didn’t diet at all.
Boys, on the other hand, who began dieting and then stopped, were 1.7 times more likely to start smoking regularly compared to boys who didn’t diet at all.

Cigarettes in the home also increased the likelihood that both girls and boys would stick with smoking too.

What does all this mean? If your daughter mentions dieting, get her to stop, but if your boy mentions dieting, encourage him to skip dessert? Parenting by science sure gets confusing. Oh, and kudos to the researchers for finding teen girls who weren’t already dieting when the study began.

SMOKING, BLOOD VESSELS, AND DEATH

2008-09-03T06:54:00.000-07:00

Most people know that smoking is bad for your lungs and can cause cancer. However, fewer may be aware of the effects of smoking on the heart and the circulatory system—the arteries and veins that carry the blood throughout the body.

Cigarette smoking is the main preventable cause of premature death in the developed world. It accounts for nearly 440 000 deaths every year in the United States.When you smoke, toxic chemicals from tobacco enter your bloodstream. Some of these chemicals send signals to your heart to beat harder and faster. Smoking also causes blood vessels to constrict (become more narrow), forcing blood to travel through a smaller space. Both of these effects cause high blood pressure. Smoking also lowers high-density lipoprotein (good cholesterol) in your body and increases the likelihood of plaques (fatty buildups) collecting on the inside of blood vessels, a condition called atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Smoking also increases the risk of thrombosis (blood clots blocking a blood vessel). Over time, these effects increase the risk of having a myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Smoking can also increase the risk of having a stroke (sudden blockage of blood circulation in the brain). A stroke is usually caused by a blood clot getting lodged in the blood vessels supplying the brain with blood and oxygen. When this happens, brain cells begin to die. This can cause permanent brain damage or even death. Women who smoke and use oral contraceptives (birth control pills) are at a much higher risk of developing heart disease or having a stroke than women taking oral contraceptives who do not smoke.

Stop smoking cigarettes

2008-09-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

Cigarette smoking contributes to osteoporosis, as well as a host of other medical conditions. Perhaps concern about osteoporosis will be the final thing that will convince patients to stop smoking.

There are now many studies that show negative effects of cigarette smoking on the bone. One longitudinal study of 116,229 female nurses found the age-adjusted relative risk for hip fracture was 1.3 in current smokers. Ten years after smoking cessation, the risk was reduced. Part of the risk was explained by changes in body weight.

The graph is based on relative risks from a meta-analysis of 50,232 men and women around the world, showing rates of hip fractures in smokers vs non-smokers. The risk of any osteoporotic fracture, and especially hip fracture, is increased in smokers. The relative increase was attenuated after adjustment for bone density, but still in older men and women the fracture risk was about 60% higher in smokers than in non-smokers.

Smoking!!

2008-09-03T05:07:00.000-07:00

Smoking leads to the greatest number of problems of any drug in use in the world today. Smoking contributes to more than 400,000 deaths each year in the United States. These deaths are mainly the result of increased numbers of lung cancers as well as increased numbers of cases of atherosclerotic heart disease and emphysema of the lung. Smoking increases the risk for cancers of the bladder, pancreas, kidney, and cervix. There is an increased risk for gastritis and gastric ulceration in persons who smoke. Cataracts of the crystalline lens of the eye occur with increased frequency in smokers.

Young women who are pregnant and who smoke put their fetuses at increased risk for decreased birth weight, premature birth, and perinatal mortality. The risk for spontaneous abortion is increased with maternal smoking. Fetal deaths late in gestation are increased 50% in mothers who smoke more than 3 cigarettes per day.
Normal lung, gross.
Small cell anaplastic (oat cell) carcinoma of lung, gross.
Squamous cell carcinoma of lung, gross.
Emphysema, centrilobular type, gross.
Emphysema, representing a late 20th century version of "The Masque of the Red Death" in Edgar Allen Poe's short story.
Composite photograph with a narrowed coronary artery at the left and a markedly narrowed coronary artery at the right, microscopic.
Pelvis of kidney, urothelial carcinoma, gross.
Acute gastric ulcerations, gross.
Hyaline membrane disease in the lung of a premature neonate, microscopic.

post by, Lai

Life as a Smoker

2008-09-03T05:03:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that "smoking is bad for you". You know that if you start smoking that 1/3 of you will eventually die from it. And for the most part, that's about all you know. Is this enough reason to not smoke? No, it's not, and here's why.

Teenagers are immortal. Teenagers live forever. At least that's the way it seemed when I was a teenager. People's perception of time is logarithmic and when your 18 a "half lifetime" is 9 years. Your parents are 2-3 half lifetimes older than you and your grandparents are 4-6 half lifetimes older than you and in your mind that is like eternity and beyond the scope of your imagination. Thus, in your mind, the health effect form smoking are so far off in the future that it's beyond the limits of your imagination. Besides, surely by then they will cure cancer, right?

People of my generation (I'm 43) have a half lifetime of 21 years. We are looking at best at one more half lifetime of having good sex and then a half lifetime of growing old and dying. We are past the age where it is obvious that smoking is a bad idea. For those of you who don't know it, if you don't smoke before you're 20 you won't start. By the time you get to 25 you have developed the mental skills to be able to resist the social pressures to start. That's my theory at least. But the facts are that people over 20 don't start smoking. Smokers come from teen smokers who can't quit.

However, there are a lot of other reasons to not smoke other than taking a chance with cancer and heart attacks. These reasons are actually a lot stronger and affect you a lot sooner and affect all smokers. And I want to talk with you now about these reasons to lay a logical foundation as to why you don't want to be a Nicobrain.

post by, Lai

Experience of my friend...

2008-09-03T04:15:00.000-07:00

Hi, today i want talk with you about 'how' and 'why' my friend decide to quit smoking.

According to my friend, he start smoking since Form 1. The reason that why he will smoke is influence by his friends. After he try the first Smoke, he think that the feeling is very good and after that he already be a smoking addiction.

Now he success quit smoking already. The reason that why he decide to stop smoking is smoking cause sore throat until no voice to speaking. Actually he had 3 times of the serious sore throat, and the last time the doctor tell him that is very serious and need to do operation, if he don't want do operation, he must quit smoking as fast as possible and take some medicine. Therefore, he decide to quit smoking to keep away the disease.

He take almost 3 months to quit smoking. During the period he quit smoking, he think that the days are most suffering. Firstly, he use the nicotine gum to help him reduce smoking. After 2 months, he just eat the nicotine gum and don't smoking already. Then, he change the nicotine gum that the low nicotine contain one. After 3 months, he already success to quit smoking.
He tell me that, smoking really waste many money. Not only use the money to buy cigarettes and when want quit smoking also need money to buy the nicotine gum and it cost very expensive.

post by, Lai

ADVANTAGE IF YOU STOP SMOKING

2008-09-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

-risk of heart disease will decline if you stop smoking

-in a year, risk will decline a lot. after 10 -20 year it would equal those who no used to smoke.

Smoking causes disease!

2008-09-01T21:17:00.000-07:00

Smoking not only a habit that will let people addicted. It also will bring many causes for people whether you have smoking or not. Smoking harms almost every organ in your body, but because it happens gradually, you probably don't notice. The strain put on your body by smoking often causes years of suffering.

These are just a few of the harmful effects of smoking.

- Emphysema is an illness that slowly rots your lungs. People with emphysema often get bronchitis again and again, and suffer lung and heart failure.
-Lung cancer is caused by chemical in tar. Most lung cancers are caused by smoking. Smoking damages a gene called p53, and stops it from protecting your cells, allowing lung cancer to develop.
- Heart disease and strokes are also more common among smokers than non-smokers. One in three deaths from heart disease in people under 65 years are caused by smoking.
- Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) occurs when blood vessels in your legs or arms become blocked. It causes pain and some smokers end up having their limbs amputated.
- Tobacco smoke can lead to disabilities such as blindness, hip fractures and painful stomach ulcers.

post by, Lai

A Natural Herb to Help You to Stop Smoking

2008-08-27T19:47:00.000-07:00

Quitting smoking is not an easy thing to do. Nicotine, a drug present in tobacco is habit forming and creates a physiological and psychological addiction. There are various over the counter medicines available to help people quit smoking. Lobelia is a good example of a natural herb used to help people who are trying to quit smoking. It is generally found in the eastern United States and Canada. Its scientific name is Lobelia Inflata. Its benefits have always been controversial. It was used by native American Indians who used to smoke the herb in their peace pipes.

Lobelia, a natural herb is similar to nicotine in composition. It contains liboline, an active alkaline ingredient. It affects the same brain receptor sites and produces effects on the central nervous system, similar to nicotine. It is a strong herb and should be taken only under medical supervision. This drug is to be taken in extremely low doses and moderate doses mayx may lead to sweating, respiratory depression, coma and even death. Lobelia should be avoided by pregnant women, children and people with heart diseases. It should not be combined either with a muscle relaxant or alcohol. It poses serious health hazards when combined with tobacco.

Certain studies claim that lobelia affects the taste buds in such a way that cigarettes smoke becomes unpalatable. Lobelia is considered helpful in clearing the mucous from the throat and respiratory lining. Apart from helping people quit smoking it also helps in to heal certain problems in the body Lobelia does not contain any toxic by-product like conventional cigarettes and hence it can be safely used.

Lobelia also helps people in quitting smoking by taking care of the attendant withdrawal symptoms. Isolobelanine, an active ingredient in lobelia acts as a respiratory relaxant and helps promote calmness and tranquility. This effect of lobelia helps people in getting rid of the habit of smoking.

The major advantage of lobelia is that unlike nicotine, it is not addictive or habit forming. Its use can be discontinued once the caring to smoke has been overcome. It is available in the form of various over the counter medicines like lobelia cigarettes, tea, gums and inhalers. Use these with caution as an over dose can be poisonous.

In 1993, US Food and Development Administration had temporarily banned the sale of products containing lobelia. The reason given was that lobelia was not effective in helping people quit smoking. However, this ban was lifted later. Later reports showed that lobelia increased the levels of dopamine (a neurotransmitter) in the blood which induces feelings of pleasure and calmness.

Although lobelia is an effective herb for those trying to quit smoking, it is advisable to use it under medical supervision only. Johns Wort is another herb that can be used to quit smoking. It is reasonably safe only when used alone as it may interfere with over the counter products like antidepressants.

Smoking...

2008-08-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

Smoking - a bad habit that people already addicted and difficult to quit and stop smoking.
Actually I dislike people smoking around me, because I hate the smell and I know that its bring many effects to us although we are the secondhand smoker. Around me, I have many friends who are smoking addiction. They can't survive without the cigarette even in one day. The reasons that influence them smoke are since they were young, they want to try the feeling of smoking and they think that smoking can let them look more cool and mature. Besides this, when they are adults, they said that smoking can help them reduce stress, sleepy, and tired. For them, if they are already smoke for a long period, they are more difficult to quit smoking compare with the smoker who are just smoke for short period only. From here, we can aware that the smoker addiction is really difficult to quit smoking so for those who are no smoking please don't try to smoke because it will bring many effects to you.

post by, Lai Siow Mei

2008-08-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

I know it’s habit forming and it’s tough to quit, it’s hard to say no when your friends are doing it, but your lungs were never meant to have tar on top, so why would you start if it’s so hard to stop? I hope this video can let the smoker say NO WAY and never smoke!!!

Post by Goh

Anti-smoking images for cigerette packaging

2008-08-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

I dislike smoking, I hate the smell and I think it's a dirty habit, the sooner someone gives it up the better. So I'm glad the government is rolling out this new anti-smoking campaign. This disturbing graphic imagery certainly would dissuade me from smoking, I realise it can be hard to give up but surely seeing imagery like this would make you want to change your life for the better.

Post by Goh

Smoking Kills

2008-08-27T05:34:00.000-07:00

Do u believe Smoking Kills, if not check this out.....

If you still dont believe then this Image is 4 u !!

I think people who do smoking should see these images so that they can see their future and they should stop smoking.

Post by Goh

smoking close to children

2008-08-27T05:15:00.000-07:00

My Opinion

Children breathe in smoke from the adults around them so If adults smoke, the children in their family can suffer more sickness. Finally please help your children be healthy such as smoke

outside, not in the car or house, don't smoke next to babies or children and don't smoke when you are pregnant or breastfeeding. The most important one is please quit smoking.

Post by Goh

Why the world wants smoking

2008-08-27T04:56:00.000-07:00

On any given day, 45 million adult smokers light up despite the known dangers of smoking cigarettes. Americans typically view smoking as an individual choice that needs to be respected just like the myriad of other harmful behaviors society tolerates. Nevertheless, there is strong societal pressure to curb the sale and use of cancer-causing tobacco products. This raises the question, should the government be able to regulate our unhealthy lifestyle choices? While other decisions of personal health may be left to the individual, in the case of smoking the government has made a popular case that “lighting up” affects others in a unique way. This fundamental argument has been playing out on the national stage in the politics of smoking bans.

The Science of Smoking

In the last twenty-five years, tobacco companies and anti-smoking non-profits alike have educated the general public on the dangers of smoking. Most people are aware that smoking on a regular basis is unhealthy, but popular beliefs about the effects of second-hand smoke are more varied, and for good reason: the public receives mixed information. According to Dr. Cheryl Healton, the CEO and president of the American Legacy Foundation, the parent company of The Truth campaign, about 50,000 Americans die each year due to excess cancer, heart attacks, asthma, low birth weight, and other problems caused by second-hand smoke. Most organizations against smoking regulation disagree. They claim the science behind statements like Healton’s is inconclusive. Many scientific organizations however, are confident in the results. In 2002, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, analyzed most published research concerning tobacco smoking and cancer. One correlation observed in the study was “a statistically significant and consistent association between lung cancer risk in spouses of smokers and exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke from the spouse who smokes.” Proponents of regulation have cited such evidence in calling for a ban against smoking in public places. In addition to sparing passersby from second-hand smoke, public smoking bans may aid smokers in their quest to quit. Dr. Eric Westman, a nicotine and smoking cessation researcher at Duke University, has helped people overcome nicotine addiction for fifteen years. He explains that smoking bans help people quit not only because they make smoking illegal in certain situations, but also because they increase the social stigma of smoking. An internal Phillip Morris document corroborates this observation, finding that individuals who face workplace smoking bans “consume 11 percent to 15 percent less than average and quit at a rate that is 84 percent higher than average.” Many countries have already instituted wide-ranging prohibitions on public smoking. Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Malta, Italy, and New Zealand have already established countrywide smoke-free laws. France and the United Kingdom are soon to enact their bans. In 2004, the small country of Bhutan went as far as to ban all tobacco sales. The United States, however, has typically been more skeptical of such legislation and currently only eleven U.S. states have bans on indoor public smoking, though many cities have enacted their own bans.

Saving Smokers from Themselves

While there are strong arguments for regulation of public smoking, consequences for the health of the individual are not necessarily enough to justify legislation. For instance, if bans or heavy regulation were applied to other health-related behaviors, such as overeating, many more people would claim that the government had overstepped its authority. Why is smoking any different? When asked this question, Dr. Healton replied, “obesity does not harm the health of others.” She alludes to a key aspect of bans: they typically only outlaw smoking in public arenas, where one’s decision to smoke inhibits another’s freedom to eschew second hand smoke. Take, for example, the newly-proposed city-wide bans on the use of trans-fats in restaurants, a type of lipid that has been linked to cancer. Trans-fat bans parallel smoking bans in that the government is intervening to curb the effect of the actions of others, whether an individual or a business, on citizens health. However, it is important to note that in these cases the government is only legislating in the public realm: individuals are free to eat what and how much they want, while similarly, smokers can smoke in private areas.

The Future of Smoking Bans

While it can and has been argued that bans on public smoking overextend the government’s power over the private lives of its citizens, strong scientific evidence support the conclusion that allowing individuals to smoke can violate the health of innocent bystanders. In an interview, Dr. Healton predicted, “the global trend will be greater restrictions on where one can smoke.” Across the world, this seems to be coming true, and with increasing regulation, the Marlboro man may soon be off the open plain, and resigned to smoke in the privacy of his own home.

In My Opinion:

The people who smoke doesn't get pleasure of smoking. They just do it because of time killing, just because of habit and all other stupid things. One of the ways to make it less killing you is pipe smoking. In some cases it can replace you cigarettes and make you some pleasure of smoking.

Post by Goh

Language - One element of cultural

2008-08-26T05:20:00.000-07:00

A language is considered to be a system of communicating with other people using sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea or thought. This language can be used in many forms, primarily through oral and written communications as well as using expressions through body language.

Primarily there is a distinction between one language and another; usually it may be through country boundaries, population culture, demographics and history. Each country through combinations of blending cultures, environment and other factors has evolved their own unique style of a language.

Besides this, language not only is the tool to communicate it also cause unity in our country for example in Malaysia, have a multicultural nation of diversity in unity where Malays, Chinese, Indians and the indigenous people of Sabah and Sarawak and have a different language but live in cultural harmony. Such as the national, or official language in Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia is established as such under Article 152 of the Constitution, which also safeguards other languages by stipulating that no person may be prohibited or prevented from using (except for official purposes) or from teaching or learning any other language. As the national language, Bahasa Malaysia has to be used for official purposes which includes its use by federal and state governments. By the same constitutional amendment the status of Bahasa Malaysia may not be questioned, and any amendment to Article 152 can only be made with the consent of the Conference of Rulers. The ethnic Chinese were speakers of Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew, Hainanese, and the ethnic Indian were speak Tamil, Punjabi and Urdu. Although our mother tongue is different but we'll learn and respect language of others races for example most Malay and Indian learn Chinese with encourage their child study Chinese in primary and secondary school because it is a much more challenging language to learn.

However, have many languages in the world, English is considered very important because it is an international language, and we can use it to communicate with people from many other countries, not only those whose native language is English. For example, there is a Japanese teacher in UKM who knows little Malay puts communicates primarily through English when not in class. Therefore, English is an important language for business. There is much valuable information in books and on the Internet that is only available in English. The students in UKM in some majors such as psychology, economics, and even computers use some text books that are only in English.

In conclusion, language is one of important element of cultural because it helps millions of people communicate within this world of different dialect, cultures and within this world of business. it is a part of speech that is important and sometimes needed for one's survival. Language is perhaps the human race's most important invention ever. It allows us to communicate with one another and spread ideas. Without language there would be no way that humans would ever have progressed past the stone age.

10 Ways to Send a Clear Message to Your Teenager

2008-08-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

1. Use your active listening skills and watch out for those door slammers.

2. Talk often with your teen to bring out positive opinions, ideas, and behaviors by using an affirmative tone and body language.

3. Treat your teenager with the same respect you would have them treat you. Say 'hi', 'I love you', 'how was your day', etc.

4. Your tone of voice is extremely important. Yelling simply doesn't work. The loud noise will shut down the listener (your teen) and you will not get through. If you feel the need to yell, 'time out' of the conversation until you have better control.

5. Be precise and detailed about what you expect. Write it down and use an Action Plan if you feel there is a need.

6. If you're giving your teenager instructions, write them down. It's a fail-safe for teens and adults. This way they will remember what they are expected to do and you can feel sure that you 'told' them correctly. Remember, to-do lists will keep you stress free.

7. Do things together one-on-one and with the whole family. Good times often bring about great conversations, and wonderful memories.

8. 'Do as I say, not as I do' doesn't work. Modeling is the best way of learning. You are your teenager's model and they will emulate your behaviors.

9. Never shut your teen out to show that you disapprove of their behavior. If you need time before you can talk to them about something that has upset you, tell them that you need time. Don't walk away silent.

10. "Because I said so" actually works when you are being pulled into a power struggle in discipline situations. You are the parent, and because of this, you do have the final say. Teenagers know this and trust you because of it. But do try to explain your reasoning whenever possible.

While many parents feel it is close to impossible to have a conversation with their teenager, there are ways. Your child really isn't becoming a new special breed of alien. They're just growing up and they still do want to connect with you. Try these tips to get, and keep, the conversation rolling in your home.

Post by Goh

Best Method to Stop Smoking: Cold Turkey or Gradual Withdrawal?

2008-08-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

Basically, there are two major methods of stopping smoking: the “cold turkey” approach when you quit abruptly and do not take another puff anymore (can be recommended for those whose nicotine addiction is still relatively weak) and the method of gradual withdrawal.

Many people opt for the second approach, especially those who have smoked for many years, who consume more than a pack a day, whose nicotine addiction is too strong in order to attempt the abrupt cessation, and those who have already failed, maybe several times, in trying to quit smoking “cold turkey”.

The method of gradual withdrawal is best suited for people who do not want to abruptly change their smoking habits. They can continue smoking, but the trick is to slowly and gradually cut down the number of cigarettes they puff every day. Say, if a smoker is used to consume two packs a day, which are 40 cigarettes, he can start his smoking cessation process by consuming just one cigarette less the next day. He can continue smoking 39 cigarettes a day for about a week, after which one more daily ‘lung rocket” is out. With this approach, the former smoker will become completely smoke-free in about nine months, without any unpleasant symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. The process can be facilitated by reducing the amount of consumed cigarettes at a higher rate, if the smoker tolerates that well, but a faster rate is usually not recommended because it can easily trigger full-blown withdrawal symptoms since the body won’t have enough time to adjust to a reduce intake of nicotine.

Most smoking people will agree that the gradual withdrawal method is a very efficient and comfortable approach to smoking cessation. Remember that the key to success is not to reduce the amount of daily smoked cigarettes too abruptly, but to stretch the whole process for nine plus months so that quitting smoking should come naturally and pain-free.

Finally i just want to say giving up smoking can not only add years to your life, it can help stop premature aging before it's too late.

Post by Goh

Skin-ageing effects of smoking

2008-08-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

The skin is affected by tobacco smoke in the following ways:

Tobacco smoke released into the environment has a drying effect on the skin's surface
Smoking restricts blood vessels, which reduces the amount of blood flowing to the skin, thus depleting the skin of oxygen and essential nutrients
Some research suggests that smoking may reduce the body's store of Vitamin A, which provides protection against some skin-damaging agents produced by smoking

Another likely explanation is that squinting in response to the irritating nature of the smoke, and the puckering of the mouth when drawing on a cigarette, cause wrinkling around the eyes and mouth

Recent research has shown that the skin ageing effects of smoking may be due to increased production of an enzyme that breaks down collagen in the skin. Collagen is the main structural protein of the skin which maintains skin elasticity.

From this explained i feel very luck because i have had at keeping my skin younger looking is directly due to the fact that I have never been a smoker..

Post by Goh

Hurricane stress causes teen smoking

2008-08-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston recently met to discuss the findings of their report that shows teenagers directly affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are more likely to smoke cigarettes.

The study surveyed and tracked more than 5,000 students in the Beaumont and Port Arthur areas during the spring 2006 semester, 6 to 9 months after Hurricane Katrina.

It also compared the results with students who did not have the same experiences. The results showed that almost 38 percent of students who reported they had a family member hurt or killed in the hurricane also reported that they are now smoking. Only 13 percent of students who did not endure death or injury in the family said they smoked.

Students most affected by the hurricanes, such as those who experienced losses of family, friends and homes, had the greatest smoking rates, said Angela Meshack, the primary author of the study.

Students who were still living in temporary housing and who were absent from school for more than two months due to the hurricanes were twice as likely to smoke than their counterparts, the study found.

"Raised stress levels lead to more smoking. It was not shocking to find that relationship after the hurricanes," said Alfred McAlister, a behavioral science professor at UT-Houston's School of Public Health and an author of the study said. He said the study shows teenagers turned to smoking to cope with the disruption.

"The hurricanes had an emotional impact on the youth, and we need to recognize that and give them the help they need," McAlister said. "Otherwise, they use tobacco as a crutch, and then they become addicted."

Darah Waldrip, spokeswoman for Texas Tobacco Prevention said the program has been placing special attention on smoking in Jefferson County, which is along the upper Gulf Coast, by establishing comprehensive tobacco control programs in the schools and around the community. They also conduct outreach efforts such as the anti-tobacco advertisements.

Meshack said she and authors of the study are working on a number of steps to help students after disasters and also prepare for possible future events.

The study was a result of the "Youth Tobacco Survey" that is taken by students in Texas every other year. The students will take it again in 2008. About 22 percent of American teenagers smoke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I imagine the next survey will have more normalization," Waldrip said.

post by, Lai

Teen Smoking Screening Quiz

2008-08-21T07:45:00.000-07:00

Question: Have you found lighters, matches or crushed tobacco in your teen’s room, backpack or pants pocket?
Yes.
No.

Question: Does your teen’s room smell like smoke or stale smoke?
Yes.
No.

Question: Does your teen use a lot of air freshener in his/her room?
Yes.
No.

Question: Does your teen put a towel down to block the crack under their bedroom door?
Yes.
No.

Question: Does your child come home from school or a friend’s house with his/her clothes and hair smelling like smoke?
Yes.
No.

Question: Do your teen’s friends smoke?
Yes.
No.

Question: Does your teen have an unexplained cough or morning cough?
Yes.
No.

Question: Has your teen lost weight?
Yes.
No.

Question: Does your teen brush his/her teeth more often and at odd times of the day?
Yes.
No.

Question: Is your teen evasive when you ask where they have been?
Yes.
No.

If the answer all is yes, your teen is smoking. You’ll need to deal with this issue by taking a look at your feelings and becoming confident in what your message is to your teen about smoking. Then communicate that message to your teen in a loving and firm manner. Talk to your teen about quitting and find him/her the help he/she needs to quit.

This teen smoking screening quiz is to help you sort out your thoughts on your teen and if he or she is smoking. The only way to know, is to use your communication and discipline parenting skills. Try it..

Post by Goh

25 Ways to Quit Smoking

2008-08-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

25 Ways to Quit Smoking | Funny Jokes at JibJab

post by, Lai

Anti-smoking ads help 1 million quit

2008-08-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

Anti-smoking advertising has become so effective that it is now more powerful than GPs in persuading smokers to kick their habit, a study has claimed.

New shock tactics such as posters showing cigarettes dripping fat to demonstrate the effect of smoking on arteries, have helped quadruple the effectiveness of the government's anti-smoking campaign, according to research by the Tobacco Education Campaign Tracking study for February 2004.

The study shows advertising campaigns prompted 32% of recent attempts to kick the habit while GPs were responsible for just 21%.

The study also shows that a two-year campaign run by a coalition of the NHS, Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation has been far more effective than previous anti-smoking campaigns run by the Department of Health.

"By spreading the load, there was less chance that smokers would feel victimised," said a report on the campaign, which won a gold award at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising effectiveness awards this week.

The anti-tobacco campaign, created by advertising agencies Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Euro RSCG London, has already beaten its targets and persuaded 1 million people to give up smoking, according to the report.

"We wanted to bring smokers with us rather than turn them against us," said Clare Hutchinson of Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO.

The two-year campaign was successful because it gave smokers several reasons to quit rather than focusing exclusively on health.

One campaign, created by Abbott Mead Vickers for the NHS, showed children breathing out cigarette smoke to emphasise the dangers of passive smoking.

Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Cancer Research UK created a campaign to show that low-tar cigarettes were not less dangerous, by giving sharks and other deadly animals such as sharks nice names such as Susie and Rosie.

Smoking costs the NHS £1.5bn each year. It kills 120,000 annually, more than five times the collective death toll from car crashes, alcohol and drug abuse accidents, murders, suicides and Aids.

Post by Goh

Nicotine Damages Brain Cell Quality

2008-08-21T06:57:00.000-07:00

Human reports as well as animal studies have recorded accelerated motor activity, learning and memory deficits in offsprings of mothers exposed to nicotine during pregnancy. This study, conducted by Dr. T. S. Roy, Department of Anatomy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, is the first to investigate actual physiological changes of the cerebral cortex of rats after prenatal nicotine exposure. Several groups of experimental rats were exposed to varying levels of nicotine reaching up to that experienced by a heavy smoker. Animals were examined at different periods after birth. Observable effects included significantly reduced thickness of the cerebral cortex, smaller cerebral cortex neurons, and reduced brain weight. Also noted was an overall decrease in "dendritic branching" (connections to other brain cells), as seen in the camera lucida drawings at right. The present study also shows that the greater the dose of nicotine, the greater the biological effects upon the offspring. This research provides an excellent biological model to support the many other studies linking increased hyperactivity, attention deficits, lower IQ, and learning disabilities in children with parents who smoked during pregnancy.

post by, Lai

Impact of smoking on women

2008-08-21T06:02:00.000-07:00

The lack of large-scale studies that focus specifically on female populations makes it difficult to fully assess the impact of smoking on women. However, women show the same responses to cigarette smoking as men. Depending on the number of cigarettes smoked per day, the age of beginning cigarette smoking, and the amount of inhalation, women have death rates similar to men.

In general, women who are smokers experience more illness and chronic conditions than women who have never smoked. According to the American Cancer Society, women who smoke heavily have nearly three times more bronchitis and emphysema, 75% more chronic sinusitis, and 50% more peptic ulcers than nonsmokers. The incidence of illness, such as influenza, for women smokers is 20% higher for women who smoke than for those who don't. Currently employed women smokers report more days lost from work due to illness and injury than working women who do not smoke. In addition, women under 65 years of age who smoke have more limited physical activity than those who have never smoked. More than that, women smokers show an increased rate of heart attacks, cancer, oral diseases, and lung conditions.

post by, Lai

Smoking...

2008-08-21T05:56:00.000-07:00

What If You Smoke?

NEVER SMOKE AROUND CHILDREN.
Children are especially sensitive to the dangers of secondhand smoke.
If you smoke, try to smoke only in an open area away from your family.
Many of the substances stay in the air even after the cigarette, cigar, or pipe is gone.

What Can You Do to Protect Yourself and Your Family Outside of Your Home?
Let family, friends and people you work with know that you do care if they smoke around you.
In your car, do not smoke or allow others to smoke while the windows are rolled up.
In restaurants and bars, ask to sit in the non-smoking area.
Make sure your child's day-care, school and after-school programs are smoke-free.
Ask your employer to make sure you do not have to breathe other people's smoke at work.

post by, Lai

Are you still want smoking???

2008-08-21T05:21:00.000-07:00

The pictures give awareness to you? The cigarette box will add the picture to show the effect for smoking from this year, so i hope from the picture the smoker can stay off smoking and dont let the cigarette destroy your life !

Post by Goh

It's hard for someone to stop smoking.... But! try to stop...

2008-08-21T01:07:00.000-07:00

(Makes a lot of sense! I think they are really serious about non-smoking which is good.)

There are two types of coping skills you can use when you have
an urge to smoke: behavioral and mental.

Behavioral coping skills are things that you can do to reduce
the urge to smoke. These include leaving the situation, taking a
deep breath, or reading a book.

Mental coping skills are things that you can tell yourself to
reduce the urge to smoke. These include, “I feel better,” or
“smoking is not an option.”

post by Nazirah

Symptom-symptom smoking include.......

2008-08-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

-cravings
-irritability, agitation, depression and anxiety
-insomnia and disturbed sleeping patterns
-increased appetite and weight gain
-restlessness and loss of concentration
-headaches
-coughing and sore throat
-body aches and pains
-stomach and bowel upsets

DON'T SMOKE!!!!!

2008-08-13T22:24:00.000-07:00

BORED??? WANT TO SMOKE??
OUR PLEASURE TO REMIND YOU GUYS ABOUT IT.
BUT NOT FROM A WORD BUT FROM THIS VIDEO.
CLICK ON IT TO KNOW WHAT ARE WE GOING TO TELLS.