Despite years of alerts from doctors and the U.S. Government, almost 25 percent of Americans continue to smoke cigarettes on a regular basis. A large number of individuals have quit since the government first reported a relationship between smoking and lung cancer in the mid-1960s, but plenty of people men and women continue to smoke and countless teenagers begin smoking every month. Nearly five hundred thousand people in the U.S. die each year from smoking related diseases.
Exactly why do people today smoke? To put it simply, it's pleasant. Nicotine produces dopamine in the brain, and dopamine affects the brain's pleasure centers. People smoke cigarettes because it feels good. They keep on smoking because nicotine is addictive. After a limited time of smoking, the human body starts having withdrawal symptoms if the smoker attempts to quit. Because cigarette smoking is enjoyable but quitting is physically uncomfortable, many smokers still smoke despite the fact that they would prefer to quit. Still, it is possible to stop smoking, and thousands of U.S. citizens manage to break the addiction every year.
Below are a few things to consider should you be considering giving up smoking:
1. Smoking cigarettes is expensive. A pack a day habit may cost more than fifteen hundred dollars per year.
2. Smokers miss a median of 3 additional work days per year due to illness than those who do not smoke.
3. People who smoke need mroe time to recover from injury or illness than nonsmokers.
4. Smokers pay extra for health insurance than those who do not smoke.
5. Smokers frequently have trouble doing exercises as a result of shortness of breath.
With all of these things as disadvantages to cigarette smoking, why don't more smokers quit? Very simple - it's difficult to quit. Every man or women responds in a different way to nicotine. Some people are more "hooked" than others, making it more difficult for them to quit. Long time smokers develop the habit of continually holding something in their mouth or hands, and such routines are difficult to kick.
New technology has made it possible for people who smoke to tear themselves away from cigarettes in different ways. Nicotine patches and gum are available at many drug stores. These products help maintain a continuous amount of nicotine in the smoker's system, making it unnecessary for them to light up to get their nicotine fix. Electric cigarettes have been designed, which provide a breathable vapor that contains tobacco flavor and nicotine, without smoke. These devices work with batteries and may provide the smoker's need for nicotine without producing the carbon monoxide, tar and smoke that regular cigarettes produce.
In the long run, the decision to give up smoking or not lies with the individual . The motivations for quitting smoking are well known, and any cigarette smoker who cares about their well being ought to consider either stopping or cutting back. Obviously, therapy is readily available from a variety of places as well, so that people who smoke can be encouraged to quit by talking to others who have given up the habit.
If you wish to give up using tobacco, you can. Should you still require the nicotine, there are smokeless alternatives available to you. Quitting is simply a matter of discovering which of the alternate options works best for you and sticking with it.