I read somewhere that half of all smokers die from smoking and that about half die before age 50. While 87 percent of all lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking, lung cancer isn’t responsible for most deaths due to smoking are strokes and heart attacks.
Does smoking cause high blood pressure? While there is a burst of chemicals that temporary raises blood pressure the real danger is the damage it does to the body that causes long term blood pressure rises. I believe we can generalize this item to include any type of habit that unhealthy. It may be hard to break, but if we really want to we can.
The difficulty is of course often we don’t want to. We say we want to, but immediate payoff of the “sin” seems greater than long term danger. In a way, to break these sort of habits, the break has to first come in your minds, we must obtain the “spiritual” victory before the physical victory. Those with a religious faith can use their faith to build that victory, but a well planned multiple prong attack with a coach and some friends to assist can go a long way to help us overcome our weak spots regardless of our religious beliefs.
All this reminds me of Mark Twain who is reported to have said, “Stopping smoking is easy, I’ve quit thousands of times.” (he died of heart failure later in life).
For a number of years, I worked with our company health department trying to get smoking banned in the work place. One of the articles, I read, claimed that some smokers have a hidden death wish deep in their psychology. They are literally trying to kill themselves. I remember one time, I ran into this young lady by the library. She looked about 18 years old, but she was puffing away – chain smoking, one after another, and eating a hot dog and had a bag of chips and weighted about 350 pounds by the look of it. It was kind of sad, she would been nice looking lady if she lost some weight, but obviously she was trying to kill herself. All of her behavior was making a statement, I’m trying to kill myself.
So, I’m going to make it plain as day. If you smoke, give yourself one week, get friends, doctors, and everyone to back you up, and then stop, no more, not even one, every again, in your life. The life you save, will be your own.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp/prevent/factors/smoke.htm
http://www.medindia.net/patients/patientinfo/smoking_hazards_bp.htm
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