Tobacco Products Use

If you smoke or use tobacco in any form and you have the time and energy to do only one critical thing to improve your health, this is it-QUIT. There are tools available now to help these transitions that have never been available previously. It is immensely hard to take this first step which is why I identify it first. In terms of "return on investment", it is my opinion that smoking cessation has the greatest return possible of all things you might do to improve your health. That smoking kills the smoker and those around the smoker is no longer a debatable issue.

This is my smoking story shared with my family In June 2006:

"I made it all the way through high school without smoking primarily because I was involved with sports and didn't have any money. Then I joined the Navy and recall that it was mostly out of boredom and peer pressure that I started. Boy, it was really hard to start smoking. It was such an unnatural act to fill my lungs full of smoke. Then I got the hang of it and I was a real trooper.

During my time in Viet Nam with the Marine Corp I was pretty resolved that I would be dying soon so I remember that there were no constraints at all on the amount I smoked. I had dinner with a marine from my company last week in Detroit. He confessed he used to give me all his extra cigarettes from his K-rations thinking that I would likely remember him fondly when he was shot and I would perhaps recall his kindness as I would come to his aid. I remember smoking at the rate of 5 packs per day during those days.

Even when I made it home I found reasons to smoke but started putting limits on when I would quit. Remember I was in the health field. I have lighted the last cigarette smoked by more than one dying patient enjoying their last smoke of their life. I used to assist in post-mortem examinations so I have actually held carcinogenic lungs in my own hands. OK, then I started thinking I really would stop one day.

I stopped October 27, 1982 at 10:10 AM. I puffed on pipes and cigars for a while thereafter but a really bad cold finally allowed me to break the habit. If I thought it was hard to stop, it was nothing compared to the mental strength it took to stop and stay stopped. Anyone trying to stop deserves our praise and congratulations and those we love who still smoke we should continue to love and encourage. This is not a moral issue but one of health.

Those of us who have stopped smoking can get cranky about it. Naw, it's not because it smells bad (it does), it's because we realize we are lucky to have stopped, we have to be especially mindful because we have to live healthy now to make up for lost opportunity and being around smoke as a second hand smoker is exponentially worse for us."

Secondhand smoke causes about 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 46,000 heart disease deaths in adult non-smokers in the United States each year, according to the American Lung Association.

Terry Martin of About.com Health's Disease and Condition summarizes the issue nicely:

"What are the two big diseases you think of being related to smoking? Chances are they are lung cancer and emphysema, neither of which is the number one killer of smokers. Heart disease holds first place. Researchers report that worldwide, there were 1,690,000 premature deaths from cardiovascular disease among smokers in the year 2000. In contrast, there were "only" 850,000 lung cancer deaths from smoking in the same year."