The habit of smoking is not only bad for your health,but it also ruins the health of people around you. I wish to tell you all my friends s...
- Each day 3,000 children smoke their first cigarette.
- At least 3 million adolescents are smokers.
- Tobacco use primarily begins in early adolescence, typically by age 16.
- Almost all first use occurs before high school graduation.
- 20 percent of American teens smoke.
- Roughly 6 million teens in the US today smoke despite the knowledge that it is addictive and leads to disease.
- Of every 100,000 15 year old smokers, tobacco will prematurely kill at least 20,000 before the age of 70.
- Of the 3,000 teens who started smoking today, nearly 1,000 will eventually die as a result from smoking.
- Adolescent girls who smoke and take oral birth control pills greatly increase their chances of having blood clots and strokes.
- According to the Surgeon's General, Teenagers who smoke were:
- Three times more likely to use alcohol.
- Eight times are likely to smoke marijuana.
- And 22 times more likely to use Cocaine.
- Although only 5 percent of high school smokers said that they would definitely be smoking five years later, close to 75 percent were still smoking 7 to 9 years later.
- A person who starts smoking at age 13 will have a more difficult time quitting, has more health-related problems and probably will die earlier than a person who begins to smoke at age 21.
- Kids who smoke experience changes in the lungs and reduced lung growth, and they risk not achieving normal lung function as an adult.
- Kids who smoke have significant health problems, including cough and phlegm production, decreased physical fitness and unfavorable lipid profile.
- If your child's best friends smoke, then your youngster is 13 times more likely to smoke than if his or her friends did not smoke.
- More than 90 percent of adult smokers started when they were teens.
- Adolescents who have two parents who smoke are more than twice as likely as youth without smoking parents to become smokers.
Easy Tips For Quitting-
- Hide ashtrays, cigarettes, paan (betel leaf chew), jarda (chewable tobacco). Out of sight, out of mind. A simple, yet helpful endeavor.
- Don't let cigarettes, paan and jarda be easily available. Keep cigarettes/ jarda, paans in a place where you have to make a real effort to get them for example, another room of the house, places where you don't go to very often, locked in a cupboard etc. Every time you have to smoke/eat jarda/paan, you should have to make a conscious effort, get up, walk and get it.
- Figure out your "triggers" to smoke, or consume paan/jarda and ways to cope with them. Is it the company of people who smoke/eat jarda/paan? Try in the initial period to be away from smokers/paan eaters/ jarda eaters or rather when they smoke or eat pan/jarda. Do you consume tobacco when you are tense, or when you are working late, to pep you up and to give that extra energy? For that try to put something in the mouth, like chewing gums, sweets, peppermints, lozenges etc. and practice deep breathing.
- Whenever you have that craving, try deep breathing when either standing or sitting. Having a glass of water and exercising also helps to decrease the craving.
- When you feel like taking tobacco, think of your children and the effect on their future if you develop any of the dangerous diseases caused by tobacco.
- Set a stop date.
- Find a support person.
- Make plans for your first day without cigarettes/ paan/jarda.
- Use the following 4 Ds when the craving for smoking/tobacco hits you:
- Do something else.
- Delay smoking/tobacco consumption the next cigarette.
- Deep breathing.
- Drink water.
- Use positive self-talk.
- Reward yourself.
- Practice relaxation techniques (yoga, walking, meditation, dancing, music etc.) every day.
- Limit the intake of caffeine and alcohol. Further, be active, and eat a healthy diet!
