Smoking Cessation
There are many results produced from smoking and none of them are good. All smoking cessation programs and even shots which remove the physiological addiction of nicotine do not address the core issue which is the process of the behavior. This is why many people will continue to smoke with a patch or after a shot.
People will tell me “I can’t quit smoking I’ll gain weight.” It is important to understand you cannot leave a blank spot in the mind. If you stop a behavior you must replace it with something or the subconscious will replace it for you. This is why one may certainly gain weight after one quits smoking because the refrigerator was handy and you did not choose what to replace the behavior with so the subconscious chose for you.
Statistics
-
In 2008, an estimated 70.9 million Americans aged 12 or older were current (past month) users of a tobacco product. This represents 28.4 percent of the population in that age range. In addition, 59.8 million persons (23.9 percent of the population) were current cigarette smokers; 13.1 million (5.3 percent) smoked cigars; 8.7 million (3.5 percent) used smokeless tobacco; and 1.9 million (0.8 percent) smoked tobacco in pipes.
-
The rate of current use of any tobacco product among persons aged 12 or older remained steady from 2007 to 2008 (28.6 and 28.4 percent, respectively). Rates of current use of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, and pipe tobacco also did not change significantly over that period. However, between 2002 and 2008, past month use of any tobacco product decreased from 30.4 to 28.4 percent, and past month cigarette use declined from 26.0 to 23.9 percent. Rates of past month use of cigars, smokeless tobacco, and pipe tobacco in 2008 were similar to corresponding rates in 2002.
-
The rate of past month cigarette use among 12 to 17 year olds declined from 9.8 percent in 2007 to 9.1 percent in 2008, continuing a decline since 2002 when the rate was 13.0 percent. However, past month smokeless tobacco use did not decline over this period (2.0 percent in 2002 and 2.2 percent in 2008).
- Among pregnant women aged 15 to 44, combined data for 2007 and 2008 indicated that the rate of past month cigarette use was 16.4 percent. The rate was higher among women in that age group who were not pregnant (27.3 percent).
Health Effects of Smoking
Each year, a staggering 440,000 people die in the US from tobacco use. Nearly 1 of every 5 deaths is related to smoking. Cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.
Cigarette smoking accounts for at least 30% of all cancer deaths. It is a major cause of cancers of the lung, larynx (voice box), oral cavity, pharynx (throat), and esophagus, and is a contributing cause in the development of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, liver, uterine cervix, kidney, stomach, colon and rectum, and some leukemias.
About 87% of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women, and is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. It is very hard to detect when it is in the earliest, most treatable stage. Fortunately, lung cancer is largely a preventable disease. Groups that promote nonsmoking as part of their religion, such as Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists, have much lower rates of lung cancer and other smoking-related cancers.
But cancers account for only about half of the deaths related to smoking. Smoking is also a major cause of heart disease, bronchitis, emphysema, and stroke, and contributes to the severity of pneumonia. Tobacco has a damaging affect on women's reproductive health and is associated with increased risk of miscarriage, early delivery (prematurity), stillbirth, infant death, and is a cause of low birth weight in infants. Furthermore, the smoke from cigarettes has a harmful health effect on those around the smoke. (Refer to the American Cancer Society documents "Secondhand Smoke" and "Women and Smoking.")
Based on data collected from 1995 to 1999, the CDC estimated that adult male smokers lost an average of 13.2 years of life and female smokers lost 14.5 years of life because of smoking.
But not all of the health problems related to smoking result in deaths. In the year 2000, about 8.6 million people were suffering from at least one chronic disease due to current or former smoking, according to the CDC. Many of these people were suffering from more than one smoking-related condition. The diseases occurring most often were chronic bronchitis, emphysema, heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.