Thursday Thirteen - 13 More Reasons For Becoming Smoke Free
  
  Thursday Thirteen.com
If you need more incentive to quit smoking, here are some reasons that you may not know about. (a feature article from WebMD)
You know smoking causes lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease, but you’re still lighting up. To help you get on the wagon, we’ve compiled a list of little known ways your life can go up in smoke if you don’t kick the habit.
1. Alzheimer’s Disease: Smoking Speeds Up Mental Decline
In the elderly years, the rate of mental decline is up to five times faster in smokers than in nonsmokers, according to a study of 9,200 men and women over age 65.
Smoking likely puts into effect a vicious cycle of artery damage, clotting and increased risk of stroke, causing mental decline, writes researcher A. Ott, MD, a medical microbiologist with Erasmus University Medical Centre in the Netherlands.
2. Lupus: Smoking Raises Risk of Autoimmune Disease
Smoking cigarettes raises the risk of developing lupus — but quitting cuts that risk, an analysis of nine studies shows.
3. SIDS: Maternal Smoking Doubles Risk
Smoking increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, a European analysis shows.
Maternal smoking alone was associated with a doubling in SIDS risk.
4.  Colic: Smoking Makes Babies Irritable, Too
Exposure to tobacco smoke may increase babies’ risk of colic, according to a review of more than 30 studies on the topic.
Tobacco smoke appears to raise levels of a gut hormone called motilin in the blood and intestines. Motilin increases the contractions of the stomach and intestines, increasing the movement of food through the gut. “Higher-than-average motilin levels are linked to elevated risks of infantile colic,” the researchers write in the October issue of the journal Pediatrics.
5. An Increased Risk of Impotence
Guys concerned about their performance in the bedroom should stop lighting up, suggests a study that linked smoking to a man’s ability to get an erection. The study of nearly 5,000 Chinese men showed that men who smoked more than a pack a day were 60% more likely to suffer erectile dysfunction, compared with men who never smoked cigarettes.
6. Blindness: Smoking Raises Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Smokers are four times more likely to become blind because of age-related macular degeneration than those who have never smoked. But quitting can lower that risk, other research shows.
7. Rheumatoid Arthritis: Genetically Vulnerable Smokers Increase Their Risk Even More
People whose genes make them more susceptible to developing rheumatoid arthritis are even more likely to get the disease if they smoke, say Swedish researchers.
In fact, certain genetically vulnerable smokers can be nearly 16 times more likely to develop the disease than nonsmokers without the same genetic profile, according to the study in the October issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.
8. Snoring: Even Living With a Smoker Raises Risk
Habitual snoring, defined as loud and disturbing snoring at least three nights per week, affected 24% of smokers, 20% of ex-smokers, and almost 14% of people who had never smoked. The more people smoked, the more frequently they snored, the researchers reported in the October issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Even nonsmokers were more likely to snore if they were exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes. Almost 20% of these nonsmokers snored, compared with nearly 13% who had never been exposed to secondhand smoke at home.
9. Acid Reflux: Heavy Smoking Linked to Heartburn
People who smoke for more than 20 years are 70% more likely to have acid reflux disease than nonsmokers, researchers reported in the November issue of the journal Gut.
10. Breast Cancer: Active Smoking Plays Bigger Role Than Thought
The prevalence of breast cancer among current smokers was 30% higher than the women who had never smoked — regardless of whether the nonsmokers had been exposed to secondhand or passive smoke.
Those at greatest risk: Women who started smoking before age 20, who began smoking at least five years before their first full-term pregnancy, and who had smoked for longer periods of time or smoked 20 or more cigarettes per day.
Need Three More?
11. Smoking is linked to certain colon cancers.
12. Smoking may increase the risk of depression in young people
13. Some studies have linked smoking to thyroid disease.
Why not get started on your quit with these WebMD resources?
Strategies and Skills for Quitting
Design Your Own Personalized Quit Plan
Print this page and fill it out!
Get Practical Advice for Coping With Cravings and Avoiding Weight Gain
Follow these tips to maintain your new lifestyle.
Unconventional Approaches to Smoking Cessation
You’ll have to register with WebMD to take advantage of their services, but it’s free, easy, you only have to do it once and it is So worth it!
Visit the website COPD and So Much More
Visit the COPD and So Much More bookstore
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February 29, 2008
Posted in: COPD - Smoke Free!, COPD - The Thursday Thirteen
One Response
Tasina - February 29, 2008
Great list. I’m very close to 7 months smoke free after 20 years. I was able to quit with Chantix. I’m so glad I did and I’ll never go back.
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