Tooele, UT (PressExposure) March 04, 2010 -- Salt Lake City, March 4, 2010 - Despite warnings that appear on every package about the dangers of cigarette smoking, millions of Americans continue to smoke and thousands more pick up the habit each month. The costs in health care and lost productivity run into the hundreds of billions of dollars annually, and smoking diseases kill nearly a half a million people every year. Still, people continue to smoke, and most people who try to quit fail.
The reason that most people have difficulty quitting smoking is twofold: Cigarette smoking is physically addictive, and it is difficult to part ways with any addictive substance. The body suffers from withdrawal symptoms shortly after stopping smoking, and they understandably make smokers physically uncomfortable. The other reason, the one that is rarely mentioned, is that cigarette smoking is enjoyable, and people are reluctant to give up something they enjoy doing.
While the dangers of smoking are well documented, most smokers know that smoking-related illnesses will not affect them for years, if not decades. So they ignore them and continue to smoke, even though they know that they are setting themselves up for health problems later in life that may not be able to be treated.
Many smokers simply put off quitting for "later" convinced that it is simply too difficult a task to stop smoking. That was once the case, but now there are a number of ways to make it easier for smokers to give up their habit.
In recent years, a number of new products have come to the market that can help smokers quit more easily. Nicotine patches and gum both release nicotine into the bloodstream, which helps diminish the withdrawal cravings that affect smokers when they try to quit. Another new product, the electronic cigarette, can also help. While not specifically marketed as a smoking cessation product, many smokers find comfort in the fact that the electronic cigarette closely resembles a real one. The electronic device allows the "smoker" to inhale a tobacco-flavored mist which contains nicotine. The devices look and feel like a real cigarette, and the user holds and inhales from the device just as she would with a real cigarette. Unlike a real cigarette, however, an electronic cigarette contains no smoke, no tar and no carbon monoxide.
Regardless of how you go about it, anyone who smokes cigarettes will benefit from quitting. Nonsmokers enjoy lower blood pressure, better heart health, a longer life expectancy and fewer lung problems than smokers.
Anyone who is considering quitting smoking should be aware of new methods that can help them wean themselves from tobacco products. The sooner one makes an effort to quit, the sooner one can enjoy the health benefits of a tobacco-free life.