Researchers looked at 252 healthy people daily cigarette smokers, with an emphasis on their urges to smoke and when they lit up their first cigarette of the day. The researchers then measured the cotinine levels in the smokers’ blood. what they found was that that the range was extremely variable – from between 16 ng/mL (mostly among smokers who waited at least a half hour before the first cigarette) to 1180 ng/mL (mostly among smokers who lit up not long after waking).

It’s not yet understood why this happens, but researchers may now be able to use this information to work on various approaches to smoking cessation tools and techniques.

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Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Blisstree

Early A.M. Cigs Mean More Poison in Body

According to the American Cancer Society,

Smoking causes about half of the deaths from bladder cancer among men (48%) and almost a third of bladder cancer deaths in women (28%). Some of the carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals) in tobacco smoke are absorbed from the lungs and get into the blood. From the blood, they are filtered by the kidneys and concentrated in urine. These chemicals in urine damage the cells that line the inside of the bladder. This damage increases the chance of cancer developing.

Now, there’s evidence that the risk has risen even more since the mid 1990s and that the length of time of smoking has more of an effect on bladder cancer than more cigarettes over a shorter period of time. These findings were published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

This finding, say researchers, may have something to do with how the composition of cigarettes have changed over the years; there may be more bladder carcinogens in cigarettes now than there were years ago. As well, even if people switch to lower tar or lower nicotine cigarettes, they most often take deeper and more frequent puffs to meet their nicotine needs – therefore exposing them to just as much or more carcinogens as they would be exposed to with regular cigarettes.

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Image: MorgueFile.com

Post from: Blisstree

Smoking & Bladder Cancer Connection

I think one of the main reasons it’s so hard to quit smoking is because all the benefits of quitting and all the dangers of continuing seem very far away. Well, here’s a little timeline about some of the more immediate effects of quitting smoking and how that will affect your body RIGHT NOW.

• In 20 minutes your blood pressure will drop back down to normal.
• In 8 hours the carbon monoxide (a toxic gas) levels in your blood stream will drop by half, and oxygen levels will return to normal.

Read the rest of Wade’s article to find out the effects of quitting smoking 48 hours through 15 years after you do it.

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King

Post from: Blisstree

What Happens to Your Body When You Quit Smoking

1. Smoking causes 87% of all lung cancer cases (source), and lung cancer kills more women than breast and ovarian cancers combined. (source)
2. Smoking causes wrinkles all over your body.
3. Smoking dramatically increases women’s risk of developing coronary heart disease (source), and heart disease is the leading killer of American women. (source)
4. Smoking turns your teeth yellow.
5. Women who smoke risk having a heart attack 19 years earlier than women who don’t smoke. (source)
6. Smokers are almost four times as likely to develop cervical cancer compared with nonsmokers. (source)
7. Women who smoke and use hormonal birth control methods (such as the pill or the patch) are nearly 10 times more likely to have a heart attack than nonsmoking women on birth control. (source)
8. Smoking causes baldness.
9. Smoking causes snoring, which in addition to being totally unsexy, also has major health effects, namely poor sleep quality and reduced oxygen flow to the brain, both of which are potentially very dangerous.
10. Compared with nonsmokers, smokers are more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s Disease (source), and half of all women age 85 and older will eventually develop Alzheimer’s (that is, if the lung cancer doesn’t kill them first). (source)

And if those aren’t good enough reasons for you, check out these lists:

• Top 10 Reasons to Quit Smoking
• 10 Overlooked Reasons to Quit Smoking
• 50 Reasons to Quit Smoking
• 20 Reasons To Quit Smoking

Finally convinced? Here are some resources to help you quit for good!

• Independence from Smoking: Free quit resources just for women
• Quit Smoking: Free quit coach, quit plan, educational materials, and more
• Why Quit: Free motivation, education, and support for cold turkey nicotine cessation
• QuitNet: Free online quit-smoking community

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King

Post from: Blisstree

10 Reasons to Quit Smoking Today