Here are a few health-related facts provided by the American Cancer Society that may help motivate you to quit:

• Almost half of all smokers who continue to smoke will end up dying from a smoking-related illness.

• Smoking is a risk factor for lung, mouth, laryngeal, pharyngeal, esophageal, bladder, kidney, pancreatic, cervical and stomach cancers.

• Smoking increases your risk of getting lung diseases like emphysema and COPD. • Smokers are twice as likely to die from a heart attack versus a non-smoker.

• Women who smoke are more likely to miscarry and deliver low birth weight babies.

• The CDC estimates that adult male smokers lose an average of 13.2 years from their lives, and female smokers 14.5 years, because of smoking.

Many of these adverse health effects of smoking can be greatly reduced or reversed through cessation. Immediate benefits include decrease in blood pressure, increased oxygen level and decreased carbon monoxide level in the blood, improved circulation, improved lung function and decreased shortness of breath. One year after quitting, the risk of developing coronary artery disease is reduced by nearly half compared to those who continue to smoke. The risk of smoking related cancers decreases after several years of abstinence. The sooner you quit smoking, the better chance you have of reversing these risks.

Smoking not only harms your health, but it affects the health of those around you. Secondhand smoke causes thousands of deaths each year from lung cancer and heart disease in healthy non-smokers. Only you can make the decision to quit smoking. If you have decided to quit, you are taking the first steps on the smoking cessation path.
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Food for thought on a smokefree Saturday. Please remember to pray for those still suffering from nicotine addiction and their families. (Secondhand smoke also kills.) Offer a hand up to anyone in need and take good care of yourself.

--Still a Grateful Quitter--Mary Ann