Smokers Gambling With Their Lives -- Long Lives, That Is

A new study has just found that, on average, smoking clips 10 years off your life, according to a story today in The New York Times.  My mother smoked when I was a child and I remember seeing a film when I was in 5th grade showing a smoker's lungs, all black and scarred from smoking. I raced home to ask her to please, please stop smoking, and she assured me she was "checked" every year and was fine.  She continued to smoke for over 20 more years -- even going so far as to pretend she had quit, then begging to take the garbage out at a party I threw at my apartment, only to come back the dumpster smelling of smoke.

My mom died a little more than a year ago of congestive heart failue at 84 so I guess she was one of the lucky ones.  Maybe because of her, I never ever picked up a cigarette.  The study also goes on to say that if you can quit by 40, you have almost a full life expectancy. 

I have friends who smoked to lose weight, or keep it off, and others who found it helped with anxiety.  And I'm a party to addiction, only mine is food.  While I wouldn't call myself obese (maybe just a tad overweight!), weighing too much has been shown to be a factor in breast cancer, of which I'm a survivor.

So if you smoke, and hate people preaching at you, it's okay. But just think a little about this, just for today.



http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/putting-a-number-to-smokings-toll/?ref=health

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