Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Another Reason To Quit Smoking

Smoking causes gene damage in minutes

I guess there will always be smokers no matter how dire the warnings and how dangerous it is proven to be.  I can understand that because I was a smoker for many years and I quit many times.  W.C. Fields once said.........."Quitting smoking is easy, I've done it many times."  That is sadly true.  The longest I had quit smoking?  25 years.  I am not proud to say that but it may help some who have given up quitting, never quit trying.  I'm not about to go into the reason why I started up again but suffice to know that like an alcoholic, you are one drink or one cigarette away from being back where you left off.  You are always a recovering alcoholic or a recovering smoker and always in danger of falling off the proverbial wagon.  Just yesterday a plume of smoke wafted by me as I left my vehicle and it still smelled good....briefly.
  I think it is easier today to quit as it is so much less socially acceptable and places to smoke are limited.  Many a time a drink in the bar or coffee shop was my undoing, that can't happen now and that is a good thing.

If this astounding information is indeed true then the need to protect those most vulnerable, our children is ever more urgent.  Perhaps the knowledge that damage is pretty much immediate and not years away just might keep more youngsters from starting up.  I hope so.
The hardest thing I ever did in my life was to quit smoking. I had my last one on September 30, 2004 four months after I was diagnosed with cancer. 
I had tried every way there was available at the time and some more than once but I had heard that the most successful way to quit smoking was 'cold turkey'.  I picked the date about 3 weeks beforehand and just did it, finally.

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