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STOP BURNING UP YOUR MONEY AND
LIVE A HEALTHY LIFE! In this day of a $5
plus pack of
cigarettes I have to wonder about the sanity of those who
continue to burn up so much money and gain nothing positive from
it! So if you have decided to gain your sanity listen up!
Most people think that lung cancer
is the worst thing that happens to cigarette smokers, but
it's not!
Twenty years in the medical field
taught me that cigarette smoking creates more illness than any
other single vice.
One internists' office that I worked
for 6 1/2 years did Social Security Disability evaluations (SSD)
for the state of California, averaged about six patients a week. A
certain odor entered the front door of the office with 95% of SSD
evaluation patients and wafted to the back office. That stale
cigarette smoke permeated the air as they walked in and the exam
room was left reeking after their visit.
We saw four categories of SSD
evaluations;
SSD Patients are people under the
age of 62 with medical Social Security Claims for chronic
illnesses!
First group - The most ill
with multiple serious illnesses such as heart disease, Kidney
disease, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-lung
problems), diabetes, cancers of all types. These were people who had
abused their bodies with both cigarettes and alcohol.
Second group - Still quite ill,
usually had a singular disease or problem and usually the heart,
kidneys or lung. These were definitely cigarette smokers but
didn't drink alcohol.
Third and small group - congenital problems.
Problems they were born with.
Fourth and smallest group - Accident victims left
with debilitating affects.
If you are one of the first two
groups and wish to reverse your health problems, (Quit smoking
and find health) We are here to help you do just that with a
Virtual Stop Smoking Class!
Want help
email Lena for 5-day stop smoking helps!
If you are sitting on the fence as
to whether you want to quit read the following article!
Drug Companies roll in smoking:
NEW YORK (July
31) Reuters - A counterpoint to the egregious Philip
Morris report, suggesting that the early death of smokers can
benefit a nation's economy, is an extensive study by the World
Bank that details the chilling, and very expensive, toll that
cigarettes are taking around the world.
According to the report, called "Curbing the
Epidemic," the only two causes of death that are huge and
growing worldwide are AIDS and tobacco-related illnesses.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
tobacco is expected to become the biggest killer in most
developing countries within the next 20 years, causing more
deaths than AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis,
automobile crashes, homicides and suicides, COMBINED!
If current patterns hold, a half-billion people who are alive
today will eventually be killed by tobacco.
More than half of these are now children and teenagers.
By the year 2030, tobacco is projected to be the single
biggest cause of death worldwide, accounting for about 10
million deaths per year.
Big Tobacco ought to send thank-you notes to new moms and dads
around the world, because their newborns are absolutely
essential to Big Tobacco's strategy of addicting ever-larger
waves of young customers to replace the
ever-increasing loads of smokers lost to early death.
The World Bank estimates than in affluent countries, 14,000 to
15,000 children and young people take up smoking each day. In
middle-income and low-income countries, somewhere between
68,000 and 84,000 take their first insidious puffs.
And this is significant when talking about
the economics of smoking. According to the World Bank
study (which was done before the recent study commissioned by
Philip Morris), it appears that smokers' lifetime health care
costs in affluent countries are "somewhat higher"
than non-smokers,' despite their shorter lives. It is not at
all clear what the situation is in less affluent countries
with less extensive health care networks.
But that, of course, should not be the issue. The first issue
to be addressed is the non-economic value, one would hope it
would be a high value, that we ascribe to human beings based
solely on the fact that they exist. But even if
the discussion is limited to economic matters, there is a
problem with Philip Morris' contention that countries can
derive benefits from the early demise of smokers. It flies in
the face of accepted economic theory, which argues
that the benefits of a free market flow from rational
decisions made by consumers who, when spending their money
(and only their money), understand the risks and rewards of
the choices they make.
That is largely not the case with smokers. Despite all the
warnings about the murderous effects of tobacco, it seems
clear that, as the World Bank study noted, "People's
knowledge of the health risks of smoking appears to be partial
at best."
That is especially true with young smokers and smokers in
poorer countries, where information about the hazards of
smoking is limited. The study said, "In China, for
example, 61% of adult smokers surveyed in 1996 believed that
cigarettes did them 'little or no harm."
People tend to underestimate the addictive effects of nicotine
and grossly underestimate the likelihood they will contract
a horrible disease.
Some years ago, an anti-smoking activist named David Goerlitz,
who had once been known as the Winston Man because he had
appeared in Winston ads for the R.J.Reynolds Tobacco Company
asked a group of R.J. Reynolds executives if any of them
smoked.
They all said no.
Goerlitz said one
of the executives shook his head and said: "Are you
kidding? We reserve that right for the poor, the young, the
black and the stupid."
Not much has changed.
That philosophy is
now being played out on a global scale.
By
Bob Herbert, New York Times. July 31st, 2001
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