Smoking... what it does to your body

To everyone who smokes out there... I hope this can give you some useful information as to why you should quit the nasty habit...

Have you noticed that when you smoke, it's hard for you to get oxygen into you body too? Well this is why. In your red blood cells there is a molecule called hemoglobin, which carries around oxygen to all the parts of your body. Oxygen likes to bind to hemoglobin. But there is something that likes to bind even better... carbon monoxide! Carbon monoxide is found in cigarette smoke. That is why it's hard to breath when you are a smoker, your hemoglobin are full of toxic chemicals and your body is not getting the adequate amount of oxygen. Ponder that...

Smoking also affects your cholesterol. There are different lipoproteins found in your body that deal with cholesterol. Most of you know or have heard of LDL and HDL cholesterol. What do they do exactly? LDL is the bad cholesterol. LDL take fat from your liver and delivers it to your body. HDL on the other hand, takes the fat from around your body, brings it back to the liver so it can be disposed of. We want that don't we? YES! we want high HDL and low LDL. If you smoke, your HDL levels will decrease! NOT GOOD! that means that there is more cholesterol hanging out in your body and has the potential to cause some damage, including heart disease, heart attack and stroke.

There is some good new though. Once you stop smoking, your HDL levels rise :) also, if you quit, after one year, your chance of getting heart disease decreases almost by half, and after 15 years, your chance of getting heart disease will be the same as a non-smoker. Although the internal damage cannot be reversed, the chance of getting heart disease goes down drastically. We do not want heart disease because right now, it's the #1 killer in the US, with cancer a close second.

So please, for those who smoke, please take these notes into consideration and really think about what is important in your life. If you quit, it's all uphill from here. Please let me know if you need any guidance on how to start the quitting process. I can help:)