Tobacco is the only legally available consumer product, which kills people when it is used as it is meant to be. Every year, around 114,000 smokers in the UK die as a result of their habit and despite it being illegal to sell cigarettes to anyone below the age of 16 about 450 children start smoking every day.About half of all regular cigarette smokers will eventually be killed by their habit with smoking causing about thirty per cent of all cancer deaths, 17% of all heart disease deaths and at least 80% of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema. So what is actually in a cigarette? Firstly nicotine which is highly addictive. It stimulates the central nervous system, increasing the heartbeat rate and blood pressure. Then there’s tar brown and treacly in appearance deposited in the lungs and respiratory system and gradually absorbed. And Carbon Monoxide binds to haemoglobin in the bloodstream more easily than oxygen does making the blood carry less oxygen round the body. A pretty grim picture.So after years of abuse is it worth giving up? It certainly is. Your risk of developing lung cancer will be reduced as will your risk of heart disease (in ten years to no more than a non smoker). The accelerated decline of lung function will be reduced and your reproductive health as well as your general health and ability to recover from surgery will improve. So even if you have tried before, give it another try and if the obvious health benefits don’t tempt you, how about this financial fact: A smoker of 20 cigarettes per day will be about £1500 better off each year! Many say that the worst thing about giving up was putting on weight and the best is the extra money in their pocket.

There are so many aids to help us give up the weed not to mention the pressure from kids who have the ills of smoking drummed into them at school and through TV advertising in the UK along with quit smoking help from the doctor and local groups. Now that smoking is not permitted in pubs or any public building, it is getting More and more difficult to smoke, so rather than try to get round it why not cut it out altogether? Taste, fitness and stamina will return and your chances of dying from smoking related disease will diminish as the years go by.

Definitely - quitting smoking is the best thing you can do to improve your health. If you are a smoker, the very first thing you should do even before exercise and other lifestyle changes is to quit smoking. Do whatever it takes - this would be the single most effective lifestyle change you can do to improve your health!

I agree with you Amo. In fact I used to smoke and I am also a bit overweight. I remember that when I went to see a doctor for a medical before travelling to work abroad, she told me that I should quit. I said yes I know and I should lose weight. She said that although that would be good, quitting smoking would be, as you said, the single most important thing that I could do for myself and my health. It has been great since I quite 6 years go and the asthma that I thought I suffered from has gone, I think it was just the result of my smoking. There are so many ways to try and give up, I succeeded with the chewing gum, but I reckon there is something for everyone out there!

As little as five minutes of moderate exercise, such as walking, can help smokers quit by reducing cravings for a cigarette and symptoms of withdrawal! Sounds good!

Dr. Adrian Taylor of the University of Exeter and colleagues reviewed 12 papers involving nearly 1,400 people that examined the link between exercise and nicotine deprivation.

The scientists focused on exercises that didn't’t require a gym membership, such as walking and strength training using free weights. According to their data, just five minutes of exercise rapidly reduced cravings for a cigarette and symptom withdrawals like stress, restlessness, irritability, anxiety, tension, and poor concentration, “and they remained reduced for up to 50 minutes after exercise,” the researchers reported.

The team also found that the effects of exercise were as effective as a nicotine patch.

The theory goes that physical activity may produce mood-enhancing hormones such as dopamine, which may reduce smokers’ nicotine dependence.

Quit smoking is good. Don't urgent to stop this habit. Get rid slowly. Some of the medication can help it. Champix (Varenicline) is a smoking cessation drug, which is prescribed to help smokers stop smoking. It reduces smoking urge and it may make a difference.