Imagine the day you give up smoking for good................now i imagine that fills you with dread and fear right now, that is because your amygdala, the fight flight response trigger in your brain is relying on nicotine (the addictive substance in tobacco) for comfort - but ask yourself, who is in control - me or amygdala, are you tough enough to challenge it,

• if YES - Read on
• if NO - stop reading from this point and do something else, this is only for those who wish to be healthier wealthier and happier

You still reading good, i have something special for you. here it comes

BACKGROUND INFO
The day you gave up smoking will surely rank as one of the most significant of your life, for now you can look forward to a longer life of enhanced quality. Smokers now readily accept the real threat of early death and a very significant reduction in their potential to enjoy good health and the pleasures that can bring.

During your therapy session, you had the opportunity to look realistically at what smoking has meant to you and to accept fully the responsibility to ensure that you no longer deliberately poison yourself.

Cigarettes have been responsible for the deaths of more people in the last century than all the wars and conflicts.

Initial Effects
In their advertising, tobacco manufacturers suggest it is 'cool' to smoke; that smokers are more adult, more sophisticated. Remember your first cigarette, how foul it tasted, how dizzy you felt. Perhaps you felt sick. You certainly did not enjoy it but, wanting to be seen as one of the crowd, more adult, more sophisticated, you persisted and became hooked.

The human body is a most wonderful and highly evolved organic machine, delicately and critically balanced.
The feelings of nausea and dizziness you felt were the natural sensations as your body reacted to the poisons you breathed in when taking that first smoke. Your body reacted by trying to expel the poisons, making you feel nauseous. The dizziness was a result of oxygen-deprivation to the brain and the coughing was your lungs' defence system trying to expel the contaminants in the smoke.

Poison
There are over 4,000 toxins (poisons) in tobacco smoke, with complex compounds and substances such as tar, nicotine, cyanide, arsenic, carbon monoxide, prussic acid and benzopyrene, not to mention the chemical fertilisers and insecticides sprayed onto the crop. Cyanide? Arsenic?

Actually, are you aware that nicotine is one of the most poisonous substances known to mankind? If you were to extract the nicotine from a single cigarette and inject it directly into a vein you would be dead in seconds. It is enough to kill a horse. Then there is ammonia, which is added to modify the effect of nicotine, making it easier to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

To compensate for the effects of the toxins entering the body, your arteries narrow which causes your blood pressure to rise and heart rate to increase.

Acclimatisation
However, as you persisted in smoking, your body became fooled into thinking that the noxious substances being introduced through the cigarette smoke were necessary for survival. So then your subconscious mind which controls all the body's functions began to send out signals for replenishment of the level of nicotine dropped and so we see the beginning of nicotine addiction. These messages are the craving for another cigarette — to restore the chemical balance your subconscious mind now believes is correct.

However, each time you inhale tobacco smoke, the heart beats faster and respiration increases as the need for oxygen to the brain and muscles increases. Adrenaline is produced as the body goes into a 'fight or flight' mode (the body's natural reaction to imminent danger). Lactic acid enhances the readiness of the muscles to respond rapidly to the perceived danger.

Many people claim that cigarettes help them relax, although from the evidence of the body's reactions this appears most unlikely!

In times of danger, many bodily functions close down so that the major resources available may be focussed on the fight / flight reaction. So, as the digestive system is not required, it shuts down and the blood is withdrawn from the outer extremities so that oxygen can be sent to the main internal organs to maintain them prime function (which explains why hands and feet often feel cold when smoking).

Continued smoking does not allow the body to revert from the fight / flight state to normal relaxation. The stress is constant and the body remains on alert. The enzymes that are used to enhance performance are not used in running or fighting and remain in the body as toxins. The immune system becomes suppressed and smokers become more susceptible to infections and take longer to shake off the effects of colds and viruses.

Damage
Nicotine destroys essential vitamins and minerals in the body, not the least of which is Vitamin C. Vitamin C is important for the maintenance of a healthy immune system.
Every organ of the body, including the brain and skin, can fall victim to cancer and smoking is a major culprit in the body's inability to protect itself against many killer diseases.

The Heart
A smoker's heart will beat an extra ten thousand times a day as it strives to combat the effects of nicotine. This is because nicotine causes arteries to narrow, so the heart has to work much harder to deliver oxygen to vital organs and muscles. Arteries are subject to furring up as the filth and muck is pumped around them, causing arteriosclerosis. Increased blood pressure results and there is an increase risk of heart disease and heart attack.

The Lungs
Tar in cigarette smoke coats the tiny hairs (cilia) in the lungs causing them to become brittle, break off or lie flat. As a result, they are unable to carry out their normal important function of detecting any foreign matter, such as particles of dust, which they propel back towards the mouth so they may be expelled from the body.

The mucus lining of the lungs is important in the vital interchange of gases, carbon dioxide and oxygen. Tar and other
noxious chemicals and materials in the smoke are able to pass down into the small spaces called alveoli (which make up the greater mass of the lungs) and accumulate there. By doing so, the capacity of the lungs is reduced and consequently their ability to efficiently oxygenate the blood.

This is why smokers get out of breath when they climb stairs or run for a bus.
Some smokers find that the chemical alteration of the mucus can lead to the lungs producing too much liquid and they begin to fill up and they begin to drown in their own body fluids. Emphysema is an extremely debilitating condition causing sufferers to fight for every painful breath, often with an oxygen cylinder constantly by their side.

Fertility

Smoking can effect the genetic pattern (DNA) in a male's sperm or a female's eggs. Reproductive potency is detrimentally affected. A smoker's sexual prowess will decrease at a faster rate than a non-smoker.

Life Expectancy

Every cigarette you smoke will rob you of up to six minutes of life expectancy. A 50-year-old smoker is as old physically as a 70-year-old non-smoker.