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Smoking causes 4.83 million premature deaths worldwide annually; 19% of American adults are currently smokers, 23.9% of American high school students, and 7.1% of U.S. middle-schoolers.  That does not include the 7.3% of high school students and 2.2% of middle school students who are chewing tobacco.  11.4% of pregnant American women smoke and 34.4% of American kids have significant second-hand smoke exposure.

Tobacco addiction is a lot like ‘harder’ drugs in that you can become addicted with just one cigarette…and quitting is just as hard as getting off any other drug.

Smoking doesn’t just increase your risk for lung cancer, heart disease, and wrinkles.  It goes further than that, in fact, smoking increases your risk for ALL cancer types.  It is the only identifiable risk factor in bladder cancer.  It increases your risk of ALS (Lou Gerig’s disease), diabetes, and hot flashes.  It decreases your mental function, and increases your risk of dementia…so much for having a cigarette to ‘clear your head’.  Smokers have higher rates of erectile dysfunction, which blows the ‘smoking is sexy’ claim right out of the water.  Not to mention the problems I see every day as a chiropractor; smoking increases healing time, decreases ability to fight infection, and smokers are one of the top 3 risk groups for low back pain!

Smoking cessation tips