by Tired muscles
Muscle deterioration. When you smoke, less blood and oxygen flow to your muscles, making it harder to build muscle. The lack of oxygen also makes muscles tire more easily. Smokers have more muscle aches and pains than non-smokers.
More Broken Bones
Ingredients in cigarette smoke disrupt the natural cycle of bone health. Your body is less able to form healthy new bone tissue, and it breaks down existing bone tissue more rapidly. Over time, smoking leads to a thinning of bone tissue and loss of bone density. This causes bones to become weak and brittle. Compared to non-smokers, smokers have a higher risk of bone fractures, and their broken bones take longer to heal.[1]
Healing Complications
A recent study looked at patients who were surgically treated for a specific wrist injury. Of these patients, 95% of the non-smokers healed completely, while only 68% of the smokers healed completely. The average time until complete healing was over 2 months longer in the smokers.[2]
Reasons to Quit
For your health! According to the Surgeon General, quitting smoking is the single most important step a smoker can take to improve the length and quality of his or her life. As soon as you quit, your body begins to repair the damage caused by smoking. Of course it’s best to quit early in life but even someone who quits later in life will improve their health.
To save money! It’s getting more expensive to smoke cigarettes. Prices keep going up and in some places, a pack of cigarettes can cost $10.00. Even if a pack costs “only” $5.00 where you live, smoking one pack per day adds up to $1,825.00 each year.
To save the aggravation! It’s getting less convenient to smoke. More and more states and cities are passing clean indoor air laws that make bars, restaurants, and other public places smokefree. Are you tired of having to go outside many times a day to have a cigarette? Is standing in the cold and the rain really worth having that cigarette? Wouldn’t it be easier if you had the choice to go outside only when you want to and not when you need to?
It’s good for the people around you! Cigarette smoke is harmful to everyone who inhales it, not just the smoker. Whether you’re young or old and in good health or bad, secondhand smoke is dangerous and can make you sick. Children who live with smokers get more chest colds and ear infections, while babies born to mothers who smoke have an increased risk of premature delivery, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).[3]
Health Department Contact Numbers and Websites
Talbot County Health Department – (410) 819-5600 – www.legacyforhealth.org
Caroline County Health Department – (410) 479-8080 – www.quitsmoking.ca
Queen Anne’s County Health Department – (410) 758-1306 – www.lung.org/stop-smoking
Dorchester County Health Department – (410) 901-8133 – www.smokefree.gov
Most Health Departments provide FREE smoking cessation programs.
[1] “Health Effects,” smokefree.gov, accessed May 20, 2014, http://smokefree.gov/health-effects.
[2] Jonathan Cluett, M.D., “Smoking Hurts Bones,” orthopedics about.com, last modified August 16, 2012, accessed May 20, 2014, http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/brokenbones/a/smokingbones.html.
[3] “Reasons to Quit Smoking,”, accessed May 20, 2014, http://www.quitterinyou.org/i-want-to-quit-smoking/reasons-to-quit-smoking.html.