Smoking and Longevity

Life Expectancy of Continuing Smokers: If you smoke, expect to lose ten years from your life. Ten years of life is 12% of your life, and that doesn't account for the years lived with smoking-related illness and disability.

The Cost of Smoking: There is nothing worse for a long, healthy life than smoking. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) estimate that smoking will result in death or disability for half of all people who continue to smoke. Smoking is the greatest preventable cause of death. Almost a half a million people will die each year from smoking, costing 75 billion dollars in health care costs and 92 billion dollars in lost productivity every year.

Health Conditions: Smoking causes lung cancer, other forms of cancer, stroke, heart disease, lung disease and many other conditions. If you want to live long and live healthy, avoid smoking at all costs. All forms or tobacco are age thieves, including cigarettes, chewing tobacco, cigars, pipes, and anything else with tobacco in it.

Smoking Makes You Look Older: Smoking damages your skin and appearance causing you to look older by:

• giving your wrinkles
• creating small lines around your mouth
• staining your teeth and fingers
• constricting your blood vessels and robbing your skin of nutrients
• breaking down your collagen
• making you look 'gray'

The Good News: The good news is that smoking is getting easier to avoid. Many states and cities have passed laws prohibiting smoke in public places. Quitting smoking also has great benefit, as quitting increases your life expectancy and overall health.