It’s pretty obvious that what’s being done just isn’t working, is it?

We have kids that believe they’re invincible and that getting cancer wont happen to them.

All the pictures of blackened lungs, the commercials with the girl using the artificial voice box, they’re laughed off like a joke. It won’t happen to THIS kid.

The biggest mistake that parents make is not discussing smoking with their children earlier. They think, “Well, they won’t really consider smoking until they’re in high school, so I won’t talk about it until then.” (The same approach is why sex education is failing our children miserably, but that’s another article for another blog.)

You should begin talking about smoking as soon as your child is old enough to notice people smoking. This doesn’t mean dragging out the black lung pictures and scaring the %#*! out of your kid. That’s a bit extreme.

Discussions should be tailored to the maturity level of the child and should be tied to something the child has seen or experienced recently. With the correct timing and appropriate information, your child will build up the knowledge and (more importantly) gut belief that smoking is not for them.

Children in early elementary school are NOT too young to be told about smoking. However, stick to basic descriptions rather than health risks.

If a TV show has a smoker, point out that it’s “stinky” or “gross.” This helps cement the idea in your child’s mind that smoking is not cool, but gross. (Be prepared for awkward encounters if you have friends that smoke – this is par for the course!!)

In late elementary school, you can start talking about anti-smoking commercials from print media like magazines or ads on TV. Keep it from being a lecture, just talk about the message of the commercial and the imagery that helps make the point. (You can do this with other commercials too and teach your child to be an informed consumer!)

Towards the end of elementary school, it’s appropriate to find anti-smoking websites and look at them with your child.

Middle school is a rough time in a child’s development. They’re starting to establish an identity, and their friends play a big part in this role. At this point, smoking becomes a reality – many children try their first cigarette in middle school.

If you know someone who is suffering from a tobacco-related illness, ask them meet and talk with your middle schooler. It may seem extreme, but it’s the best way to nail home the realities of smoking. (If you’ve been working at your anti-smoking campaign since kindergarten, this won’t seem out of place to your child, just the next step in education.)

Most people suffering from these types of illness are happy to discuss how they wish they had never started smoking – which is exactly the message your child needs to hear.

The most important element to anti-smoking education is to let your kids know exactly how you feel about smoking.

Studies have shown something neat about this:

If you tell your child from a young age that you would be really upset if they took up smoking, then they’re less likely to start smoking. Frame it as part of your love for them. You love them and want them to be healthy and live a long life. It would upset you greatly to see them doing something that will shoot down their health.

Parents can sometimes feel frustrated when it comes to relating to teenagers and teenagers feel frustrated trying to relate to their parents.

Here’s what drags in teenagers to convince them to start smoking:

• Being part of a group or like a friend.
• Looking “cool”.
• Rebelling against strict parents.
• Feeling and looking older.
• Experimentation, just trying it out.

Having supportive and encouraging parents is the first line of defense against teenage smoking.

Raising a child with an inherent dislike of smoking and the knowledge about its consequences is only part of the battle. The other part is showing your children that you understand what it’s like to be a teenager, listening to them when they talk to you, and accepting them for who they are.

Help your kids find ways to be cool and original that don’t involve smoking.

After all, it’s better to have a daughter who is decked out in spiked leather and sporting a green mohawk than a daughter who is a smoker, right?

In a nutshell, e-cigarettes aren’t a viable solution to quit smoking. The reason for this is because as a substitute for regular cigarettes, they merely substitute one dangerous vice for another dangerous vice.

According to an article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the biggest concern by the WHO is that there was no evidence presented to back up claims that e-cigarettes do help people quit smoking.

Some of my concerns about e-cigarettes are:

• They are manufactured and marketed in a completely different manner than traditional smoking remedies such as nicotine patches or gum alternatives.
• Marketed to a more ‘cool’ demographic.
• Offered in flavors such as chocolate, strawberry and even coffee. This carries the danger of luring in non-smokers and children who purchase e-cigarettes for their flavour.

In Hong Kong, possession of an unregulated pharmaceutical device such as an e-cigarette is subject to a two-year jail sentence as well as a $100,000 HK fine.

E-cigarettes have been refused approval by the FDA several times, mainly because they are considered to be a dangerous method to quit smoking due to the liquids used and false hope it gives to consumers.

SO WHY EXACTLY ARE E-CIGARETTES ARE A HUGE RISK?

According to a review on Examiner.com:

One of the testers experienced “a small amount of liquid leaked from the air vent holes in the side of the cigarette.”

It is unknown if the liquid is toxic when exposed outside of the device, but this could prevent it from being approved by the FDA merely as a safety consideration and something that would need to be addressed immediately before any further testing can be done.

A big concern is that as an electronic substitute, having something that is dependent on battery power for continued therapy that has no tested usage patterns may present problems for people who are heavy smokers, because when the e-cigarette runs out of battery power, it becomes useless.

You don’t see the same sort of problems with natural therapies such as herbal blends, vitamins, hypnosis or my Core Desire program.

Nicotine is still a drug, regardless of what the makers of these e-cigarettes would have you believe.

They’ve even been banned in Australia because of concerns that they would merely prolong nicotine addiction, in addition to safety fears about how they function.

WHAT FLUIDS ARE CONTAINED IN THESE E-CIGARETTES?

The fluid used in many e-cigarettes, commonly called “Ejuice” contain the following ingredients:

• Propylene Glycol, which can cause gastrointestinal irritation.
• Nicotine, the basic substance found in many cigarettes.
• Tobacco essence, which does nothing to keep people from continuing their smoking habit.
• Tetramethylpyrazine, which has been shown in lab tests to cause brain damage from prolonged exposure.

There are many other ingredients, some of which could be used as accelerants if exposed properly should one of these e-cigarettes break whilst charging. That plus using a rechargeable battery for a method of smoking cessation is just not a good way to get people to quit smoking.

SO SHOULD WE AVOID E-CIGARETTES?

Definitely!

Many manufacturers claim that e-cigarettes are similar in design to the widely available Nicotrol Inhaler. While this may be true, doctors prescribe Nicotrol Inhalers to patients who wish to quit smoking as a medically supported alternative.

Just take a look at the following points. You may now want to think twice before using an e-cigarette.

• E-cigarettes haven’t been approved by the FDA for use as a tobacco / nicotine substitute.
• E-cigarette manufacturers and promoters don’t offer any documented proof in closed testing by the FDA that they work as a viable form of tobacco cessation.
• There’s no breakdown of exactly how the devices are supposed to help people quit smoking.

Another problem with e-cigarettes is that their use may actually violate many states’ non-smoking laws.

Whilst manufacturers of e-cigarettes claim that they release a harmless, non-toxic odor, the mere fact that they even look like cigarettes and emit toxic substances like a cigarette should be enough of a deterrent for potential consumers.

Case closed. Now you make up your mind if you want to dabble with e-cigarettes.

Smoke, and you’re inviting a party of trouble to your bones. Here’s a break-down of what you could be up against.

• Osteoporosis
• Back Pain
• Slow Healing Bones
• Muscle / Tendon Tears
• Replantation Hand Surgery Complications

My mum has smoked the majority of her life. And now she’s paying the price with osteoporosis (weak bones). At the age of 50, my mum was said to have bones equivalent to that of a 70 year old. Mum has since given up, started drinking calcium enriched milk and doing regular exercise to strengthen her bones.

And don’t think for a moment, it’s too late to change. It’s NEVER to late to quit smoking.

Another tell-tale sign to be on the lookout for is lower back pain. It could be more than just your posture or the way you sit that gives you this back pain.

In fact, many spine surgeons often require their patients to give up smoking before a spinal operation in order to avoid complications. Smoking can also lead to degenerative disc disease in your back. So watch out!

But it doesn’t stop there.

Now onto slow healing bones. There’s a medical term known as non-union and delayed union when these quacks talk about repair of bone fractures. Basically what this means is that if you break a bone and are a smoker, your bone will repair itself slower (delayed union) than a non-smoker, and there is even the chance that it won’t completely repair at all (non-union).

So you can see, smoking not only affects your heart and lungs, but also goes much deeper under the hood to attack your healthy bones. Smoking also plays havoc with all the strings (muscles and tendons) that tie your bones together.

Smokers are at a higher risk of muscle and tendon tears, especially in the shoulder area. That’s because these muscles and tendons are being robbed of an optimal supply of blood due to your smoking activities.

Now we’re not only talking about your own smoking habits. If you’re unlucky enough to have your finger chopped off and then re-attached (replantation hand surgery), just the presence of smoke 20 feet away will turn that healing finger blue. That’s just how dangerous passive smoking also is. I just thank my lucky stars ALL smoking is now banned indoors in public areas in Australia.

So What Are The Common Denominators?

One of the common denominators of the above illnesses is that smoking slows down the microcirculation in your body.

Microcirculation is the tiny network of blood flows in the various nooks and crannies of your body. It’s the way your body ensures it gets enough minerals and nutrients to operate at optimal performance.

If you start slowing or shutting down this microcirculation, then start to expect your body to fall apart.

It’s as simple as that.

So why am I telling you all this?

Because I’m forever reading about the dangers of smoking to our lungs and heart, and it seems that the dangers to our skeletal system is often overlooked.

And a cure to all these problems is simple. Stop smoking today. :-)

Hope you enjoyed this article.

Ciao.

Don’t Believe Me, Well Just Take A Look At The Below Ad.

Your Throat Protection Against Irritation Against Cough

Yeh, right. Who are they trying to kid?

You see, over the years we have all be brainwashed into thinking smoking is the right thing to do.

It’s Cool, It’s Fab, It’s I Dare To Say – Healthy To Smoke.

And for any of you over 40, you probably can all remember the way smoking was seen in our society.

This post came about after seeing Charles Gibson from ABC World News cover a story on how cigarettes were rammed down our throats as being super healthy.

Oh, by the way, for those who want to see some quality news, definitely subscribe to the ABC World News Podcast from within your iTunes software.

I’ve cut out a portion of a recent podcast that goes on about the big tobacco boys and their advertising in the 60’s and 70’s.

Here we have:

• the President of the United States endorsing cigarettes. See who it is.
• Doctors recommending smoking is good for a sore throat.
• Cigarette companies claiming that smoking was healthy for you.
• Children’s cartoons even pushing smoking. Yep, we have the Flintstone’s cartoon guilty of this. Shame on you Fred and Barney.

Click the play button to watch this video. Runs for about 2.5 minutes.

Pretty amazing stuff. It’s a wonder how wrong the world was in those days and how the tobacco companies literally got away with murder for so long. What’s even amazing is that so many of us believed that smoking was the right thing to do.

Like All Things, The Truth Finally Comes Out.

If you’re in New York, be sure to take a look at the New York Public Library where this exhibit is being held. Definitely an eye opener for those who weren’t around in those days, or if you were around, just a reminder how to never accept the media’s word as gospel.

Personally I wasn’t around in the 60’s, so I cannot help to wonder how everyone was so gullible to think that smoking was good for us. But then again, the power of the media and endorsements by celebrities and doctors goes a long way to making us believe in just about anything.

If you do remember such advertisements, then I would love to hear your thoughts. Were you one of the gullible?

Cheers all, and keep up the good work with your efforts to quit smoking.

I’ve finally gotten around to setting up this blog. Something I’ve been meaning to do for a long long time.

You see, I’ve been itching to report on a few stories every now and then, so rather than have my thoughts go out the window, why not put them out there for all you lovely folks to see.

This is the start of some great things to come. I suggest bookmarking this page, or subscribe to it with your favourite RSS news reader. Trust me, you will enjoy it and I aint gonna be dry with my posts either.

Just a light-hearted place to voicing your opinions on relevant stories, insider’s, tips and other odd bits for all you smokers out there.

Enjoy.