Since the early 1800′s when nicotine was first discovered,  has been considered a socially acceptable way of slowly killing one self, often in public. For many years it was considered perfectly normal for smokers to not only indulge in a habit that slowly turned their lungs to carbon but to openly inflict the same fate on others by polluting the air with deadly nicotine poison.

Today society has come leaps and bounds towards recognizing the habit for the potential killer that it is. In many first world societies it is no longer okay to smoke in areas where others must breathe the same air and bystanders may now request that cigarettes not be smoked indoors.

Despite this heightened level of awareness smoking continues to be the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The National Center for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion reports that smoking causes nearly 440,000 deaths each year.

The annual medical costs are in the billions but what is more alarming is the years of potential life lost each year. Across the nation smoking results in the total loss of 5.5 million years of potential living.

These are shocking statistics and yet many of us still smoke or have loved ones that do. Addictions are irrational things. They are no respecters of the facts as they stand. Smoking continues to be attractive to over 40 million of people in the United States alone.

Nicotine still offers that almost immediate high as it makes its way into the pleasure centers of the brain and as the effect dissipates we are forced to take yet another puff.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) recommends that you fully prepare yourself for the act of quitting, that you get yourself the necessary medication and the support that you need and that you prepare for the possibility of relapse and plan around it.

source: CDC (Centers for Disease Control) – Public Domain