Click here if you need an incentive to quit smoking

The November 2010 issue of Parenting Magazine lists "3 New Reasons to Kick Ash." Since November 18 is the annual Great American Smokeout, I thought I'd provide my readers who smoke with an incentive to at least think about smoking. It's also a great day to nudge the smoker you love.

So, the new reasons are:

1. A better mood: Smokers are more likely to be depressed, finds a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers are unclear, though, whether it's the depression that leads to smoking, the puffing that leads to blues, or if both factors could be at play. I wonder if there is a greater likelihood that people who are anxious or depressed in the first place are more likely to smoke in an attempt to allay their anxiety. Just a thought. My wife thinks I'm nuts thinking this, though. What say you?

2. Clean genes: You know that regular smokers have a higher cancer risk, but a study from the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found that any amount of smoke exposure causes genetic abnormalities in lung cells, which can lead to a malignancy over time.

3. No scale shock: Doctors used to warn against trying to diet and quit cigs at the same time, but research from the journal Addiction shows that changing eating and smoking habits simultaneously actually makes women more successful at both. You can maintain your weight post-puffing!

Add these to the following facts:

1. Along with Nicotine, there are 4,800 chemicals in cigarettes that are linked to causing cancer, coronary artery disease, thinning the skin, causing strokes, causing heart attacks, etc.

Some chemicals in cigarettes besides nicotine include:

• Arsenic
• Acetic Acid
• Acitone
• Ammonia
• Benzene
• Butane
• Cadmium
• Carbon Monoxide
• Ethanol
• Formaldehyde
• Hydrazine
• Hexamine
• Hydrogen Cyanide
• Lead
• Methane
• Methanol
• Naphthalene
• Nickel
• Phenol
• Polonium
• Steric Acid
• Styrene
• Tar
• Toluene

2. Consider the following facts about quitting smoking:

• Within hours after you stop your carbon monoxide level falls to normal and the oxygen in your blood increases
• One day after you stop your risk for heart attack starts to go down
• Two days after you stop your nerve endings start to repair themselves so your senses of taste and smell start to return to normal
• Two weeks after you quit your lungs are working 30% better than before you quit
• Within 1-9 months lung function continues to improve, cough, sinus congestion, fatigue and shortness of breath all decrease as your lungs regain normal function
• Within one year your risk of heart disease is cut in half.
• Within 15 years risk of stroke, lung cancer and heart disease are that of a person who never smoked, and you can consider yourself fully healed..

3. There are many more reasons you should quit smoking. Consider the following links for more ideas.

Related links:

• Smoking cessation program
• Smoke and have asthma: here's 20 incentives to quit
• More good reasons to quit smoking
• Stop smoking in front of your kids. Period!