Curiosity leads youth to smoke

A RECENT STUDY HAS FOUND OUT THAT MOST YOUNGSTERS TAKE UP SMOKING BECAUSE THEY ARE CURIOUS ABOUT THE WHOLE SMOKING EXPERIENCE. AND EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE WELL AWARE OF THE HEALTH HAZARDS, THEY FIND IT DIFFICULT TO QUIT SMOKING..

Youngsters don't start smoking because they think it's cool. They take their first drag out of sheer curiosity, reveals a new study conducted by the Roy Castle Foundation. 82 per cent of smokers pick up the habit before the age of 18, according to the Liverpool Longitudinal Smoking Study. Some youngsters start puffing away as an act of rebellion; others take to it to attract friends and a few do it just to kill time.

Young smokers in the city back up these findings. "I started smoking when I was 17," says Karen Thomas, a software professional at IBM. "There was no particular reason why I started. I was just curious. Then it became a habit to the extent that I was smoking 20 cigarettes a day," says Karen, who is now down to less than 10 a day.

Kshitij Jain, a student at Wesley Degree College, stole his first fag from his dad, who is a smoker. "I tried it when I was 11, but it wasn't a regular occurrence until I turned 19," he says. "I smoke six-seven cigarettes a day and it's not possible for me to stop now. Especially when I go to play snooker and everyone is smoking, I can't resist it," he explains.

The obvious reason to quit would be health effects, but even that's not so easy. Says Karen, "I have cut down a lot 'coz my health is suffering, but I end up smoking when I go clubbing."

Maybe images of diseased lungs on cigarette packets will help, feels Kshitij. "I went to Malaysia recently and saw the awful graphics on the cigarette packs there. That's really got me trying to quit," he says. But most youngsters are well aware of the damage that cigarettes can cause yet find it difficult to give up smoking. "We all know that cigarettes are injurious to health," says Jatin Narang, a student of Icfai. "And they say it causes impotency, but none of my friends have become impotent after smoking," adds Jatin, who started smoking at 17. "One of my friends offered me my first ciggie, but there's no peer pressure. I just smoke when I feel like it," is his story.

However, consultant psychologist and hypnotherapist Srikanth Acharya, of KIMS Hospital, gives us a more helpful explanation. "Youngsters start smoking for various reasons. It could be stress from academics, parents' expectations, some unresolved conflict or even plain boredom. Smoking is also a way of showing that they can make their own choices; they're mature and need advice from nobody," says Acharya. "But whatever the reason, anyone can kick the habit with some systematic steps in behaviour modification. Identify the problem. Are you smoking because of some inadequacy - no girlfriend, no bike or laptop? Figure out when you tend to light up and avoid going to your favourite cigarette shop. Stay away from things which tempt you to smoke and make changes in your smoking pattern. If you usually do it with your right hand, shift to the left. If you like to stand and puff away, try it sitting down. Break the pattern and follow the changes for 21 days continuously. If it doesn't help, get professional counselling," he says.
Image and article source: Deccan Chronicle

Holy smoke! Cigarettes can make men bald..

Most people that smoking causes cancer, heart attack, lung disease and impotence. Now, a study on Asian men has revealed that cigarettes also lead to baldness. Male-pattern baldness runs in families and is influenced by male sex hormones and some environmental factors such as diet and stress. Researchers are now saying that smoking also causes hair loss by lowering the supply of blood to the hair follicles. In fact, so strong is the impact of smoking on hair health that it even causes hair loss in Asian men, who are genetically less likely to go bald than white Caucasian men, report researchers in the journal Archives of Dermatology.

"The findings are not surprising. It's well established that smoking causes the blood vessels to constrict, lowering the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the heart. Here, too, the hair follicles are being deprived of oxygen and nutrition," says Dr R.R. Kasliwal, senior consultant cardiologist, Apollo Hospital. Scientists studied 740 Taiwanese men with an average age of 65. After gathering information about the age at which they started losing their hair, their smoking history and their height and weight, as well as taking blood samples, they found cigarettes led to significantly more hair loss even after taking other factors into account. "After controlling for age and family history, statistically significant positive associations were noted between moderate or severe palepattern baldness and smoking status," said Dr Lin-hui Su of the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in Taiwan.

Cigarette smoke contains over 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer. Apart from cancer, smoking is also a major risk factor in chronic bronchitis, heart disease and stroke, and other disorders such as slowed healing of wounds, impotence, infertility and peptic ulcer disease. Tobacco is the second biggest cause of death in the world, according to the World Health Organisation. It currently kills about 5 million people - one in 10 adult deaths - each year globally Half the people that smoke or consume . Tobacco in other forms today - about 650 million people - will eventually be killed by their habit, says the WHO.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, tobacco use is responsible for over 10 lakh deaths each year - about 2,800 people every day Some 250 million people use tobacco in some . form or the other. Apart from the smoked forms (cigarettes, bidis and cigars), several smokeless forms of consumption exist and they account for 40 per cent of the total tobacco consumption. 250 mn tobacco users in India 16% of them are cigarette smokers 44% smoke bidis 40% have gutka, mishri (roasted black tobacco powder applied to gums) and chewing tobacco in betel-quid.
image and article source:hindustantimes.com