How I Overcame My Tobacco Addiction ... - by the late Byrnes

[Guest guest]

[ wrote to Chris]

Forget about stroke and digestion. Smoking isn't doing your lung capacity

any good, regardless of your feelings that it's at least not making much of

a difference yet.

---------------

,

These stroke concerns are not immediate, but there is a strong link between

smoking cigarette smoking and stroke. Dr. Byrnes died of a stroke in

his 30s just last year after smoking for 18 years. I realize he had other

health issues, but it's something to consider.

Respectfully,

Deanna

http://www.powerhealth.net/articlescigs.htm (excerpt follows)

For the first few years I smoked very little, maybe 5-6 cigarettes a

day. At one point, I quit. Lean financial times forced me to give it up.

But when things turned around, I started up again. Slowly but surely, my

5 cigarette-a-day habit grew into a 40 cigarette-a-day one. By the time

I quit, I was smoking $5.00 a day.

Overall, I enjoyed smoking but was annoyed at several undesirable

qualities that came with it. On the top of my list of peeves was the

smell. While tobacco may be a richly scented plant, with some species

having beautiful flowers, processed, burning tobacco stinks. That

ghastly odor permeated everything around me, my clothes, my knapsack, my

books, my newspaper, my hair, my mouth, my fingers, and my body. Even if

I had not had a cigarette for awhile, people still knew I smoked from

the reeking smell. I'd always be a little chagrined when someone would

back slightly away from me to get away from the odor. I constantly

sucked on mints to keep my breath fresh. On top of the smell was the

mess: the ashes, the used up butts, the dirty ashtrays.

What also bugged me was the addiction, the overwhelming necessity to

smoke to avoid going through the roof with nicotine cravings. This was

one of the things that prompted me to quit. At rock bottom, I was a

junkie. An addict. A slave to nicotine. I was not comfortable with

something controlling me that much.

When I was 33, I helped a friend overcome a serious illness using

various nutritional and herbal methods. The experience had such a

profound impact on me that I decided to go back to school and get

advanced degrees in nutrition and natural therapies. Believe it or not,

I was still smoking when I began my studies! The incongruity of it all,

however, began to weigh on my mind: " What am I doing?! How can I help

people overcome disease when I'm doing something that causes it? What

kind of example will I be to my future clients? " I realized I had to

quit, but I did not have enough motivation yet.

The motivation came. For the past two years I'd been having episodes

when I would begin gasping and gulping for air. These episodes did not

happen often, but when they did occur, it was scary. I felt like I was

drowning. This was, I learned later, one of the first signs of

emphysema. Additionally, I was getting my once a year bout with

bronchitis twice a year. On top of this, I had no energy. I'd look at

myself sometimes and think, " For God's sake! I'm only 33 and I have

virtually no stamina! "