Why should we worry about smoking? For several reasons. Smoking is not merely an expensive luxury; it plays a definite part
in lowering a person's resistance to disease.Heavy smokers die from five to ten years earlier than non-smokers. In most cases the trouble is due to
some condition of the heart or blood-vessels.Another important factor is cancer of the lung.A person can save money by not smoking;but far more consequential,he saves health and vitality. Perhaps you have never learned to smoke, Good! But many of your friends are not soo fortunate.For
their sakes it is well for you to understand something about this problem.Every cigarette your friends smoke leaves them just a little weaker and less able to carry on.Then why don't they stop? Because they are addicted to nicotine, a powerful drug that is present in tobacco leaves.Some people seem to have
little difficulty in giving up the habit, but most people have a real struggle.Strange that a few brown leaves rolled up in a small wrapper or packed
down in the bowl of a pipe should have such a profound effect 0n a person's life.Is it a temporary way of escape from the strain of living amid constant tension?It is true that many heavy smokers are neurotics.Smoking provides a quick way out of a dilemma.Drugs present in tobacco leaves give a temporary lift, so they keep right on smoking, lighting one cigarette from the butt of another.Meanwhile the "weed" is slowly wrecking their health and shortening their lives.What happens when a person stops smoking? His digestion improves, his blood pressure returns to normal,the quality of the blood itself improves, and his heart works more efficiently.But this is not all; the person who gives up smoking does something really worthwhile for his future health.He has less chances of developing ulcers of the stomach, and he is less susceptible to heart disease during the productive years of his life.