So you want to know what some smoking side effects are? Well let’s start with some interesting ones that you might not have heard of.
Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you and nothing could really be more boring than going over the physiological changes that occur from smoking. Yes, it messes up your blood pressure, it increases your heart rate in the short term, blah blah blah. No one cares, and we all know that it is bad for you.
So let’s consider some side effects from smoking that you might not have considered:
1) The average smoker spends almost a full month out of every year actually engaged in the act of smoking.
Holy crap! That should be a real eye opener for you. Can you imagine how much time you are wasting out of your life? Almost an entire month out of the year is spent in the physical act of puffing on a cigarette. This is for a pack-a-day smoker who chiefs them down at an average rate.
This has got to make you stop and think. What if you did something else with that 1 month out of every year…think you could be a bit more productive with your time if you gave up smoking?
This has got to be the most under realized side effect of smoking: wasted time.
2) Money
Everyone knows that smoking costs big money, right? Of course it all adds up, but most are not figuring in the total cost to their pocketbook if they continue to smoke until they fall ill due to cigarettes. If that is the case then the cost of smoking becomes astronomical, as you have to figure in your health expenses.
I have been quit now for 3 years and 11 months and at $3.50 per pack that is a savings of over 6 thousand dollars, just on the smokes alone. But remember, the actual money for the cigarettes is just one piece of the puzzle, the extra sick days you have to take, the missed work, the cost of cancer treatment….it all adds up eventually.
3) Social stigma
You probably feel this every once in a while if you are a smoker, and it will probably only continue to get worse, as smoking becomes slowly less acceptable in our society. It may not be fair and it may not be right, but it is the way things are heading. If you are still smoking then you are the outcast, and everyone casts a strange look at you when you go out to get your fix.
