Herbal News Magazine

I read the most fascinating article about people who are diagnosed with a disease that is clearly related to smoking such as COPD, lung cancer, Emphysema and other commonly related diseases.  You would think people would quit the habit after finding out they ar diagnosed with one of the top causes of death, but many of them don’t. It’s not quite fifty percent of people who don’t quit but let me tell you it’s darn near that.

Roughly estimated, it’s about 40% of people who are diagnosed with one of these devasatating diseases that still do not quit smoking.  This goes to show just how mentally and physically addictive nicotine and tobacco are to the human body.  I even have a personal story to tell about this.

Someone close to me in my family was diagnosed with prostate cancer in his late fifties.  He never did quit smoking the entire time even when he was going through chemotherapy and all the other various poison therapies he unfortunately had to be on.

Now, I get that when a person is near the end of their life and are in the terminal stages of cancer they should just “do what they want”, but there is always a chance to come back, and smoking carcinogens into your lungs is certainly a good way to hasten the disease along.

He really couldn’t quit. He was that addicted to smoking and figured he still wanted to enjoy the habit even after his cancer took a turn for the worse and he became terminal.  Stopping the habit is indeed challenging. I was a smoker in college and had a hard time quitting, even though I had asthma and I never should have picked up the habit in the first place.

My conscious, intelligent mind was telling me to quit, yet my body and mind were also telling me how good it felt to hold that cigarette in my hand, inhale slowly and let the chemicals take control of my mind, giving me that great buzz that cigarettes give you.

It is indeed a huge challenge, but it’s worth it. I’ve been off cigarettes for almost a decade now and feel so much healthier.  It’s a shame that so many people, even after diagnosed with life threatening disease, cannot find the willpower to quit – this is a testament to how addictive and dangerous this pastime is.

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Everyone knows that smoking cigarettes, cigars and other things you inhale hot smoke into your lungs with are dangerous to your health. That has definitely been more than established by the medical community.  As if to drive the point home even further, the Center for Disease Control has released their top death causes list.

And guess what?  The top three causes are related in some way to smoking. That’s not to say there are not other factors involved such as genetics, other lifestyle choices and environmental factors. However, each of them can have a direct relation to the act of smoking. Which makes quitting smoking all that much more important.

3 Smoking-Related Causes of Death

1.)  Emphysema and other lung function disease such as COPD.  This one is one of the most undeniably smoking-related health issues that can lead to death pretty easily.  Aside from lung cancer, it is a definite link to smoking – although, as with everything else, it can also happen on its own without smoking, but that is pretty rare and the link is a well known one.

2.) Cancer.  There are several types of cancer that are related to smoking. Cigarettes are a carcinogen. Not only does the smoke produce toxic by-products, but the cigarettes themselves contain harmful chemicals that permeate not only the lungs and other organs in the body, but also the surfaces of furniture, the walls in homes, the surfaces in cars, and everywhere else the harmful habit is done, making it carcinogenic not only to the smoker, but also to “second hand smokers”.  Basically, cigarette smoke is a cancer causing agent, and for that reason, it has been linked to everything from breast cancer to prostate cancer.

3.) Heart disease.  Heart disease can be partially genetic, true. It can also be greatly attributed to your diet and lack of exercise. However, smoking is also another acknowledged risk factor in determining likelihood of heart disease. Your ticker is affected by smoking because smoking raises heart rate and also increases blood pressure and stress levels, all of which are not heart friendly and cause damage over the years.

Smoking generally makes the smoker feel relaxed in the very moments they are smoking (and gives them a feel-good buzz too, hence the addictiveness). However, this is misleading because in the end smoking really jacks our nervous system up and increases dangerous anxiety and stress hormone levels, none of which is good for the heart.

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You know when you hear any news about the dangerous plastic-derived chemical BPA (Bisphenol A), it’s not going to be good news. Unfortunately more news has come out that it’s even easier for our blood to soak up this chemical than we thought. In fact, simply ingesting foods that are canned once a day can significantly increase your blood content of the plastic chemical.

You may be asking – cans contain this chemical too, I thought it was just plastics?  No, BPA is unfortunately ingrained in the American culture as a chemical that is found in the lining of everything from cans used to can foods to the lining used in personal care and hygiene products like toothpaste.

BPA levels can especially build to dangerous and even more toxic levels in those that consume a lot of processed, prepackaged and canned foods. Particularly the latter. Canned foods are one of the biggest problems because they have such long shelf lives and can absorb so much of the chemical over that period of time.

The innocent can of soup or fruit is no longer so innocent when you consider that it has potentially leached a boatload of the chemical into it, which you are then taking in. If you think about, many canned items often have a slightly strange taste to them.

That plastic-like taste may be the BPA that you are tasting. Now, you can buy BPA-free cans, but it will cost you a bit more. I know that Muir Glen is a brand that packages organic tomato products in BPA free cans. They use some other sort of enamel to line their cans that is nontoxic.

What is the problem with BPAs anyway?

Although we’ve talked about BPA’s before, I think it prudent to share again for any new readers that may not be aware of the health dangers of BPA’s.  They are a chemical that leaches out of lininings or plastic bottles into the fluid or semi-fluid contents of the container.

BPAs have been linked to hormonal disruption in the form of putting out fake estrogens, as well as several different types of cancer in both men and women. It has particularly been suspected as a partial cause of breast cancer.  It is best to completely avoid BPA’s as much as you can in the food and drinks you put in your body.

To some extent you cannot avoid complete contact with them, but you can definitely dramatically reduce it by making the right food and drink (and container) choices.

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Aspirin, while falling out of favor for general use for pain relief, which is of course what it was originally used for back in the “day”, has grown in popularity for other uses.  It is used now for people who are concerned about heart health, who may have had heart attacks in their family history.

That is because aspirin has a blood thinning quality. Because it has this blood thinning quality, it helps the blood flow more freely through the body. This means it is less likely to clot, and cause problems with the heart as well as the brain (stroke).

The primary reasons for heart attacks and stroke is high cholesterol (blood fat levels) and “sticky” blood which is caused by diet and other lifestyle issues.  When you take aspirin, it helps to thin the blood and make it more viscous, which just means it flows more easily through the veins, capillaries, and other blood passageways.

Aspirin is now also implicated in cutting the risks of dying from cancer.  It has shown benefit when colon cancer patients take it.  It actually helps them to cut their cancer risk, even if they are predisposed to the colon cancer in the first place.

It was actually shown to cause ulcers in some patients, but also cut more cancer risk than that, so it was deemed “worth it” for that additional ulcer risk.  There is not an exact mechanism known for why aspirin may cut cancer risk and death of cancer risk for not only colon cancer but possibly other types as well.

It is thought that aspirin may help to prevent cancerous cells from forming all the way, or to kill them off before they become fully mutated and can reproduce.  Of course, taking aspirin can increase your risk for stomach upset, but if it can cut cancer and heart attack risk, it may well be worth it.

Especially if you are in a higher risk bracket for getting cancer or a heart attack in the first place.  Other natural “blood thinners” can include a high quality omega 3 fatty acid supplement and antioxidants such as can be found in HGH enhancing supplements.

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Well, it has been almost ten years to the day that the awful thing that changed America forever happened. 9/11 happened almost ten years ago to the day. It will be the ten year anniversary of this tragic event tomorrow. It is forever ingrained in the American psyche as a day that will live in infamy not because of any greatness, but because we were all so dumbfounded that this could happen in such a great country.

The brave firefighters who helped people out of the burning building are now under a new threat, and it is becoming more apparent after the events unfolded and it has been several years that any toxic effects of the fumes they inhaled may actually be something to worry about.

The new study that was recently published showed that the firefighters who were involved in the 9/11 mission to help rescue people from the World Trade Center, have about a nineteen percent higher risk of developing cancer of all kinds than their coworkers who did not work on this event.

The fumes they were exposed to, and the victims were exposed to, included a lot of volatile chemical compounds that, when they enter the body can have cell altering effects and causing cancer to spawn from healthy cells. Often times, when something happens of this nature, it can take years for the true damage of the exposure to surface, and apparently now researchers are starting to piece it together.

Not only has there been a higher rate of many different kinds of cancer among the 9/11 workers, but there has also been a higher occurrence of respiratory disease and problems that are associate with lung inhalation of several toxic agents found in the biproducts of burning materials.

These chemicals that they were exposed to are known cancer causing agents, or carcinogens. They include but are not limited to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxins.

Because of contact, inhalation, and subsequent blood stream absorption of these chemicals, people’s cells can alter and begin to mutate and become cancerous. It may not happen to everyone exposed, but it certainly does make one’s chances higher of developing cancers and health issues associated to toxin exposure.

This is a sad state of affairs, but there may not have been more that could be done to protect these brave workers. They all wear protective masks, but the scope and breadth of the 9/11 event was just too hostile and penetrating to overcome realistically with simple masks.

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