10 Myths About Smoking that Could Kill You

You're only immortal for a very short period of time. Back when I was thirteen I took a lot of risks that I wouldn't even think of taking today. Not only did I never wear a helmet when I rode my bike, but my friends and I liked to ride through the nearby housing projects and try to outrun the kids that would come after us with baseball bats trying to knock us off. If you made it through you had bragging rights.

We would also jump from roof to roof without fear of falling as well as explore the old condemned houses that dotted the 150-year-old neighborhood. Quite a few times I fell through the floor, but that was part of the excitement wasn't it?

The dangers of cigarette smoking were well known when I was growing up, but I started smoking when I was 13 anyway. Anybody could buy tobacco back then, all you had to do was tell the clerk that the cigarettes were for your parents. We would gather in one of the old flatbed trucks that were in the local junkyard that was owned by one of my friend's father.

One night we went in there smoking and caught the old canvas rear of the truck on fire and burned it up. After getting in trouble with the kid's father, I stopped smoking until I was in my mid-twenties. I was managing a restaurant and a bunch of us managers would go out to a local bar after our shifts, drink beer, and smoke cigarettes. I smoked for the next twenty-four years. I finally quit about 3-years-ago. I'm really glad I did.

All the time I was a smoker I heard a lot of myths about the habit. WebMD has put together a list of the most common ones. Here are a few of them:

If I live an otherwise healthy lifestyle and exercise a lot it will counter the bad effects of smoking cigarettes. Not true. All of the vitamins and cardio in the world won't keep you from getting lung cancer from smoking. About half of all smokers will eventually die from its complications.

Light cigarettes are better than regular cigarettes. Nope. All that happens when you smoke light or mild cigarettes is that you smoke more to make up for the lower levels of nicotine. They have the same dangerous effects as regular cigarettes.

Some people think that after smoking for a long period they have already done all the damage they can do to their lungs. Not so. Quitting at any time in your life greatly reduces your chances of dying from the habit. But remember, the sooner you quit, the better.

Fact: Nicotine replacement products are safer than smoking. Nicotine alone is safe when used as directed. Cigarettes on the other hand have about 4,000 other compounds in them. 60 of those are known to cause cancer.

So the time to quit is now. Remember you are not the only one harmed by your smoking. Second hand smoke kills thousands of people a year including children. I used to be vehemently for smoker's rights, but quitting smoking has changed my mind. And probably saved my life.

Don't become like the guy who had a hole cut in his throat because of cancer and was seen a few days after the operation trying to stick a cigarette in the bloody hole where his throat once was.

Source: http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/features/10-persistent-myths-about-smoking?page=3