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Most of us are well-aware that smoking is bad for your health, all the same, after reading Muriel L. Crawfords Smoking: 201 Reasons to Quit, the truth of exactly how extremely dangerous it is will become very clear. When you consider that in 2004, the World Health Organization estimated that tobacco led to 5.4 million deaths worldwide and 100 millions deaths over the course of the 20th century, you have to admit that there is huge confirmation demonstrating the risks of smoking.
Crawford has diligently researched her subject, presenting a succinct synopsis of the wide-ranging studies concerning the hazards of smoking. Everything crucial is included in Smoking: 201 Reasons to Quit , leaving no stone unturned.
As a lawyer for many years for a life and health insurance company, Crawford's duties involved studying hundreds of medical files relating to insurance claims as well as conferring with the companys physicians. During examining these files, she noted the multitude of illnesses that were caused or made worse by tobacco use. Later, she conducted her own independent study of the effects of tobacco and discovered that there were more than sixty thousand medical journal articles about tobaccos harmful impact on our health. She also found thousands of magazine and newspapers articles about tobaccos adverse effects on personal, social, and legal relationships, on physical appearance, and on financial well -being. However, as she states, although a great deal has been written about tobacco use in medical journals, magazines, and newspapers, few books comprehensively deal with the subject matter that we can find on the shelves of bookstores and libraries.
Smoking: 201 Reasons to Quit appropriately begins with an endorsement from Hollywood actor Jack Klugman, who is a cancer survivor. Klugman is a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society, who considers himself lucky that he was able to survive, as he states: you might not be if you smoke. It took cancer and the loss of his normal speech to wake him up and motivate him to quite smoking, however, he counsels, don't wait until something drastic happens before you become motivated.
Crawfords writing is plainspoken, employing a minimum of medical jargon, an approach that allows the reader to experience a sense of urgency concerning the damage that cigarette smoking can cause to our bodies. Moreover, each topic is presented with admirable concision, without being pedantic-something that could prove quite difficult to achieve when you consider the enormity of the topic, yet Crawford effectively pulls it off.
Every chapter and sub-chapter read like laid-back, albeit enlightening, lectures from someone who has done her homework and who gives her readers much to ponder as she examines and describes the much higher risk smokers have of developing a host of life threatening diseases. This assortment ranges from diseases of the cardio-vascular system, the lungs, brain and nerves, the digestive tract, to those associated with eye, ear, nose, bones, and back. There are also autoimmune diseases such as Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Raynauds disease, emphysema, and cancer of the lung, larynx, mouth and pancreas. And we must not forget about sleep problems, sexual and hormonal problems, reproduction problems, pregnancy and breast- feeding. Then there are hazards of indoor and outdoor pollution, radon and occupational pollution, and not to leave out tobaccos interaction with medications, reduced exercise capacity, and HIV infection. In addition and as pointed out in the book, there are second-hand smoke problems, injuries, your physical appearance, relationships with others, economic costs and helping others quit tobacco.
Time will only tell if this book will serve as a catalyst in persuading some people not to begin using tobacco and others to cease,and to quote Crawford's concluding remarks, No persuasion I have ever done could be as important as that.
Click Here To Read Norm's Interview With Muriel L. Crawford
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