We’ve all heard the main and obvious reasons to quit smoking. Heart disease and cancer are two of the biggest killers of people in our time and two of the most preventable as well. World Health Organization studies indicate that if left unchecked, smoking could easily wipe out more than a billion people in this century. If the Titanic sank with all hands every 24 minutes for the next 100 years, that would be close to the number of deaths from smoking.

Three quarters of smokers today are trying to kick the habit which is up 32 percent from twenty years ago. The reasons for quitting have only gotten more prevalent as health issues have connected cigarette smoking to everything from diabetes to blindness and everything in between. It’s not just about heart disease, stroke and cancer anymore. Now, the health issues associated with smoking can even harm your children and those around you. Here are a few other quality of life issues associated with smoking that you may not know about.

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There’s no getting around the fact that the current economic conditions are getting on peoples’ nerves. The stress factors that many people have to deal with are rising rapidly as life insurance and other financial matters grind away at the thoughts and worries of everyone. There’s a definite link between financial pressures and personal stress and for many people that means not being able to deal properly with the everyday matters of life such as friends and family. Unfortunately, having a good life insurance plan usually doesn’t mean it’ll help you live a better life while you’re here. That’s why it’s important to keep your quality of life in the upper reaches by dealing properly with stress levels.

The simple truth is that 44% of all employees in America are living from one paycheck to the next with 60% of all employees – even the more successful ones – worried about their financial future and whether or not they’ll continue to be able to make ends meet. It’s very important that you don’t allow financial worries to begin to take a toll on your personal health. Stress has a very subtle way of grinding away at a person a little more every day until only the raw nerve ends are showing. Increased stress levels can also mean increased health costs to people who have a hard time dealing with the stress brought on by uncertain financial times.

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The headline “suicide” probably jumped out at you like a red flag in front of a mad bull. Suicide is nothing to take lightly, and it certainly isn’t in this case here. Chantix, an anti-smoking drug created by the pharmaceutical mega-giant Pfizer, has been linked to cases of depression, psychiatric problems and even suicide. Maybe you have never heard of the drug, but you probably know someone in your life who is a smoker. If they have ever thought of quitting, pass this vital information along to them.

What is Chantix?

According to drugs.com, Chantix “is used as a smoking cessation medicine or treatment. It is used together with behavior modification and counseling support to help you stop smoking cigarettes. Chantix works in the brain to block the pleasurable effects of smoking. This helps to decrease your desire to keep smoking.” That right there might be a warning sign for some: “works in the brain.” Taking a drug like this is no lighthearted undertaking; it literally affects the way your mind thinks and feels about smoking, and obviously other things in your life as well, and as you will see below, has had disastrous side effects.

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photo credit: hans s

Let’s pretend for a minute that you could decide what a year of your life would be worth. That decision would be based on what you felt a year of ‘quality life’ would be worth for you to have to give up, forgetting about any life insurance policies or coverage that you may have. It will probably be a very hard figure for you to come up with and will depend on whether you’re young and single or older with a family depending on you to take care of them. Would it be one million dollars? More? Less?

Life is Worth Less Than You May Think

Well, would you believe that the value of a year of life has been calculated and standardized by life insurance companies as being worth…are you ready for this?

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photo credit: Kah Zanon.

It may seem like just a harmless habit that anyone can stop at any time, but smoking tobacco is one of the hardest addictions to break. In young people, the damage from tobacco smoke can also cause lung development to be reduced, which will have an impact on maximum lung functions later in life. Teenagers also are at a much higher risk of addiction because teens become addicted to substances at a much faster rate.

Life Insurance for Sons and Daughters Who Smoke

In addition to your young one being at risk for all of these negative effects, you may find another shocker – and that’s in the pocket-book. Life insurance for your teenager or college-age son or daughter may cost you as much as $350 / month more. That’s because life insurance policies are able to set higher rates for smokers. The way each company sets their premium varies, but it’s often determined by how much tobacco your son or daughter consumes.

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