Playing With Fire

For my outside reading, I read an aritcle out of the magazine Teen Vogue called "Playing With Fire". This article is about the latest research on smoking habits and how dangerous it can be to your health. It has information about how smoking can affect all of the following areas of personal health; weight/height, skin, sleep, heart, brain, and hair. It reports that many girls decide to start smoking because they have heard that it could help them lose weight. Well studys show that that myth is completely false. Also, researchers have found that boys who smoke an average of 100 cigarettes per month are roughly an inch shorter than non smokers. Another fact about smoking and what it does to your health is that it can be very dangerous to your skin. According to New York City-based dermatologist Francesca Fusco, M.D. "Smoking constricts your blood vessels, thereby restricting blood flow to the skin. That translates to slower skin-cell turnover, which can lead to clogged pores and acne." The article also talks about how smoking can affect a person's heart. the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that people, ecspecially women, who smoke cigarettes are up to 4 times more likely to develope some kind of heart disease. A very interesting fact about smoking is that it causes hair to gray and thin at a very young age, much younger than it would for a non-smoker. This article even comes with some how-to-quit tips for addicted smokers. Some include substituting a daily smoke for a walk, organizing a group of friends who are willing to quit with you, to repeatedly put out your cigarette so that you eventually get in the habit of it, try chewing on carrots, celery, or apple slices instead of smoking a cigarette, and to seek professional help. Furthermore, this article as a whole is completely against smoking and shows people the dangerous effects it can have one you. My opinion is that smoking is a gross and dangerous habit that can harmfully effect you and others around you.