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If you intend to stop smoking or drinking, you need to summarize the “pros and cons of your addiction.” Compare the positives and negatives of your habits and realize the advantages and disadvantages of smoking and/or drinking. Look for other more useful ways of spending your free time. Do not feel guilty when you fail but admit that you need the help of an expert and search for one.

Good nutrition, regular exercise and stress management are at the core of every prevention program for illness and injury. Your health can also be influenced by negative activities that can be avoided most of the time. It is for instance important not to smoke, or at least limit smoking significantly and not to consume alcohol at all, or drink it only in a reasonable manner.
Do not expose yourself to excessive sunlight but neither should you avoid natural light (10 minutes daily between 9 – 10 am or 3 – 5 pm provides vitamin D from the sun and helps destroy bacteria).
Try to limit allergens, toxins and other pollutants in your home.

Smoking:
Many people enjoy smoking and drinking alcohol but both of these things influence your health in a negative way. The more you get into one of these habits the higher the risk of getting ill. Addiction to nicotine is at the same time a cause of the negative influence of the tar and gas contained in the tobacco smoke. "Passive smoking" – breathing in the cigarette or cigar smoke from other smokers  – entails a certain risk to your health, although not as large as smoking itself.

Health problems connected to smoking include:
•    destruction of     25 mg of vitamin C with every cigarette smoked
•    insufficient wound healing and pre-mature greying and aging of the skin
•    osteoporosis
•    heart and artery disease and vasoconstriction
•    asthma, bronchitis and emphysema
•    anxiety and depression
•    hearing reduction or even deafness

The worst of all is when pregnant and breastfeeding women smoke. It can lead to miscarriage and low birth weight of the child. Smoking during pregnancy and subsequently increases the probability of so-called Sudden Death Syndrome of infants and dramatically reduces the immunity of the baby.

Alcohol:
Alcohol is a very dangerous drug for the reason that it is a drug tolerated by a society. But just a few people realize its danger.
Following consumption, alcohol is absorbed into the blood. The liver gradually breaks it down into simpler substances and eventually the blood rids itself of the alcohol – if you do not soon drink more. The more alcohol you drink the longer it takes to be broken down by the liver.  Having one glass of wine or beer or small glass of liquor increases the level of alcohol to 15 mg in 100 ml of blood.
Breaking down this amount of alcohol in the blood takes about an hour on average if the person is relatively healthy. Women are somewhat more sensitive as to the harmful effects of alcohol because they absorb it faster and the level of alcohol in their blood reaches a higher amount. A person may start as only a “social drinker”, and then when some serious problems occur in life, end up as an alcoholic.
•    alcohol increases the risk of an accident when driving a vehicle
•    long term drinking causes deep depressions
•    alcohol disturbs the sleep mechanism
•    addictions lead to social problems, violence, malnourishment, high blood pressure, stomach inflammation, liver damage and cancer
•    drinking of alcohol during pregnancy even in small amounts can negatively influence the development (both physical and psychological) of the unborn child
•    a person who drinks regularly even small amounts of alcohol needs 16 times more of magnesium than a non-drinker

To stop?
If you intend to stop smoking or drinking, you need to summarize the “pros and cons of your addiction.” Compare the positives and negatives of your habits and realize the advantages and disadvantages of smoking and/or drinking. Look for other more useful ways of spending your free time. Do not feel guilty when you fail but admit that you need the help of an expert and search for one.
 

Source: www.klinikazdravi.cz