The risks of smoking to the health of the body and soul
Cigarettes kill almost 6 million people every year — between active smokers and those who are exposed to smoke. Find out how to avoid being part of this statistic.
Abandoning the use of tobacco is no easy task, because dependence on smoking is a set of behavioral, cognitive, and physiological phenomena. Studies confirm that few users manage to abandon it successfully on their first attempt, but this is no reason for giving up. Perseverance is a strong ally to face this challenge with rationality and clarity and achieve the objective of giving up cigarettes.
The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest threats to public health the world has ever faced. It kills almost six million people a year, of whom five million die from direct use and more than 600,000 die because of exposure to smoke. According to data from the Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA — Brazil), smokers have ten times greater risks of developing lung cancer and five times more chances of having a heart attack than those who do not smoke. Does anyone want to run this risk? Therefore, quitting smoking is the only healthy option to protect your own life and the lives of those close to you.
Besides being totally dispensable, cigarettes harm health, beauty, social life, and also reduce the quality of life. “Passive smokers may suffer from allergic processes, rhinitis, and sneezing, and if they are exposed to it for several years, even at home or at work, people have a greater chance of getting lung and paranasal cancers, suffering a stroke or from high blood pressure, having a heart attack, and even contracting pulmonary emphysema,” explained pulmonologist Ricardo Meirelles, from the Tobacco Control Division of the Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA), to the Good Will Portal.
In addition to all these bodily ills, smoking causes several damages to the soul. After all, “we are now body, but we are originally Spirit”, as the President-Preacher of the Religion of God, of the Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, José de Paiva Netto, teaches us. The Divine Religion clarifies that the situations and attitudes of our day-to-day lives reverberate throughout our eternal spiritual journey. The choices of the present generate not only immediate results, but considerable effects in the near future, which also includes our existence after the phenomenon called "death", because “there is Life in the Spiritual World," says the leader of the Religion of Universal Love.
So the consumption of alcohol and other drugs (legal or otherwise) lead to serious consequences for the Spirit of those who use them. Harming one’s physical health because of the bad habits that have been cultivated and thereby deliberately compromising the duration and quality of life is a form of suicide and contributes to the unhappiness of the Spirit in the Spiritual World for a long time. Read more about the spiritual consequences of tobacco.
Smoking is a disease, a chemical dependence, but it can be cured. For a treatment to be successful, it is necessary for smokers to be aware of the situations that make them smoke. “For them to be able to live without a cigarette, they must learn to live with all the day-to-day situations, particularly stressful ones, without smoking,” emphasizes Dr. Ricardo Meirelles. Treatment using medication helps people quit smoking with quality, without suffering, and they can live their whole lives without cigarettes.
But until when should a person become a slave to this vice? Pulmonologist Alberto Araújo when talking about the favorable results of saying NO to smoking declares: “People will have the satisfaction of having recovered the direction of a part of their life that until then had depended on tobacco. In other words, people will start taking control of their life, which was previously dominated by the presence of a cigarette, before, during, or after, in each task carried out.” The benefits resulting from stopping smoking include an increase in the quality of life; improvements in the palate and sense of smell; saving money; free and easier breathing; and a more agreeable body odor.
"Every day is the day to renew our destiny"
This statement from journalist Paiva Netto contributed to a happy ending in the story of Mrs. Clési Bastos from Glorinha (Brazil). In an interview, she emphasized that it was because of the Religion of the Third Millennium that she had found the strength to overcome the vice after 30 years. “As time passes the body is no longer the same and that’s when you see the ills that cigarettes cause. For example, no physical activity [she didn’t do any], because you’re out of breath, your skin gets old, and you always smell bad.”
It was thanks to the Accomplishing Faith, allied with perseverance, that Clési found a new opportunity. “When I decided my house would become a Family Church I resolved that I had to set an example: look after my body well and look after my family. I thought to myself: ‘How am I going to be an example if I’m always smoking?’ From that day on I decided I wasn’t going to smoke any more. I asked my Guardian Angel and Jesus for help.”
At a moment like this, family support is fundamental for those who want to stop smoking. “When I made this decision I spoke to my children and my husband. My daughter, Elisa, told me that since she’d learned to write, every Saturday she placed a request in the Sacred Basin [at Church] for me to stop smoking. Now I’m going to have more strength and more perseverance to continue with my decision.” And she concluded: “I’m walking, riding a bicycle, and I can breathe better. I thank Jesus for the strength, because He helped me have perseverance and not to be rash.”
Version: Rob Dinham
Revision: Rosana Bertolin
