- Bronchitis

- Cancer, especially in the lungs

- Pneumonia

- Breathing disorders like Asthma

- Tuberculosis

- Ulcers

- Heart problems

- All different sorts of cancers

On top of these conditions, smoking can harmfully affect you in these ways:

- You may lose your ability to think critically

- It will affect your skin by making it less elastic and more brittle

- It will ruin your ability to smell

- You will lose the ability to differentiate taste

- It will horribly stain your teeth

Some studies have shown that there could be a link between smoking and blindness. Not surprisingly, those who began smoking at a younger age and those that have been smoking longer run a higher risk of losing their vision. Nicotine has strange affects on the body, including altering your fertility by altering the count and DNA of your sperm. Smoking can decrease the chances of conception by up to 40% and smoking throughout pregnancy greatly increases the risks of giving birth to a child that is underweight or suffers from a birth defect.

Further investigation has indicated that smoking can be linked to the loss of memory in smokers. The findings even go so far as to suggest that as much as 20% of brain function can be lost from smoking. It is possible that the increased memory loss in smokers is a result of the high blood pressure they often have. The increase in blood pressure from hypertension changes how much blood goes to the brain. Altering the blood flow to the brain, consequently, alters the nutrients the brain receives thereby cause the memory loss. However, smokers are generally well aware of the potential harm they bring on themselves by smoking, but there are few that manage to kick the habit.

Perhaps an examination of the reasons for this is necessary.

Many former smokers suffer from withdrawal due to their system craving the drug Nicotine they used to receive from the cigarettes. If your body quits receiving nicotine it will demonstrate classic withdrawal symptoms like insomnia, irritability, depression, and a general inability to operate normally and focus. This is the many reason that people give up on their efforts to quit smoking, they cannot tolerate the withdrawal.

Knowing this, what can be done to make it easier?

The best way to get over the addiction is to alter the way your brain thinks about it. You are consciously aware that you are doing severe bodily harm to yourself, but your sub-conscious mind really doesn't care about that and demands that you give into your cravings. Your subconscious has grown used to the innumerable amount of cigarettes you have smoked and it is firmly entrenched in its unwillingness to let you easily stop. What you need to do is figure out how you can trick your subconscious into wanting to stop smoking which will allow you to quit. One of the best methods of achieving this reprogramming of your subconscious is via a technique called Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). There were tests run for NLP that involved five thousand smokers being subject to a short session of NLP. After 6 months of treatment, a staggering 97.2% of the former smokers were still able to refrain from falling back into their old habits.