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.
Smoking and Life Insurance Premiums
Smoking not only affects your health and quality of life, but it also affects your finances. Take the example of a 56-year-old smoker shopping for a 15-year term life insurance policy. The cheapest policy on the market for a preferred smoker’s term life policy is $3555 annually from Transamerica and Western Reserve. In fact, preferred smoker’s life insurance rates could run as high as $4865 annually.
So how much would a similar policy for a non-smoker cost? $1160. That’s right – a smoker’s policy is as much as five times the average non-smoker’s policy. Try smoking that.
Smoking and the Mind
Smoking cigarettes may actually work to cloud the mind, in middle aged subjects. Nicotine has been associated, in recent studies, with memory problems and a decrease in reasoning abilities. This risk is apparently lessened in those subjects who’ve quit smoking long ago. This is important because other studies have shown that people who develop mild cognitive problems in midlife are more prone to developing conditions of dementia in their later years.
Smoking and Your Vision
Several studies have also found a definite link between smoking and degenerative eye disease. Age-related macular degeneration, which can cause permanently-blurred vision or blindness, is one of the chief eye conditions caused by smoking cigarettes. A 2005 study presented in the journal Eye reported that active smokers are three times more likely to develop eye disease compared to those who have never smoked.
photo credit: P/UL