Whether you want to learn more about smoking for yourself or for a loved one, a number of helpful resources are available, from health-care providers and associations to trained professionals who have heard questions like yours before.
Step 1
Discuss tobacco use with your doctor, who can help you or a loved one find tobacco cessation programs or practitioners and can also tell you how the human body can be addicted to smoking and its effects.
Step 2
Visit the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention's special website for smoking and addiction (see Resources) and click through or search to find out basic information or answers to your questions regarding how smoking affects your body, mind and environment. Choose trustworthy sources of information on smoking--such as government or university resources--rather than assuming what you read in fashion magazines or so-called health magazines is accurate. Learn about the latest findings or answer specific questions by searching peer-reviewed articles using scholar.google.com, a resource for finding scholarly literature online.
Step 3
Talk to counselors trained to help smokers. According to the Centers for Disease Control, counseling in combination with self-help programs and use of FDA-approved medications can double your chances of quitting smoking. Access local resources through connecting with local quit-lines by dialing 800-784-8669 (800-QUITNOW) or American Lung Association chapters at 800-586-4872 (800-LUNG-USA). Even if you're just curious about what smoking does to the body or what quitting smoking would feel like, speaking to professionals is a good idea. You also can check with your local hospital, which might have a community wellness office, or access live help through an instant messaging service provided by the National Cancer Institute (see Resources).
Step 4
Peruse the American Lung Association's website to discover the contents of cigarettes and cigars. For example, there are approximately 600 ingredients in cigarettes, and burning a cigarette creates more than 4,000 chemicals. Examine trends in cigarette and tobacco use and related mortality rates, as well.
Step 5
Read about what can motivate smokers to quit on the ALA website. Quitting smoking is the most important step someone who smokes can take to improve her length and quality of life, according to the Surgeon General. Motivate yourself to take this step by learning about other reasons--financial savings, convenience, health benefits--to stop. The American Lung Association provides a list of common reasons, so if you are a smoker, use this list to spark ideas of how your life could change for the better if you didn't smoke.
