Over 23,000 people die each year from smoking related illness in Australia. That means, the cigarette and tobacco companies lose over 23,000 customers a year. Research from the national drug strategy states that tobacco abuse costs Australia (as of April 2003) 21 Billion Dollars in health care, business and other social related costs. Passive smoking (non smokers exposed to smokers smoking) kills over 200 Australians per year, half of them – children. These figures are frightening.

Addiction to nicotine is usually established in young smokers within about a year of first experimenting with cigarettes – in many cases, before reaching the age at which it is legal to buy cigarettes.

There are varying opinons how many cigarettes the ‘average’ smoker smokes.

According to the American Lung Association, the average smoker smokes 15 cigarettes each day.

Two to four cigarettes in a row increase blood fats 200 to 400%. The average smoker (30 cigerettes per day) has 4 to 6 times the chance of having heart disease if he’s in the 45-54 year age group.

On average it’s believed each cigarette costs us between 5 and 20 minutes of our lives.

The popular “life saved” calculation used by many who quit smoking estimates life saved at 5 minutes per cigarette not smoked. Is this a real number many people ask.

As I’ve mentioned before, drinking a lot of water will help you detox and get rid of the nicotine, don’t go overboard though and go on a strictly water diet..

Don’t try to lose weight AND quit smoking at the same time, as you will inevitably fail both. Juicing fresh fruit and vegetable juices will help you detox too, and is a little more tasty than plain old water.