Genital Warts and the Human Papilloma Virus

Otherwise known as venereal warts (condylomata acuminate), genital warts are some of the most common kind of sexually-transmitted disease (STDs). They inhabit the moist tissue areas of the genitalia. Its appearance could vary from being small to becoming very large clusters. Some may appear like colored flesh bumps similar to cauliflowers. Genital warts should be taken seriously because albeit they are treatable by medications or surgery, enough studies show that they are closely linked to cervical and similar types of cancers.

Genital warts could develop in men and women alike. They could develop on the vulva, the anus, the cervix, the walls of the vagina, the scrotum, the shaft of the penis, or even in the throat or mouth due to oral sexual contact. Aside from the swelling or large clustering of the warts, its signs and symptoms include itching or discomfort at the genital area and bleeding during intercourse. Often though, genital warts show no sign or symptoms at all. Sometimes, they can be very small and flat making them invisible to the naked eye. Pregnant women should also be cautioned that dormant infections could be triggered or worsened by the pregnancy.

The so-called HPV or Human Papilloma virus causes genital warts and infects the outermost part of the skin. Of the over 100 types of HPV, only a few are highly contagious. People whose partners have this condition almost always develop genital warts within a range of 3 months to several years from sexual contact. The risk of having this virus is greater for irresponsible and promiscuous individuals. Unprotected sex, having multiple sexual partners, STDs, and sexual activity at an early age all increase the risk of becoming infected.

Without treatment, some 30% of genital warts simply go away that is why if they aren’t bothering you, treatment may not be necessary. However, some cases do need serious medical actions especially when symptoms include burning, itching, pain, or even emotional distress. Even after treatment though, the virus may still invisibly linger on the skin and sometimes reappear. Thus, some medications advised are as imiquimod (aldara), podophyllin and podofilox (Condylox), and Trichloroacetic acid (TCA).

Over-the-counter medicines should be avoided since they often cause more pain and worsen the irritation when used in the moist tissue areas of the genitals. Some genital warts that don’t go away with medications might need surgery, especially for women whose forthcoming delivery may expose the baby to it upon delivery.

If you feel that you are afflicted with this condition, it is recommended for you to see your medical practitioner. While waiting for the appointment with your doctor, all sexual contacts should be avoided in order to not put your sex partner into further risk of infection. Aside from sexual intercourse, also avoid oral sex or any form of skin contact with the infected genitals. Care to advise your sex partner to consult a physician as well.

Never postpone going to the doctor when bumps or warts develop in the genital areas. It would also be wise to do so when your sex partner develops or is diagnosed with genital warts. It’s always better safe than sorry so if the first signs of genital warts appear, do consult your doctor immediately. This condition is surely nothing to be embarrassed about since it’s your sexual health that is on the line here.

Psychotherapy Help to Stop Smoking

Psychotherapy is a proven stop smoking aid that does not necessarily involve expensive professional counseling sessions; a mere combination of some outside assistance and a lot of self-help can easily increase your chances of giving up smoking for good. In the long run, quitting smoking will lead to better behavior and health.

Remember not to focus merely on one school of psychotherapy to help you stop smoking; there are tons out there. Try using various techniques from each school to reach your ultimate goal: giving up smoking permanently.

A very popular stop smoking aid is stop smoking hypnosis. Hypnosis was developed as a therapeutic method in the 19th century and although this was once only associated with charlatans, the professionals of today find that smoking hypnotherapy may actually aid in altering a number of smoking behaviors. This proves helpful in smoking to curb the nicotine addiction that is needed for actual long-term changes in smoking habits. Hypnosis involves triggering hidden levels in the mind to replace thoughts of smoking to other healthier triggers.

If smoking hypnotherapy does not appeal to you, you could try cognitive therapy, which will help you discover that you are in control of all of your thoughts and ideas, including those that influence you into smoking.

Through this approach, you will be required to list events and objects that usually lead you to smoking. Finding these smoking triggers will bring them into your consciousness, where you know they can be controlled. Once these thoughts are in you head, you can intentionally replace them with new thoughts. To do so, however, thoughts and feelings need to be balanced out. To stop smoking in the long-term, it is important to know what motivates you into smoking in the first place. Actually giving up smoking, however, is the goal that will still need to be reached.

To keep your mind off of smoking, you may also try focusing on no smoking activities. Instead of smoking to reduce stress, try exercising instead. Or, instead of smoking while having alcohol, try eating a piece of bread or fruit instead. By doing these things, you’ll not only be avoiding smoking, but you’ll be getting into shape, as well. Simply refraining from smoking one cigarette may slowly save your life. The main technique is to redirect your decision from smoking to something that will eliminate an entire smoking episode and present a healthy alternative.

Keep in mind, however, that all long-term behavior modifications may only come to success if they turn into re-forming habits. Once upon a time, smoking was not part of your system. To go back to that time, develop a proper no smoking plan. Then, follow it slowly, one step at a time.

Nicotine Addiction: Fact or Fiction?

Nicotine is known to be one of the factors that comes with smoking cigarettes. Nicotine addiction, however, cannot actually be attributed to nicotine alone. As much of a paradox as this sounds, nicotine isn’t actually addictive. It is what the human body does with nicotine that makes it seem like it suffers from nicotine addiction.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, each smoked cigarette comes with around 1.2 – 2.9 mg of nicotine each. Naturally, cigarette smoking does not entail a single cigarette smoked daily. On average, cigarette smokers consume a pack daily; that’s 20-40 mg of nicotine. And although this may still not sound like a lot, the effects of smoking that much do make an impact.

Nicotine awakens the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland located in the human brain. These areas hold an essential role within the endocrine system, which regulates the body’s hormones. Even the smallest dose of nicotine can wake a person up, so smoking cigarettes actually acts as a stimulant. Bigger doses of nicotine, however brings out the opposite effects of smoking and acts like a sedative. So the reason that smoking is addictive is because they both stimulate, as well as relax. More effects of smoking can be found here.

Most drugs cannot go through the barrier of blood and brain because this system only very selectively lets certain molecules enter the brain. Nicotine manages to do so; and by doing so, it raises the endorphin level, that consists of the ‘happy’ compounds.

Nicotine also tends to affect the amount of dopamine available in the brain, which is in charge of the positive feelings that come with smoking. Unfortunately, it cannot send a charge of negative feelings of how harmful smoking actually is. Additionally, nicotine releases adrenaline through the stimulation of the adrenal glands. This then heightens the body’s glucose levels, as well as the respiration, blood pressure, and heart rate.

Although the latter effects of smoking just mentioned may seem like desirable ones, it may result in wearing the arteries too quickly than required and making them less effective at their goals of delivering blood.

Other effects of smoking and nicotine that affect the body include the suppression of releasing insulin from the pancreas, which regulates glucose and could lead to diabetes. Although smoking does not necessarily lead to diabetes, it does heighten the risk thereof.

Quit smoking now and reduce the dosage of nicotine that your body receives. Withdrawal symptoms from nicotine addiction may include undesirable effects, but in the long run, quitting smoking will keep you out of harm’s way for much longer.

Improve Your Health, Quit Smoking

Most people who consider quitting smoking think that it’s far too late to save themselves. This is far from true. In fact, the health benefits that come with smoking cessation are immediate and last a lifetime.

Within a mere hour of smoking cessation, the internal temperature of the hands and feet will increase, while the pulse and the blood pressure will decrease. Compounds that are created in the body from smoking make the blood vessels smaller and increase the heart rate. As nicotine addiction is flushed from the body, the body will return to its regular state.

Within a few hours of smoking cessation, the blood’s carbon monoxide levels will go back to normal. Since nicotine addiction comes with CO, it reduces the overall oxygen that the body receives. So, as the CO level goes down, the body will have more oxygen for its needed purposes: overall life sustenance.

Within a day of smoking cessation, there will hardly be any more risks of heart attack. Within two days of smoking cessation, the body’s nerve endings will undergo alterations. The stimulation that was put in by nicotine addiction will suddenly lower and the body will start to regain normal sensations. Additionally, regular senses of smell and taste will return, as well. After you quit smoking, food will usually taste much better and scents will smell much better.

Within a few weeks of smoking cessation, the nicotine addiction will be down to a minimum, if still existent at all. The body’s circulatory system will slowly go back to normal. Exercising will no longer leave the person with shortness of breath that used to come with smoking. Within a couple of months of smoking cessation, exercising will completely cease to be a problem.

Within a few more months of smoking cessation, the sinus congestion that smoking usually comes with will hardly be existent. The tiredness that used to come with smoking will lower, as the level of energy increases. By this time, all of the bodily systems are slowly going back to its pinnacle.
If you keep up with the no smoking program, you will no longer have to worry about strokes. Did you know that the risk of a stroke is actually 50% more than that of a person who does not smoke? Within a decade of smoking cessation, the body will completely return to the state of a person who has never had a nicotine addiction.

All the major risks of disease that used to come with nicotine addiction will practically fall away once you completely stop smoking. Quitting smoking is totally possible; just give it a few years. Giving up smoking is a great commitment to ensure a long term of health. Don’t let the odds bother you. Quit today.

How to Quit Smoking and Avoid Weight Gain

Weight gain is a common effect in the initial stages of smoking cessation. Usually this occurs at a gain of 5-10 pounds, sometimes even more. Sadly, this weight gain cannot be avoided when one chooses to quit smoking. Weight gain from giving up smoking can be attributed to a variety of causes.

For most people, quitting smoking causes weight gain due to the nicotine addiction and sudden withdrawal from it. Because of this, food becomes a smoking substitute. A constant intake of food will naturally result in a gain of weight.

At the same time, those who suddenly decide to quit smoking will not think of joining a certain exercise program, since the effects of smoking will still be omnipresent. The overall effects of smoking, such as shortness of breath, will naturally not disappear straight away. Joining an exercise program is already hard for non-smokers; just think about how those who are quitting smoking must feel.

Then there are the effects of physiology. Even mere low degrees of smoking tend to elevate the heart rate, which helps in keeping the body weight off. In the long term, building up the arteries’ fatty deposits induced by smoking will end up outweighing them.

What really attributes to ultimate weight gain, however, is the mixture of increased food intake to the lack of overall physical exercise in those trying to quit smoking. This is not a lost cause, though. Stop smoking naturally and make changes in your overall lifestyle, in the process. Eat healthy and plan the ideal exercise program for you.

Some quit smoking tools require strict willpower in the individual involved. To prevent yourself from smoking, try eating fresh fruit instead. Resist the temptation of delicious foods that are high in calories to make up for that smoking need.

Quitting smoking is said to be the most difficult in its first two weeks, as the nicotine addiction is flushed out. This would be the ideal time to plan your exercise regime. During this time, make sure you stay hydrated, so you don’t feel forced to eat away your smoking craving. Doing so will also help get rid of the remaining smoking contamination in your body. Plus, water is absolutely calorie-free!

In the long term, the biggest struggle will be keeping up with your smoking cessation. Always keep your goals in mind, however, and focus on your willpower to achieve a healthier you. As long as you stay on the right track, you will be able to quit smoking without gaining a single pound.

Stop Smoking: How to Ignore the Cravings

Quitting smoking is never an easy task. More often than not, a person who is trying to stop smoking will have a craving due to the lost nicotine addiction. Smoking withdrawal cravings vary from person to person, so certain no smoking methods must be employed per individual; it is essential to find which no smoking technique works for you. Here are some ways to quit smoking that have served helpful to a wide number of individuals; perhaps they will work for you.

Cigarette smoking is a hard habit to quit. Even when you stop smoking, you will still feel the urge to continue the habit. The initial two weeks serve to be the hardest, as the body tries to flush our any nicotine addiction left in the body before it hopes to reach its status quo. Technically, the body tries to remain normal. And with this sudden no smoking change in lifestyle, it has a hard time returning to normal. However, knowing that the body wishes to revert to normalcy should be taken to your advantage.

What makes smoking cessation so hard is the guilt and anxiety that one feels while trying to stop smoking. The body starts to feel out of control and indecisive about whether to quit smoking now or not. Because of this, there is an increase in stress levels, which in turn causes the person to crave smoking to release it. This could become a never-ending cycle if you are not careful with your smoking habits.

The first two weeks are the hardest because that is when the body starts to change. Quitting smoking entails dedication and willpower, even through the hardest of times. During this time, try to avoid anything that could cause even the least amount of stress. Do not try to quit smoking right before you start a new job, for example, or when someone dear to you is about to undergo surgery.

Healthy distractions are good distractions. If you see some fresh fruit, forget the nicotine addiction and eat the fruit. Tangy fruits, like oranges or pineapples, are usually more effective in forgetting the nicotine addiction.

Whenever you feel the sudden urge to start smoking again, try listening to your favorite songs. Songs usually last about the same time it takes to smoke, so try to block the smoking out of your head and concentrate on the music. Elevating songs are highly recommended to forget smoking. Anything that requires intense concentration is good when one is trying to stop smoking, really. Do anything that suits your personality.

Another helpful technique to avoid smoking is to keep your hands busy. Squeeze a ball or something. This way, you will eliminate the thoughts of smoking, as well as aid your circulatory system to get back in shape.

It should not take long before you start forgetting about your nicotine addiction. Although the nicotine addiction may resurface through time, it will become easier to stop smoking as time goes by. Keep reminding yourself of the long-term benefits of quitting smoking and the short-term advantages you may have thought were present during your period of smoking will diminish into oblivion.

How Smoking Leads to Heart Disease

Cigarette smoking may always lead to serious repercussions, such as serious conditions like heart disease. However, we do not often hear what that means or how smoking may cause it, in the first place.

Most of the time, as a repercussion of smoking, this refers to coronary artery disease. Coronary artery disease is when a main blood vessel leaving the heart with blood rich in oxygen becomes constricted. Because of this, the risk of blood clot or vessel closure is heightened. Heavy smoking for a long time relates to this in a couple of ways.

Cigarette smoking comes with the presence of carbon monoxide, which combines with hemoglobin, present in red blood cells to move oxygen around in the body, the heart included. When the heart’s oxygen decreases while smoking, the risk of heart disease increases.

Cigarette smoking also comes with the presence of nicotine, which also decreases the blood’s oxygen. Nicotine is harmful in more ways than one, though. It also increases the risk of blood clotting, which could have a direct effect on increasing the risk in getting heart diseases.

The effects of smoking through nicotine are very dangerous. In the long run, nicotine addiction may help fatty deposits grow on the arteries. This will constrict the blood from flowing through the body and will harden the blood vessels.

Cigarette smoking also tends to lower the amount of high density lipoprotein (HDL) in the body, which is a good type of cholesterol. This would help fatty deposits grow and is sometimes referred to as atherosclerosis, a major cause of heart attack.

By reducing the size of an artery, blood pressure is increased, which makes the risk of a rupture more likely since the artery wall will weaken. This is called an aneurysm and could lead to the brain’s oxygen starvation, eventually leading to a stroke.

By hardening an artery, one has a harder time dealing with regular strains and stresses of its function, too. A blood vessel is quite similar to a hose, but is also different from in through various ways. Like a hose, fluids can be transported only when holes are present. Unlike hoses, however, it cannot be turned off while doing so. If blood stops in any way, for no matter how long, a person’s health could be in danger.

An overall effect that stems from cigarette smoking that could lead to heart disease is that the effects of smoking contribute largely to one’s physical health, and not in a good way. Some factors that may result from smoking are shortness of breath, reduced oxygen, and many more that makes exercise hard to manage. All of those factors, including choices one makes for their lifestyle are oftentimes linked to cigarette smoking.

Lack of exercise will lead to weight gain and an increase of body fat percentage, as well as further the risks of heart attack and heart disease, all because of smoking.

Heavy smoking in the long term has a much higher chance to lead to coronary heart disease than not smoking at all. Quit smoking now for a longer life. Three months after you quit smoking, your circulation will become better. A year after you quit smoking, you are that much closer to having a body of a non-smoker again. A decade after you quit smoking, you will be as healthy as a non-smoker again. It is never too late. Quit smoking now and see the difference.

How Smoking Leads to Cancer

It is an overall known fact that heavy, long-term cigarette smoking can cause cancer. However, exactly how smoking causes cancer still remains unknown to researchers world-wide, though some theories have appeared throughout the years.

Though they are able to get damaged, normal cells have the ability to self-repair. Sometimes, the cells are sloughed off and the lymph system gets rid of them to replace them with ones that are brand new. However, this process is not 100% fool-proof. Some cells can grow to become abnormal, growing into strange shapes and therefore not working properly. When this happens, they can keep growing to a level that the body will not be able to function with. The result is cancer.

Aside from those processes, the act of smoking is also known to produce carcinogenic substances. One example is tar. When smoking, the burning paper, in which the tobacco lies, is filled with tar. This will find its way into the lung’s small sacs called alveoli, which usually transport oxygen into the bloodstream. The presence of tar irritates the cells and this, too, could lead to abnormal cell growth.

Another substance that is present while smoking is nitrosamine. Nitrosamines have been tested clinically on small mammals and have been proven to be carcinogenic substances, as well. Although this is only present in small amounts when smoking, they may still have a huge effect, most of all when smoking heavily. Some systems in the smoking human may even be extra sensitive to this substance. And remember all the other substances that accumulate when smoking; if you add them all together, smoking is almost sure to lead to lung cancer in the long run.

Naturally, smoking only one or two cigarettes daily may not lead to lung cancer. However, smoking such a small amount is hardly feasible in today’s world due to nicotine addiction. Those who have been smoking regularly for twenty years and have been smoking a pack daily have very high chances of getting lung cancer.

Non-smokers do get lung cancer sometimes, though. But this does not mean that smoking is not a cause; merely that there are various causes but that smoking is one of them. Studies have already proven it. As the amount of people smoking cigarettes rises, so does the cancer rate.

A single factor mentioned above might not be able to prove the case of smoking. However, all of them put together make the case very strong. So strong, in fact, that we can state that smoking heavily in the long term can increase the odds of getting lung cancer by a mile. In fact, 87% of lung cancer can be attributed to smoking. Quit smoking now.

Stop Smoking – Help to Stop Smoking

Only six percent of people who try to quit smoking actually succeed the first time around. Nowadays, there are a lot of products available in the market that help to stop smoking. They serve as great stop smoking aid for those dedicated to the no smoking cause.

The nicotine patch slowly releases the nicotine addiction in the body by slowly releasing nicotine through the skin and into the bloodstream. This stop smoking aid can be easily attached anywhere on the body and simply needs to be replaced every 24 hours. Since it can easily irritate the skin, it is ideal to change its location every few weeks.

Nicotine gum is also available without the need for a prescription. However, there is an art as to how it should be chewed, and it must be chewed very carefully, in order for it to help to stop smoking. The gum must massage the teeth at one spot only until a peppery taste appears. Then it should be held between the cheek and gum until this taste disappears. The cycle should be repeated every 30 minutes until the gum is used up.

Lozenges work in the same way for smoking cessation. Lozenges provide a quick reaction in quitting smoking and those who use it have control over how many to take. Lozenges come in the form of tablets and can be taken more than once a day. However, they, too, fatigue the jaw because of the special technique required by this stop smoking aid. If accidentally swallowed, they will cause nausea.

Inhalers are the most preferred form of stop smoking aid for those who are trying to quit smoking. The dosage is easy to control and the side effects are similar to those of smoking. Plus, inhalers keep the hand busy by mimicking the act of smoking. However, these should not be used for those who have asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) since they can easily overdose.

Nasal sprays are a similar stop smoking aid. They help with nicotine addiction by supplying the blood with an adequate amount of nicotine. However, they may cause sinus irritation.

All of these stop smoking aids are ways to quit smoking. They help ease nicotine addiction by continually supplying the user with nicotine without the act of smoking, which is a useful stop smoking aid. There are ways to quit smoking that don’t involve nicotine, though.

Sometimes, anti-depressants are a useful help to stop smoking, although how this works has not been researched yet. Zyban is one effective stop smoking aid. However, it is not recommended to use anti-depressants for a long period of time and is required to consult a physician before opting for this method.

Chantix is another prescription medication that is known to be used in help to stop smoking. Chantix is a non-addicting pill that contains no nicotine. They help cure nicotine addiction by stopping the nicotine receptors in the brain from releasing dopamine. This makes smoking practically useless for its ‘high’. Chantix comes in the form of pills and it is required to consult a physician before opting for this method.

All these stop smoking aids are ways to quit smoking. However, they each require a real dedication in the long-term goal of quitting smoking permanently. Meet that goal.

Stop Smoking – Fatal Effects of Smoking

Everybody knows that heavy smoking can eventually lead to heart disease or lung cancer. However, there are many other damaging effects of smoking that may play huge roles in a person’s overall health that you may not be aware of.

Apart from extreme damage to the lungs, smoking greatly reduces the mere desire to exercise in a majority of smokers by using a stress-alleviating chemical. By lowering this concentration on oxygen and artery constriction, the benefits that healthy exercise could bring lowered even further.

Because of this, smokers are primarily inactive, which makes them more unfit than those who have quit smoking. The result is that the body cannot deal with the strains put on it, no matter how minor the problem.

Heavy smoking, as a whole, directly affects the entire body. By smoking, you increase the likelihood of cancer in various forms, as well as leukemia. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is another possible condition apparent in those who do not quit smoking. About 90% of those who suffer from COPD are smokers. The same goes for those who suffer from asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. Smoking also increases the odds of an aneurysm, which could be fatal if not taken care of straight away.

Post-menopausal women who have not quit smoking have a lower bone density than non-smoking women, making them more prone to hip fractures and other bone fractures that could prove to be fatal, if reaching further complications.

The most prevalent effects of smoking, however, remain to be heart disease and lung cancer.

The longer the smoking habit continues, the higher the risks are. Usually, those who smoke a pack a day have up to 4 times the higher risk of receiving coronary heart disease compared to non-smokers. In the United States of America, smoking one pack daily for twenty years is almost guaranteed to ensure lung cancer.

Quit smoking now to lower the risk of these diseases. Your health will improve greatly within only three months. Once a year has passed, the risks of developing a heart disease will be cut by half. And in a decade, you will be back to the life of a complete non-smoker. It is never too late. Quit smoking now for a longer life.

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