I think we all know that smoking is bad. It really bothers me when I see teenagers lighting up a smoke. Little do they know how gripping that kind of habit can be on their life. They do it because others are doing it. They do it because they think they look cool.
A recent report from “Science Daily” indicated that 80% of smokers became addicted before they are 18 years old. While that is disheartening, we also know that teens that never start up smoking are not very likely to begin smoking later on.
While it’s great that there are programs and products out there designed to help adults stop smoking, clearly we need to reach out to the teenagers and do more to keep them from ever starting up.
We can tell teens how detrimental smoking is to their health but now we have something else. Researchers from UCLA did a study to see how brain function in teens compared between those who smoke and those who don’t.
Specifically they looked at a teen’s prefrontal cortex, which is an area of the brain that is still developing and is responsible for executive functions such as making decisions. What they found is that the more addicted teens were the less active the prefrontal cortex was.
So now we have a potential problem with an area of the brain that is important for making decisions, something teens often struggle with anyway.
As adults we can be the best example. If you are a parent who smokes, perhaps this is a great reason to stop. Our teens do sometimes emulate what we do.
And if you are looking for other reasons to convince your teens it’s not a good idea, here are a few…expensive, gives you bad breath, teeth and hands will get stained, you always have that smoke smell on you, wrinkle sooner, and not to mention the health risks such as cancer, heart disease and gum disease.
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