In the 1960s, tobacco companies regularly aired commercials showing glamorous people having an after-dinner smoke. In one television commercial, smokers lounging in their dens would inhale deeply and smile as an announcer intoned, "Winston tastes good ... like a cigarette should."

It was an era when cigarettes were supposed to make you look sexy, help you relax, or lift your spirits. When Virginia Slims began running ads featuring svelte models, millions of women bought the brand that promised they would be slim and liberated at the same time. "You've come a long way, baby!" the ads proclaimed.

Today few people associate cigarettes with women's liberation, and unless you've been living in a grass shack without cable for the last 30 years you probably know how dangerous smoking is. Yet it remains seductive enough to keep attracting at least a million new smokers every year. And myths about smoking persist. Many people still think filtered cigarettes keep dangerous chemicals from getting into their systems, or that cigars and chewing tobacco are safe. Here are some of the most popular myths -- and the reality -- about tobacco and cigarettes.

Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances on earth, and most people who try to quit cigarettes will have a hard time breaking its hold, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The chemical goes directly from the lungs to the brain and stimulates the production of dopamine, a chemical that makes you feel happy. Although nicotine can make you feel more animated and energetic when you start smoking, your body will need more and more of it to feel the same way later on. If you do quit, you may find the craving to light up almost unbearable, and you're likely to get headaches and feel tired, sleepy, hungry, or irritable. In fact, 35 million people attempt to quit smoking every year, but only 7 percent of them actually succeed.

But that doesn't mean you can't do it: 2.5 million people quit smoking every year. The most successful quitters use support groups, nicotine replacement therapy (gum or patches), or a combination of approaches. Many of them have to try more than once to quit altogether.

The dangers of secondhand smoke are well documented. If you light up, you're exposing your children, spouse, and other family members to substances that can cause lung cancer, heart disease, asthma, and other diseases. Secondhand smoke kills an estimated 49,000 nonsmokers each year. About 46,000 will die from heart disease, and about 3,000 will die from lung cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. Tobacco smoke in the environment makes nonsmokers more susceptible to ear infections, asthma attacks, and other respiratory problems, the Environmental Protection Agency reports.

If you're pregnant and smoking, you run a higher risk of having a miscarriage or a stillborn infant, according to the US Surgeon General. Your baby also runs a higher risk of dying from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, recent studies indicate. That's why one of the most important things you can do to ensure a safe pregnancy -- along with avoiding alcohol and getting prenatal care -- is to stop smoking.

It's not only cigarette smoke that can kill you. Overall cancer death rates among men who smoke cigars are 34 percent higher than cancer death rates among nonsmokers, according to the American Lung Association. Cigar smokers have higher death rates from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and are four to 10 times more likely to die from cancers of the throat, mouth, lips, larynx, and esophagus than nonsmokers, the National Cancer Institute reports.

People who chew tobacco don't get off lightly either. If you chew tobacco, you're more likely to get oral cancer, which affects the tongue, lips, cheeks, and gums. Moreover, a study of 6,300 smokeless tobacco users reported in the American Journal of Public Health that they were twice as likely as nonusers to die of heart disease.

As with cigarette smoking, the sooner you quit, the better your chance of escaping these diseases.

No one knows where this one started, but many people believe that smoking or chewing tobacco actually helps them relax by lowering their blood pressure. This myth has no scientific merit. A group of researchers in Stockholm, Sweden studied 135 healthy people who had never been diagnosed with high blood pressure. But after their blood pressure was measured, scientists found that those who smoked or chewed tobacco had higher pressure than those who didn't.

Some people believe smoking lifts the spirits, but it can sink your mood. If you're already down or depressed, cigarettes can put you at higher risk for clinical depression, hyperactivity, and attention deficit disorder, according to a recent report in the journal Pediatrics. Teens who smoke are four times as likely to be depressed as teens who don't, the study revealed.

Smoking isn't safe even if you're smoking one cigarette a day. Every cigarette contains about 1 to 2 milligrams of nicotine, and it reaches your brain 10 seconds after you inhale. Immediately after that first puff, you'll get a rush of adrenaline that may increase your blood pressure, your heart rate, and your breathing.

Smokers who puff on only one or a few cigarettes a day or smoke low-tar cigarettes have a tendency to take more drags on the few cigarettes they allot themselves each day because they sense they're getting less nicotine and need to fill that craving. Despite the filters, nicotine and other dangerous chemicals still get through when you smoke. People who smoke filtered or low-tar brands may inhale even more deeply, thereby getting more carbon monoxide and other substances into their lungs, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Smoking causes a number of other lung diseases, including emphysema, a degenerative disease that makes breathing more and more difficult. Smoking also increases your risk of heart disease, particularly if you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, and aggravates many digestive disorders as well. It can also cause cancer of the mouth, larynx (voice box), and esophagus, according to the American Lung Association. Smoking also plays a role in cancer of the pancreas, kidney, bladder, and, in women, cancer of the cervix.

It's true that many smokers gain weight once they stop smoking. Many of them substitute eating for the oral gratification that comes from puffing on a cigarette. On average, quitters gain only 5 to 10 pounds. But once you've stopped smoking, the weight gain doesn't have to be permanent. In fact, if you exercise, you may not only lose the weight you've gained, you may increase the stamina and lung capacity you lost when you were smoking. To help you keep the weight off, replace smoking with other activities besides eating: chewing gum, doodling, sucking on a straw, or just stretching and breathing deeply.

For some people, the concern about gaining weight can be moderated with counseling -- as can the weight gain itself. One study showed that women who were counseled about their concerns regarding weight gain after smoking cessation gained fewer pounds than those who weren't.

Smoking stains your teeth, causes wrinkles in your face, and puts cigarette burns in your clothes. It won't do wonders for your breath or your overall aroma, either. In one poll, 86 percent of teens said they'd rather date a nonsmoker than a smoker. Moreover, studies show that men with high blood pressure who smoke are far more likely than nonsmokers to become impotent. That's not exactly sexy.

And one last myth, perhaps the most important one of all:

If you smoke, you're cutting years off your life. A 35-year-old man, for instance, will live about five years longer just by quitting smoking, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The same holds true for women. The good news is that as soon as you stop smoking, you may not only begin to breathe easier, you may taste your food again, too. You can't turn back the clock, but if you quit smoking for a decade or more, your risk of cancer is much lower and your risk of heart disease may be almost the same as someone who's never smoked.

-- Psyche Pascual is the articles editor of Consumer Health Interactive.

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Last updated June 16, 2009
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