I knew that this was a big order. People can't fool their subconscious minds. You can't decide right now, as your eye scans these lines, that you "won't like" smoking any longer. You can't just up and tell yourself that in the future you'll derive your "real satisfaction" from not smoking. You've got a built-in lie detector in your subconscious.

No—it's got to become habitual with you to feel displeasure with cigarettes. Your mind must react to those old cigarette-stimuli with an instant "No!" Somehow, you must by reflex feel pleasure, self-esteem, security by not smoking.
Well, from my own experience I can tell you that it can be done. I tell you again that you will achieve this new feeling easily.

—You will not be tense, nervous and irritable.
—You will not start to eat your way through the supermarkets.
—You will not miss cigarettes.
—You will enjoy not smoking.

One of the things that we have on our side is a fact that you'll find unbelievable now, even though you will definitely come to agree with it.
You do not enjoy smoking.
Okay—laugh if you will. But if you've bought this book and you've read this far, you're an easy one. You do not really like to smoke.
 
Let's look at it this way. We can put into words the several things we like about smoking; but there are a host of nagging annoyances and suspicions about the cigarette habit that we find it difficult to discuss—and most of them add up to the fact that we who smoke too much rarely feel completely up to par.

Dr. E. C. Hammond made an important study in 1961, questioning 18,697 men and 24,371 women, all over the age of 30, about physical complaints in relation to smoking habits. These were some of the many complaints found to be associated with smoking:

Coughing . . .
Hoarseness . . .
Shortness of breath . . .
Chest pain or discomfort. . .
Appetite loss . . .
Nausea and vomiting . . .
Stomach pain . . .
Discomfort or pain in the lower abdomen . . .
Diarrhea . . . 
Easy fatigue . . .
Insomnia . . .

Now if we couple this list of physical complaints with statistics on the far more serious health hazards linked to cigarette smoking, we must then assume that the pleasures of the habit must be enormous indeed to outweigh them.

And here am I, saying that they're not—that you don't really enjoy cigarettes nearly as much as you think you do and are told you do.
Before we go further, shall we just briefly survey the latest medical facts? Some may be "controversial," and so why don't you discount each by a considerable percentage? Even then . . .

THE ODDS ARENT GOOD

The American Medical Association has released statistics based on a study of thousands of coronary deaths. They show that the death rate among men who smoked more than a pack a day was twice that of non-smokers.

The Mayo Clinic team of heart specialists, Doctors English, Willius and Berkson, placed the odds even more dramatically. They reported that in coronary deaths, the rate is six times higher for smokers than it is for non-smokers.

Two English physicians, W. R. Doll and A. B. Hill, have made a number of significant studies. One shows that with men under 55, coronary deaths increase in tidy ratio to cigarette consumption. The rate is lowest for non-smokers, highest for heavy smokers.

Two Brooklyn physicians, Doctor Daniel J. Nathan and Doctor David M. Spain, studied 3,000 men—and found that among those under the age of 51 who smoked more than two packs a day, the frequency of heart ailments was twice that of non-smokers.

Declares the Royal College of Physicians of London: The chances of a 35-year-old man who is a heavy smoker dying within ten years is one in twenty-three. For a non-smoker of the same age, the chance is one out of ninety.

IT BOILS DOWN TO WHETHER YOU  LIKE  LIVING OR  NOT

Now for a few final words about lung cancer. Doctors Doll and Hill in England made a study of 3,000 patients over forty-five years old and reported: Smokers have a 50% greater chance of getting lung cancer than non-smokers.

Doctor Ivan Vaselevich Strelchuk, Russian physician and research specialist, declares: "Smokers are ten times more likely to get cancer than non-smokers."

Indeed, there have been accurate investigations of the cancer-smoking link in nine countries. In every study, the figures were about the same. The connection is always there, the grim ratio is always there.

AND IN ADDITION . . .

Bronchitis, thromboangitis obliterans, premature births, underweight infants at birth, increased mortality rates for peptic ulcer patients, cancer of the mouth and larynx and oesophagus, eye ailments, decreased sexual abilities—all these diseases or conditions have also been linked directly to smoking.

Statistical information as conclusive and damning as these proven odds that you may suffer a painful death many years in advance of normal life expectancy might seem sufficient to persuade most persons to abandon the habit immediately. But they're not. And even recognition of the fact that the statistics have been gathered by an unbiased group of scientific researchers, and released by the medical profession only in the interest of saving lives, isn't sufficient.

Why?