KissMeGoodnight eRomance Series:
Secrets To Looking Young,
Feeling Young and Being Young
( 17 pages )

MANAGING YOUR ENVIRONMENT

Banish alcohol. Alcohol can affect your resolve and make it easier to light up again. You don’t have to quit alcohol forever, but spend at least of month of abstinence after you quit smoking.

Be prepared to fight the urges. As you go through withdrawal expect one or more of the following symptoms: upset stomach, difficulty concentrating, drowsiness, insomnia and irritability.

Once the nicotine is flushed from your body the withdrawal symptoms will gradually subside but they will probably never go away totally. That’s because one is never enough. If you smoke one you’ll smoke a dozen or more. Try to...

• Change your rituals.
• Short circuit stress.
• Quit early in the week.
• Stay in a smoke free world.
• Give yourself daily pep talks.
• Make a deal and reward yourself
• Save those bucks.
• Stall for time – delay lighting up.
• Stay hydrated.
• Cut down on caffeine.
• Eat breakfast.

Although going cold turkey is the best bet, if you must do it gradually, the important thing is to QUIT!

Does it come from Grandma? – Genetics seems simple but is so complex that many scientists are still baffled by some aspects of the process. Genes are composed of millions of encoded nitrogen molecules that carry all of your reproductive blueprints. Every day 100 trillion cells depend on genes to tell them what they are supposed to be doing. The genetic code is a set of tutorials that tells the cells how to work properly. If one of those instructions is wrong, it changes how the cell functions. These erroneous instructions cause disease if they prevent the cell from doing the job it was designed to do and can cause the cell to die.

A genetic mistake is called a mutation. Having a mutation does not mean that you are pre-determined to get a disease. It just tells you that you should be more cautious about monitoring your overall health.

For instance only 5% of breast cancer is hereditary. But among women who have a history of breast cancer AND carry either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA means breast cancer) gene the lifetime risk of breast cancer is about 80%. Women who have an inherited breast cancer gene may contract the disease 10 to 15 years earlier but it’s also true that almost half won’t get breast cancer until after age 60.

For most people the likelihood of developing inherited forms of cancer are about as likely as being struck by lightning and winning the lottery on the same day. But if your family does seem prone to a particular disease, it may be worth taking some precautions.

If you have a parent who died of a heart attack or a sibling who died of stroke at a young age that is something to share with your doctor as well as make some lifestyle changes like exercising, eating properly and not smoking.

Genetic testing is now available, but at a very high cost. Unless there is dramatic evidence that points to potentially serious genetic predispositions in your family tree, you’re much better off taking normal precautions by living healthy.

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