Current Health 1 • Copyright © by Weekly Reader Corporation Copyright © by Weekly Reader Corporation • Current Health 1

Aimee Garten started

smoking when she was

12. “It was the cool thing

to do then,” she says. By the time

she entered the University of

Southern California, she was

smoking two packs a day. The

cost: $50 a month—a lot for a

college student.

Aimee also realized her

health was suffering. “I had

asthma as a child, and it was

starting up again,” she says. “I

was coughing up disgusting

things every morning.”

Finally she resolved to quit

smoking. But that wasn’t so easy.

It took four months and several

failures before she finally

succeeded.

That’s not unusual, according

to the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC).

Three out of four young smokers

(ages 10 to 22) continue to smoke

because it’s just too hard to quit.

Nicotine

by Janice Arenofsky

How to Avoid

the

Stuck on You

Why do people become

addicted to cigarettes? The

answer is the drug nicotine.

When you smoke a cigarette,

you inhale nicotine into your

lungs. It is quickly absorbed

and reaches the brain in just a

few seconds. Nicotine reaches

the brain a bit more slowly

if you chew tobacco. But once

it gets there, it delivers the

same punch.

Researchers aren’t sure

why people become dependent

on nicotine. But they think that

it may cause the release of

dopamine (DOPE-uh-meen).

Dopamine produces a “feelgood”

sensation. People enjoy

that, and so they continue

smoking. If they stop, they

may have withdrawal symptoms.

These may include

nervousness and a craving

for cigarettes.

A Nasty Addiction

Cigarettes stain your fingers

and teeth yellow. You run a

greater risk of getting the flu,

bronchitis, and pneumonia and

of developing high blood pressure.

You may feel short of

breath, cough a lot, and not play

your best in sports. If you have

asthma, cigarettes make your

symptoms worse. That’s because

smoking interferes with the

development of young lungs.

The chemicals in cigarettes also

kill healthy lung tissue.

Smoking can have long-term

effects too. Smokers develop

heart disease, stroke, cancer,

and emphysema (em-fuh-SEEMuh;

a lung disorder) at a higher

rate than nonsmokers. The

American Academy of Orthopaedic

Surgeons reports that

smoking makes broken bones

heal more slowly. It may also be

a factor in osteoporosis (weak

“Hook”

What comes in flashy packages and is used by more than

3 million kids? Answer: Cigarettes—which deliver the most

addictive drug in the world.

————————————————

the only reason that people get “hooked” on  cigarettes is because they want to look cool in front of their friends .They think just because their friends are smoking if they don’t smoke they will not be their friends any more just because they will not smoke .Me personaly I  think that if you smoke that just makes you plain s*%$@p you just look like a person that is controlled

How to Overcome the Fear

                 “Look,” Keaton said

to Molly. “See how

Sam looks afraid to

pitch the ball? I think he has a

bad case of acarophobia.”

Molly’s eyes widened as she

looked from the ballgame to

Keaton. “That sounds horrible!”

“Oh, wait. Not acarophobia.

That’s fear of itching. He’s not

scratching. He has antlophobia.”

“Poor Sam! I didn’t know he

was so sick,” Molly cried.

“Wait! That’s not right,

either,” Keaton said. “Antlophobia

is a fear of—”

“Ants?” Molly asked.

“No, a fear of floods. But it’s

not even raining. What Sam really

has is atychiphobia (ah-tich-ih-

FOE-bee-uh),” Keaton said with

a nod of his head.

“Well, what is it?” Molly

asked.

“See how Sam takes so long

to pitch? He’s afraid he’ll make a

mistake and Jon will get the

game-winning home run off of

him. He doesn’t want anyone to

think he’s not a good pitcher. He

told me he’s thinking of quitting

baseball because losing bothers

him so much. “He has atychiphobia

all right. That’s the fear of failure.”

Fear Is an Emotion

Most people experience

some fear of failure. They may

be afraid to make mistakes or to

fail at what they try. But this is

part of the learning process. No

one is born with all the skills

and knowledge to accomplish

everything on the first try.

Maybe you’ve heard the saying,

“If at first you don’t succeed, try,

try again.”

Fear is an emotion, and it

isn’t all bad. It protects us from

real danger. For example, it’s

good to fear coming across a

lion out on the plains of Africa

because you could end up being

its dinner!

Why do people fear failure?

Expectation is a big reason.

Expectations can make students

do things they shouldn’t. For

instance, many kids feel a lot of

pressure about their grades.

Fear of failure to get good

grades may make students

cheat on tests when they know

they shouldn’t. A study of

cheating at universities around

the world was done at Sydney

University of Technology in

Australia. The main reason for

cheating was fear of failure to

meet the expectations of parents

and other people important to

the student.

If you think

you can

succeed, you

have a good

chance of

doing

just that.

Current Health 1 • Copyright © by Weekly Reader Corporation

by Sandy J. St

—————————————————————————————- i think the only reson people are afraid to los eis because they don’t want to be embarassed in front of the public and friends  

Let

Hold You Back!

1. PREVENT IT. How much stress do you cause just by putting unnecessary pressure on yourself? Do you over react to little things that annoy you? Every time you let anger or frustration take control, it drains away good energy and sidetracks you from more important things. Obviously, you can’t always control what goes on around you, but you can control how you respond. Try a little more patience next time you get caught in traffic and you’ll avoid unnecessary stress. 2.HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR. Laughter can be one of the best medicines for stress. Being able to laugh at yourself and the world can break tension and give you some relief from stress.3. MAKE DECISIONS. Most people have no idea how much stress they create for themselves by resisting change. They wait, hoping a situation will go back to the way it was. Why wait when you have choices and could make a decision? When it’s time to change old habits and move forward, make your own change for the better.

4. GET SUPPORT. Do you sometimes find problems too personal to discuss? Or feel they may be too much of a burden on others? Find a support group in your community. Remember, you’re not alone. Other people with similar problems understand what you’re going through without the need for lengthy explanations. They share your concerns and they want to learn how to cope with stress, too.

I think that this world wasn’t ment  to be a drug world most of the drugs we have now used to be medicines the people took advantage of that and  now in the modern life that we have now the people use it for the most s&*#$dest thing ,they use it to look “cool” some people use it to kill  because themselves they feel like no one cares for them or like they don’t deserve to be in this world