Smoking can shorten your life by as much as 14 years. Smoking can cause many diseases, including lung cancer, mouth cancers and heart disease. It can also cause a cough that won't go away, and it may make it hard for you to breathe.

There are several reasons to quit smoking now:

• Smoking gives you bad breath.
• Smoking makes your clothes and hair smell bad.
• Smoking turns your teeth and fingers yellow and makes your skin wrinkle more easily.
• Smoking makes it hard to run fast and makes you get tired more quickly when you exercise.
• Smoking damages your immune system. You may get colds, the flu or even pneumonia more often if you smoke.
• Smoking can affect your sexual performance by making it more difficult for blood to reach all of the body's organs.
• Smoking weakens your tendons and ligaments, making it easier to get injured. It also makes it harder for injuries to heal.

Even a few cigarettes a day are bad for your health. Once you start smoking, it can be very hard to stop. The nicotine in cigarettes is poisonous and very addictive. Once you start using it, your body will feel like it cannot function without it. Most adult smokers started when they were teenagers, and later realized that they couldn't stop smoking.

No, smoking actually makes your heart beat faster and can make it hard to think clearly.

You will need some help to stop smoking. Nine out of 10 smokers who try to go "cold turkey" fail because nicotine is so addictive. But it is easy to find help to quit.

If you smoke, and want to quit, talk to your doctor. He or she can suggest programs available at their office or in your community. Your doctor may also prescribe medicine that can help you quit.

Your school may also have a program that can help you stop smoking.

1. Reducing Tobacco Use in Adolescents by Irene M. Rosen, LTC, MC, USA, and Douglas M. Maurer, MAJ, MC, USA (American Family Physician February 15, 2008, http://www.aafp.org/afp/20080215/483.html)