“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you, and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honor God with your body.”1 “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”2 (NLT)
The moment you are born again, your body becomes the temple of God (see “Your new nature is created to be like God” under God and Humanity). Henceforth, the word of God and the Holy Spirit guide your heart and mind to align your thoughts, words, and actions with God’splan and purpose for your life. Tobacco use destroys lives and leads users to sinful actions, such as stealing to fund addiction or theft of cigarettes in custody, and if not repenting, the user can die as a sinner.
Tobacco is a raw, cured plant material consisting of tobacco leaves, “primarily Nicotiana tabacum,” which have been harvested and dried. The tobacco plant natively contains nicotine. Nicotine is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream through the lungs, mouth, or skin. In the central nervous system, nicotine stimulates the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, thereby enhancing mood and pleasure. In the heart, nicotine causes an increase in heart rate and blood pressure by stimulating the adrenal glands. Nicotine narrows blood vessels, which can reduce blood flow to various organs. Repeated exposure to nicotine changes brain chemistry, resulting in dependence and addiction. Although nicotine itself does not cause cancer, at least 69 chemicals in tobacco smoke are carcinogenic, and cigarette smoking accounts for at least 30 percent of all cancer deaths.”Tobacco smoke contains harmful chemicals that can damage lung tissue and impair respiratory function.
The tobacco plant absorbs heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, and polonium-210, a radioactive element found in cigarette smoke, originating from high-phosphate fertilizers used on tobacco plants and from atmospheric deposition. During the curing process, tobacco obtains nitrosamines, which are potent carcinogens. During manufacturing, over 600 ingredients are added to enhance taste, maintain moisture, and increase nicotine delivery. Burning or smoking transforms ingredients into a mixture of over 7,000 chemicals, including harmful tar, carbon monoxide, and various volatile organic compounds.
Studies show that tobacco has profound effects on the health of users. “Cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ in the body, and smoking is the leading preventable cause of premature death in the United States. Although rates of smoking have declined, it is estimated that it leads to about 480,000 deaths yearly.” Smoked tobacco products, including cigarettes, are the most harmful type of tobacco products. Non-smoked tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products, generally have lower health risks than cigarettes and other smoked tobacco products. “Lifelong tobacco smokers lose at least 10 years of life on average. Tobacco use or exposure to tobacco smoking affects almost all organs of the human body and hurts health throughout the life course.” In general, no tobacco product is safe.
cigarette smoking increases the risk of many cardiovascular diseases(CVDs), including heart attack, sudden cardiacdeath, stroke, peripheral artery disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm, and atherosclerosis by damaging cells that line the blood vessels, raising the type of fat in your body called triglycerides, lowering good cholesterolknown as high-density lipoprotein(HDL), making blood sticky and more likely to clot, which can block blood flow to the heart and brain, causing thickening and narrowing of blood vessels, andincreasing the buildup of plaque in blood vessels.( CDC.gov/tobacco)
Cigarette smoking is a common cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and in some cases, asthma.COPD reduces airflow through the airways that carry air in and out of your lungs by causing the airways and tiny air sacs in the lungs to lose their ability to stretch and recoil, destroying the walls between many of the air sacs, causing the walls of the airways to become thick and inflamed (irritated and swollen), and causing the airways to make more mucus than usual. The mucus can clog the airways and block airflow. (CDC.gov/tobacco)
Cancer is a disease in which cells divide uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymphatic systems. Cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, and at least 69 of these chemicals can cause cancer by weakening the body’s immune system, making it harder for your body to kill cancer cells, and causing cancer cells to grow and spread. These chemicals damage or change a cell’s DNA and cause it to grow out of control and create a cancer tumor.
“Cigarette smoking causes about one out of every three cancer deaths in the United States,” including cancer of the bladder, blood, such as acute myeloid leukemia, cervix, colon, and rectum, esophagus, kidney, and renal pelvis, larynx or voice box, liver, lungs, bronchus, and trachea, mouth and throat, pancreas and stomach.
Cigarette smoking increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Nicotine and other chemicals in cigarette smoke damage cells and reduce their responsiveness to insulin, causing cells to ignore the signal to take up glucose from the blood. Smoking induces widespread inflammation and oxidative stress, which interfere with insulin sensitivity and damage cells. Nicotine in cigarettes directly raises blood sugar levels. Smoking can increase abdominal obesity(belly fat), a significant risk factor for developing diabetes. Toxic chemicals in tobacco can affect the pancreas, disrupting normal insulin production.
Toxic chemicals in smoked cigarettes can hurt fertility, making it difficult to become pregnant. Studies show that smoking can reduce fertility, making it harder to conceive; it may negatively affect hormone production, harm the reproductive system, and damage the sperm.
Smoking cigarettes can damage important parts of your eyes that are necessary for maintaining clear vision, making your vision cloudy, reducing your field of vision, or even causing you to lose your eyesight completely. Toxic chemicals in cigarettes can affect your retina, the delicate, light-sensitive tissue that lines the inside of the eye; your lens, the clear part of the eye that allows light to pass to the retina and helps the eye focus on objects at varying distances; and your macula, the most sensitive part of the retina and the part of the eye that supplies sharp vision. (fda.gov/tobacco).
Avoiding tobacco use is one of the major components of a healthy lifestyle. We define a healthy lifestyle as a way of living that individuals intentionally adopt, maintain, and practice daily to prevent and control disease, improve their physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being, and enhance their quality of life.
Avoiding tobacco use and adopting, maintaining, and continually making healthy choices for a healthy lifestyle requires behavioral change. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM,2001), “Behavior can be changed, and those changes can influence health. However, “Initiating and maintaining behavior change is complex and difficult” (Pellmar, Brandt, and Baird, 2002). According to DiClemente et al (2019), “Before behaviors can change, the determinant(s) of behavior, the nature of the behavior, and motivation for the behavior must be understood.” There are several behaviors change theories and models that can be applied at multiple levels of influence on human behavior, using a socioecological approach: which states that “human behavior shapes and is shaped by multiple levels of influences.” Such levels of influence include intrapersonal (individual), interpersonal (family, friends, peer groups), organizational, community, and public policy.
WLT provides the fundamental truth, rooted in God’s word, for behavior change that promises benefits in this life and in the life to come. This truth brings profound change to the hearts and minds of individuals, transforming their character, behavior, attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge, enabling them to easily adopt, maintain, and continually make healthy daily choices to experience a healthy lifestyle. When individuals adopt a healthy lifestyle, they serve as a model for other family members, including children, and for the broader community. Many diseases, injuries, disabilities, and premature deaths from heart diseases, strokes, cancers, and diabetes can be prevented or reduced with behavior change.
Follow us on our website, blog, and social media platforms, and at conferences, seminars, workshops, community spiritual events, as we use truths rooted in the Word of God to bring you a profound change in your heart and mind, transforming your character, behavior, attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge, enabling you to easily adopt, maintain, and continually make healthy daily choices. We use evidence-based health education and health promotion interventions from The Community Guide, FDA.gov/tobacco, CDC.gov/tobacco, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Nida.nih.gov/tobacco) to provide equitable opportunities to acquire the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and insights needed to avoid alcohol use, adopt and sustain healthy lifestyles, and lead purpose-driven, transformative lives.