The 16 Deadliest Health Sins You Could Ever Commit

Smoking

Doctors cite quitting smoking as the single healthiest thing you can do for yourself. Cigarettes are responsible for more than 480,000 deaths every year in the United States, making smoking the leading preventable cause of death. Tobacco makes the risk of lung cancer and heart attack soar, but that’s only the beginning. “Smoking is the most destructive habit when it comes to lung health,” says geriatrician Robert Stall, MD, of Buffalo, New York. “It triggers conditions like emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD], where you’re literally suffocating. It’s as if you’re holding your nostrils shut so that you can barely get any air through, and breathing that way every moment of every day. It’s torturous.”

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