Your Body is Not Your Own // Healthy Living to a Ripe Old Age, Part 4

<p>You have been given the most amazing body. Complex. Intricate. Beautiful. Totally amazing! It’s God’s gift to you – and it’s been purchased with a price. So what makes us think that God’s not interested in how we treat it? Huh?</p> <p> </p> <h3><span style="color: #ff9900;"><strong>Don’t Smoke</strong></span></h3> <p>It’s something I understand really well because I used to be a very heavy smoker. It’s just over 30 years since I gave it up, but I remember it as though it were yesterday and still today, there are some times when I feel as though I could have a smoke. Frightening – the grip of that addiction, and depending on where you live, you may have seen a reduction in smoking recently. We certainly have here in Australia, but let’s just stand back. This is a global radio program, heard in over 160 countries around the world, and so let’s look at the global statistics. Here they are.</p> <p>About one-third of the adult male population smokes, with smoking-related diseases killing one in ten adults globally. Today, that means smoking causes four million deaths a year, but if current trends continue, by 2030, it’s going to be killing one in six people. Today, one person dies every eight seconds from smoking, and why wouldn’t they? About fifteen billion cigarettes are sold daily. That, believe it or not, is about ten million every minute, and to put all that into perspective, about twelve times more British people have died from smoking than died as a result of World War II.</p> <p>Now I could continue to rattle off the statistics ad infinitum, but you’re getting the point. Right? These days in most countries, every cigarette-packet sold comes with a warning. Here in Australia, we have some of the toughest plain packaging and warning laws in the world, with grim photos of cancerous lungs and feet with toes rotted off them, and by the way, those cigarettes are hellishly expensive.</p> <p>So, why do people start smoking? It’s mostly psychological. Peer pressure for young women; people are seduced to try a smoke