What Does It Do To You? 

• Nicotine in cigarettes raises your blood pressure and makes your heart beat faster.
• The tar from cigarettes ends up in your lungs.
• Airways in your lungs are narrowed and obstructed, causing your arteries to clog leading to potentially fatal blood clots.
• It can kill you – smoking kills 13,000 people a year in Scotland from lung, throat, mouth and other cancers and from heart disease (compared to about 350 who die from illegal drugs).
• You are more likely to get ill with things like gum disease, asthma, flu, mouth and stomach ulcers and suffer from shortness of breath (feeling as though it is hard to breathe).
• Research has suggested that if you start smoking in your teens and continue to do so for over 20 years you are more likely to die around 20-25 years earlier than people who have never smoked.
• You’ll get yellow nicotine fingers, nails, and teeth as well as the fact that you’ll smell. You will also get wrinkly crows feet round your eyes and lips. And your skin will lose its sheen and go a bit grey and dry. Not a particularly great look.

Affecting Your Wallet

It’s not just your health that can be worse off, smoking makes a dent in your cash as well. The Can Stop Smoking site has a great calculator to help you work out how much you are spending. As an example, smoking 10 a day could cost you about £1,166 a year. If you smoke 25 a day that can rise to £2,915.

Plus smoking costs the NHS £200 million a year treating smokers who are ill because of their habit.

Read Young Scot Extra's guide to money to find out more about budgeting and managing your money.

Help to stop...

Smokeline - For help to stop smoking call the Smokeline on 0800 84 84 84.

Can stop smoking- Use the cost calculator to find out how much you could save, take the addiction test and use the quit calendar if you want more support on your  quest to kick the habit.

Can Stop Smoking Live Webchat - If you don't fancy talking to someone on the phone about stopping smoking, you can always chat to a Smokeline advisor live online.  The service is available through the Can Stop Smoking site every evening between 8 and 10pm.

Look younger for longer

Smoking ages you by up to 19 years. Check out this video from Quit: