"184 smoky bar raises your odds of a heart attack. The more years you smoke, the more you hurt your body. Scientists now know that your disease risk surges even higher after you have smoked for about 20 years. But research shows that if you quit by age 30, your health could become almost as good as a nonsmoker’s. At any age, the sooner you quit, the sooner your body can begin to heal. Nicotine is powerfully addictive. Addiction to nicotine changes the chemical balance in your brain. Addiction keeps peop le smoking even when they want to quit. Breaking addiction is harder for some people than others. Many people need more than one try in order to quit. Scientists now know more about why the brain craves nicotine. Like heroin or cocaine, nicotine changes th e way your brain works and causes you to crave more and more nicotine. These powerful cravings make it hard for you to think about anything else. Smoking can cause both physical and mental addiction. Cigarettes are designed for addiction. Cigarette makers have long known that nicotine addiction helps sell their products. Cigarettes today deliver more nicotine and deliver it quicker than ever before. The additives and chemicals that tobacco companies put in cigarettes may have helped make them. You might ha ve thought that “filtered,” “low - tar,” or “light” cigarettes were less dangerous than others. But research shows that these cigarettes are every bit as addictive and are no safer than other cigarettes. Misleading labels are no longer allowed. Many teens wh o try cigarettes don’t know how easy it is to become addicted. Nicotine addiction is so powerful that every day about 1,000 teens become daily smokers. Why is this important? Because most current smokers became addicted as teenagers. You can beat addictio n to tobacco. Smokers who quit go through withdrawal. The first days are the most uncomfortable. The physical symptoms of nicotine addiction end about 3 weeks after you quit smoking. But you may still have an urge to smoke when you wake up, drink coffee, o r are out with friends. It takes longer to break these patterns. But you can beat it. Section"