Ireland was the first country to every ban workplace smoking within its borders, and they implemented the law in 2004. Within one year, the incidence of heart attacks fell by a whopping 10%. Health experts say that Ireland's success should be encouraging for other countries thinking of similar laws. In May, the World Health Association recommended a worldwide ban on workplace smoking and all indoor public places. That's certainly an ambitious goal, but maybe if more countries follow Ireland's lead, public smoking will finally become a thing of the past. What do you think?

One of the perks of writing for That's Fit and The Cardio Blog is that every single day I am reminded of the health consequences of my bad habits. Just hearing -- again, and again, and again -- exactly how carrying extra weight or eating those horribly addictive Oreos that used to sit in my snack cupboard, or skipping my daily walk to watch reruns of The Sopranos effects my health has truly helped me finally quit several bad habits and create healthier new ones.

I'm telling you this because I am going to write yet another post about smoking and how bad it is for you. If you're a smoker, you know smoking is bad for you and hearing that it's bad for you may annoy you or make you skip this post altogether. But I'm telling you from experience that sheer repetition of this fact will eventually break through your denial and get you to finally quit that pack-a-day habit. So even if you think you've heard it all before, please keep reading.

So here it is: smoking hurts your aorta. It causes inflammation, which can lead to hardening of the arteries, which can lead to aneurysms, which can lead to heart attack and death. You need your aorta -- it's the main artery that carries blood to your body, and when you smoke you damage it. Unfortunately, there are also other diseases that can cause this kind of damage, but smoking is something you can control. Talk to your doctor today to get help "butting out" for good.

If you're a smoker who's switched to light or low-tar cigarettes to decrease the strain of smoking on your heart, you just might have to think again. Turkish researchers recently put light cigarettes to the test to see if they had a reduced affect on cardiovascular health compared to regular cigarettes. After lighting up, smokers had something called coronary flow velocity response (CVFR) tested, which means that their arteries were tested to see if they could properly dilate in response to blood flow. In both groups, CVFR fell significantly, and in addition, smoking either type of cigarette raised blood pressure and heart rate.

Check out this article for more information about "the truth" behind light cigarettes.