Even though you've seen all the gory and ugly pictures, even though you've seen and heard all the very publicly available details that bluntly and vividly prove to you that smoking is going to kill you and possibly those close to you in horrible ways and although you really want to kick the habit for good - you're still smoking, right?

During a great many years of our past history there have been many thousands of people that have smoked while being completely ignorant of its' destructive effects. There's hardly a person on the planet these days that could possibly claim ignorance of these effects.

It may actually surprise you to know that there's some substantial past opponents against smoking, generally by the main religious clans. In fact, even the Nazi's had a strong anti-tobacco movement which obviously came to a halt when they did at the end of WW2 - expect you never knew that!

Further to that, it was German scientists during the 1920s who take credit for making the original link between smoking and killer lung cancer. Then it was only later during the 1950's that all the destructive-to-health aspects emerged once again making it very tricky for the world population to ignore the truth - smoking is very definitely bad for your health.

We should all be grateful because ever since then, particularly in western countries, world-wide cigarette smoking has been steadily falling although (amazingly) smoking is most undeniably not 'dead-and-buried' - there are still loads of smokers out there.

Historians know that the smoking of tobacco has been around for a great many years - did you really think it was merely a recently learned habit? They've estimated that our species in point of fact began to partake of the 'dreaded weed' as long ago as 5000 BC.

Whilst carrying out various rituals, religious or otherwise, incense was very often burned which little by little led to the practice of what we'd now call 'smoking for pleasure'. Then of course, there was truly no blocking it.

It's probable that the original tools for smoking would have been things like a 'hookah', a 'pipe' or a 'smoking tube' with cigarettes as we know them these days only hitting the scene much later on.

People in the early days quite obviously never had any real worries about the health aspects of sucking down tobacco smoke - that link wasn't going to be discovered until much later.

As a matter of fact, tobacco has had moments where it's been considered throughout its' history as medicinal - along with opium. It's just brain-bogglingly incredible how very ignorant and self-destructive our species really can be!

In summary; knowing a little of the history behind one of our deadliest habits is important and even though you're bound to find it a little tough at first, being able to kick the habit is much easier than you think - YOU ONLY HAVE TO WANT TO!

Quitting smoking naturally, speedily, and permanently isn't and has never been about overly complicated systems and/or poisonous pills and patches - it's all about simplicity, a little bit of will-power and some genuine tried and tested tobacco-quitting knowledge.