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We're in the thick of the holiday season and the start of the New Year is right around the corner. Giving up bad habits and improving ourselves for the New Year is a great time to set goals and work to achieve them.

If you're a casual smoker or a pack-a-day puffer, resolve to quit smoking in the new year. It's hard to quit the addiction despite the knowledge that smoking can cause cancer, heart disease and emphysema. To help get you on track to a smoke-free year, here are some fewer-known facts to help you kick the habit.

• Alzheimer's disease – The rate of mental decline in the elderly is five times greater in smokers than non-smokers.

• Impotence – As if lung cancer and heart disease weren't bad enough, imagine not being able to perform sexually? Men are 60% more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction compared with men who never smoked cigarettes.

• Blindness – Your risk of blindness from age-related macular degeneration increases four-fold if you smoke. "More than a quarter of all cases of age-related macular degeneration with blindness or visual impairment are attributable to current or past exposure to smoking," Simon P. Kelly, MD, an opthalmic surgeon with Bolton Hospitals in the U.K, after reviewing three studies involving 12,470 patients.

• Snoring – The more people smoke, the more frequently they snore, according to the research reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. So you're impotent and you snore?

• Breast Cancer – as if lung cancer weren't bad enough, the chance of getting breast cancer increases 30%, according to the National Cancer Institute.

• Aging – Smoking cigarettes increases free radical damage and ages skin faster than anything else apart from sun damage. A study published in 1965 identified what came to be known as “smoker's face” - grey, pale, and wrinkled skin. The Chief Medical Officer of the UK stated that smoking adds 10-20 years to your age.

Oh, don't forget an increased risk of depression, colon cancer, acid reflux, rheumatoid arthritis, colic in babies, reduced stamina, blood clots, clogged arteries, kidney failure, bronchitis, and lupus. The list continues and is exhaustive.

There are many options to quit the habit from effective pharmaceuticals like Zyban or Champix to natural holistic methods such as Smokers' Cleanse and acupuncture. It's not easy to quit a habit, especially one as addictive as smoking. Resolve to quit smoking in the new year and live a healthier, happier life. Check out http://www.smokefree.gov/ for more information. No butts about it!