Smoking: Risks - Benefits Of Stopping

Smoking has many health risks and absolutely no health benefits. Why do people keep smoking? Because it has become a habit and they are hooked on nicotine.

Smoking causes premature skin wrinkles, bad breath, clothes that smell of smoke, yellow hair and yellow fingernails. Smoking makes a smoker at increased risk for macular degeneration, a common cause of blindness for the elderly.

Women’s health risks are many. If a woman is over 35 and using birth control and smokes more than 10 cigarettes a day, she is in a higher risk group for heart attacks, strokes and blood clots in the legs. Miscarriages and lower birth-weight for babies are common problems for female smokers.

The US Center for Disease Control estimates that women who smoke lose 14.5 years of life on average and men lose 13.2 years of life. If you quit smoking before you are 50, the risk of dying by 65 is sliced in half, compared with smokers who don’t quit. Ex-smokers will live longer and have a higher quality of life, fewer sicknesses such as cold and flu viruses and lesser rates of pneumonia and bronchitis.

The US Surgeon General has stated:

“Quitting smoking has major and immediate health benefits for men and women of all ages. Benefits apply to people with and without smoking-related disease.

Former smokers live longer than continuing smokers.

Quitting smoking decreases the risk of lung cancer, other cancers, heart attack, stroke, and chronic lung disease.

Women who stop smoking before pregnancy or during the first 3 to 4 months of pregnancy reduce their risk of having a low birth weight baby to that of women who never smoked.

The health benefits of quitting smoking far exceed any risks from the less than 10 pound weight gain or any adverse psychological effects that may follow quitting.”

There are many benefits to quitting smoking:

Heart rate and blood pressure drop after 20 minutes of not smoking.

Carbon monoxide levels in the blood normalize after 12 hours of not smoking.

Circulation improves and lung function expands from 2 weeks-3 months after not smoking.

Coughing, shortness of breath and cilia regain normal lung functions (cleaning the lungs, handle mucus effectively, reduce infection) 1 to 9 months after not smoking.

Higher risk of coronary heart disease from smoking reduces after 1 year to normal.

Higher risk of stroke as a result of smoking is normalized to a nonsmoker’s 5-15 years after not smoking.

The lung cancer death rate is halved in 10 years, compared with a continuing smoker. Mouth, throat, esophagus, cervix, bladder and pancreas cancer risks decrease.

Coronary heart disease is at the level of a nonsmokers after 15 years of quitting smoking.

FAST HEALTH BENEFITS FOR QUITTING

You can taste your food better.

The sense of smell is normalized.

Cleaning, climbing up stairs and normal activity do not result in breathlessness.

Financial Cost of Smoking

The health costs of smoking are plentiful and many. That is plain and can be accounted for. So can your monetary cost of cigarettes. How much do you spend on ciggies?? One pack a day x 365 days @ $5/pack (modest price in some areas, expensive in others but you get the idea) equals $1,825 in a year multiplied by however many years you smoke ($18,250 for ten years, $27,375 for fifteen years, $36,500 for twenty years!)

How would you rather spend the money?

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