Everyone knows that it’s obviously healthier for you to quit smoking than it is to continue your addiction to nicotine. But there are more than just long-term health benefits. Your body is immediately improved when you start inhaling clean air as opposed to the smoke from a cigarette.
Within 20 minutes after you quit smoking your last cigarette, changes begin to take place in your overall health. Your heart rate and blood pressure drop to a healthier level. Half a day later, your blood shows normal levels of carbon monoxide.
Just a couple of months after you quit smoking, you’ll notice your lung function increases. Maybe you can now walk up a flight of stairs without gasping for air. Plus, your circulation is improved.
During the first nine months after you quit smoking, you’ll notice you no longer cough as much and you’re capable of taking deep breaths. This is because the cilia in your lungs are able to move the mucus out of your lungs so they function better to clean them out and clear out infections.
When you’re celebrating your first year after quitting smoking, you should toast to the fact that your risk of coronary heart disease is cut in half from what it was when you were labeled a smoker.
Over the course of the next five years and decade after you quit smoking, your stroke risk is reduced, too. Lung cancer death rate is half that of a smoker’s and other cancers, such as those of the throat, mouth, bladder, and pancreas are cut as well.
While health is obviously an important factor in why people quit smoking, there are other immediate benefits as well. Tobacco may have damaged your physical appearance, such as causing premature aging, yellowing of the nails and teeth, and a foul odor clinging to your hair and clothes.
When you quit smoking, your skin immediately begins to repair itself and the bad smell goes away. Your breath smells fresh and you can take action to whiten your teeth using over the counter teeth whiteners.
You’ll also notice improvements in other areas of your life after you quit smoking. For instance, you’ll be able to taste food better than before and your sense of smell will be sharpened. Your reasons may be listed within this article, or you may have your own personal reasons to quit smoking. Either way, you’ll reap the rewards of your efforts once you say goodbye to tobacco for good.
Friday, January 15, 2010
What Are The Immediate Benefits When I Quit Smoking?
Nicotine Won’t Let You Quit Smoking
Does nicotine have a strong hold over you? It’s one of the most addictives substances on the planet - found naturally in tobacco. Although not illegal, it’s equally as addictive as cocaine or heroine, two illegal drugs known for their strong addictive qualities.
When you use nicotine, your body begins to rely on it both mentally and physically. You can’t quit smoking because you have to face both the psychological and physical issues facing you at this point, which is often overwhelming for anyone.
It’s not the smoke itself that wreaks havoc on your addictions and makes it nearly impossible for you to quit smoking – it’s the nicotine that gets carried in the smoke deep into your lungs where it plants itself in your bloodstream and then moves to every available part of your body to affect your internal health.
Your heart and blood vessels, your brain, your hormones, and your metabolism are all directly affected by nicotine. Even though you may logically know the damage being done, your ability to quit smoking is diminished because the drug has the same effect as endorphins, releasing mood-elevating feelings that cause you to crave more.
But nicotine has another result. When you try to quit smoking, or even stay at the same number of cigarettes you currently smoke, your body triggers you to smoke more, telling you that you’ve become tolerant of your current usage. Nicotine can cause your body to react faster than if you were given a drug intravenously.
If you are able to quit smoking, nicotine will still reside in your body for up to four days after you stop using it. Your body will go into withdrawal, which is both a mental and physical obstacle you have to overcome.
While the physical portion of the addiction has to be dealt with through symptoms such as sleep disturbance, headaches, and dizziness, when someone quits smoking, the mental portion is noticeable when the newly ex-smoker starts dealing with depression, frustration, and anger that results from nicotine withdrawal.
Because of the pressure felt in both the mind and body, many smokers return to the bad habit so that the nicotine will erase the symptoms they’re feeling. The dilemma of withdrawal symptoms when someone quits smoking can last for days or weeks, depending on the severity of the addiction.
Eventually, the symptoms disappear and the strong hold nicotine has over the user loosens up its grip and allows the ex-smoker to break the habit for good. Most smokers have to try several times before they’re able to quit smoking forever, although many do it on the first try using smoking cessation aids.
Quit Smoking To Save Money
Health isn’t the only factor in why people are planning to quit smoking now or in the near future. The cost of smoking has a direct impact on their way of life, limiting the amount of money they can contribute to the living expenses of the household.
Smoking is a very expensive habit, and it’s worse when you smoke more than one pack per day. Smokers may start out smoking relatively few cigarettes per day, but as the addiction goes on, they start upping the number of cigarettes they need to use each day in order to feel the mood enhancement, so the cost of their habit goes up accordingly until they make the decision to quit smoking.
Right now, you can calculate the money you spend by figuring out how many packs per day you smoke and multiplying that number by 365. That’s your monthly cost of the nicotine habit, which would fall to zero if you quit smoking instead.
For instance, if you live in a state where a pack of cigarettes is approximately $3.58, which is low compared to many state prices, and you smoke one pack per day, then you’re racking up a $1,306.70 a year habit.
Wouldn’t you rather quit smoking and do something extravagant with $13,067 in ten years than have health complications from a smoking habit? Of course those who are up to 3 packs per day in a state where the cost of cigarettes is well over $5 per pack, see an even bigger impact on their finances.
If you were to quit smoking a pack a day today and put the money you’re using toward cigarettes into a 401(k) that earns you at least 9% interest, then you’d have a quarter of a million dollars within the next 30 years.
If you don’t quit smoking, then you’ll also be paying other costs associated with your habit. For instance, smokers have a heftier bill for teeth cleanings and dry cleaning, just to get the stains and odors out.
Until you quit smoking, you’re also plagued with higher insurance costs because health care providers know the impact smoking causes on the health economy of our nation.
Need to sell your car? If you’ve been smoking in it, you won’t get as much for your trade-in as you would if you had quit smoking. Plus, studies have shown that smokers earn less and risk being unemployable by companies with a no-smoking policy.
These costs don’t even factor in the healthcare costs associated with smoking. When you consider the health impact smoking has, the cost is even greater. Quit smoking for your health, but also to reduce your financial waste and put that money toward your lifelong dreams.