Change Your Life
Kicking the tobacco habit also offers benefits that you'll notice immediately and some that will develop gradually in the first few weeks. These rewards can improve your day-to-day life substantially:
- Food tastes better.
- Sense of smell returns to normal.
- Ordinary activities no longer leave you out of breath (climbing stairs, light housework, etc.)
Dangers of Smoking
The dangers of smoking are so obvious and harsh that you need to face them closely as you continue to smoke. The American Lung Association says there are approximately 430,700 deaths per year in the United States resulting from smoking related illness. Yearly costs in the United States due to smoking are $97.2 billion dollars in lost productivity and health care costs. Smoking is responsible directly for 87% of lung cancer and most cases of emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Second hand smoke is dangerous for everyone. Your children will have a greater tendency to colds, bronchitis, asthma and inflammatory bowel disease if you keep smoking. The toll for smoking is deadly and horrific for the smoker and those who inhale second hand smoke. Now is the time to say "I'm Free From Smoking"!
Use Anything You Believe Can Help You
Because of the psychological hooks involved in smoking, use anything you believe can help you. It can be a difficult war to stop smoking. Use all the weapons and tools you feel you need. Nicotine substitutes and the medicine Zyban can be very useful. The use of any of them with this program is fine. If you feel it can be helpful.
When you stop smoking, here are the benefits that take effect almost immediately.
- 20 minutes after quitting: Your blood pressure drops to a level close to that before the last cigarette. The temperature of your hands and feel increases to normal.
- 8 hours after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
- 24 hours after quitting: Your chances of a heart attack decrease.
- 2 weeks to 3 months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases up to 30%.
- 1 to 9 months after quitting: Coughing, sinus congestions, fatigue, and shortness of breath decreases; cilia (tiny hair like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs and reduce infection.
- 1 year after quitting: The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.
- 5 years after quitting: Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker 5-15 years after quitting.
- 10 years after quitting: The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker's. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decreases.
- 15 years after quitting: The risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker's.