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It would be almost impossible not to be aware of the health risks of smoking, with all the media coverage and irrefutable medical proof of the serious risks. The benefits of quitting smoking are also well-documented.
The list of health risks is quite extensive and includes emphysema, lung cancer, breast cancer, asthma, blindness, changes to teeth, hair and skin, heart disease and circulation problems. Then there is the effect of the results of your smoking on the people who love you; when your health fails, they are the ones who will suffer the agony of watching you die a slow, painful death.
Knowing smoking is bad for you and being able to quit are two separate issues. Quitting involves the fear of nicotine withdrawal symptoms while you are not seeing any results for your suffering. Here's good news for you: new research has found that, while you may still experience withdrawal effects in the early days or weeks of quitting, the health benefits to quitting smoking can be seen (and felt) almost immediately.
Within half an hour of quitting, your blood pressure will decrease, your pulse rate will slow and your heart will not be working so hard. After only 8 hours of not smoking, the carbon monoxide levels in the blood will return to normal. After just one full day of being smoke-free, the risk of heart attack has already decreased a little.
Your taste and smell will start to return in 48 hours and you will already start to notice some relief from the shortness of breath. You may not feel it, but the nerve endings, that have been damaged, are starting to re-grow. From 2 weeks after you quit, your lung function, circulation and endurance will all noticeably start to improve. Soon you will see that you have even less shortness of breath and your sinus congestion and chronic cough are less troublesome.
By the end of 12 months after you quit, the risk of heart disease is half what it was when you smoked. While it may take ten years for the risk of cancer to decrease fully and fifteen years before you are in the same risk category as people who have never smoked, it is encouraging that the early benefits of quitting smoking start to appear almost immediately.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that quitting smoking is critical if you want to live a long and healthy life. So why haven't you kicked the habit yet? It could be that you are just afraid that you will fail and if that is so, then you need to reconsider your method of quitting. If you are trying to go it along, it can be a good idea to get some help - either personal support or by using medications that can help ease the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal.
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