Health benefits of quitting smoking

Planning to quit? Tomorrow? It's hard, I know, so maybe you will not be ready tomorrow, but do prepare for future! I was a smoker not long ago, and quitting smoking was without any doubt the greatest favour I did for myself! Besides reducing the risk of getting a smoking-related illness, I recognized other benefits of quitting smoking!  
Thus, no matter what your age or how long you've smoked, quitting will help you live longer and will improve other specters of your life. People who stop smoking before age 50 cut their risk of dying in the next 15 years in half compared with those who continue to smoke.


First reason is Health

Statistics claim that  about half of all smokers who continue to smoke will end up dying from a smoking-related illness. Need more reasons?
I think nearly everyone know that smoking causes lung cancer. I know the psychology of smokers, I was once there too. I am sure you think - not me. All right, maybe you will not die because of lung cancer, but smoking offers other options to die from too.

Lung diseases

Besides lung cancer, smoking increases the risk of lung diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Both, emphysema and chronic bronchitis are progressive lung diseases and grouped under term “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease”, also known as COPD. Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases cause chronic illnesses and disabilities and can be eventually fatal. Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases are very often diagnosed current or even former smokers in their 60s, if not even before. It is logical that after quitting smoking chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases reduce, but current or former smoker stays in danger.
However, risk of getting lung cancer drops by as much as half in ten years after quitting smoking.

Heart attacks and cardiovascular problems

Some people are not aware, but smoking is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and peripheral vascular disease. Smoking causes narrowing of the blood vessels that carry blood to the leg and arm muscles. Smokers are twice as likely to die from heart attacks as are nonsmokers! But when you stop smoking, stroke risk is reduced to the stroke risk of a person who never smoked after 5 to 15 years of not smoking. Same happens with coronary heart disease:its risk is cut by half only one year after quitting smoking, and after 15 years it is nearly the same as someone's who never smoked at all.  

Cancers

Nearly everyone knows that smoking causes lung cancer, but only few people realize that smoking presents also a risk factor for many other kinds of cancers. Smoking elevates the risk of getting mouth cancer, voice box (larynx), throat cancer, esophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, cervix, stomach cancer, and even some leukemias.   
If quitting smoking, cancers of the mouth, throat, and esophagus risks are halved 5 years after quitting. Of course, also cancer of the larynx risk is reduced after quitting. Bladder cancer risk is halved a few years after quitting, and cervical cancer risk is reduced a few years after quitting.

Skin conditions 

Smoking also affects your looks: smoking causes premature wrinkling of the skin, especially around eyes and mouth, and causes so-called smokers wrinkles. Smokers also have paler skin. In some cases, smoking is also the reason for dark circles under eyes. Pale skin,dark circles and wrinkles occur because smoking reduces the blood supply to the skin and lowers levels of vitamin A.   

Birth-control pills, pregnancy and erectile dysfunction

Women who smoke are more likely to have a miscarriage or a lower birth-weight baby, and low  birth-weight babies are more likely to die or to be impaired. However, low birth weight baby risk drops to normal if woman quits smoking before pregnancy or during your first trimester the benefits of quitting. 
Smoking by mothers is linked to a higher risk of their babies developing asthma in childhood, especially if the mother smokes while pregnant.
Women smokers older than thirty five who use birth control pills are in a high-risk group for heart attack, stroke, and blood clots of the legs.
Couples who smoke are more likely to have fertility problems than couples who are non-smokers.
Men smokers in their 30s and 40s have increased risk of erectile dysfunction by about 50 per cent. 

Quitting smoking helps stop the damaging effects of tobacco including bad breath, yellow fingernails, blindness, stained teeth, gum disease, greater risk of periodontal disease, which causes swollen gums, bad breath and teeth to fall out.
And if you worry about gaining weight- do not! The health benefits of quitting smoking far exceed any risks from adverse psychological effects that may follow quitting.

Want more reasons?

Last night I spend time with old friends from high school, and most of them are smokers. When i returned home i smeller like an ashtray. Horrible! I can't imagine doing this to myself anymore. So, the first thing I did was that I opened laundry mashine and threw everything (including my cotton bag) in. And then I took a shower and washed my hair. At 5 a.m., very tired, little bit drunk (I am not pro-alcohol either, besides I get drunk when I have two beers), but I had to go through all this procedure. I just couldn't go to my fresh and cozy bed stinking like that. Thus, difference you'll notice very soon after quiting is how bad your clothes and hair must of smelled when you were smoking. You'll sense that horrible smell of someone returning from cigarette break. You'll be surprised how horrible this stinks. 
Some say food tastes better. Personally, I haven't noticed that. Food tasted good when I was smoking and now when I am not. Maybe only if you're used to smoking right before meal, which causes acid taste in mouth, and consequently alters taste of the food.  

Material world

Always broke? Smoking is actually very expensive! Multiply how much money you spend on tobacco every day by all days per year. Now multiply that by the number of years you have been using tobacco. Surprised? I've started saving my former daily cigarette costs already!

If you're a smoker, than your 9 year old daughter is too

If you smoke, than everyone around you (despite the fact they are nonsmokers) smoke too. Exposure to secondhand smoke, also known as passive smoking causes thousands of deaths each year from lung cancer and heart disease in healthy nonsmokers.
Besides, do you want to set a bad example for your children? 

Social Acceptance

Smoking is less socially acceptable now than it was in the past.
In most workplaces, smoking is not allowed or they have at least some type of smoking restrictions. Most employers will prefer to higher nonsmoker, because they are out sick less often than smokers, and they take less breaks than smokers. Do you even imagine how much time smoker spends every day on smoking? Average, if smokes one box cigarettes a day, approximately one and half to two hours.
Most landlords prefer nonsmokers, because they do not cause so high expenses like smokers do.
I do not allow people to smoke in my house. Please, step out on the balcony and have a cigarette, but not in my house, not to mention my car. 
And least, some nonsmokers say they could never kiss smoker. I consider myself lucky my husband has high tolerance. But I do know he was making faces when we kissed and i was smoking before that. But not all men or women are like that: they say it is just like kissing an ashtray. Do you want to be mistaken for an ashtray?