Benefits of Smoking
Cessation
Health benefits are major and immediate, at ALL ages:
Quitting decreases the overall risk of death (all causes combined) by 50% in 15 years as compared to
continuing smokers
Cardiovascular Benefits
Heart Attacks
The risk of heart attack is decreases by 50% within 24 hours of quitting smoking, due to
reversal of nicotine's effects on inducing platelet aggregation and vasospasm
(in other words, nicotine makes the blood clot and a blood clot in the heart's coronary arteries causes a heart attack)...
After 2 years of abstinence from tobacco, the risk of heart disease is decreased to about the level of
never smokers
Stroke
The risk of having a stroke or a brain aneurysm (bleeding in the brain) go down by 30-50% in quitters.
Benefits to the Resipiratory System
Lung Cancer
The risk of
lung cancer
is decreased by 80-90% after 15+ years of
abstinence
There is no known effective method of screening for early lung cancer in former smokers or current smokers.
Smoker's Cough
Within three months of quitting, the smokers' cough disappears in most people.
Respiratory Function
Lung capacity declines with age more rapidly in smokers than in non smokers.
Quitting smoking does little to restore
lost lung function however after quitting the decline in lung function tend to parallel that of non smokers.
In other words, quitting helps the lungs age slower.
Quality of life and other benefits of quitting
- Smell and taste improve within days
- Alleviates harm to others from side stream smoke exposure
- Fire prevention
- Increased work productivity
- Improved self esteem ...
Test your self esteem!
- Cost savings: The expenditure for smoking 1 ppd approximates the price of a Porsche over a 30 year period!!!
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last modified April 18, 2006
please send comments to Robert Shubinski MD