The Benefits of Quitting Smoking

We hear so much about the dangers of smoking, but instead, here we are going to take a look on the positive side and consider the benefits of quitting smoking. These apply to a person who is in good health apart from being a smoker.

There are many benefits to stopping smoking, and the good news is that a lot of them start right away.

Almost as soon as you put out a cigarette, the nicotine levels in your body and in your bloodstream start to decrease. When you are a smoker, after a few minutes or hours the levels will drop lower than you like and you will start to think about lighting another. But when you quit, the nicotine in your body keeps on slowly reducing until soon it is completely gone and the addiction is broken.

One of the health benefits that kicks in almost right away is an improvement in blood pressure and pulse rates. The blood becomes cleaner and the circulation is more effective. The heart can work more efficiently, getting more oxygen around the body with less work.

At the same time, your lungs begin to clean out. This process takes a few weeks. During this time you may cough more than you did when you smoked, but do not use that as an excuse to start again. Any prolonged cough should be checked by a doctor, but generally this is a healthy sign that your body taking the chance to get clean again after all those years.

The lungs never clear out completely because we live in a world where there are other types of pollution, but they will soon become much cleaner than a smoker's lungs. Provided you did not already start to develop one of the serious diseases that smokers often get, you have a good chance of living out your natural lifespan as a non-smoker now.

You will notice that you can take exercise more easily. Your heart rate stays slower while you exercise. Your lung capacity will begin to improve, so you do not get out of breath so easily. If you had any minor respiratory problems like frequent colds and coughs or sinus infection, you may find that these do not bother you so often.

The risk of developing major smoking-related diseases begins to reduce within a few months of quitting. These diseases include cancer of the lungs, mouth, throat, esophagus and many other types of cancer. The risk of developing coronary heart disease also decreases.

There are other advantages to quitting smoking in addition to the health benefits for the person who quits. First, there are benefits for your family and anyone that you spend a lot of time with, in not having smoke in the air that they must breathe.

Second, it becomes much easier to get along with non-smoking strangers. Most people in the Western world these days are non-smokers and a lot of them dislike the smell of smoke. They will know if you smoke, even if you do not light a cigarette in their presence. If you are dating or trying to make new friends, or if you work in any situation where you need to influence people such as sales, you will get along much better as a non-smoker.

Third, you have more time and money. A lot of money is wasted on smoking, but people often do not think about the time that is wasted too. You will begin to notice how great it is to be able to do something for several hours without even thinking about going outside for a cigarette.

Bookmark this page and come back often while you are stopping, to remind yourself of some of the benefits of quitting smoking.