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Needless to say, quitting smoking can improve your health and thereby benefit you in many ways. The health benefits of quitting smoking can be divided into two parts- short term benefits and long term benefits.

1) Short term benefits: The immediate and the most substantial benefit of stopping to smoke is that your blood circulation will improve and the level of carbon monoxide in your blood will start to decline. This is important because carbon monoxide found in the cigarette smoke reduces the blood's ability to carry oxygen. When a person smokes, his pulse rate and blood pressure remain abnormally high. Immediately after quitting, this will return to normal. Therefore, it becomes easier for the quitter to breathe and also his tastes and smell come back gradually.

2) Long term benefits: It is a known fact that a non-smoker lives longer than a smoker. After some years, say 8 to 10 years, an ex-smoker's chances of dying from lung cancer reduce by almost 40 percent than a person who continues to smoke. Stopping to smoke also reduces the risk of other smoking related diseases such as heart disease and chronic lung disease in the long run. Another long term benefit of quitting smoking is for the pregnant women. Pregnant women who stop to smoke at least 5 months before delivery, substantially lower the risk of low birth weight for the baby and other pregnancy related complications.

People who are already sick and who are suffering from cancer can benefit from quitting smoking. They can reduce their risk of developing infections such as pneumonia, which causes death in patients with existing illness.

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