Health Benefits Of Quitting Smoking
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.