Wednesday, October 6, 2010

A Timeline - Benefits of Not Smoking for 20 Minutes to 15 Years

The moment you make the resolution and drop that last cigarette stub, the benefits of not smoking begin. Each cigarette you smoke takes you one-step closer to death. Greatly increasing the chances of cancer in the lungs and throat, the nicotine in the cigarette directly affects your brain while the carbon monoxide binds with the hemoglobin reducing its oxygen carrying capacity. Shooting up pulse rate and blood pressure, smoking also increases chances of strokes as well as heart attacks.

With so many harmful effects on your health, quitting smoking is probably the best thing you can do for yourself and also your family. The benefits of not smoking begin within 20 minutes of you bidding goodbye to the last cigarette. The accompanying withdrawal symptoms are all momentary discomforts that are actually a part of your body's healing process.

The benefits of not smoking begin with your pulse rate and blood pressure dropping down to normal level. Within the next eight hours, the carbon monoxide level in your blood also comes down, leading to increased flow of oxygen, which revitalizes your damaged tissues. As the nicotine level keeps on falling, within 24 hours the risk of having a heart attack decreases considerably.

As the body becomes free from nicotine, within 48 hours the nerve endings start to regrow, greatly improving the sensory functions, and returning your sense of smell and taste. You start to breathe easy, the bronchial tubes relax, and you can even experience an overall increase in the energy levels within three days. Within two weeks your body regains its normal circulation and in a month's time you can feel a considerable decrease in your sinus congestion, fatigue, shortness of breath and coughing.

With so many immediate benefits of not smoking, sticking to your resolve of not smoking should be easier now. Lungs, which are the worst affected of all the organs in your body, begin to show signs of repair. And within two to three months you can get back about 30% of your lung function. The cilia of your respiratory tract regrow and the mucus secretion regenerates, holding back all dirt and germs and preventing chances of infection. Within a year, the risk of having a coronary heart disease reduces by half. Within five to ten years, the risk of having lung, throat, mouth, and esophagus cancer reduces to a great extent. In 15 years the Benefits of not smoking involve bringing down your susceptibility to coronary heart diseases to the level of a non-smoker. So, by quitting smoking you are actually saving your own life.


View the original article here

No comments:

Post a Comment