Health Benefits of Not Smoking

If you are an addict and having trouble quitting smoking, considering the immense health benefits of not smoking can make your resolve stronger. A deadly addiction in the disguise of a great aphrodisiac, smoking causes extensive damage to your body. The nicotine and carbon monoxide that you intake with the cigarette smoke affects your respiratory tract the most. It coats your lung with soot and damages your lung tissue exposing you to the risk of cancer. Smoking is alone responsible for millions of deaths every year.

If you can make a resolution and stand by it, the health benefits of not smoking begin from the moment you throw away your last cigarette. As the levels of harmful chemicals go down in your circulation, your body would gradually begin to heal itself. However, quitting smoking is often accompanied by strong withdrawal symptoms. An addict may gain weight from fluid retention; experience sore and dry throat and tongue; and feel restless, short tempered, edgy, tired, or even excessively hungry. But these are just temporary symptoms, which are part of the body's process of getting rid of the nicotine.

The health benefits of not smoking are many and can be experienced over a period of time. Smoking causes the arteries of your heart to get hardened and narrowed, which increases the risk of formation of blood clots and leads to high blood pressure and several other coronary heart diseases. When you quit smoking, as the nicotine level starts falling, in a few minutes your pulse rate and blood pressure will come down to normal level. And within 24 hours the risk of a heart attack will get reduced by half. In the next few months your blood circulation will improve greatly leading to increased oxygen saturation and revitalization of damaged tissues. You can experience a significant change in yourself as your energy levels return to normal and your sinus congestion, coughing fits, and fatigue reduce considerably.

As smoking affects more or less all organs of your body, the health benefits of not smoking also include healing of your entire body. With a detoxed body, increased energy levels, and restored lung function, your fitness levels will improve greatly. The bouts of common cold and tonsillitis will also reduce. Quitting smoking also has a positive psychological impact. Your mood swings will reduce and you will experience an overall sense of well-being.

Benefits of not smoking also include restoration of fertility and prolonged childbearing age. By quitting smoking a pregnant mother can expect a healthy child. While chances of having bronchitis, emphysema, pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases decrease, the biggest health benefit of not smoking is that you can protect yourself from cancer.

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Health Effects Of Smoking

The bottom line is that the health effects of smoking go well beyond the lungs but unfortunately, many people still do not fully understand this. 

Sure, most smokers are concerned over lung cancer but due to a lack of knowledge, they do not have a realistic scope of the true dangers.

A huge conspiracy regarding the health effects of smoking dates back to 1953, a time when tobacco companies came up with a plan after meeting at the Plaza Hotel in New York.  Their marketing focus was to draw attention regarding the health risks of smoking off the habit.  The judge involved at that time was also involved with the ruling associated with the Surgeon General’s announcement in 1964 that smoking caused lung cancer.  Sadly, the health effects of smoking were at that time distorted.

In addition to tobacco companies not telling the truth about the dangers associated with smoking, they also failed the public by marketing products to youth.  While everyone was talking about how bad it was for younger people to smoke, the advertising and marketing strategies were geared toward this age group specifically.

Of course, along with the horrific health effects of smoking, people also need to consider the cost.  With the cost of cigarettes now around $5 per pack, smoking a single pack a day would cost a person significant money.  For the money the average person spends a month on cigarettes, he or she could pay rent or put the money into savings.

Then, considering that up to 15% of smoke is breathed in as secondhand smoke, the dangers continue to rise.  This means children and even pets are put at risk for cancer and other health effects of smoking because of parents.  This alone should be enough to change a person’s mind to stop.

Cancer of the lungs is one of the most common effects of smoking but other parts of the body are also at risk to include kidneys, bladder, esophagus, colon, and pancreas.  Even bones can be damaged by smoking with an increased risk of osteoporosis, leading to degenerative disc disease and fractures.  Another one of the many health effects of smoking has to do with infertility.  Both women and men are affected.  For women, ovulation is impacted whereas in men, sperm count reduced.
The body is affected in other ways such as lower blood circulation to lower extremities, blood disease, slow healing, and the list goes on.  The body is a beautiful creation and considering all the damage caused from smoking, people should give serious thought to quitting forever.

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