Quitting Smoking Facts
Interesting facts about quitting smoking and the physical effects, such as withdrawal symptoms and weight gain.
Benefits
Within ten years of giving up, risk of heart attack falls to the same as someone who has never smoked.
People who quit smoking before age 50 have one-half the risk of dying in the next 15 years compared with continuing smokers.6
Quitting smoking reduces one’s cancer risk substantially, compared with the continuing smoker, even after many years of cigarette smoking. Fifteen years after quitting cigarette smoking, the former smoker’s lung cancer risk, for example, is reduced close to that observed in nonsmokers.5
View the quitting smoking timeline and more facts like this here: benefits of quitting smoking.
Side Effects
Nicotine cravings are one of many different nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Cravings tend to last three to five minutes, and may be strong. Over time however, cravings will happen less often.
Advantages of Quitting
Smoking makes it harder to exercise and reduces the benefits to your body. Smokers have more coughs and colds than non-smokers and take longer to feel well again.
Women who stop smoking before pregnancy or during the first 3 to 4 months of pregnancy reduce their risk of having a low hirthweight baby to that of women who never smoked.6
Cold turkey
Quiting smoking cold turkey (i.e stopping smoking altogether, all at once, without the aid of medication or therapy) is a common method for smokers to choose when giving up smoking. Suprisingly however, success rates for this method of quitting are only in the region of 4% to 7%3.
Counseling from a trained professional, NRT, Zyban and Chantix have been demonstrated to increase your chances of quitting smoking."2 More: quit smoking cold turkey.
Weight gain
"In general, cigarette smokers weigh less (approximately 7 lb less on average) than nonsmokers. Many smokers who quit smoking gain weight."4 Smoking suppresses the appetite and therefore you may feel hungrier when you quit smoking.
Laser treatment
"There is no consistent evidence that acupuncture, acupressure, laser therapy or electrostimulation are effective for smoking cessation, but methodological problems mean that no firm conclusions can be drawn. Further research using frequent or continuous stimulation is justified."1
Lungs
All tobacco products contain substantial amounts of nicotine. Nicotine is absorbed readily from tobacco smoke in the lungs and from smokeless tobacco in the mouth or nose.4
Overall, smokers are 10 times more likely to die from lung cancer than are nonsmokers. Heavy smokers are 15 to 25 times more at risk than nonsmokers.5
The best preventive measure a smoker can take to reduce the risk of lung cancer is to quit smoking, and for a nonsmoker, to not take up the habit.5
References
1. White AR, Rampes H, Campbell J. Acupuncture and related interventions for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2005, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD000009. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD000009.pub2
2. Foulds, J. Does laser therapy or acupuncture help smokers quit?. 2007. Available at http://www.healthline.com/blogs/smoking_cessation/2007/12/does-laser-therapy-or-acupuncture-help.html (accessed on 25 July 2009).
3. Herrick, C., Herrick, C., Mitchell, M. (2009), 100 questions and answers about how to quit smoking, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc, MA.
4. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The health consequences of smoking: nicotine addiction a report of the surgeon general. (1988) Atlanta, GA.
5. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The health consequences of smoking: cancer a report of the surgeon general. (1982) Atlanta, GA.
6. U.S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES. The health benefits of smoking cessation. U S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service. Centers for Disease Control. Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Office on Smoking and Health. DHHS Publication No. (CDC) 90-8416. 1990.