Top 10 Reasons to Quit Smoking | Your Health in 2012
It is common knowledge that smoking is hazardous for your health, but often, people overlook the facts because they are addicted to smoking.
Using this Facts About Smoking post as a guide, we’ve added onto the Top 10 Reasons to Quit Smoking, pulling from different articles and other knowledge about the real effects that smoking can have. As we celebrate the new year, we look toward 2012 as an opportunity to change bad habits and make promises to better ourselves.
Hopefully, when learning about smoking effects, this will inspire a few people to put down the cigarettes and make a life-altering change.
1. Reduce your cancer risk
Tobacco usage, both current and past, accounts for 90 percent of lung cancer deaths among men and approximately 80 percent of lung cancer deaths among women. Additionally, according to cancer.gov, one of the smoking effects is as follows: “smoking causes many other types of cancer, including cancers of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix, and acute myeloid leukemia.”
2. Reduce your chance of having a heart attack or stroke
As many as 30% of all coronary heart disease (CHD) deaths in the United States each year are attributable to cigarette smoking. Quitting smoking will lower your risk of such a disease and possible death as a result.
3. Save money
According to our Time and Cost of Smoking Calculator, smoking 1-and-a-half packs per day will cost someone around $247.50 per month, which totals to a whopping $3,011.25 per year! Additionally, smoking that amount takes away 730 hours – or 30 full days – of per year. Just imagine what you could do with that lost time and money!
4. Get rid of the cigarette smoke smell
There is a reason why many establishments in major cities are going smoke-free, and one of the primary reasons is because of the stench that comes from smoking. It gets into clothing, hair, and is nearly impossible to get out. Once you quit smoking, that smell will diminish. Additionally, new studies have shown that third hand smoke (residue from second-hand smoke) can also be harmful, particularly to infants and young children.
5. Get more and better sleep
According to a Johns Hopkins study, another smoking effect is that smokers are four times as likely to report feeling unrested after a night's sleep. From the research, it seems going through nicotine withdrawal each night can contribute to sleep disturbances.
6. Get rid of the morning cough
The well-known "early morning" cough of smokers happens for a different reason. Normally, cilia (tiny hairlike formations lining the airways) beat outward and sweep harmful material out of the lungs. Cigarette smoke, however, decreases the sweeping action, so some of the poisons in the smoke remain in the lungs. When a smoker sleeps, some cilia recover and begin working again. After waking up, the smoker coughs because the lungs are trying to clear away the poisons that built up the previous day. Unfortunately, prolonged exposure to smoke completely destroys the cilia's ability to function. Then the smoker's lungs are even more exposed and susceptible than before, especially to bacteria and viruses in the air.
7. Reduce your wrinkles
According to the Mayo Clinic, another smoking effect is that it can cause premature skin aging, which translates to wrinkles. “The more cigarettes you smoke and the longer you smoke, the more skin wrinkling you're likely to have.”
8. Stop exposing others to second-hand smoke
According to cancer.gov, more than 7,000 chemicals that have been identified in secondhand tobacco smoke, at least 250 are known to be harmful, for example, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. Additionally, it can increase the lung cancer risk in non-smoking adults.
9. Get in better shape
Smoking has a negative effect on particular cardio activity, as smoking can reduce your maximal oxygen uptake by 10%.
10. Take control of your life
Life is unpredictable, with few things you can control. Smoking is one thing that you can. It is not easy to quit smoking, but you can do it. In this past post, we listed different tips to stop smoking, which will reduce your lung cancer risk.
If you are interested in quitting smoking, please read these helpful tips. With some determination and a strong support system, you too can help live a healthier lifestyle, as your lung cancer risk does reduce over time, once you stop smoking.
If you know someone who has or is battling lung cancer, or if you are a lung cancer survivor, we invite you to share that story on our Lung Cancer Awareness Wall. The wall serves as a memorial for all people who have fought the #1 cancer killer. Currently, approximately 900 people have shared stories on our wall - Help us get to 1,000 by the new year!
If you think you or a loved one is at risk for lung cancer, we invite you to try out Free Lung Cancer Risk Assessment or see a complete list of lung cancer risk factors and lung cancer symptoms.
According to the American Cancer Society, early detection is the best chance to increase the lung cancer survival rate. To learn more about early detection, click here.
