While you want to stop, you might not know what happens to your body when you quit smoking. In addition to nicotine, cigarettes contain many chemicals that affect your health in very damaging ways. It might be difficult to believe, but healing begins within 20 minutes when you quit smoking.

Within the first 20 minutes of quitting, your healing process begins. Your blood pressure decreases, your pulse rate drops, and the body temperature of your hands and feet increases. These benefits will continue to improve your health for years.

After eight hours of quitting smoking, the carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal and the oxygen level in your blood increases to normal.

At 24 hours, your chance of a heart attack decreases.

At 48 hours, your nerve endings begin regrowth and your ability to smell and taste improves.

And the benefits of quitting smoking are just beginning.

Between two weeks and thee months of stopping, your circulation improves, walking becomes easier, and your lung function increases.

Your worst nicotine withdrawal symptoms subside within the first month. After that, you learn how to decipher and reprogram the psychological urges to smoke that you’ve all built up over the years.

Starting as early as a month after you quit smoking, and continuing for the next several months, you may notice significant improvements in coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath.

At one year smoke-free, your excess risk of coronary heart disease is decreased to half that of a smoker.

Once you put a year between you and the last cigarette you smoke, congratulate yourself! Be grateful for the freedom you have created for yourself. The benefits of the positive choices you’ve made will continue to grow as you move forward from here.

For all of the work it takes to shed your addiction to nicotine, the incredible feelings of freedom and control you’ll be rewarded with when you quit smoking are just the beginning of the benefits headed your way.

At two years smoke-free, your chance of achieving long-term success with quitting tobacco increases significantly. Smoking relapse rates drop off sharply after two years.

At five years after quitting tobacco, your stroke risk is reduced to that of people who have never smoked.

At 10 years smoke-free, your risk of lung cancer drops to as little as one-half that of continuing smokers and your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas decreases. Your risk of ulcers also decreases.

At 15 years smoke-free, your risk of coronary heart disease is similar to that of people who have never smoked, and your risk of death returns to nearly the level of people who have never smoked.

It may be difficult to imagine yourself as an ex-smoker with 15 years of freedom from the habit. It is possible, and it starts with a first step of making the commitment to quit, and then taking action. From there, it’s just a day-by-day process.

Now that you’ve seen what happens to your body when you quit smoking, you’ll want to stop as quickly as possible. Don’t let smoking waste any more of your life.

Quit Smoking Benefit

Smoking is bad for your health. Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Smoking is a practice where a substance, most commonly tobacco, is burned and the smoke tasted or inhaled. Smoking not only harms your health but it hurts the health of those around you. Exposure to secondhand smoke (also called environmental tobacco smoke or passive smoking) includes exhaled smoke as well as smoke from burning cigarettes. Cigarette smoking causes 87 percent of lung cancer deaths. It is also responsible for many other cancers and health problems. These include lung disease, heart and blood vessel disease, stroke and cataracts. Women who smoke have a greater chance of certain pregnancy problems or having a baby die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Smoking is one of the most common forms of recreational drug use. Tobacco smoking is today by far the most popular form of smoking. Nicotine is a drug found naturally in tobacco. It is highly addictive as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Over time, a person becomes physically and emotionally addicted to, or dependent on, nicotine. Quitting smoking is not easy, but you can do it. When you quit smoking, the benefits begin within minutes of your last cigarette. Some powerful reasults for quit smoking.You will know you can succeed at difficult taks and take more control of your life. Quitting helps you believe in yourself. Quitting smoking has major and immediate health benefits for men and women of all ages. Benefits apply to people with and without smoking-related disease. The excess risk of developing heart disease as a result of smoking may be reduced by as much as half in the year or two after quitting. Women who stop smoking before pregnancy or during the first 3 to 4 months of pregnancy reduce their risk of having a low birth-weight baby to that of women who never smoked. The health benefits of quitting smoking are far greater than any risks from the small weight gain or any emotional or psychological problems that may follow quitting. Women who quit at age 35 increase their life expectancy by 6 to 8 years. It is never too late to gain benefits from quitting. When you quit smoking 3 - 9 months Coughs, wheezing and breathing problems improve as lung functions are increased by up to 10%. Quitting at age 45 increases life expectancy by 6 or 7 years. Quitting at age 55 increases life expectancy by 3 to 6 years. Quitting at age 65 increases life expectancy by 1.4 to 4 years.

A recent study has disclosed that young children who reside with their tobacco smoking parents were virtually fifty percent more probable to be admitted to an infirmary suffering from a communicable disease prior to reaching eight years of age.

Roughly 30% of minors who were within a ten foot radius of a parent smoking tobacco products during their developing years where at some point in their childhood admitted to hospital.

The Tobacco Control web site has published the results of a study that followed in excess of seven thousand babies born in Hong Kong during the first three months of 1997

The youngsters were closely monitored over an 8 year period and researchers compiled the final results.

The research studies exposed that babies who experienced a lower than average birth weight were susceptible to significantly bigger risks of infection.

Children exposed to tobacco smoke were 75% more likely to suffer from the effects of diseases including meningococcal and respiratory illnesses.

The compilers of the study from the University of Hong Kong have pronounced that passively inhaling tobacco smoke may undermine the body’s immune systems and likewise bring about respiratory diseases including pulmonary emphysema and lung cancer.

The reports on the comprehensive study go on to pronounce “An excess risk of severe morbidity from both respiratory and other infections for all infants exposed to second hand smoke suggests that such exposure, as well as acting via direct contact with the respiratory tract, may also affect the immune system.”

So to sum up the study confirms that individual who chose to smoke tobacco products are not only causing untold damage to their own health and wellbeing but also bring about severe damage to their children and close family.

The Great American Smokeout is just two days away and if you’ve decided to quit smoking we want to congratulate you! There are steps you can take to ensure your success with giving up smoking this year.

1. Designate your quit day – mark it on your calendar and tell others about it so they can support you.

2. Plan your entire day – know when you’re going to get up, who you’re going to hang out with, and what you’re going to eat. Change your routine from the everyday. Take a different route to work, eat in a different place, drink tea instead of coffee.

3. Plan ahead for when you think the urge to smoke might come and decide how you’re going to handle it.

4. Keep active and drink lots of water and juices.

5. Buy yourself a treat – do something special to celebrate your success.

6. Take one day at a time and remind yourself of why quitting is important to you.

7. Enlist the help of a professional. Visit www.cancer.org/docroot/subsite/greatamericans/smokeout.asp to have someone from the American Cancer Society’s Quitline personally contact you.

And remember to take things one day at a time. Every day that you remain smoke free is a step closer to a healthier life.

20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drops.

12 hours after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

2 weeks to 3 months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.

1 to 9 months after quitting: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.

1 year after quitting:The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker’s.

5 years after quitting: Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker 5 to 15 years after quitting.

10 years after quitting: The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker’s. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decrease.

15 years after quitting: The risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker’s.

*Taken from The American Cancer Society

While you want to stop, you might not know what happens to your body when you quit smoking. In addition to nicotine, cigarettes contain many chemicals that affect your health in very damaging ways. It might be difficult to believe, but healing begins within 20 minutes when you quit smoking.

Within the first 20 minutes of quitting, your healing process begins. Your blood pressure decreases, your pulse rate drops, and the body temperature of your hands and feet increases. These benefits will continue to improve your health for years.

After eight hours of quitting smoking, the carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal and the oxygen level in your blood increases to normal.

At 24 hours, your chance of a heart attack decreases.

At 48 hours, your nerve endings begin regrowth and your ability to smell and taste improves.

And the benefits of quitting smoking are just beginning.

Between two weeks and thee months of stopping, your circulation improves, walking becomes easier, and your lung function increases.

Your worst nicotine withdrawal symptoms subside within the first month. After that, you learn how to decipher and reprogram the psychological urges to smoke that you’ve all built up over the years.

Starting as early as a month after you quit smoking, and continuing for the next several months, you may notice significant improvements in coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath.

At one year smoke-free, your excess risk of coronary heart disease is decreased to half that of a smoker.

Once you put a year between you and the last cigarette you smoke, congratulate yourself! Be grateful for the freedom you have created for yourself. The benefits of the positive choices you’ve made will continue to grow as you move forward from here.

For all of the work it takes to shed your addiction to nicotine, the incredible feelings of freedom and control you’ll be rewarded with when you quit smoking are just the beginning of the benefits headed your way.

At two years smoke-free, your chance of achieving long-term success with quitting tobacco increases significantly. Smoking relapse rates drop off sharply after two years.

At five years after quitting tobacco, your stroke risk is reduced to that of people who have never smoked.

At 10 years smoke-free, your risk of lung cancer drops to as little as one-half that of continuing smokers and your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas decreases. Your risk of ulcers also decreases.

At 15 years smoke-free, your risk of coronary heart disease is similar to that of people who have never smoked, and your risk of death returns to nearly the level of people who have never smoked.

It may be difficult to imagine yourself as an ex-smoker with 15 years of freedom from the habit. It is possible, and it starts with a first step of making the commitment to quit, and then taking action. From there, it’s just a day-by-day process.

Now that you’ve seen what happens to your body when you quit smoking, you’ll want to stop as quickly as possible. Don’t let smoking waste any more of your life.