While quitting smoking can be difficult, it promises great improvements in many areas of life. In addition to decreasing the risks for serious health problems, ending tobacco use enhances the quality of life as well as longevity. As the U.S. Surgeon General reports, male smokers live about 13.2 years less than nonsmokers, and females lose about 14.5 years of life. Quitting turns this trend around and adds many other benefits.
Breaking Addiction
Nicotine dependency drives the motivations and actions of smokers. Without it, options are open. Smokers' time becomes their own when they no longer have to take cigarette breaks or go to designated places to smoke. Breaking the habit increases work productivity and surgical outcomes, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC report are hampered by cigarette smoking. Quitting smoking allows individuals to take care of health problems that were hard to treat due to tobacco use.
Improving Heart and Lung Health
The American Lung Association notes that some health problems caused by cigarette smoking can be reversed by quitting. Immediately after ending tobacco use, elevated heart rate returns to normal. Over time, ex-smokers' risks for coronary heart disease and heart attack return to nonsmoking levels. The symptoms of respiratory dysfunction, such as coughing, wheezing and breathlessness decrease within a year of a smoker's last cigarette. Quitting cigarettes early in life can head off deadly emphysema. The result is better physical condition, which improves work performance and exercise endurance.
Decreasing Cancer Risks
The CDC notes that smokers' cancer risks increase with the length and amount of tobacco use. Quitting cigarette smoking decreases the risk of developing and dying from many types of cancer. These include leukemia and oral, lung and kidney cancers.
Improving Personal Relations
The American Cancer Society notes changes in personal appearance and physical abilities that can make ex-smokers more attractive to the people in their lives, as well as to those whom they meet. Employers, family members, friends and potential romantic partners may become more willing to associate with people who quit cigarette smoking. Eliminating bad breath, stained teeth and fingers and an odor of stale smoke enhances ex-smokers' personal appeal. This, combined with improved health, can bring new social opportunities that were previously denied.
Increasing Financial Stability
The American Lung Association points out that a pack-a-day habit can cost smokers thousands of dollars per year, money that quitting puts back into pockets. Ex-smokers can also cut their heightened medical expenses and improve their work attendance and pay, when tobacco-related health problems are no longer financially draining.
