Smoking tobacco is a hard habit to quit. The nicotine in cigarette smoke generates both physical and mood-altering effects within your brain, which can lead to dependency. And like other addictions, depriving the body of this substance causes withdrawal, making it even more difficult to stop. However, a number of health benefits accompany smoking cessation. Not only due to the lack of nicotine, but also by ridding the body of all the other chemical and toxins found in tobacco. Some health benefits are far more publicized than others, but all can make a difference in your life.
Blood Pressure
The nicotine in tobacco elevates your blood pressure, according to the National Cancer Institute. As this chemical leaves your system, your blood pressure lowers, improving your circulation and taking less of a toll on your arterial walls. You can see an improvement in your blood pressure within 20 minutes of quitting tobacco. This reduces your risk of hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke.
Respiration
Along with lowering your blood pressure, quitting tobacco can greatly improve your respiration. It can take as little as two weeks to see an improvement in lung function after smoking cessation, explains the American Cancer Society. Part of this recovery involves the lungs, but another portion revolves around the relaxation of your bronchial tubes after stopping tobacco. Coughing and shortness of breath should subside within one to nine months as the lungs regain their ability to clean themselves. This reduces the risk of infection as well as other respiratory issues.
Cancer Risk
When you stop smoking, you reduce not only your risk of lung cancer but also cancers of the throat, kidney, bladder and pancreas, advises the National Cancer Institute. Quitting reduces your risk of mouth cancer, esophageal cancer and cervical cancer, as well. It can take roughly 10 years after stopping tobacco use to cut your chances of getting cancer in half.
Taste and Smell
Though this seems minor compared to the improvements in blood pressure, respiratory health and cancer risk, quitting smoking is also known to improve your senses of taste and smell. The congestion that commonly accompanies smoking dulls your sense of smell, notes the American Rhinologic Society. Since taste is interconnected with smell, it also affects the intensity of flavor.
Nerve Endings
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke explains that smoking tobacco can constrict "the blood vessels that supply nutrients to the peripheral nerves," which are those nerve endings that reach out into hands and arms as well as your feet and legs. This constriction deprives the nerves of nutrients, which can lead to nerve damage. By quitting smoking, the constriction subsides, and you can experience a regrowth of the affected nerve endings.
References
- American Cancer Society: When Smokers Quit--What Are the Benefits Over Time?
- National Cancer Institute: Quitting Tobacco--Short-term and Long-term Benefits
- American Rhinologic Society: Loss of Taste and Smell Stinks
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: Peripheral Neuropathy Fact Sheet
- MayoClinic.com: Quit Smoking Basics
