Quitting smoking has immediate positive and negative effects. The negative effects are so powerful that a very large percentage of ex-smokers resume smoking. Coping with and overcoming the negative effects is very important, though, because quitting smoking has medium- and long-term benefits that are far more significant than the immediate drawbacks of quitting.
Explanation
Smoking kills, but it also brings a lot of pleasure to millions of smokers. The American Cancer Society's 2009 "Cancer Prevention & Early Detection Facts & Figures" report attributes 443,000 deaths in the United States annually to smoking, including nearly 50,000 nonsmokers who die because of secondhand smoke. Smokers are particularly susceptible to dying of cancer and heart disease. The lethality of smoking has been widely known since at least the 1964 U.S. Surgeon General's report, but 19.8 percent of American adults still smoke, according to the 2009 report. Nicotine is the primary reason, according to the textbook "An Invitation to Health." The "primary active ingredient" in tobacco often relaxes people, lifts their spirits and reduces their appetites.
Withdrawal Symptoms
Nicotine is so addictive that quitting spurs withdrawal symptoms in ex-smokers who crave the pleasant feelings they had when they smoked. The American Cancer Society's "Guide to Quitting Smoking" report warns people that withdrawal symptoms usually begin a few hours after they quit, peak a few days later and can last for several weeks. The withdrawal symptoms include anger, anxiety, depression, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, an increased appetite, irritability, a lack of concentration, restlessness, sleeping problems and weight gain. The report advises ex-smokers to seek activities that will replace smoking as the solution to relieving hunger and stress, including chewing gum and exercising.
Immediate Benefits
Nicotine, like many drugs, has negative effects. It increases your risk of heart and respiratory diseases, and raises your heart rate 15 to 20 beats per minute, wrote "Invitation" author Dianne Hales. Quitting smoking reduces your blood pressure and heart rate within 20 minutes, according to the "Quitting Smoking" report. When you quit, you are also no longer inhaling several other harmful chemicals and compounds in tobacco smoke. Carbon monoxide impairs your nervous system, but the amount of it in your blood returns to normal within 12 hours of quitting. Quitting's other immediate benefits include fewer breathing problems, a better sense of smell and taste, whiter teeth, and better-smelling breath, clothes and hair.
Enduring Benefits
Ex-smokers' heart disease risk is cut in half within one year of quitting and their lung cancer risk is cut in half within 10 years, according to the "Quitting Smoking" report. Within five to 15 years of quitting, ex-smokers have the same risk of a stroke as people who never smoked. Within 15 years, they have the same risk of heart disease as nonsmokers. Ex-smokers also cut their risk of bladder, cervix, esophagus, mouth, pancreas and throat cancer when they quit. The reduction in diseases means ex-smokers live longer than smokers. Male and female smokers live 13.2 and 14.5 fewer years than nonsmokers. Quitting smoking can dramatically cut these differences.
References
- American Cancer Society: CPED Facts & Figures 2009
- "An Invitation to Health"; Dianne Hales; 2010
- American Cancer Society: Guide to Quitting Smoking
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart Disease"; Dr. Dean Ornish; 1996
