Giving up smoking makes you feel more comfortable around your nonsmoking friends and allows you to visit homes, restaurants and other places of interest without worrying about running out for a smoke. However, the health benefits, alone, make a huge difference in your life when you quit smoking.
Immediate Benefits
Your sense of smell returns to normal, and your taste buds improve without being affected by smoke. Food tastes better, and you will discover that healthier foods, such as fruits and vegetables, have a tasty attraction for a better diet. Your heart and blood pressure rates return to normal within minutes after you quit smoking. And, carbon monoxide levels in the blood begin to decline within a few hours of quitting, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Carbon monoxide is a gas found in cigarette smoke that inhibits the ability of blood to carry oxygen. The few pounds some people put on within weeks after quitting smoking pose fewer health risks than smoking itself, the American Cancer Society (ACS) points out. You can offset this by enjoying the healthier foods you can now taste.
Short-Term Benefits
Women who stop smoking before pregnancy or, even, during the first trimester of pregnancy, reduce the risk of having low-birth weight babies, a risk for women who smoke. Coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath decrease in a month or within a few months after quitting smoking. The risk of heart disease is half that of a smoker's a year after quitting, the ACS says. Ex-smokers improve their lung capacity, have more energy and avoid wrinkles or discolored skin and teeth, explains the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Long-Term Benefits
Ex-smokers live longer than people who still smoke, the ACS notes. They reduce the risks of lung diseases, heart attacks, stroke, blood vessel diseases and cancers of the lung, mouth, larynx, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, cervix and stomach. Regardless of age, people who quit smoking are less likely to die of smoking-related illnesses. Quitting at age 30 reduces the chance of dying from these diseases by more than 90 percent, according to the NCI. Quitting by age 50 cuts it by 50 percent. Even people who quit at age 60 or older live longer than smokers. Five to 15 years after quitting, your risk of stroke is the same as a nonsmoker's. The risk of death from lung cancer is half that of a smoker's 10 years after quitting, and the risk of heart disease becomes the same as a nonsmoker's 15 years after quitting, the ACS explains.
