Quitting smoking is not easy, however, if you think of the health benefits, then it is all worth it. When you stop smoking, you will notice the positive impacts and as the time goes on, you will never regret your decision to stop smoking. You can reduce the risk of getting a number of serious health conditions, such as elaborated in health risks of smoking.
Here are the 7 health benefits of quitting smoking you’ll experience. Let’s discuss each of them!
- Reduce the risk of Getting Cardiovascular Disease
Smoking literally increases the risk of getting heart disease as it causes your arteries to narrow. Heart or cardiovascular disease is serious and most of the time is fatal as it causes heart attack, stroke and even angina.
Tobacco contains nicotine and produce chemicals called carbon monoxide. This chemical speeds up your heart rate and as a result, it elevates your blood pressure. When your heart rates and your blood pressure increase, then the risk of getting heart disease will be increasing as well.
Fortunately, when you stop smoking, for instance, for a year, your risk of getting heart attack will be cut in half. Once you stop smoking, don’t forget to exercise and you can feel these health benefits of cardiovascular exercise.
- Recover your Smell and Taste
Do you know that smoking will lose your sense of smell and taste? Cigarettes give direct result on the taste buds and nerve receptors in the nose. Fortunately, within 48 hours of quitting smoking, you will be able to recover your smell and taste? As time goes on, it will continue to improve.
Nicotine and other chemicals in cigarette smoke, when combined with air, can flatten your taste buds. Moreover, they also reduce the vascularity that promotes nerve responses. The same thing also happens in the nose which later impairs the sense of smell.
By quitting smoking, you will be able to experience flavors and aromas profoundly.
- Get Healthier Lungs
Smoking has bad impacts on your body, especially on your lungs. Smoking cigarettes causes 9 out of 10 lung cancers in Australia and most people suffer from lung cancer will die.
Smoking flattens cilia, the tiny finger-like structure in the lungs. It then paralyzing them and increasing the risk of infections and lung injury.
However, when you decide to quit smoking, your cilia will start to regrow and restore the filtration function of the windpipe and lungs. Cilia are in charge of removing environmental pollutants and toxins you breathe in.
Do you know that eucalyptus is good for your lungs too? Read more about it in these benefits of eucalyptus for lungs.
- Improve Fertility
Do you know that one of the effects of smoking is infertility? When you smoke, you increase the risk of miscarriage and premature birth and it also affects the ability to conceive.
However, when you stop smoking, like 3 months, your fertility may improve. If you wish to improve your fertility, you can also try consuming green tea as it gives benefits of green tea for fertility health.
- Healthier Family
When you smoke, it doesn’t only affect your health, but also your family. Your family are particularly vulnerable to breathing in the smoke from your cigarettes. Indeed, it can cause serious and even deadly health conditions.
Quitting smoking could reduce the risk of developing cancers, respiratory infections and asthma in your family. If you or your wife is planning a pregnancy, then it will be the best time to quit smoking. Smoking during pregnancy will harm your baby and even lead to a greater chance of miscarriage, birth complications or premature birth.
Instead, enrich your pregnancy by consuming some healthy food, such as elaborated in health benefits of dark chocolate for your pregnancy.
- Long-term Health Benefits
Besides the benefits above, there are some long-term health benefits of quitting smoking you will experience. Here are some of them:
One or two years after you quit smoking, you will decrease the risk of coronary heart disease. It will continue declining in the years that follow.
Three to six years after you quit, the risk for coronary heart disease will be around half when it is compared when you were smoking.
Quitting smoking will also help you reduce the risk of cancer over the long term. The risk of getting mouth, throat and voice box cancers might drop by half. The risk of getting lung cancer will also drop by 50% in the 10 to 15 years after you quit smoking.
Smoking is not giving any good impact for your health. Therefore, if you wish to have a long and healthy life, then stop smoking. It is not only good for your own health, but it is also good for your surroundings.