Tobacco use is a public health issue. I am so surprise that the post of “Cigarette Smoking – Primary Risk Factor of Lung Cancer” being listed in the top 200 of controversial article in Reddit.com yesterday. Although this was not good news (I think), I decided to write more about the benefits of smoking cessation today to firmly increase people’s awareness about that.

cigarette smoking

Smoking cessation provides extensive health benefits for everyone including the smokers and non-smokers. According to the reports of the US Surgeon General on the health consequences of smoking, there are many significant health benefits of quitting smoking. Although some cases show that the increased of lung cancer risk at the beginning of smoking cessation, there are still a lot of successful cases show the good side of smoking cessation.
 
Below are the 15 benefits of quitting smoking which I arrange it according to the timeline of smoking cessation.

1. After quitting within 2 weeks to 3 months, the pulmonary function and circulation will be improved.
 
2. Within 1-9 months after quitting, the ciliary and lung epithelium function will be restored.
 
3. Although the former smoker might experience coughing frequently initially, this is good for our body as the lungs remove excess mucus and tobacco smoke particulates.
 
4. After several months, the lung function of the former smoker will improve significantly.
 
5. After a year quitting from smoking, the former smoker will experience decreased coughing.
 
6. At the same time, the former smoker will regain his fatigue and the shortness of breath will be improved.
 
7. Consequently, the excess risk for coronary heart disease will be reduced to half than the continuing smokers.
 
8. After 5 – 15 years later, the risk of getting stroke will be reduced to the rate similar to the non-smokers.
 
9. The risk of getting the lung cancer will be reduced to half of the continuing smokers.
 
10. The risk of getting mouth larynx, pharynx, esophagus, bladder, kidney or pancreas cancer will be reduced.
 
11. After 15 years of smoking cessation, the risk for coronary heart disease will be reduced to the same rate as the people who never smoked.
 
12. Smoking cessation can significantly reduce the cumulative risk of death from lung cancer regardless the gender.
 
13. The former smokers that successfully give up the tobacco use can be expected to live much longer. If you are 35 years old and you quit from smoking, you are expected to live an additional 6 – 9 years than the smokers.
 
14. Some of the elderly smokers keep claiming that it is too late to quit from smoking as the damage is done on their body for a long time ago. However, according to the cancer research, there is an individual who quit from smoking start from 65 can live much longer (4 – 5 years) compared to those continued to smoke. Therefore, please do not ignore the potential of smoking cessation even for the elderly smokers.
 
15. If you are under medical treatment, quitting from smoking is better for you. According to cancer research, smoking will reduces the overall effectiveness of treatment, while causing the side effect of treatment and consequently decrease the survival rate.
 
In conclusion, there are too many benefits of smoking cessation. It is never too late to quit or advice others to quit from smoking to incur health benefits. I will try to find out more information about how to quit smoking effectively and post in my blog next time. Stay tuned!

(Reference: David S. Albert, Lisa M. Hess. Fundamental of Cancer Prevention, Second edition)
 

Are you hesitating to quit from smoking? Just do it!

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