Health Tips - 10 Reasons to Stop Smoking Now
Thinking about quitting smoking? Wondering if it really matters? Here are just 10 of the many health benefits that start the day you stop.
1. Do It for Your Family Your spouse and your children will be less likely to die from lung cancer or heart disease. If you think you're the only one who benefits from your quitting, think again.
Environmental tobacco smoke kills spouses and children by increasing their risk of lung cancer and heart disease even if they never smoked. Your quitting can save their lives.
2. Do It for Your Children Women who want to have a baby have even more reasons to quit. Women who smoke are more likely to have a stillborn child or an infant who dies from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Quitting will increase the amount of oxygen your baby will get, increase the chance your baby's lungs will work well, have fewer asthma and wheezing problems, and improve your baby's chances of being born healthy, instead of too early.
3. Do It for Your Skin Fewer wrinkles. The Surgeon General doesn't usually talk about wrinkles, but his most recent report on smoking concludes that studies show that smokers have more facial wrinkles.
4. Do It for Your Eyes If you stop smoking, you are less likely to become blind. You will be less likely to ever develop cataracts, a major cause of blindness. And quitting may also decrease your risk of macular degeneration, another frequent cause of blindness.
5. Do It for Your Mood You might think that smoking is relaxing, but think again. Research shows that women who smoke are more depressed and more anxious. Adolescents who smoke are more likely to have phobias or be anxious as adults. So, quitting may make you happier as well as healthier.
6. Do It for the Money! Think of all the money you'll save by giving up smoking. A good strategy is to put aside the money you save every day, and use it to buy something special to reward yourself for quitting. (Don't wait too long -- rewards every few days or every week will help you maintain your will power.)
7. Do It for Your Heart Women who smoke are more than twice as likely as other women to have a heart attack. Your risk of having a heart attack increases with the number of cigarettes you smoked, so stopping today makes a difference.
8. Do It for Your Lungs You know that smoking causes lung cancer, but did you know that lung cancer kills more women than any other cancer -- and that nine out of ten are linked to smoking? The numbers of women dying of lung cancer have increased by 600% since 1950, as the number of women smokers has increased. The sooner you stop smoking, the less likely you are to get lung cancer.
9. Do It for Your Life You'll live longer -- much longer! Women who die of a smoking-related disease lose, on average, 14.5 years of life. Even if you have trouble quitting, reducing the number of cigarettes could save your life. And women who stop smoking entirely can get many of those years back -- improving the chances that you will live to enjoy your grandchildren and even great grandchildren.
10. Just Do It! There are other benefits too -- for example, quitting smoking will cut your risk of stroke dramatically and lower your risk of bladder cancer and hip fractures. If the health benefits don't do it for you, think about this: wouldn't it be great to avoid that pathetic feeling of standing outside alone in the pouring rain or hand-numbing cold, grabbing that last smoke before going back to work?
The best day in your life could be the day you stop.