Health gains of quitting smoking

• 2 hours: Nicotine is eliminated from the body, and first signs of abstinence appear.
• 12 hours: Carbon monoxide blood level drops to normal, lung function improves, and shortness of breath disappears.
• 2 days: Ability to smell and taste is enhanced.
• 12 weeks: Blood circulation improves, and it makes walking and running easier.
• 3-9 months: Cough, shortness of breath and sinus congestion decrease; lung function increases up to 10%.
• 5 years: Risk of heart attack is half that of a smoker.

Negative effects of quitting smoking

During first weeks of abstinence, “quitters” might have some withdrawal symptoms, including sore throat, coughing and frequent colds. Studies show that people with severe withdrawal symptoms are more likely to smoke again. Therefore, it is important to provide former smokers with information on possible problems.

The results of the study, involving 174 former smokers, have been published in the Tobacco Control Journal, the supplement to the British Medical Journal. Researchers were analysing withdrawal symptoms during first weeks of abstinence. Evidence suggests that people trying to quit smoking are likely to get cold and report coghing, sneezing and pain while swallowing. Sore throat is a frequent complaint.

Six weeks later such symptoms become less noticeable. Scientists suppose that cutting back on smoking can temporarily supress the immune system. Furthermore, smoking may have provided some antimicrobial effect too.

In the beginning of the 20th century, doctors advised pregnant women to smoke in order not to gain weight;

In 1588, Thomas Harriet a resident of Virginia began to advocate daily smoking of tobacco as a way to general improvement of the organism. Unfortunately, he soon died of cancer;

Tobacco bush comes from the American continent and belongs to the family of potato and pepper;

Smokers suffer from chronic bronchitis 5-7 times more than non-smokers do. Chronic bronchitis is subsequently complicated by emphysema and pneumosclerosis: diseases that substantially disrupt the function of lungs;

In the world, there are 120 ways of treating tobacco addiction (only about 40 of them are used in practice);

$5300 were spent in an Internet auction for a cigarette butt smoked in the last seconds before a ban on smoking in public places came into force in New Zealand;

In 1571, a Spanish doctor Nicolas Mondares wrote a book about the healing plants of the New World. He wrote that tobacco could cure 36 diseases;

The main reason for high prevalence of smoking is the temporarily hidden destructive effect of smoking, which creates the impression that it is externally harmless;

Tobacco and tobacco smoke contain more than 3 thousand chemical compounds, some being oncogenous, which means they are capable of damaging the genetic material of cells and cause the growth of a cancer tumor;

10% of smokers are being taken ill with and subsequently die from malignant tumors. (and 20% of those who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day);

In 1923, the Camel cigarette brand was controlling about 45% of the U.S. market. Philip Morris cigarette brand started to advance with the Marlboro cigarettes as a with female brand under the slogan “Mild as May”;

In 1939, the American Tobacco Company presented its new brand “Pall Mall”, which placed the company in the first position among American tobacco companies;

Smoking increases significantly the effect of human exposure to other harmful factors. For example, the risk of mouth cancer, larynx and oesophagus tumors increases 2-3 times for non-smokers who regularly consume alcohol. 9 times more risk active smokers who also consume the same quantity of alcohol;

Smokers suffer from heart attacks 2-8 times more than non-smokers do. Moreover, smokers are put at risk of dying from cardio ischemia against the seemingly normal state of health 3-4 times more than non-smokers;

95% of smokers immediately quit smoking having survived a heart attack. The patients are neither lectured nor persuaded: they take the decision themselves;

Great Britain prohibited TV advertisements of tobacco products in1965.

After a long competition with “Coca Cola”, the Marlboro trademark is recognized as the most expensive brand among day-to-day goods in the 80s and 90s. Its estimated cost is about 30 billion dollars.

Smoking and Teenagers
The problem of teenage smoking is becoming more and more critical each year. More teenagers appear to be involved in smoking straight from the school years. It was established that people who started smoking before the age of 15 die from lung cancer 5 times more than those who started after 25.
There were registered cases of teenagers deaths caused by smoking 2-3 cigarettes in a row: due to serious poisoning of the vital centers, a cardiac arrest occurred and breathing stopped.
According to a research carried out in the University of Columbia (New York), a new harmful effect of smoking was identified: causeless fear. Teenagers smoking daily more than one cigarette pack are prone to a causeless panic 15 times more than their non-smoking peers are.

Smoking and Car Driving
According to the information system of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in the U.S., 10.3% of all fatal accidents in 1999 were caused by the fact that the driver was engaged in such things as smoking a cigarette, eating a hamburger, and even make-up making or trying to write something down.
Germany is probably the first country to place a ban on smoking while driving. Such a bill proposed by the Social Democrats is already at the Bundestag. Its authors believe that someone who smokes while driving is distracted from driving and can cause an accident.

Smoking and Fire
Every year in the U.S, 900 people die from fire caused by a cigarette. The damage from such fires is estimated at $400 million

Smoking and Etiquette
In accordance with the generally accepted international rules of etiquette, smokers must consider non-smokers before smoking, particularly in places where official bans do not prescript anything. Before you light a cigarette, it is always necessary to ask first whether others approve it. However, non-smokers should not regard smokers as second-class citizens. A reasonable desire for a smokeless air can also be expressed in a friendly manner. In any case, it is absolutely unacceptable to smoke in places where the “No smoking” sign is placed.

Smoking and Odours
It will not go away until you quit smoking. However, if you have already quit and want to immediately do away with the odour, try one of the tobacco odour neutralising substances.

1. Believe in yourself. Believe you will be able to give up smoking. Recollect the most difficult challenges you faced and realize that you have a will power and determination to give up smoking. Everything depends on you.

2. Put in writing all the reasons why you want to give up smoking (advantages of life without smoking): to live longer, feel yourself better, for your family, save money, smell better, easier to find a partner, etc. You know what is bad in smoking and what you ll get resisting it. Write all these things on the paper and read every day.

3. Ask your relatives and friends to support you in your decision to give up smoking. Ask them for a complete support and patience. Let them know beforehand that you may be nervous or even irritating during the period of getting rid this addiction.

4. Set a date of your finishing of smoking. Take a decision in what day you will quit smoking forever. Put this date in writing. Plan it beforehand. Get prepared your brains to *the first day of your new life*. You even can hold a special ceremony due to your last cigarette or the morning of the date of your refusal of smoking.

5. Talk to your doctor about your refusal of smoking. The support and set received from your doctor is a proved method to enhance your chances for success.

6. Begin to do exercises. Sport is incompatible with smoking. Exercises distress and help your body to recover from damage caused by smoking. In case of necessity, begin with a short walks once or twice a day. Then increase these up 30-40 minutes exercises 3 or 4 times a week. Before you take up any exercises consult your doctor.

7. Do deep breathing exercises during 3-5 minutes every day. Breathe in through your nose slowly, then outwind for several seconds and breathe out through the mouth. Try to practice these breathing exercises with closed eyes.

8. Decrease the number of cigarettes gradually (if you decrease the number of cigarettes, certainly you should specify the date when you refuse of smoking COMPLETELY). Methods of gradual refusal of smoking are as follows: planning of the number of smoked cigarettes for every day up to the finishing of smoking, decreasing the number of smoked cigarettes daily, purchasing of cigarettes in the quantity no more than a pack, substitution by another brand of cigarettes in order not to enjoy the process of smoking.

9. Try to give up smoking forever. Many of smokers tried on themselves that the only way to resist smoking is to give up abruptly and completely without any attempts of decreasing of the number of smoked cigarettes. Nevertheless, find the very methods that will be the most convenient for you: giving up smoking gradually or abruptly. If one of the methods hasnt worked, try another one.

10. Find a partner for you another smoker who wants to give up smoking too. Cheer up each other, go to each other every time when you feel that you cant resist. Visit our forum or enter our chart, there you will find some help for sure.

11. Clean your teeth thoroughly. Pay attention to how quickly their state is enhanced and how there are whitening. Imagine yourself and enjoy the idea of how they look in a month, three months or year.

12. Drink a lot of water. In any case water is good for your health and the majority of people dont drink it in enough quantity. Water will help you to *wash out* nicotine and other chemicals from your body; moreover it will help you to lessen your desire for cigarettes, satisfying your *mouth demands*.

We wish to succeed in your determination to give up smoking! This is worth it!

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