Deep down, I think every smoker wishes they had never started.
It's a dirty, expensive addiction that robs them of both their health and their self-respect.
Fortunately, even though it can be difficult it is always possible to quit smoking.
Some smokers say something like: "Why quit smoking now when I've been doing it for so long? The damage is already done.
" That's actually the addiction talking, or perhaps the person's fear of going through withdrawal.
If it's "too late", then there's no point in trying.
The fact is that it's never too late.
As soon as a person quit smoking their state of well-being improves on many levels.
We all know that carbon monoxide is a dangerous poison.
If there is enough of it in a person's system, it kills them by binding to the hemoglobin in the blood more strongly than oxygen can.
This prevents the blood from carrying oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
There is carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke.
It's only one of thousands of poisons in the smoke.
Its presence is why smokers can't lie to insurance companies about their habit.
It's easy to measure carbon monoxide levels in blood and the elevated levels of carbon monoxide in smokers gives them away.
However, when a person stop smoking the body can clear the carbon monoxide very quickly.
It's gone in about a day.
This means that within 24 hours of quitting an ex-smokers blood is carrying more oxygen than it was the day before.
That's a quick improvement.
Everyone knows that smoking increases the risk of heart attacks and lung cancer.
Many people aren't aware of how much of that increase risk is reversible.
The ability of our bodies to heal and recover is quite remarkable.
A year after a person quits smoking, their risk of heart attack is half of what it would've been if they had continued to smoke.
The risk continues to decrease after that.
The risk of lung cancer also decreases significantly.
While it never goes to zero (and for that matter, the risk of a lung cancer is never zero even someone who has never smoked), it steadily decreases when a person stops smoking.
10 to 15 years after they quit, the risk isn't much higher than it would've been if they hadn't smoked.
Finances are another area that improves immediately when a person stop smoking.
The cost of a pack of cigarettes these days is astounding.
The fact that smokers continue to pay it is proof of the strength of the addiction.
I've heard smokers say that they can't try some of the medication to stop smoking (such as Chantrix) because it's too expensive.
This, to be blunt, is ludicrous.
Taking the medication is cheaper than smoking cigarettes.
Aside from that, people only take medication for relatively short time when they quit.
After that, the money saved from not buying cigarettes is pure profit.
The same goes for the expense of other techniques, such as acupuncture or hypnosis, that a smoker might try to help them kick the habit.
They more than pay for themselves in the long run.
It's a dirty, expensive addiction that robs them of both their health and their self-respect.
Fortunately, even though it can be difficult it is always possible to quit smoking.
Some smokers say something like: "Why quit smoking now when I've been doing it for so long? The damage is already done.
" That's actually the addiction talking, or perhaps the person's fear of going through withdrawal.
If it's "too late", then there's no point in trying.
The fact is that it's never too late.
As soon as a person quit smoking their state of well-being improves on many levels.
We all know that carbon monoxide is a dangerous poison.
If there is enough of it in a person's system, it kills them by binding to the hemoglobin in the blood more strongly than oxygen can.
This prevents the blood from carrying oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
There is carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke.
It's only one of thousands of poisons in the smoke.
Its presence is why smokers can't lie to insurance companies about their habit.
It's easy to measure carbon monoxide levels in blood and the elevated levels of carbon monoxide in smokers gives them away.
However, when a person stop smoking the body can clear the carbon monoxide very quickly.
It's gone in about a day.
This means that within 24 hours of quitting an ex-smokers blood is carrying more oxygen than it was the day before.
That's a quick improvement.
Everyone knows that smoking increases the risk of heart attacks and lung cancer.
Many people aren't aware of how much of that increase risk is reversible.
The ability of our bodies to heal and recover is quite remarkable.
A year after a person quits smoking, their risk of heart attack is half of what it would've been if they had continued to smoke.
The risk continues to decrease after that.
The risk of lung cancer also decreases significantly.
While it never goes to zero (and for that matter, the risk of a lung cancer is never zero even someone who has never smoked), it steadily decreases when a person stops smoking.
10 to 15 years after they quit, the risk isn't much higher than it would've been if they hadn't smoked.
Finances are another area that improves immediately when a person stop smoking.
The cost of a pack of cigarettes these days is astounding.
The fact that smokers continue to pay it is proof of the strength of the addiction.
I've heard smokers say that they can't try some of the medication to stop smoking (such as Chantrix) because it's too expensive.
This, to be blunt, is ludicrous.
Taking the medication is cheaper than smoking cigarettes.
Aside from that, people only take medication for relatively short time when they quit.
After that, the money saved from not buying cigarettes is pure profit.
The same goes for the expense of other techniques, such as acupuncture or hypnosis, that a smoker might try to help them kick the habit.
They more than pay for themselves in the long run.