Smoking is the most common cause of preventable disease in the UK. Nearly 78,000 people die each year in the UK from smoking-related causes. Many more live in poor health because of smoking.
Quitting smoking is one of the best things you will ever do for your health.
When you stop, you give your lungs the chance to repair and you will be able to breathe easier. There are lots of other benefits too – and they start almost immediately.
Smoking and life expectancy
On average, smoking reduces your life expectancy by 10 years. After you reach 40, each additional year you smoke reduces your life expectancy by another three months.
Although smoking increases your risk of many serious illnesses, most of the deaths caused by smoking are due to three main conditions. These are lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cardiovascular (heart and circulation) disease.
Smoking and cancer
Cigarette smoke contains more than 5,000 chemical compounds and of these, over 60 are known to cause cancer. Smoking is by far the greatest avoidable risk for developing many types of cancer, and it causes one in four cancer deaths. And hand-rolled cigarettes are just as harmful as ready-made cigarettes.
If you smoke, you increase your risk of getting at least 15 different types of cancer, including:
- throat and mouth cancer
- lung cancer
- stomach cancer
- pancreatic cancer
- kidney cancer
- cervical cancer
The positive health effects of quitting smoking begin 20 minutes after your last cigarette. Your blood pressure and pulse will start to return to more normal levels.
In addition, fibres in the bronchial tubes that previously didn’t move well due to constant exposure to smoke will start to move again. This is beneficial for the lungs: These fibres help move irritants and bacteria out of the lungs, helping reduce the risk for infection.
Within eight hours, your carbon monoxide levels will return to a more normal level. Carbon monoxide is a chemical present in cigarette smoke that replaces oxygen particles in the blood, lowering the amount of oxygen your tissues receive.
When carbon monoxide goes away, your oxygen levels start to increase to more normal levels. This increased oxygen helps nourish tissues and blood vessels that were getting less oxygen while you were smoking.
By the one-day mark, you’ve already decreased your risk of heart attack. This is because of reduced constriction of veins and arteries as well as increased oxygen levels that go to the heart to boost its functioning.
When is the best time to quit smoking?
The simple answer is as soon as possible. The sooner you quit tobacco the sooner your body starts to heal.
Does quitting smoking improve your mental health?
It’s a common myth that smoking reduces the anxiety but actually it is the other way around – smoking affects chemicals in the brain so when you’re without a cigarette you get anxious or irritable. You smoke and feel like that relieves the stress, but it’s only very temporary and it is now dependence. You’re now hooked on cigarettes and that will continue to increase your anxiety.
You might think quitting smoking is stressful but you can take a lot of stress out of it – getting help from your local stop smoking service, using quitting aids and nicotine replacement, or vaping can help, quitting aids are very important and your local stop smoking service can talk you through the options.
It is important if you’re taking nicotine replacement, you get enough – it is not nicotine causing problems but tobacco. Every day an achievement if you stay off, the longer you stay off the longer you are to quit for good.
How can we help you quit smoking?
Many thousands of people in the UK have already stopped smoking with the help of an e-cigarette. There’s evidence that they can be effective.
A 2021 review found people who used e-cigarettes to quit smoking, as well as having expert face-to-face support, can be up to twice as likely to succeed as people who used other nicotine replacement products, such as patches or gum.
Using an e-cigarette can help you manage your nicotine cravings, while replicating the act of smoking without the risk of smoking related diseases.
We can help by giving advice on what product may suit you best or put together a selection of disposable vapes for you to try at a discounted price.
Quitting smoking may seem daunting especially if you’ve tried and failed before but the good news is with e-cigarettes you don’t have to sacrifice the act of smoking, something people find the hardest. You can still get the nicotine you brain craves but in a safer form.
I tried patches which irritated my skin, caused insomnia and kept falling off, besides that patches only have a 4% success rate. I tried lozenges which tasted like licking an ashtray and tried the inhaler which didn’t produce smoke and took an incredible amount of willpower.
With e-cigarettes you still get the “Hand to mouth” action, the production of smoke and you can keep your smoking routines such as smoking after a meal.
Many people who have tried e-cigarettes and failed report that it mad them cough so discontinued and returned to tobacco. As someone who has COPD I was exactly the same but the coughing is your lungs beginning to heal and usually goes away within one to two weeks.
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/quit-smoking/using-e-cigarettes-to-stop-smoking/
We can work alongside smoking cessation services giving you the best chance to quit.
If you want any more details you can contact us direct through our website where we are happy to discuss what may help you best.
With the government setting a target of 2030 to make England smoke-free and the cost of living crisis there’s been no better time to quit. If not for yourself, do it for your loved ones, it’s never too late.
Don’t become another statistic, every death is a tragedy. Speak to your local stop smoking services which you can find here;
https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/find-your-local-stop-smoking-service/
However way you choose to quit we wish you the best of luck and remember to not quit quitting!
