Quitting Smoking - Why Quit?

Hi There,

Finally we decided that when we have so many experts at Core Cancer Foundation who understand what tobacco can do to human body and how difficult it can be to quit, we decided that we should create more awareness about it! Here's the first article in this series - 

When it comes to quitting smoking, one of the most significant barriers is the lack of motivation. Effectively, this means that most people are so addicted that they can’t see any point in quitting. However, counselors and therapists have proven that when people realize that smoking harms them not just physically, but also on so many other levels, it helps in quitting smoking. So, if you’re making a plan to quit or are considering why to quit smoking, this article may actually give you some insights.

To begin with, you’re probably already aware that smoking is injurious to your health and that it causes diseases related to heart or lungs. You’re potentially also aware that should you quit smoking, you will be able to reduce your risk of getting a heart or a lung disease significantly.

The probability of smokers dying sooner than their non-smoker counterparts is almost 50 %. Also, on an average, smokers die at least 13 – 14 years sooner than non-smokers.  So let’s look at some major categories of benefits from quitting smoking.

Decrease in Risks:

• Smoking causes early death. Hence quitting smoking reduces the risk of early death.

• Strokes and heart attacks. Within 2 years of quitting, the risk of heart attacks reduces by half.

• Lung cancer and other lung diseases like emphysema are less likely to affect you, if you quit smoking.

• Quitting slowly also reduces your risk for developing various other cancers like that of the larynx, throat, mouth, intestines, esophagus, kidney, bladder and pancreas.

• Quitting also leads to a significant decrease in reproductive, sexual and pregnancy related complications.

• Within the first 2 to 4 weeks after you leave smoking, you will notice that your energy, shortness of breath and asthma symptoms will start getting better. In fact you may actually feel contrary in the first week, since lungs try to clean themselves immediately after quitting. So, there may be more than usual coughing in the first week or two.

Similarly, quitting smoking affects not just you but also the people around you positively. For instance:

The health risks will be reduced for your family members, since they will not be smoking passively.

The secondary and tertiary smoke is less likely to affect your family, friends and colleagues. They will be affected lesser.

• If you quit, it will be like setting a good, strong example in front of your children. If your teens are already smoking, they will then smoke less. If your kids don’t smoke yet, there’s a high likelihood that they will not start smoking, should you quit.

• In case of women who quit smoking, the problem of underweight babies and problem pregnancies reduces.

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One needs to remember that it’s best to quit tobacco in every form. Even the rub or the dip form, and using cigars, pipes, sheesha, hukkah, chillum, or chewing tobacco is equally harmful. The only difference is that this affects your oral cavity, gums, teeth and larynx more than lungs or heart. However, we need to remember that cancer is cancer, no matter the form!

Also, if you’re a teenager, the sooner you quit the better it is, since it’s difficult to quit, once you get hooked to it. While it may not seem as important right now, in reality, the longer you use it, the greater is your risk for addiction. So quit now!