1. After 20 minutes without a cigarette – your pulse rate will start returning to normal

2. After 8 hours without a cigarette – The carbon monoxide levels in your blood will have reduced by half and your oxygen levels will start to return to normal.

3. After 2 days (48hrs) your body will have flushed out all carbon monoxide, your lungs will start to clear out mucus and your sense of smell and taste will have improved.

4. After just 3 days (72 hours) without a cigarette your breathing will feel easier. This is because your bronchial tubes have started to relax. 

5. You will notice your energy levels increasing.

6. Between 2 weeks and 3 months of quitting smoking your blood will be pumping through to your heart and muscles much better because your circulation will have improved.

7. Between 3 & 9 months your lung function will increase by up to 10% and you will notice that any coughs, wheezing or breathing problems will be improving.

8. After 1 year without a cigarette you can celebrate the fact that you have halved your risk of a heart attack compared to a smoker’s.

9. After 10 years you will have halved your risk of death from lung cancer compared to that of a smoker.

10. Amazing News – after 15 years your risk of a heart attack should now be the same as someone who has never smoked!!!

It is never too late too stop smoking

For advice and help please visit the NHS website Help Me Quit Wales 

or give them a call.

 

 

Just incase you need convincing further here are

 20+ health reasons why smoking is bad for you

1. When you smoke your arteries narrow, reducing the amount of oxygen rich blood circulating to your organs.

2. Smoking damages your heart and your blood circulation, increasing the risk of conditions such as coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, peripheral vascular disease (damaged blood vessels) and cerebrovascular disease (damaged arteries that supply blood to your brain).

3. When you smoke, the poisons from the tar in your cigarettes enter your blood. These poisons in your blood make your blood thicker, and increase chances of clot formation

4. Increase your blood pressure and heart rate, making your heart work harder than normal.

5. Carbon monoxide from the smoke and nicotine both put a strain on the heart by making it work faster. They also increase your risk of blood clots. Other chemicals in cigarette smoke damage the lining of your coronary arteries, leading to furring of the arteries.

6. Smoking doubles your risk of having a heart attack, and if you smoke you have twice the risk of dying from coronary heart disease than lifetime non-smokers.

7. Smokers have an increased chance of getting stomach cancer or ulcers. Smoking can weaken the muscle that controls the lower end of your gullet (oesophagus) and allow acid from the stomach to travel in the wrong direction back up your gullet, a process known as reflux.

8. Smoking is a significant risk factor for developing kidney cancer, and the more you smoke the greater the risk. For example, research has shown that if you regularly smoke 10 cigarettes a day, you are one and a half times more likely to develop kidney cancer compared with a non-smoker. This is increased to twice as likely if you smoke 20 or more cigarettes a day.

9. Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen that gets to your skin. This means that if you smoke, your skin ages more quickly and looks grey and dull. The toxins in your body also cause cellulite.

10. Smoking prematurely ages your skin by between 10 and 20 years, and makes it three times more likely you’ll get facial wrinkling, particularly around the eyes and mouth. Smoking even gives you a sallow, yellow-grey complexion and hollow cheeks, which can cause you to look gaunt.

11. Smoking can cause your bones to become weak and brittle. Women need to be especially careful as they are more likely to suffer from brittle bones (osteoporosis) than non-smokers.

12. If you smoke, you are more likely to have a stroke than someone who doesn’t smoke.

13. Smoking increases your risk of having a stroke by at least 50%, which can cause brain damage and death. And, by smoking, you double your risk of dying from a stroke.

14. One way that smoking can increase your risk of a stroke is by increasing your chances of developing a brain aneurysm. This is a bulge in a blood vessel caused by a weakness in the blood vessel wall. This can rupture or burst which will lead to an extremely serious condition known as a subarachnoid haemorrhage, which is a type of stroke, and can cause extensive brain damage and death.

15. Your lungs can be very badly affected by smoking. Coughs, colds, wheezing and asthma are just the start. Smoking can cause fatal diseases such as pneumonia, emphysema and lung cancer. Smoking causes 84% of deaths from lung cancer and 83% of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

16. COPD, a progressive and debilitating disease, is the name for a collection of lung diseases including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. People with COPD have difficulties breathing, primarily due to the narrowing of their airways and destruction of lung tissue. Typical symptoms of COPD include: increasing breathlessness when active, a persistent cough with phlegm and frequent chest infections.

17. Whilst the early signs of COPD can often be dismissed as a ‘smoker’s cough’, if people continue smoking and the condition worsens, it can greatly impact on their quality of life. You can slow down the progression of the disease and stopping smoking is the most effective way to do this

18. Smoking causes unattractive problems such as bad breath and stained teeth, and can also cause gum disease and damage your sense of taste.

19. The most serious damage smoking causes in your mouth and throat is an increased risk of cancer in your lips, tongue, throat, voice box and gullet (oesophagus). More than 93% of oropharyngeal cancers (cancer in part of the throat) are caused by smoking.

20. Smoking can cause male impotence, as it damages the blood vessels that supply blood to the penis. It can also damage sperm, reduce sperm count and cause testicular cancer. Up to 120,000 men from the UK in their 20s and 30s are impotent as a direct result of smoking, and men who smoke have a lower sperm count than those who are non-smokers.

21. For women, smoking can reduce fertility. One study found that smokers were over three times more likely than non-smokers to have taken more than one year to conceive. The study estimated that the fertility of smoking women was 72% that of non-smokers.

22. Smoking also increases your risk of cervical cancer. People who smoke are less able to get rid of the HPV infection from the body, which can develop into cancer.

 

It is never too late too stop smoking

For advice and help please visit the NHS website Help Me Quit Wales 

or give them a call.