Life after Quitting Smoking, How is it?

 

Life after Quitting Smoking

Smoking reduces life expectancy by an average of ten years according to a study that has followed more than 35,000 people for 50 years in the United Kingdom”,  experts add. However, these risks can be reduced by quitting tobacco use. Quitting smoking can increase life expectancy, although the benefits of when you quit smoking are greater the sooner you do it. So how is life after you quit smoking?

At 24 hours

After a day without smoking, the levels of carbon monoxide in the lungs are greatly reduced, which increases the oxygen levels in the blood. In addition, the smell begins to recover and food tastes better, especially after the first few days.

 

The first days are the worst, the urge to smoke is usually very intense and frequent but progressively diminishes until it disappears. You can buy Quit-Smoking Tablets like Champix online in the UK.

 

After 2 or 3 days

It takes about 3-4 days for the body to completely eliminate nicotine or its derivatives, such as cotinine. However, other compounds in tobacco, such as tar, build up in the lungs and can take years to clear from the body.

Experts say that the tars and other substances present in tobacco are responsible for the appearance of cancer, while nicotine has effects on the cardiovascular system and is a highly addictive substance.
At 2 or 3 weeks

Smoking is a physical and psychological addiction, a learned behaviour that generates social dependence. When quitting smoking, it is normal for the urge to smoke to persist and even for the so-called withdrawal syndrome or "mono" to appear, accompanied by irritability, anxiety, nervousness and fatigue, among other symptoms. "The withdrawal syndrome lasts about 2-3 weeks and is the main cause of smokers starting to smoke again," says the specialist.

Sometimes months can pass and the urge to smoke prevails, although with less intensity and frequency.

 At 3 months

Lung function begins to improve and there is a marked decrease in coughing, nasal congestion, fatigue, and a feeling of shortness of breath.

In fact, these improvements can begin to appear even two weeks after quitting, along with increased elasticity and hydration of the skin that was lost to smoking.

 In these first months, nicotine, which has the ability to burn fat, disappears and you gain weight. Normally this increase is between three and five kilos, although there are people who do not gain weight and others who gain more than six kilos.

“Weight gain is one of the main barriers and difficulties in quitting smoking. The good news is that we can do things to avoid it, such as taking care of our diet or increasing physical activity ”, concludes the expert.

After a year

After a year without smoking, the risk of cardiovascular disease decreases until it is reduced by 50 per cent. And it continues to decline with the passage of time, after 5-15 years without smoking the risk of stroke is the same as that of a person who has never smoked.

10 years and more.

 The risk of lung cancer is gradually reduced when you stop smoking and after ten years it is 30-50 per cent lower.

At 15-20 years, the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases, lung, throat, oesophagus or bladder cancer is the same as that of non-smokers. However, the risk of lung cancer in ex-heavy smokers who consumed 20 or more cigarettes a day will continue to double for the rest of their lives, say the experts.

You must give yourself a chance to quit smoking. Set a quit date, prepare a plan and, when in doubt, seek support from your health centre, friends or family.

Make up your mind to quit smoking. You will feel better, your health and that of your family will improve, you will stop depending on tobacco and your economy will thank you.