Quit Squad | Why Quit

The benefits of stopping smoking start within 20 minutes of quitting

The physical benefits of stopping smoking. Stopping smoking can significantly improve your health in ways you might not expect. Once you stop smoking, some of the benefits are immediate and some are longer term: ● After 20 minutes: Pulse rate starts to return to normal. ● After 8 hours: Oxygen levels are recovering and harmful carbon monoxide in the blood is reduced by half. ● After 48 hours: The body has flushed out all carbon monoxide, lungs start to clear out mucus and ability to taste and smell is improved. ● After 72 hours: Bronchial tubes begin to relax, breathing becomes easier and energy levels increase. ● After 2-12 weeks: Blood is pumping to the heart and muscles better because circulation has improved. ● After 3-9 months: Coughs, wheezing and breathing problems improve as lung function increases by up to 10%. ● After 1 year: Risk of heart attack has halved compared to a smoker. And research suggests that people who have quit for a year are happier than those who continue to smoke. ● After 10 years: Risk of death from lung cancer falls to half that of a smoker. ● After 15 years: Risk of heart attack falls to the same as someone who has never smoked

What is in a cigarette ?

Every cigarette you smoke introduces thousands of harmful chemicals into your bloodstream. There are over 7000 chemicals in each cigarette*, all of which damage your health.

The main components of tobacco smoke are nicotine, carbon monoxide, toxic chemicals and tar. These substances all affect the human body and cause diseases.

If you are pregnant and smoke, these chemicals are transferred to your baby through the placenta.

*https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD013522.pub2/full#CD013522-abs-0002

Smoking is expensive

... but because you don't buy all your cigarettes or tobacco in one go, you may not realise the cost to you.

If you smoke 20 a day (costing £12.71 on average*), you could be spending:

£88.97 a week

£386.60 a month

£4639.15 a year

Which is £23195.75 over 5 years and £46391.50 over 10 years.

*Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/timeseries/czmp August 2022

Stopping smoking is one of the best things you'll ever do for your health.

Quit for your body...

... one in two smokers will die of a smoking related disease.

Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. It causes cancer, breathing, heart and circulation problems.

Smoking reduces fertility and increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, eye disease and dementia.

Image from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-stopping-smoking-what-works/health-matters-stopping-smoking-what-works

Quit for your mind...

People with mental health problems are much more likely to smoke than the general population, smoke more heavily and die on average 10 to 20 years earlier than those who don't experience mental health problems . If they use antipsychotic medicines and antidepressants, they may need higher doses of some because smoking interferes with the way these medicines work.

Most smokers believe that smoking helps them relax but smoking actually increases anxiety and tension. Also a smoker is more lilely to develop depression over time, than a non-smoker.

Image from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-reducing-health-inequalities-in-mental-illness/health-matters-reducing-health-inequalities-in-mental-illness

Shisha and other types of tobacco

Shisha (hookah) smoking is a way of smoking tobacco through a bowl and hose or tube.

Chewing tobacco (betel quid, also known as "paan" or "gutkha") is a mixture of ingredients that are all wrapped inside a betel leaf.

Bidi (also 'beedi' and 'biri') are thin cigarettes of tobacco wrapped in brown tendu leaf), kreteks (thin cigarettes rolled in banana leaf)

Snus is tobacco in either moist powder form or packed in small bags that are put under the inside of the bottom lip.