 |
Be a Quitter: Your Lungs Will Thank You
- The Health Benefits of Quitting
- The minute you quit, your heart and circulation will begin to improve.
- Within months after quitting, it should feel easier to breathe.
- A year after quitting, your risk for stroke, cancer, and lung disease will begin to drop.
- By one year, your risk for developing heart disease will shrink to half of what it was.
- Within approximately 10 years of quitting, your risk of cancer will return to that of a nonsmoker.
About half a million Americans
die each year as a direct result of
inhaling tobacco smoke, and you
don’t have to be a smoker to suffer.
Secondhand smoke produces an estimated
3,000 lung cancer deaths each
year in nonsmokers, as well as severe
lower respiratory infections and
increased risk for asthma in children,
low birth weight, and sudden infant
death syndrome.
But being a smoker more than
doubles the risk of heart disease
and stroke; causes 87 percent of
deaths from lung cancer; and results
in as many as nine out of 10 deaths
from COPD.
It’s Never Too Late to Quit
The Lung Health Study followed
more than 5,800 smokers ages 35
to 60 who had mild or moderate
airway blockage at the beginning of
the study. After 14½ years, successful
quitters were much less likely than
continuing smokers to have died of
heart disease, cardiovascular disease,
or lung cancer.
|
