What are the benefits to quitting smoking? why is vaping a great substitute to cigarettes?
What are the effects of smoking on the body?
Smoking has major side effects on almost all organs in your body, one of the most heavily affected parts of the body due to smoking is the lungs. Smoking cigarettes not only increases the risk of respiratory infections and asthma but also leads to dangerous diseases such as COPD and in some cases lung cancer. Over 70% of all lung cancer deaths are due to smoking. Smoking can also lead to other types of cancer such as mouth, kidney, stomach and bowel cancers just to name a few.
The damage that smoking causes isn’t limited to just your lungs, smoking can cause your entire immune system to weaken which can make you more susceptible to infections and diseases. The risk of heart disease, heart attacks and strokes is also greatly increased for individuals who smoke.
Smoking doesn’t just damage the inside of your body but can also damage you on the outside too, people that smoke can increase their risk of hair loss, premature aging and also develop gum diseases and yellowed teeth.
Why should you give up smoking?
Quitting smoking is one of the best decisions you can make for your health. With over 1.1 billion smokers worldwide and 8 million smoking-related deaths yearly, smoking is the leading cause of avoidable deaths worldwide. Although smoking tobacco kills up to half its users it doesn’t just kill you but can kill people around you, about 1.3 million people worldwide die each year from second-hand smoke including children.
Quitting smoking would also save you a lot of money. The average 20-a-day smoker spends roughly £4,500 a year on tobacco, so after 10 years of quitting smoking, you could save on average around £45,000. With all that extra cash, imagine what you could do… Go on a luxury holiday? Buy a sports car? Or even put a chunky deposit down on a house!
What happens when you quit smoking?
When you quit smoking there are lots of benefits that happen, some as soon as 20 minutes since your last cigarette –
After 20 minutes: Your blood pressure and heart rate are already beginning to return to normal.
After 8 hours: The harmful carbon monoxide levels in your lungs have halved and your body’s oxygen flow has started recovering.
After 48 hours: All of the carbon monoxide in your body has been flushed out. Your sense of smell and taste is improving as your nerve endings are beginning to regenerate.
After 72 hours: Your breathing will improve and you should feel much more energetic.
After 2-12 weeks: Thanks to improved circulation your body is now pumping blood to your heart and muscles easier.
After 3-9 months: At this point your lung function is vastly improving.
After 1 year: Compared to a smoker your risk of heart attacks has now halved.
After 10 years: Your risk of death due to lung cancer has now halved compared to a regular smoker.
After 15 years: The chance of you having a heart attack is now the same as someone who has never smoked.
What happens when you quit smoking?
Vaping is one of the most effective substitutes to smoking and comes with many benefits. Although there are lots of other methods to quitting smoking such as nicotine replacement therapy it is shown that vaping is nearly twice as effective at getting people to quit smoking.
Vaping is a great substitute because you can still keep a similar routine and experience to when you would smoke cigarettes, vaping provides the same hand to mouth action and inhale-exhale routines. Other methods to quitting smoking such as patches or gums do work on nicotine cravings but fail to help in the habit and routine of smoking which for many smokers is just as important as their chemical addiction to nicotine. Vaping is said to be 95% less harmful than smoking by public health England and does not contain the thousands of toxic chemicals like tar and carbon monoxide that cigarettes do.
Apart from all the great harm reduction qualities that vaping over smoking has, vaping also has many other benefits. One of the main ones is the cost saving aspects, vaping is significantly cheaper than smoking and most smokers spend between £10-£15 per day on cigarettes, these people could be spending that amount per week with vaping. Many people get put off by the initial upfront cost of having to buy a device but there are many services such as smoke-free hampshire that offer people free starter kits to begin their journey to quitting smoking.
To learn more about the technical sides of vaping you can read here to learn about devices and read here to learn all about e liquids.
