Benefits of quitting smoking

Current situation

Despite extensive information about the harmful effects of smoking, health education and multiple legal warnings, the marketing of cigarettes has taken off in recent years.
The reasons are multiple. One of them is that many smokers believe that after a few years of smoking it is pointless to quit because they think that the damage has already been done, but this is not true.

Advantages of quitting smoking

It has been repeatedly shown that quitting smoking reduces mortality from lung cancer and heart attack, and also that such a good decision can greatly improve longevity.
Statistics show that those who quit smoking at some point return to a much lower risk of dying from a heart attack, close to that of non-smokers.
It has also been found that stopping smoking speeds up the healing of gastric ulcers and that quitting smoking completely stops the process of blood vessel degradation.
In general, the primary motivation for quitting smoking is the risk of disease. Many people give up smoking after certain health problems, some even after experiencing a heart attack. But preventive action needs to start much earlier.
Currently, less than 20% of smokers become non-smokers. According to Mark Twain, it seems to be very easy to give up smoking for a short time: "I know," he said, "because I've given up smoking a thousand times!", signalling that this harmful habit is often deeply rooted in acquired negative human behaviour, and that it takes a strong enough determination to eradicate it for good.

Useful tips for quitting smoking

For so-called moderate smokers (those who use less than 15-20 cigarettes a day) who are genuinely motivated to give up smoking but find that they can't do it very easily, as it were, all of a sudden, here are some useful tips:
At first, the person who is looking to quit smoking may choose cigarettes that are less strong, have lower tar and nicotine content. This can be an effective motivation for a first step on the path to quitting smoking.
When they are still smoking, they may remember that it would be better to use only half a cigarette and throw the other half away.
Then the person who still smokes will aim to reduce the number of puffs from the same cigarette, leaving longer and longer times between two consecutive puffs.
Immediately afterwards the person who wants to quit smoking will aim to reduce the deep inhalation from the cigarette.
After all this his next goal will be to aim to use less than 3 cigarettes a day.
In parallel with all this, anyone who really wants to quit smoking would do well to do considerably more exercise every day, if possible outdoors.
A big help for someone who wants to quit smoking is to develop other beneficial habits, especially by boosting creative interest in other healthy subjects that appeal to them.
Sometimes it is even useful to use a harmless substitute for cigarettes, such as a pen or pencil.
It is best for those who want to quit smoking to chew on beneficial, aromatic herbs that reduce the interest in smoking, such as obligonia root, sage leaves, basil leaves or mint.

Some conclusions

This list of recommendations is indicative. Based on these useful tips, every current smoker who intends to quit smoking and become a non-smoker can adapt many other concrete ways to help him or her succeed in beating this harmful habit.
In general, people who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day are harder to motivate to quit. Strong encouragement, guidance and support from those close to them is needed.
As early as 1970, the World Health Organization has sanctioned the unhealthy habit of smoking on the basis of its disastrous health consequences. That is why it is necessary for those in the current medical system to be at the forefront of efforts to persuade patients to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Doctors should be the first to discourage smoking, especially among young people, and at the same time step up efforts to explain to smokers how to quit effectively.