To begin with, smokers should distance themselves from factors that induces craving such as seeing a lighter or an ashtray. Also keep away from the company of other smokers or people using tobacco.
Smokers can seek support of near and dear ones to replenish motivation levels. Counselling and advice from doctors/health workers is effective in helping smokers quit, as a recent study in Palakkad has shown.
The Health Worker Guide of National Tobacco Control Programme has listed the following benefits - immediate and long-term - from quitting. The immediate benefit is that smokers start to feel better and food tastes better.
Two hours after quitting, nicotine is out of the system. Carbon monoxide is out of the system and lung function begins to improve after 12 hours.
Two days hence, sense of smell improves; physical activity becomes easier and more air gets into the lungs. Lung works more efficiently and is able to remove mucous after two months, besides improving blood flow to limbs.
The risk of heart disease is halved in 12 months, as compared to a continuing smoker.
The risk of lung cancer is less than half that of a continuing smoker in 10 years. By the 15th year, the risk of heart attack and stroke is almost the same as a person who has never smoked.
Take heart, quit smoking!
Image courtesy: About.com
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