You don’t have to go back many years to find a time and place where smoking was seen as normal, healthy, and cool. It took researchers many years to get their message through that smoking is causing more deaths than anything else we put in our bodies in society today. The government has been working hard to get information out, especially to the young ones, to try to prevent smoking and also get those that smoke off the cigarettes.

It’s amazing to read about all the benefits you can get if you quit smoking. What happens when you stop smoking is that your body slowly starts turning back to normal, and your risk profile for smoking related illnesses decreases dramatically. Take lung cancer. When you have been on smoke cessation for 10 years your risk of lung cancer has decreased up to 50% compared to someone who continues smoking. As for heart disease, where 20% of all deaths due to heart attacks, etc, can be linked to smoking, your risk will be half as big after one year. Those are pretty spectacular statistics to look at for someone considering quitting smoking.

There are of course other benefits as well. Cigarettes cost a lot of money, and in some countries the government has placed large taxes on them. When you stop smoking you will save a lot of money, and you can use that money for a well deserved vacation, perhaps as a prize to yourself for quitting.

You also stop sending the message to young people that smoking is ok. If you have kids, think about the influence you have on them. When they see you smoke you are literally saying that smoking is ok for them to do also when they grow up. Do you want them to risk lung cancer or heart disease?

The facts about smoking don’t leave much for consideration. If you want to prevent a death due to unnatural causes it is pretty safe to say that quitting smoking decreases that risk by a large factor.