Stop Smoking Basics

It's a real good thing to know that stopping smoking at any age can have major health benefits for men and women. And these benefits apply to people who already have smoking related diseases and those that don't.

Bottom Line ex smokers live longer than people who continue to smoke and every day above earth is better than one below.

If you quit smoking it lowers your risks of lung cancer, other cancers, stroke, heart attack and COPD.

The health benefits of quitting smoking far outweigh the risk of a small weight gain. Usually 10 pounds or less. If you find yourself having a real problem with weight gain go discuss your problem with your doctor.

The immediate rewards of quitting smoking are.

1. Your sense of smell will return to normal. You may be really surprised at how good some foods smell after you quit smoking.

2. You will find that you no longer have bad breathe from smoking.

3. Gradually your teeth that were stained from smoking will turn whiter.

4. People will no longer smell smoke on your hair and your clothes and before you know it you'll discover for yourself that you smell better.

5. Your sense of taste will return and you will find that you enjoy your food much more than you did when you smoked.

6. You'll find that activities like climbing stairs or walking up hills won't leave you out of breathe like it did when you smoked.

7. Your every day health will improve almost at once and you'll live a average of 15 years longer than a person who smokes.

And those should be enough reasons to make anyone want to quit smoking. Your health is so very important and you should do everything possible to improve your health.

Smoking is expensive. Check this out. Lets say you smoke a cheap cigarette that costs $20 a carton and you average 2 cartons a week. That's $40 a week, $160.00 a month, $1920.00 a year and every 10 years it would cost you $19.200.00 every 10 years.

And if you smoke a name brand cigeratte the costs could be 5 to 10 times those above so you can imagine what it would cost you. And if you quit smoking just think about what you can do with all that money you will be saving by not smoking.

So you can see there are a lot of benefits you will get if you quit smoking. Everything from improved health to financial gain. So what are you waiting on.

The tobacco plant as we know it today was first grown by the Native Americans in North America. When the first Europeans first arrived tobacco was in use by almost every American Indian tribe in North America. Christopher Columbus's men were the first Europeans to smoke tobacco and it was not long before they started spreading it world wide. Its funny to note that the first Native Americans Columbus and his men first met gave them gifts of exotic fruit and dried fragrant tobacco leaves. The fruit was kept and the tobacco leaves were thrown overboard. It was not long however before the Europeans tried the tobacco and the rest is history.

And we know know that the tobacco smoke contains the addictive substance nicotine. And today we know that not only do the smokers suffer from the effects of smoking but also we now know that we have to worry about second hand smoke. People who have never smoked but for years live with a smoker are now coming down with various lung diseases including lung cancer, Emphysema, COPD which is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and many others. And we all know that the smoker can suffer from all of these.

So if you have decided to stop smoking we hope we can provide you with a complete guide to stop smoking. But keep in mind some words of one of my favorite persons of all time. Mark Twain said its easy to quit smoking. He went on to say as he laughed that he had quit 10.000 times.

But the reason its so hard for people to quit smoking is nicotine. And what most people don't know is that nicotine is highly addictive. Its in fact as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Nicotine is drawn deep into your lungs when you smoke and the longer you smoke the harder it is for you to quit smoking. Did you know that when pregnant women smoke that nicotine is found in the newborn infants and that if the pregnant woman is a heavy smoker the infant can be born addicted to nicotine.

And it is of course nicotine withdrawal that leads you back to the cigarettes and smoking. Nicotine withdrawal symptoms can include.

1. Headaches that are from mild to severe.

2. Increased Appetite. Some people try to eat everything in site and some people do have a real weight gain problem when they stop smoking.

3. Some people have trouble concentrating because the one thing that keeps coming back to their mind is that cigarette they keep missing.

4. Trouble going to sleep. Trouble staying asleep. And some people even have nightmares or even sleep walk when they have never sleep walked in their life.

5. Anxiety can be a problem to some people especially heavy smokers.

6. Depression. If your a heavy smoker and your trying to quit smoking and you have symptoms of anxiety and or depression you may want to go talk to your doctor and tell them what's going on. Sometimes nicotine gum or nicotine patches can really help in your battle to quit smoking but I would strongly recommend talking this over with your doctor.

7. Some people have feelings of frustration, impatience and anger. If your a heavy smoker again you should discuss this with your doctor. Your doctor can give you the best medical advice in your battle to quit smoking.

But you may need help to stop smoking especially if you are a heavy smoker or have been smoking for a long time. And before you stop smoking check out these stop smoking tips.

1. Make up your mind that you are going to stop smoking. Don't play at it. Get serious and decide to quit for yourself. If you quit for the wrong reason you will not stay quit. You will return again and again to your habit and each time you try to quit it will get harder to quit.

2. Set a date in the future when you are going to quit. Make it 10 days to 2 weeks in the future. Don't set yourself up to fail. If you smoke mostly at work set your time to quit smoking on a weekend or even at the start of a week or two vacation.

3. Plan in advance what you are going to do in advance to deal with the stress of quitting smoking. Set you up an action plan with things to do if you decide to smoke or start wanting to smoke really bad. Some things you could do are take a walk, go to the gym, go get a ice cream cone, quit with a friend and call each other for support if you have a real bad desire to smoke.

4. Ask your family and friends to help you by not smoking around you. They can't quit for you but they can support you by listening to you talk about your smoking problem and they can encourage you in your attempts to quit smoking.

5. I would strongly suggest if you are a regular to heavy smoker to go talk to your doctor about your plans to quit smoking. Ask your doctor about nicotine gum and nicotine patches. Both can really help some people to stop smoking as nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known to man.

I really hope the information on this hub page will help you to stop smoking. If you have a question, comment, tip, or etc. feel free to post it below in the comments section below.