Top 15 Reasons Why You Should Stop Smoking

Stop smoking is one of the most significant healthy changes you can make as smoking affects nearly every organ in your body. Here are main 15 reasons why you should quit smoking today.

1. Decrease Your Risk of Lung Cancer

For those who smoke, lung cancer is the leading cause of death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is believed that cigarette smoking is responsible for about 80%-90% of lung cancer death in the United States. Quitting will decrease your risk of lung cancer.

2. Make You Live Longer

Smoking cigarettes has been estimated to be the single most significant cause of death and disability in the United States, killing more than 480,000 people per year.  On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers. What’s really amazing is that this figure is likely conservative since it doesn’t include smokeless tobacco or cigars.

If you smoke a pack a day, that’s 365 packs per year. If you cut out just one pack from your life every day, over the next 2 years you will have lived 730 days longer without smoking than with it. That’s like adding an entire new 3+ year old to your lifespan.

3. Improve Your Airwaves

You’ll see long-term smokers always cough a lot and even short-term smokers do. Smoking causes chronic inflammation of the airwaves, leading to bronchitis, emphysema and even lung cancer. Quitting smoking reduces these risks over time.

4. Improve Your Immune System

Nicotine, one of the main constituents of cigarette smoke, will suppress the immune system. Quitting clears the lungs, allowing them to work more efficiently, coughing up mucus and clearing away bacteria. 

Smoking can cause or aggravate respiratory infections like bronchitis and pneumonia. It also contributes to a higher risk of hospitalization for pneumonia in elderly patients because it decreases lung function leading to frequent and severe lung infections.

5. Lower Your Risk of Heart Disease

Smoking is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke, the first and third leading causes of death in the US.  It has been found that 20% of smoking-related deaths are caused by heart disease.

6. Lower Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

According to the FDA, smoking is linked to type 2 diabetes. People who smoke are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and have a harder time controlling their blood sugar levels. People who smoke are also more likely to die from diabetes than those who do not smoke.

7. Improve Your Skin 

Tar will be produced in the process of smoking, which is a sticky brown substance that can stain fingers and teeth a yellow-brown color. Many smokers show yellowing of their skin, nails, and teeth. This is caused by the tar. Quitting smoking can reverse this effect and return your appearance to normal.

8. Decrease Your Family Exposed to Secondhand Smoke

Cigarette smoking is responsible for estimated 41,000 deaths per year due to secondhand smoke exposure in the United States. It’s not just the smoker who is affected – everyone in the vicinity is at risk of contracting serious illness from breathing air tainted by cigarette smoke. 

Your child and wife have an increased chance of developing asthma, respiratory infections, ear infections, and more. Your spouse gets to kiss you more often.

You can help your family by quitting smoking.  If you don’t smoke at home or in the car, that helps tremendously – but it’s not enough. You need to quit entirely to help your family and improve your own health.

9. Improve Your Sex Life

Smokers often joke about having trouble in the bedroom. It’s not a joke though – poor sexual function has been linked to smoking, and stopping smoking may help improve your sex life.

10. Improve Your Looks and Smell

Smoking doesn’t just affect your lungs – the toxins in cigarettes can also accumulate in your skin, leaving you looking older than you really are.  Your teeth and nails may look yellow or stained as well. Quitting smoking will help improve these effects since they’re caused by toxicity buildup in your system.

Additionally, when you quit smoking, the smell of smoke on your clothing and body will dissipate. You’ll be able to leave the ashtrays at home and open windows and doors without the fear of everyone around you fleeing for fresh air.

11. Improve Your Sense of Taste and Smell

Your senses can become dull as a result of smoking. Smoking reduces your ability to taste and smell, and quitting helps restore these abilities.

After you quit smoking, your food will taste better and healthier foods will be more satisfying than they were before quitting. You’ll also notice smells you never noticed before. 

12. Improve Your Physical Fitness

Smoking is not good for your lungs, but it’s also not good for the rest of your body. You’ll have more endurance, increase in speed and strength, and be able to breathe easier when you stop smoking. This means that you can exercise more often, or even start exercising if you don’t already, and increase your chances of getting into better shape.

13. Improve Fertility

Smoking affects every organ system in your body including your reproductive system, both in men and women. It will take a long time to get pregnant than nonsmokers if either of your partners is smoking, even though you have regular unprotective sex.

Because in men, smoking reduces the sperm count, as well as affects the sperm’s normal swimming patterns. In women, smoking affects normal ovarian function, lowers essential female hormone concentrations, and reduces the number of mature eggs that can be fertilized.

Quitting smoking can lead to a healthier reproductive system and increase your chance of becoming pregnant.

14. Save Money

You may not realize that smoking cigarette is expensive. A packet can cost around $15 for some brands. If you’re smoking more than one pack per day (which many smokers do), then that adds up to around $500/month on average. Totally, you can save about $6,000/year for a 1 pack-per-day habit. 

15. Improve Self-Confidence and Lead to a Better Lifestyle

When you stop smoking, you will experience drops in blood pressure and pulse rate. This means that quitting smoking may help lower your stress levels, resulting in an overall better mood.

Quitting can also make your thoughts clearer, which leads to improved critical thinking skills. These are useful in the workplace, at home with family or friends, and just about anywhere else.

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