Smoking is stupid! Every smoker knows this perfectly well, because who voluntarily spends thousands of euros or dollars every year just to become ill and die prematurely? The overwhelming majority of nicotine addicts, 80 to 90 percent, would therefore like to get rid of their harmful habit, but only around a third of them actually put this plan into practice.
How you succeed in quitting, whether by quitting smoking immediately or by taking a slow, gradual approach, is very individual. On the occasion of this year’s World No Tobacco Day we would like to remind you though, that it is definitely worth trying – and trying again and again if necessary. This is because the afflicted body reacts immediately when you stop smoking and directly activates its self-healing powers.
See for yourself below how giving up smoking benefits your body:
| after 20 minutes | Better blood circulation in hands and feet, heart rate and blood pressure decrease |
| after 8 hours | Normalization of the oxygen content in the blood |
| after 24 hours | Reduced risk of heart attack |
| after 48 hours | Improvement of the sense of taste and smell |
| after 2-12 weeks | Circulation and lungs stabilize, lung function increases by 30% |
| after 1-9 months | The airways become freer, stamina improves, the skin becomes firmer, fewer coughing fits |
| after 6 months | The risk of heart attack is halved |
| after 1 year | The risk of coronary constriction decreases |
| after 5 years | The risk of heart attack corresponds to that of a non-smoker |
| after 10 years | The risk of lung cancer corresponds to that of a non-smoker |
However, let’s not play window dressing: the longer the nicotine addiction has lasted, the longer it will probably take to restore your health.
By the way, e-cigarettes are not a “healthy” alternative to tobacco cigarettes and generally do not help escape the nicotine habit. In fact, most smokers simply become dual users when they start vaping. It is now known that e-cigarettes severely damage the lungs and flood the body with a variety of chemical pollutants that cause inflammation, for example, and that vapers have an increased risk of heart failure, heart attack and other heart diseases, similar to smokers.
This fact remains: Quitting only works if you actually want to quit. All you need to do is abstain from the next cigarette or vape. And then the next one. Look for other ways to get your body to release happiness hormones – dopamine. These include exercise, music, meditation, sunlight, spending time with friends and family and a vitamin-rich diet.
All you need is a plan and the will, or rather the promise to yourself, to strictly follow through with this plan.
