Secondly, money plays a part in quitting smoking and the benefit to the average smoker is in excess of $1500 per year, so that is a good quit smoking benefit!



Thirdly, the way you and your clothes and your car and your house smell after you have stopped smoking are more good quit smoking benefit. For non- or ex-smokers, tobacco is a very pervasive and disagreeable odour.

Your appearance will also improve as your skin will have a better pallor to it and your teeth can be cleaned a little better without the incessant wash of smoke over them.

But lets get back to the health benefits. It will obviously vary from person to person, but every smoker can enjoy a several benefits from quitting smoking.

1) Within 20 minutes of a cigarette, blood pressure and heart rate decline to 'normal'.

2) Within 8 hours, or a nights sleep, nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in the blood are down by at least a half.

3) Within 2 days, carbon monoxide and nicotine will be virtually non-existent in the blood. Your lungs will start the process of cleaning themselves and your taste and smell will start to improve. However, whilst these are good quit smoking benefits, it is at around this time that the withdrawal symptoms will be at their worst.

It is not uncommon for a sore throat, coughing, irritability, constipation and sleeplessness to set in at this point of quitting tobacco. These are common side effects of quitting smoking.

4) Over the coming few months, breathing will become easier and energy levels will increase. The blood's oxygen carrying capacity is back to 100% and the circulation of the body will have already improved.

5) By the end of the first year, lung function can improve by up to 10%, and wheeziness could become a thing of the past.

6) Ten years after quitting smoking, the ex-smoker benefits from a halved risk of lung cancer and a normal risk of heart attack.

Other quit smoking benefits include confidence, fitness and energy levels being better along with a much improve complexion and more youthful skin. Fertility in both men and women improves and the chance of pregnancy complications is much reduced.

One of the biggest quit smoking benefits can be found in families; infants have a much higher chance of still birth, premature birth or even cot death (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS). Children of smokers have higher chances of asthma, pneumonia and chest and ear infections during childhood and are much more likely to become smokers themselves.

Quit smoking benefits are numerous, the disadvantages of quitting smoking are non-existent!