Whole & Healthy

Here are some commonly asked questions about how to stop smoking and the answers to them.

The first question gets right to the heart of the stop smoking dilemma. The question is “What is the best way for me to stop smoking?” The answer is that there is no easy answer to this question. Everyone is different. There are so many different means to quit, that the best thing to do is to try one stop smoking method and if it doesn’t try another. And another. Until you find you have stopped smoking. In general you have several attempts to stop smoking before you really succeed. Most people try to stop smoking, start smoking once again, then over a long period of time find out what helps then stop smoking. They then again try to stop smoking and eventually they do.

Some people can stop smoking just because of their determination to do so. These people stop smoking cold turkey. Other smokers take classes on how to stop smoking, use over the counter or prescribed medications, go through therapy or hypnosis or perhaps stop smoking patches or nicotine-tasting gum. Whatever you find that helps you to stop smoking and is safe is okay to use. Your family physician can help you stop smoking, and is an important resource as those who stop smoking often realize a tendency to over eat and gain weight as a result.

The second question is, “How will my body be affected when I stop smoking? Can I really get back to the point of good health that I had before I started smoking or is too much damage already done?”

The answer to this is multi-faceted, all of which is very encouraging. Your high blood pressure returns to normal within 30 minutes of quitting smoking, as does your pulse rate. Within just a few hours, your blood’s carbon monoxide level drops and blood flows more easily to your brain. Within a couple days after you stop smoking your never ending start to get better and you begin to get back your sense of taste and smell.

After three days the bronchial tubes of your lungs expand and the volume of your lungs increases. Your shortness of breath decreases within months after you stop smoking. The heart attack risk that your smoking caused declines within the first year after you stop smoking and in two or three years after you stop that risk is gone. Your cancer risk is the same as nonsmokers after you have stopped smoking for ten years.

One frequently asked question is how to tell when you’ve really quit smoking.
This is a very subjective question to answer. Some people throw away the pack of cigarettes the first time and that’s the end of that. They’ve stopped smoking. Others spend months or even years craving cigarettes. Most smokers stop after about three weeks without a cigarette. This is a point that you should aim for. If you have spent three weeks without a cigarette it is very likely you may never smoke again.