Quit Tobacco, Choose Life – By Dr. Rhythm Fadia

Some Kills (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Correlation between smoking and lung cancer in US males, showing a 20-year time lag between increased smoking rates and increased incidence of lung cancer. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Non-small-cell lung carcinoma (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Did you know, that tobacco fields do not need fencing or protection, as animals don’t eat the leaves? I learned this fact as a kid when we were driving through some farmlands and I wondered how animals knew not to eat it and how MAN the most intelligent animal cannot stop using it despite knowing the harmful effects of using tobacco.

As a daughter of a physician and a dentist myself, I have seen with my eyes, how families lose their loved ones to tobacco use. If you are thinking there is no certainty in life so why QUIT, I would say, TRUE there is no certainty to when you will die, and ACCIDENTS happen but SMOKING is not an ACCIDENT, it is a CHOICE.
A choice that you make as a person for yourself but that affects everyone around you, and I do LITERALLY mean everyone around, because you are polluting the air others breathe. You are the reason someone else might develop lung cancer, some baby might have birth defect (it is similar to holding a baby near a car exhaust). In reality, smoking doesn’t give you a high once your body get accustomed to a given level of nicotine, so you have to smoke more cigarettes to get high and then when you do not smoke you feel low your alertness goes below normal, so you have to smoke just to remain at normal levels of consciousness.

Introspect, DECIDE, LIVE CONSCIOUSLY.

Be RESPONSIBLE for your every ACTION, because even if you aren’t you will pay the price.

The positive effects of NOT smoking tobacco begins as early as 20 min. here is the chart of how your

body begins to heal itself once you QUIT SMOKING

(I had this chart in my Dad’s office, glad I could find it on the internet.)

Our bodies’ ability to mend is beauty to behold

Within …
•  20 minutes	Your blood pressure, pulse rate and the temperature of your hands and feet have returned to normal.
•  8 hours	Remaining nicotine in your bloodstream will have fallen to 6.25% of normal peak daily levels, a 93.75% reduction.
•  12 hours	Your blood oxygen level will have increased to normal and carbon monoxide levels will have dropped to normal.
•  24 hours	Anxieties have peaked in intensity and within two weeks should return to near pre-cessation levels.
•  48 hours	Damaged nerve endings have started to regrow and your sense of smell and taste are beginning to return to normal. Cessation anger and irritability will have peaked.
•  72 hours	Your entire body will test 100% nicotine-free and over 90% of all nicotine metabolites (the chemicals it breaks down into) will now have passed from your body via your urine.  Symptoms of chemical withdrawal have peaked in intensity, including restlessness. The number of cue induced crave episodes experienced during any quitting day will peak for the “average” ex-user. Lung bronchial tubes leading to air sacs (alveoli) are beginning to relax in recovering smokers. Breathing is becoming easier and the lung’s functional abilities are starting to increase.
•  5 – 8 days	The “average” ex-smoker will encounter an “average” of three cue induced crave episodes per day. Although we may not be “average” and although serious cessation time distortion can make minutes feel like hours, it is unlikely that any single episode will last longer than 3 minutes. Keep a clock handy and time them.
•  10 days	10 days – The “average” ex-user is down to encountering less than two crave episodes per day, each less than 3 minutes.
•  10 days to 2 weeks	Recovery has likely progressed to the point where your addiction is no longer doing the talking. Blood circulation in your gums and teeth are now similar to that of a non-user.
•  2 to 4 weeks	Cessation related anger, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, impatience, insomnia, restlessness and depression have ended. If still experiencing any of these symptoms get seen and evaluated by your physician.
•  21 days	Brain acetylcholine receptor counts that were up-regulated in response to nicotine’s presence have now down-regulated and receptor binding has returned to levels seen in the brains of non-smokers.
•  2 weeks to 3 months	Your heart attack risk has started to drop. Your lung function is beginning to improve.
•  3 weeks to 3 months	Your circulation has substantially improved. Walking has become easier. Your chronic cough, if any, has likely disappeared. If not, get seen by a doctor, and sooner if at all concerned, as a chronic cough can be a sign of lung cancer.
•  8 weeks	Insulin resistance in smokers has normalized despite average weight gain of 2.7 kg (1997 study).
•  1 to 9 months	Any smoking related sinus congestion, fatigue or shortness of breath have decreased. Cilia have regrown in your lungs, thereby increasing their ability to handle mucus, keep your lungs clean and reduce infections. Your body’s overall energy has increased.
•  1 year	Your excess risk of coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke have dropped to less than half that of a smoker.
•  5 years	Your risk of a subarachnoid haemorrhage has declined to 59% of your risk while still smoking (2012 study). If a female ex-smoker, your risk of developing diabetes is now that of a non-smoker (2001 study).
•  5 to 15 years	Your risk of stroke has declined to that of a non-smoker.
•  10 years	Your risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer is between 30% and 50% of that for a continuing smoker (2005 study). Risk of death from lung cancer has declined by almost half if you were an average smoker (one pack per day).  Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus and pancreas have declined. Risk of developing diabetes for both men and women is now similar to that of a never-smoker (2001 study).
•  13 years	The average smoker able to live to age 75 has 5.8 fewer teeth than a non-smoker (1998 study). But by year 13 after quitting, your risk of smoking induced tooth loss has declined to that of a never-smoker (2006 study).
•  15 years	Your risk of coronary heart disease is now that of a person who has never smoked. Your risk of pancreatic cancer has declined to that of a never-smoker (2011 study – but note 2nd pancreatic making identical finding at 20 years).
•  20 years	Female excess risk of death from all smoking related causes, including lung disease and cancer, has now reduced to that of a never-smoker (2008 study). Risk of pancreatic cancer reduced to that of a never-smoker (2011 study).

 

… so long as we stop while still time

Lastly, Iwill end my post with this song (it was an anti-smoking campaign that I had seen as a kid, made a lasting impression on me back then)

 

 

This guest post was contributed by –

Dr. Rhythm Fadia

Dental Surgeon

Read her blog at: Piece of my mind

 

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