What Are 10 Reasons to Quit Smoking?

Most of us know how many adverse effects smoking and cigarettes have on your body. Smoking affects every organ in your body. However, fewer people know that when you quit, the benefits of quitting begin a mere twenty minutes after you stop. Here are 10 reasons to quit smoking.

Some reasons for quitting are less widely known than others. Here are 10 little-advertized reasons to quit smoking.

COVID 19 is a deadly virus that profoundly affects your respiratory system. If you are addicted to smoking tobacco, chances are you may smoke while you have COVID 19, whether you mean to or not.

Studies have shown this aggravates an already serious virus. Scientists speculate that the social culture around tobacco and cigarettes promotes close contact and an environment in which COVID 19 is likely to spread.

Tobacco has cosmetic effects on your appearance. Some of these very noticeable changes are:

Secondhand smoke is smoke from your cigarette and smoke you exhale. Other people often have to breathe it. Secondhand smoke can have detrimental effects on both adults who have never smoked and children. Some of the consequences of secondhand smoke for adults are:

Effects for children and infants, who are more sensitive to secondhand smoke:

• Infant mortality. More than 1,000 babies die every year in the US due to smoking during pregnancy. Newborns whose parents smoked during their pregnancy are likely to be underweight and have other birth complications.
• Sudden infant death syndrome(SIDS). Certain chemicals within tobacco seem to affect the infant’s brain and block the infant's breathing. This can increase the odds that babies could develop SIDS.
• Other health concerns. Secondhand smoke can cause children to develop ear infections, coughing, wheezing, respiratory infections, and asthma.

Smokers spend around $1.4 million on tobacco, health costs from smoking, and loss of work due to smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke. Using tobacco is a direct cause of low productivity. The associated health conditions can cost you large amounts of time and money.

Both men and women experience lowered fertility from regular tobacco use. For men, this manifests as sperm irregularities. Men who smoke see a lower sperm count, lower sperm movement, and increased amount of irregular sperm. Their sperm’s ability to fertilize the women’s eggs is also decreased.

Women will see a reduced number of fertile eggs and a decreased ability to carry an infant to term safely. When egg counts have been reduced by tobacco, the damage is permanent. In addition, due to female smokers’ reduced number of eggs, they will go through menopause at an earlier age than non-smoking women.

Tobacco farmers are exposed to the harmful chemicals in tobacco products in an intensified way. They receive direct contact with tobacco dust as well as pesticides daily. In many countries, the labor laws around tobacco workers are unregulated.

In fact, around the world, there are child tobacco laborers whose health and ability to attend school are directly impacted by their role in the tobacco industry. While this is not true in every country, the tobacco industry is set up to benefit the large tobacco companies and leave the communities and environments surrounding it in poverty.

Perhaps you have heard that tobacco affects your heart, but do you know why it affects your heart? Smoking causes heart attacks and strokes because it damages the arteries responsible for moving and filtering your blood.

When your arteries are damaged, plaque builds up in your heart and causes blood clots. Blood clotting leads to heart attacks and strokes. Damage to your arteries also contributes to cardiovascular disease and heart disease.

There are many eye conditions linked with smoking. These include:

• Macular degeneration
• Clouding in the cataracts
• Glaucoma

Cigarette butts are among the most common forms of litter worldwide. They are also made out of toxic and non-biodegradable materials, making them long-lasting and dangerous to the environments that they end up in. However, it is not just the cigarettes that have a negative impact. Pollution from lighters and e-cigarettes is just as long-lasting and potent.

Smoking and using tobacco make you cough and give you sore throats and nasal congestion. When you quit, you will feel more energetic and be able to use your body more. You will also notice an improvement in your energy and sleep.