Eliminating Nicotine Addiction

     by Blocking Physical Withdrawal Symptoms

       Within 20 Minutes of Quitting

 Within 20 minutes after you smoke that last cigarette, your body begins a series of changes that continue for years.

       20 Minutes After Quitting

       - Your heart rate drops.

       12 hours After Quitting

       - Carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

       2 Weeks to 3 Months After Quitting

       - Your heart attack risk begins to drop.

      - Your blood circulation and lung function begins to improve.

        1 to 9 Months After Quitting

       - Your coughing and shortness of breath decrease.

        1 Year After Quitting

       - Your added risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.

      5 Years After Quitting

       - Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmokers 5-15 years after quitting.

      10 Years After Quitting

       - Your lung cancer death rate is about half that of a smokers.

      - Your risk of cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decreases.

       15 Years After Quitting

       - Your risk of coronary heart disease is back to that of a nonsmokers.

  Smoking claims the lives of 400,000 Americans each year, according to federal statistics.

 Dr. Donald Taylor from Duke University teamed up with Dr. Truls Ostbye, a professor of community and family medicine at Duke, to measure the effects of smoking in middle-aged and older Americans. The study examined "years of healthy life," a measure of quality of life that combines risk of death and indicators of health status.

 The researchers analyzed data on smoking and health from two studies -- one involving 12,652 men and women 50 to 60 years old and another focusing on 8,124 people 70 and older.  Quitting yielded significant health benefits after 15 years of having kicked the habit.  At that point, the number of healthy years remaining in a former smoker's life is about the same as people who never smoked, according to the study, published in the journal Health Services Research.  The results suggest that a smoker who quits before turning 35 is likely to live as long and as well as someone who never took up the habit.

 Researchers at the University of Oxford in England came to a similar conclusion in a prospective study involving 34,439 British doctors.  Begun a half century earlier, it is the longest study ever into the effects of smoking.

 While smokers die 10 years sooner, on average, than nonsmokers, quitting at 30 almost erases the risk of dying, and stopping at 50 cuts the risk in half.

 Taken together, the two studies convey a life-saving lesson: quitting works and it can greatly improve people's lives, including in old age.

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