Today is ‘National No Smoking Day’, so what better time to change your lifestyle and improve your health. More information can be found at the No Smoking Day website, but here are a few thoughts that you may find helpful if deciding to quit.
Giving up smoking is a personal decision and everyone has their own reasons for wanting to give up. Among the most common are:
- For better health
- To save money (see below for how much smoking costs over a year)
- For the sake of family and friends.
Ways of helping you to ‘take the leap’ and give up include:
- Nicotine replacement therapy
- Prescribed medication
- Professional support
- Alternative therapies such as hypnosis.
Some of the benefits of giving up are:
- After 24 hours carbon monoxide is eliminated from the body and the lungs start to clear out the tar.
- After 48 hours there is no nicotine left in the body resulting in an improvement sense of taste.
- After 3 days breathing should become easier leading to increased energy levels.
Cost of smoking (based on £6.50 for 20 cigarettes)
- Smoking 5 per day costs £591.50 per year
- Smoking 10 per day costs £1183.00 per years
- Smoking 20 per day costs £2360.00 per year.
