Physiological Benefit to Quit Smoking

(This blog was originally posted on April 9, 2014)

Photo by Rick Hustead

People have various motivations to give up smoking cigarettes. Increasing restrictions on the areas people can smoke in public makes it more difficult and uncomfortable to light up when they are out of the house. Some people hate the smell of smoke in their hair and on their skin and clothes. Others decide that the financial burden of purchasing cigarettes is no longer worth the enjoyment of smoking them. For example: A pack of cigarettes costs more than a gallon of gasoline in most locations in the United States; and health and life-insurance policies can be more expensive for people who smoke. But the primary motivation people quit smoking is to improve their health. Here is a list of the specific physiological/health benefits of quitting smoking and an estimated time frame in which these benefits are realized since smoking your last cigarette.

• 20 minutes: Blood pressure, pulse rate and body temperature return to normal/natural level.

• 8 hours: Carbon monoxide level drops to normal level; oxygen level in the blood increases to normal.

• 24 hours: Chance of heart attack decreases.

• 48 hours: Nerve endings start to re-grow, and ability to taste and smell improves.

• 72 hours: Lung capacity increases and bronchial tubes relax.

• 2 weeks-3 months: Improved circulation and increased lung function (up to 30%); it becomes easier to walk.

• 1 month-9 months: Decrease in coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue and shortness of breath. Also, cilia begin to grow back in the lungs, which increases their ability to clean, handle mucous and reduce infection in the lungs.

• 5 years: Decrease in lung-cancer death rate for the average smoker (one pack per day): from 137 per 100,000 people, to 72 per 100,000 people.

• 10 years: Decrease in lung-cancer death rate for the average smoker (one pack per day) to 12 per 100,000 people. This rate is almost the same as that for someone who has never smoked. Other benefits include replacement of pre-cancerous cilia and decrease risk of other cancers associated with smoking: bladder, esophagus, kidney, mouth and pancreas.

Hypnotherapy is an effective tool to help you achieve your goal of becoming a permanent non-smoker. This is because hypnosis enables you to communicate with your subconscious mind to reprogram your previous subconscious mental scripts about wanting and needing to smoke with ones that reinforce your decision, motivations and ability to stop smoking. I offer a 6-week, smoking-cessation hypnotherapy program that is good for people who smoke one or more pack of cigarettes a day. A two-hour intensive session is also available for people who smoke fewer than five cigarettes per day. During this time, you will learn how to resist the triggers of your psychological and physiological addiction to nicotine while you gradually stop smoking altogether. I also record and provide a customized stop-smoking track to listen to and reinforce this new behavior (lifestyle of a permanent non-smoker). If you are ready to quit smoking, I am here and ready to help you.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2018