Understand the Dangers of Smoking

• Heart attack patients that quit smoking live two times longer when compared to those who continue smoking.
• Survivors of cardiac arrest have a lower risk of another cardiac arrest if they quit smoking.
• Patients with coronary artery bypass have a lower risk of vein graft failure if they quit smoking.
• Patients with PTCA (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty) and/or stent placement have lower restenosis rates if they become nonsmokers.
• Non-smokers have less angina than those who smoke.

Immediate and long-term benefits when you stop smoking:

• Within 20 minutes of the last cigarette, blood pressure and pulse rates drop to normal.
• Within 8 hours, oxygen levels in the blood increase to normal.
• Within 48 hours, the ability to taste and smell are enhanced.
• Within 72 hours, bronchial tubes relax and breathing becomes easier.
• Within 1.9 months, cilia in the lung (which protect against infection) regrow, increasing the ability of the lungs to handle mucous, clean the lungs and fight infection.
• At 5 years, lung cancer rates are reduced to one half that of the average smoker.
• After 10 years, lung cancer death rates drop to almost the same rate of nonsmokers.
• At 10 years, pre-cancerous cells are replaced and the rate of other smoking- related cancers decrease.

Although most people know that cigarette smoking can cause lung cancer, they often don't realize that cigarettes are a major risk factor for heart disease. Most health care providers agree that the first step in fighting heart disease problems is to quit smoking.