Millions of people around the world try to quit smoking each year but unfortunately, only 2.5% of the attempts are successful. Here is a brief timeline of the positive effects of giving up that harmful habit.
The smoker’s blood pressure returns to its normal level just twenty minutes after smoking his or her last cigarette. If a smoker refrains from smoking for just eight hours, the levels of carbon monoxide in his/her blood decrease by half, and the level of oxygen returns to normal. Three days after cutting out the habit, the smoker’s bronchial tubes relax, and the energy level inside the organism increases. Added a bit more will, and you are a two weeks young ex-smoker. At this stage, you blood circulation increases and keeps improving over the next two or three months. At the start of the third month, wheezing and breathing problems begin to dissipate. By month nine of your smoke-free life, your lung capacity is improved by ten percent. In five years, an ex-smoker’s risk of suffering apoplexy returns to that of a non-smoker. Then in fifteen years, the same happens with the risk of heart attack.
However, quitting smoking may have some negative side effects – especially in the first few days after you bid farewell to cigarettes. Due to the sudden drop in blood sugar level, participants in quit smoking programs may report symptoms such as dizziness, concentration lapse, nausea, and light-headedness.
The relationship between nicotine and blood sugar level is rather indirect. Although nicotine does not supply glucose or carbohydrates to the smoker’s body, this substance excites particular organs which release the organism’s sugar supplies. The higher level of sugar in the bloodstream makes up for the low level of oxygen. Thus, the smoker’s system can keep functioning normally. When one quits smoking, his or her body starts the process of adaptation to the increasing level of oxygen and the falling levels of sugar in the blood. For this reason, ex-smokers usually tend to eat more, trying to sustain the balance between the dipping blood sugar levels, which may lead to weight gain. Although the dipping of blood sugar can be a truly irritating symptom, it is not insurmountable.  The condition is easily remedied after drinking some juice during the first few days of non-smoking.
In addition to health benefits, quitting smoking may also yield some financial benefits. This aspect of giving up the habit appears somehow secondary in the developed countries, but comes as a major issue in the developing and the under-developed states. In Bangladesh, for instance, some parents would send their children begging on the street and use the money to buy cigarettes and liquor. In developing countries, many parents would deprive their children of essential staples such as meat, milk, and seafood in order to save money for their daily pack of cigarettes.