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All the Good News about Trying to Stop Smoking by Dr Sarah Marshall

If you are a smoker who wants to stop smoking, you are not alone. Research shows
that 70% of current smokers want to stop.

Nicotine is an addictive drug and most people will have experienced the frustration of nicotine withdrawal either personally or through a relative or friend. Most smokers hope that one day they will wake up to find that all their desire and need for cigarettes has miraculously left them overnight. This tends not to happen. Spend some time on altering your current concept of nicotine addiction whether you intend to stop smoking this year or not. The good news is that:

Nicotine from tobacco smoke inhalation is removed from the bloodstream within 48 hours. Nicotine withdrawal is not painful, just an irritation - unlike heroin withdrawal where cold turkey is very unpleasant.

Nicotine craving decreases with time. Not surprisingly because most smokers smoke every day their experience is that as time passes the desire to smoke increases for example “It's bad enough by the end of a day, what's it going to be like after a year?”
A fantastic 80% of smokers stop smoking so it is likely you will be one of them. Research shows that it takes an average of 3-4 attempts over 2-3 years to become a non-smoker. What an investment.

Between 3% and 5% of smokers who want to stop are successful with will power alone and this could equate to over 350,000 new non-smokers. The success rate may be increased to 40% or 3 million new non-smokers with the help of smoking cessation advice and medication which are freely available.

An unsurprising fact is that older smokers have a higher rate of stopping, but surprisingly this is not simply attributable to the development of ill health. Stopping smoking in early adult life can add 10 years of healthy life and stopping in one's 60's can still add 3 years of healthy life. Why delay that attempt? You could be a non smoker in 2-3 years with many healthy years to look forward to.

"Stopping smoking in early adult life can add TEN years of HEALTHY life"