StopSmoking ForGood - Moffitt · • Buy over 1,000 songs for your iPod. • Put it in a savings account. You can come up with more options that would make you happy. Almost everyone

FOREVER FREE STOP SMOKING FOR GOOD

9B O O K L E T

The Benefits of Quitting Smoking

StopSmokingForGood

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Why This Booklet Now? 2

Health Benefits 4

Money Benefits 6

Social Benefits 8

Psychological Benefits 10

It’s All Good 11

Contents

This is the ninth booklet in the Forever Free series. It reminds you ofthe benefits that come from quitting smoking. If you still smoke, you canget ready to quit again. It is not too late. If you have quit smoking, thisbooklet reminds you of how much you have done for yourself.

By the time you get this booklet, there is a good chance that youare no longer smoking. You no longer need to be convinced to quitsmoking. So why are we sending you a booklet about the benefits ofquitting? Because we would like you to think about what you haveachieved. As time goes on, we often forget about how our lives havechanged. This is true for quitting smoking. Do you still rememberwhat it was like being a smoker? Do you remember why you wantedto quit smoking? Have you thought about how quitting smoking hasimproved your life (or the life of your family?).

What if you haven’t quit smoking yet? Or perhaps you did quit,but now you are back to smoking again. If this is the case, then thinkabout the benefits of quitting again. After all, quitting is hard, andmany smokers need to try many times before they quit for good.

So, whether or not you are still smoking, take a moment now tothink about the many benefits that come with quitting smoking.Before we remind you of some of them, write down as many as youcan think of. Can you come up with at least four?

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Why This Booklet Now?

Benefits of Quitting Smoking

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OK, now let’s go over some of the benefits of quitting that we came upwith…

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The #1 reason that people quit smoking is because of health concerns.That makes sense. Smoking is one of the deadliest things that a personcan do to himself or herself. Each year smoking kills nearly half a millionAmericans and 5 million people worldwide. About half of all smokers willdie from a disease caused by smoking. Those are terrible odds.

When people think of diseases caused bysmoking they often think of lung cancer.That’s because most lung cancer patientssmoked. But smoking can cause at least 18other types of cancer as well. Cancerscaused by smoking include head and neckcancer, plus cancers of the stomach, liver,pancreas, bladder, bone marrow, and kidney.

Aside from cancer, smoking is a leadingcause of heart disease and stroke. It raises blood pressure and cholesterollevels. Smoking also causes lung diseases such as emphysema, bronchitis,asthma, and pneumonia. These diseases often make it hard to breath andimpact people’s everyday lives.

Those are the harms caused by smoking. What then are the benefitsof quitting? The long-term benefits are that you may not develop one ofthose smoking-related diseases. For example, if you have gone withoutsmoking for a year, you have cut your chance of having a heart attack inhalf. And after a decade without smoking, your chances of having astroke or a heart attack become about the same as someone who neversmoked. Your chance of getting any type of cancer is much less if youquit smoking than if you keep smoking.

There are also health benefitsthat begin soon after you quitsmoking. High blood pressureusually improves. Ex-smokersoften find that they have moreenergy and that they do not tire asquickly. When you quit smoking,did you notice that you could walkup hills or climb stairs betterwithout becoming short of breath?

If you had a “smoker’s cough,” that likely went away as well.

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Health Benefits

Because your blood flow improves after quitting smoking, you may havefound that you have nicer looking skin. Also, your hands and feet might notget cold as easily. Better blood flow also can mean better performance andpleasure during sex for both men and women. And if you are trying to have ababy, that becomes easier as well after quitting smoking.

Former smokers also get back their sense of smell and taste. This meansthat food tastes much better.

These are just a few of the ways that quitting smoking improves yourhealth. As mentioned in Booklet 4, the Surgeon General’s report titled “TheHealth Benefits of Smoking Cessation” had 928 pages of reasons for quitting!

One result of all of these health benefits is increased peace of mind. Oneformer smoker put it this way:

Back when I was smoking, I always thoughtabout how much I needed to quit. I knewthat smoking was bad for me, and it worriedme. If I felt my heart pounding aftermoving some boxes at work, I worried that Imight have a heart attack. If I coughed upsome funny stuff, I worried that this was thefirst sign of lung cancer. I always figuredthat I wouldn’t live past my 60’s, and as I

grew closer to that age, that concerned me more and more. When Ifinally quit smoking, it was as if a huge weight was lifted off my back.Sure, I still worry sometimes about whether I waited too long beforequitting. But mostly it feels just great that I don’t have to fear all thosediseases like I used to—and I don’t have to feel guilty any more for smokingdespite those fears. I really feel like a new man!

We often focus on ways that smoking can cause an early death. Yet,smoking also lowers the quality of life in one’s later years. It’s much better tobe a healthy 75-year-old than an unhealthy one. Suffering from heart disease,emphysema, bronchitis, or any form of cancer is very hard on the smoker andhis/her family.

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Have you found that your wallet is alittle heavier since you quit smoking?Maybe your bank account is even larger.Even if you haven’t been saving up,perhaps you have spent a little more onthings you really wanted compared towhen your money went to cigarettes.

What is the cost of smoking? Let’s do a little math here. Let’s say thateach pack of cigarettes costs $7.00. (It may be higher or lower than that,depending on where you live.) And let’s say that you smoke about a pack perday. That works out to $2,500 spent on cigarettes every year. What couldyou do with an extra $2,500? Here are a few options:

• Buy a big screen TV.

• Take a very nice familyvacation.

• Make a down payment ona car.

• Pay car insurance for ayear or more.

• Pay for four years ofschool textbooks.

• Rent an apartment formany months in mostcities.

• Pay for childcare for twoor more months.

• Buy over 1,000 songs for your iPod.

• Put it in a savings account.

You can come up with more options that would make you happy. Almosteveryone can find a use for an extra $2500! But let’s say that you decide toput it in a simple savings account that earns 3% interest per year. After 10years, you would have nearly $30,000. And, if you could save the sameamount for 30 years, you would end up with over $120,000 in your account.Can you think of how you might want to spend $30,000 in ten years, or$120,000 in 30 years? Of course, if the price of cigarettes keeps going up–and it surely will – your savings would be even greater.

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Money Benefits

So, what would you like to do with an extra $2500 per year? In thebox below, write down your plan for using your nonsmoking savings:

My Plan for Using the Money I Save by Not Smoking

There are also other ways that quittingsmoking can save you money.

• Lower health-care costs. Even if you have healthinsurance, you could spend less in co-payments than if you keptsmoking.

• Lower insurance costs. Health insurance can be twice as high for asmoker than for a nonsmoker or ex-smoker. Life insurance,homeowners insurance, and even car insurance rates can go downafter one quits smoking.

• Increased job opportunities. Some employers will now only hirenonsmokers. Nonsmokers tend to be more productive at work,because they do not need to take smoking breaks and take fewersick days. If you are self-employed, this may mean more income foryou. If you are an employee, you may be more likely to get raisesand promotions.

• Fewer sick days. Nonsmokers use fewer of their sick day benefits atwork. Many companies may give their employees some payment fornot using sick days.

• Value of your property. You may get more for your used car if ithasn’t been smoked in. Also, home repair costs (such as cleaning,and replacement of carpets, drapes, and furniture) tend to be less fornonsmokers.

In sum, there are many ways that quitting smoking should have savedyou money, and should continue to help you save money. It’s up to youhow to use that extra cash.

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Years ago, smoking was much more common. In fact, back in the1950’s most men smoked. On TV and in the movies, the stars oftensmoked. Smoking seemed cool.

But times have changed. Smoking is no longer cool at all. Many ofthose smoking TV and movie stars died from cancer: Humphrey Bogart,Yul Brenner, John Wayne, Bette Grable, Gary Cooper, Nat King Cole,Walt Disney, Jackie Gleason, Steve McQueen, Audrey Meadows, RobertMitchum, Ed Sullivan, Lana Turner… Sadly, the list goes on and on.

As more and more people have quit smoking, those who keepsmoking have become more socially isolated. In fact, studies show thatsmokers now tend to have fewer friends than nonsmokers. Also, inmost states, smokers can no longer smoke indoors, at work, or inpublic places. And there is a growing number of outdoor spaces thatare off limits to smoking. Because of these trends, smokers are beingexcluded from many things. Even if you do not think this is fair, it isgoing on.

When you first quit smoking, you had to change some of yoursocial activities. You may no longer hang out with the same coworkersduring smoking breaks, and you may grow apart from other friendswho keep smoking. But over time more social options open up to ex-smokers. You no longer have to worry about whether anyone will bebothered by your smoke, or whether there will even be a place tosmoke. You no longer feel like an outsider in a world of nonsmokers.And you no longer have to be concerned about harming others withyour second-hand smoke.

The dangers of “second-hand smoke” havebecome better known over the past decades, andmore so in recent years. It is now believed thatsecond-hand smoke kills over 50,000 Americanseach year. Nonsmokers exposed to other people’ssmoke are at risk for heart disease, lung cancer,and even sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).Infants and children appear to be at highest riskfor getting sick from breathing in tobacco smoke.More knowledge about the health risks of second-handsmoke has placed more stigma on smokers.

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Social Benefits

Smokers also often feel guilty about their smoking.

Mary felt blessed when her oldest daughter had abeautiful grandson, Ryan. She went out of her wayto avoid smoking near Ryan. The last thing shewanted was to risk exposing the new baby to anyharm caused by her cigarette smoke. But she keptsmoking in her own home, and this started to causeproblems. Even though Mary smoked out on thepatio when Ryan was in her home, her daughterbegan to worry about the smell of smoke in thehouse. She did not want Ryan to spend too muchtime at Mary’s house, and she would not even letMary baby-sit in her own house. Mary felt awful about this, but sheunderstood her daughter’s concern. In fact, this was the final straw thatpushed Mary to give up her cigarettes. Now she feels like a realgrandmother again!

It is clear that many of the benefits of quitting smoking are social ones.

Brian smoked a little over a pack of cigaretteseach day but it was getting harder to do so. Heno longer could smoke in his own office. Now hehad to stand outside the front door. This was nofun when it was cold or raining. And he had todeal with the dirty looks of people as theywalked past him while going in and out of work.At one point, his company decided that havingsmokers at the front door of the building was

not a good image for the business. So they moved the smoking sectionout back, next to the garbage cans. That was cold, wet, smelly…andhumiliating. Brian felt that this was very unfair to smokers, but at leastit did help him decide to quit smoking. When he at last quit, he nolonger had to go to the garbage area out back, and he felt better abouthimself.

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Psychological BenefitsOne of the best benefits that come from quitting smoking is a very

real sense of achievement. You deserve to feel proud and good aboutquitting smoking. Quitting isn’t easy. So, if you can quit smoking, youknow that you can also take on other goals in your life.

Besides a well-earned sense of pride,quitting smoking rids you of the burdenof knowing that you should quit. Nearlyall smokers say that they want to quit,which means that they are living with agoal that they haven’t yet achieved.Quitting smoking means checking off thatitem on a person’s “To Do” list. That canfeel real good!

As mentioned before, the health,money, and social benefits of quitting canlead to psychological benefits of quitting.Feeling healthy can make a person feelhappy. Quitting means having fewerworries about money because you aresaving money by not buying cigarettes.Lifting the burdens of guilt and the feeling of being an outsider can feelgood too. Many smokers feel a great sense of freedom when they quitsmoking.

Quitting smoking also has direct psychological effects. Ex-smokershave better moods than current smokers. That means they are lesslikely to suffer from depression and anxiety.

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It’s All GoodHow did our list of the benefits of quitting compare to your list?

Did you think of some benefits that we didn’t mention? Did we remindyou of some benefits that you had forgotten about? Looking over theselists, it is easy to see why experts say that quitting smoking is usuallythe most important life change that a person can make. Once theshort-term nicotine withdrawal symptoms and cravings end, manygood things come from quitting smoking.

So if you have quitsmoking, take a momentnow to think about whatyou have done. Giveyourself a big pat on theback and tell yourself“GOOD JOB!” Onsecond thought, youreally deserve more thanthat. You deserve astanding ovation! Youhave earned it!

If you are stillsmoking, then we hopethat this bookletreminds you of why youwant to quit. Let itmotivate you to give itanother try. Look backat the other booklets you got. These can help you quit and make itthrough the first few weeks and months without smoking.

You can do it!

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NOTES

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Development of this booklet was supported by grants from the:• American Cancer Society (#PBR-94)• National Cancer Institute (#CA-80706 & CA-134347)

Produced by the Tobacco Research and Intervention Program at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute at the University of SouthFlorida. To order booklets, visit www.moffitt.org/foreverfree

Director: Thomas H. Brandon, Ph.D.1(877) 954-2548

© 2010 H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute at the University of South Florida.

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Documents

StopSmoking ForGood - Moffitt · • Buy over 1,000 songs for your iPod. • Put it in a savings account. You can come up with more options that would make you happy. Almost everyone