Cigarettes contain roughly 600 ingredients with at least 69 known cancer-causing ingredients. Over 7,000 chemicals result from the burning process.
The ingredients list alone makes it clear that smoking is bad for you.
But breaking free of the addiction is tough, even when you know the risks. Sometimes it’s a matter of finding the one risk that really matters to you.
For some people, the health reasons to stop smoking are enough. For others, it’s the beauty aspects that make them rethink smoking.
Finding your reason to quit and finding ways to help you kick the habit can make you more successful.
Keep reading to discover five top reasons to stop smoking.
1. Cut Your Risk of Disease
Smoking-related illnesses add up to $300 billion in medical costs and lost productivity costs in the U.S.
What do you think of at the mention of smoking-related disease? Cancer and heart disease likely come to mind. But smoking can cause a wide range of other diseases.
Smoking increases your risks of developing:
- Cataracts
- Macular degeneration
- Crohn’s disease
- Acid reflux
- Psoriasis
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Lupus
- Impotence
- Rheumatoid arthritis
Some conditions are more serious than others. When you kick the habit, you can decrease your risks of having a smoking-related illness.
2. Improve Your Sleep
Are you losing sleep at night? Does it leave you looking and feeling tired all day?
Kicking the habit may help you sleep better. Going all night without a cigarette can cause withdrawal symptoms. That can make you wake up more often or have trouble getting quality sleep.
When you do sleep as a smoker, you’re more likely to snore. Snoring is an issue for 24% of smokers and 20% of ex-smokers compared to only 14% of people who’ve never smoked.
3. Look Younger
If you need more reasons to stop smoking, consider the impact on your appearance. Just like drugs affect your physical appearance, smoking can also affect how you look.
Smoking can make you appear to age faster. So if you want to keep your youthful appearance, stopping smoking can help.
Cigarettes stain and yellow different parts of your body, especially your teeth and fingernails. It’s tough to feel confident in your smile when your teeth are yellow.
You may notice more wrinkles when you smoke. Smoking narrows your blood vessels near the surface of your skin and restricts blood flow. That can deprive your skin of oxygen and nutrients, which speeds up the aging process.
Even your hair can age prematurely. Smoking can cause your hair to turn gray sooner. Men also increase their risk of going bald by smoking.
4. Smell Better
Do you notice the smell of cigarette smoke on your clothes, hair, and body? Even if you don’t notice it anymore, everyone else does. To non-smokers, the smell of cigarette smoke is unappealing.
Smell may not be something you can see, but it’s definitely something you can sense. It has an impact on your overall beauty and the way other people perceive you. Kicking the habits makes you smell better, which can make you see more attractive to other people.
You’ll also be able to smell scents better. Smoking can affect your sense of smell and your sense of taste. You’ll experience life more fully when you can smell and taste things as they are.
5. Improve Your Mental Health
People often smoke to deal with stress and emotions. But smoking could cause feelings of depression. Depression is more common in smokers than in non-smokers.
Quitting smoking may make you feel stressed. Withdrawal as you quit may make you feel upset, sad, or restless. Smoking gives you the impression that you’re less depressed, which can make it challenging to quit.
Finding a brand of vaping products like SMOKTech can help you quit smoking while dealing with the stress.
What Are Your Reasons to Stop Smoking?
Health experts give you plenty of reasons to stop smoking. Finding the one that you connect with can help you succeed at kicking the habit.
Looking for more health tips? Check out these habits for a healthier lifestyle.
