(ThyBlackMan.com) All smokers are aware that smoking cigarettes is not good for their health, but that does not make it any easier to quit.
You can get great advice from Carefree Dental with regard to overcoming the fear of going to the dentist, and the when it comes to smokers being convinced to quit their habit, being told about the positive benefits that come from stopping smoking, might just do the trick too.
The damage you are doing to yourself
Nicotine is addictive, which is why it can be so difficult to quit, but when you take a look at how smoking affects your health, the damage you are doing to yourself every time you light up must hit home at some point.
Smoking harms virtually every organ in your body. Some of these harmful effects have an immediate impact while some may take many years before they finally take their toll.
Nicotine changes your brain
Your brain is affected by the nicotine in cigarettes. Make no mistake, nicotine is as addictive as heroin, although many smokers wouldn’t dream of trying that drug. The reason nicotine is so addictive and make smoking hard to quit, is that your brain develops extra receptors to cope with the large doses it is receiving when you smoke.
When you try to stop smoking, your brain induces cravings, making you feel anxious and irritable amongst other things, so to quit smoking for good, you are going to have to retrain your brain to cope without the nicotine.
Oral health problems
Aside from the bad breath that accompanies the habit of smoking, there are other oral health issues that can become serious issues.
Mouth sores, gum disease and ulcers are all more likely to afflict smokers more often than a non-smoker. You are also statistically more likely to suffer from cavities and lose your teeth at an earlier stage in your life, if you are a regular smoker.
The other serious oral health problem to consider is that as a smoker, you are also more likely to get cancers of the mouth and throat.
Losing your youthful looks
Old age catches up with us all at some point of course, but if you want to speed up the process and lose your youthful appearance more quickly, carry on smoking.
The fact that the effects of smoking is referred to as giving you a smokers face, should tell you how common it is to suffer a number of detrimental effects to your face as a result of smoking cigarettes.
Smoking will cause your face to lose a fair amount of its natural elasticity and it will often be noticeable drier than normal. This will lead to more wrinkles and stretch marks appearing on your face, plus your skin is likely to take on a dull and grayish complexion.
You smoking habit will have taken its toll on your face by the time you reach your early 30’s, with wrinkles appearing around your eyes and mouth at an earlier age than likely for someone who hasn’t been tempted to become a regular smoker.
Time is a great healer
It is often not possible to reverse all of the damage you have done to yourself when you decide to quit smoking for good, but rest assured, within just twenty minutes of smoking your very last cigarette, you will be feeling the benefit.
It will take just twenty minutes or your heart and blood pressure to fall to normal levels and once you start to repair the damage that nicotine has done to your blood vessels by reducing the amount of oxygen getting through to your heart, your body will start repairing itself.
Your risk of suffering a heart attack drops within just 24hours of quitting and if you manage to quit for good, 20 years from now, you will have saved over $70,000 that you would have spent on cigarettes, and your risk of heart disease will be at the same level that it would be if you had never smoked.
If that physiological effect and benefit attached to quitting for good does not serve as ample incentive, you can unfortunately expect to suffer numerous health and cosmetic issues going forward.
Sebastian Knowles is training to become a dentist, though it was a touch choice on if he should become a dentist or a doctor! He takes an interest in the teeth and medical connection and writes articles on all aspects of teeth for health and lifestyle blogs.
Staff Writer; George Love
