The Tobacco Treatment Program helps patients, family members, and friends quit tobacco (including vapes).
Quitting tobacco has many benefits that can extend and improve your quality of life:
Benefits of quitting tobacco
Within 20 minutes your blood pressure and pulse rate return to normal.
Within 8 hours the level of oxygen in your blood rises to normal.
Within 24 hours your risk of heart attack starts to drop.
Within 1 to 9 months coughing and shortness of breath decrease. The tiny hair-like structures called cilia that move mucous out of your lungs start to work again.
Within 1 year excess risk of heart disease is half of someone who still uses tobacco.
Within 2 to 5 years your risk of having a stroke can fall to the same risk as a never-user.
Within 5 years your risk of developing tobacco-related cancer is cut in half.
Within 10 years your risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that of a person who is still smoking. Your risk of developing cancer of the larynx decreases, and so does your risk of pancreatic cancer.
Within 15 years your risk of developing heart disease is the same as a never-user.
Source: American Lung Association
For people already diagnosed with cancer, quitting can have the following benefits:
- Better effectiveness of chemotherapy medications
- Fewer and less severe side effects from cancer treatment
- Improved chance of surviving cancer
- Lower risk of cancer returning after treatment
- Lower risk of developing a new cancer
Continued tobacco use can worsen the following side effects of cancer treatment:
- Chemotherapy: Increased rates of infection, fatigue, heart and lung problems, and weight loss
- Radiation therapy: More frequent mouth sores and loss of taste; worse voice quality
- Surgery: Increased rates of infection, heart and lung problems and slower wound healing and recovery
To learn more for yourself or someone you care about, visit the Tobacco Treatment Program website or call 603-650-1880.