It's never too late to stop smoking. The health benefits of giving up smoking are innumerable, but it's no easy task. Quitting smoking is very difficult and can seem an impossible challenge at times. However, help is at hand with our comprehensive range of smoking cessation products such as nicotine gum, nicotine patches, nicontine sprays, lozenges and cigarette substitutes to soothe the cravings and ease your body's dependency on nicotine.

If you need help deciding whether to quit smoking or not our reasons to stop smoking section further down the page will give you some helpful pointers. If you need more information, we also have help and advice on how to quit smoking, the health effects of smoking and coping after smoking.

Here are a list of many reasons why it might be a good idea to give up, especially if you need an extra push to make the decision.

The effects of smoking

As you breathe in smoke, the amount of oxygen in your blood decreases. Your oxygen deprived heart has to work harder and faster to provide essential organs with enough blood. Breathing patterns are altered by nicotine present in the blood stream. As smoke's inhaled, delicate tissues in the wind pipe and mouth causes irritation. The mucus cough that develops after smoking is potentially quite damaging to the lungs. To find out more, take a look here at how smoking affects you.

Smokings related illnesses & diseases

There are all sorts of consequences to smoking. Smoking may lead to heart conditions, high blood pressure, lung cancer and stroke. It can also cause infertility, digestive disorders, weak immunity and trigger conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, poor oral hygiene and impotence. Some conditions are reversible, others are not.
Find out more about the problems smoking can cause by clicking here...

Passive smoking

Second had smoke contains thousands of harmful chemicals. With friends and family present, they may inhale your second hand smoke. With the smoking ban in place, passive smoking is less of a risk in public buildings and eating establishments. However, smoking in the confined space of home, increases the chance of damage caused by passive smoking. In particular, children are more vulnerable to these effects of smoke as their bodies are still developing.

Your health is important to others

If your health and smoking is concerning others, it's important to listen to them and take on board what their worries are. Are you aware of how your smoking affects the people around you? Passive smoking is an obvious example. Also, your coughing or restless sleep may disturb your partner every night. Do people around you mind the smell of tobacco on you or of stale cigarettes on your breath?

Giving up smoking can be an inspiration to others. It shows discipline, commitment, courage and dedication. It is a fantastic feeling to know you have achieved what you set out to do and show others how it can be done. By quitting, you can earn respect from friends and family members which should leave a good impression on them (particularly children). Choosing to give up with another smoker is an excellent way to keep each other motivated and spurred on. By becoming a successful non-smoker, others who may want to follow your example may want to ask for your advice and support along their journey.

Starting a family

There are lots of reasons for needing to give up if you are planning to have a baby:

• Long term smoking can cause infertility and impotence in men. Continued exposure to the toxins in smoke is may be harmful to women's ovaries as it's thought to cause abnormalities as ovaries develop.
• During pregnancy, smoking should be avoided. Nicotine in the mother's blood transfers into the placenta and has been found in the umbilical cord and amniotic fluid.
• Traces of nicotine will present in breast milk of a regular smoker. Breast feeding mothers will be providing their baby with nicotine.
• A young child's brain intakes and learns more information at a faster rate than an adult. This means they are very impressionable. Children enjoy pretending to be "grown up", mimicking what mum and dad do. If they witness regular smoking, they will probably pretend to do it too and even presume it's not such a bad thing.

Low energy levels

Smoking prevents as much oxygen from entering the body. An oxygen deprived body will feel weaker due to muscles not receiving as much oxygen. Sleep patterns are affected too. Firstly because nicotine is a stimulant and it can be hard to drift off to sleep or stay asleep. Also, cravings may wake you in the night which disrupts the chance to have a deep sleep. Constant coughing also becomes a disturbance throughout the night. By not getting a good nights sleep makes getting out of bed in the morning difficult and depletes energy levels even further.
After a number of weeks having given up smoking, you will feel less lethargic, tired and irritable.

Improve your appearance

Cigarette smoke contains harsh chemicals that dry out and damage the skin. Cigarette smoke constricts the blood vessels and capillaries, decreasing blood flow and oxygen to the skin. Vitamin E and Vitamin A (natural antioxidants) in the skin decreases with smoking. All these elements contribute towards conditions such as Dryness, Eczema and Dermatitis, Dandruff, Grey/dull and dehydrated skin and premature ageing & wrinkles.
Smoking will stain teeth and fingers if you're not careful. The tar in the smoke will leave a yellow/brown residue behind. Also, stale smoke does not smell pleasant on the breath or body. Other oral conditions may occur such as Gum Disease and Dry Mouth.

Other good reasons to stop smoking

• By cutting down you will improve your sense of taste and smell. No longer will you have to over season your food to make it taste palatable.
• It saves money!! Look at it this way; An average pack of 20 costs about £5.50. If it takes 2 days to smoke it, in a month it would cost you about £82.50. In 1 year that's about £990 spent on smoking. That example is not even considered to be a heavy quantity.
• Smoking is a fire hazard. Chemicals in cigarettes keep it burning. This is dangerous if a cigarette comes into contact with fabric or other flammable material. Rolling tobacco is usually loosely packed by the smoker. Whilst a handmade cigarette is being smoked, loose burning tobacco can drop from the smoking end and land anywhere.