It’s never too late to quit using tobacco. The sooner you quit, the more you can reduce your chances of getting cancer and other diseases.

Health Advantages of quitting smoking

• Quitting smoking cuts cardiovascular risks. Just 1 year after quitting smoking, your risk for a heart attack drops sharply.
• Within 2 to 5 years after quitting smoking, your risk for stroke may reduce to about that of a nonsmoker’s.
• If you quit smoking, your risks for cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder drop by half within 5 years.
• Ten years after you quit smoking, your risk for dying from lung cancer drops by half.

20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drop.

A few days after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

2 weeks to 3 months after quitting-: Your circulation improves, and your lung function increases.

1 to 12 months after quitting: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease. Tiny hair-like structures (called cilia) that move mucus out of the lungs start to regain normal function, increasing their ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.

1 to 2 years after quitting: Your risk of heart attack drops dramatically.

5 to 10 years after quitting: Your risk of cancers of the mouth, throat, and voice box (larynx) is cut in half. Your stroke risk decreases.

10 years after quitting: Your risk of lung cancer is about half that of a person who is still smoking (after 10 to 15 years). Your risk of cancer of the bladder, esophagus, and kidney decreases

15 years after quitting: Your risk of coronary heart disease is close to that of a non-smoker.

Quitting smoking can also add as much as 10 years to your life, compared to if you continued to smoke. Quitting while you’re younger can reduce your health risks more (for example, quitting before the age of 40 reduces the risk of dying from smoking-related disease by about 90%), but quitting at any age can give back years of life that would be lost by continuing to smoke. Video: https://youtu.be/JrDkqfKmi4o

Find safe and healthy substitutes for cigarettes such as brushing your teeth, chewing gum, eating a dill pickle/tart candy, drinking water etc…

Adjust your medicine.

Make your environment work for you and distract yourself with support.

You can gradually decrease the amount of nicotine that you get from NRT over several weeks. Your brain will get used to working without so much nicotine. And you will figure out how to get through the day without smoking.

QuitSTART APP

1-800-QUIT-NOW
(1-800-784-8669)

In Spanish:

1-855-DÉJELO-YA
(1-855-335-3569)

A program offered by the Texas Department of State Health Services. FREE confidential phone counseling services are available 24/7 along with resources such as nicotine patches, gums, or lozenges which may be free to those who qualify.

To apply, please visit www.quitnow.net or call 1.877.YES.QUIT (1.877.937.7848)

For more information, call the Texas Quitline at 1.877.YES.QUIT. (1.877.937.7848) or visit yesquit.org

An online social community, where individuals can receive tips and advice through text and email, expert guidance, and interactive tools to help them quit and stay quit. To enroll in BecomeanEX, register online: https://www.becomeanex.org/create-profile/

Talk to your doctor about quitting smoking or vaping.  Your doctor can prescribe to you free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) works by replacing some of the nicotine you used to get from cigarettes, so you don’t feel as uncomfortable after quitting. Smoking Cessation medicines are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and are covered benefits by Community Health Choice such as: Bupropion, Nicotine patches,

 are the most common quit-smoking aides.

MDAnderson ASPIRE: Free Self-paced Online resource visit:  https://aspire2.mdanderson.org/

Learn more about the program: https://www.mdanderson.org/about-md-anderson/community-services/aspire.html