Everyone knows smoking is bad for your health, so you’d think that would be the most compelling reason to quit. However, improving health is just one of the interesting reasons for smokers to finally ditch their habit, with some more interested in boosting their appearance or even smelling better.
Health
Smoking increases risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancers, shortens life expectancy and can make it more difficult to conceive. So, it’s understandable that a study published in the National Library of Medicine revealed wanting to improve health was the most popular factor in deciding to quit, with 43.2 per cent of ex-smokers citing a current health condition as their drive to give up cigarettes for good.
This was followed by 31.9 per cent who wanted to avoid having health challenges in the future.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), quitting smoking can add ten years on to your life expectancy by reducing the risk of smoke-related illnesses and, subsequently, premature death.
To have a family
One side-effect of smoking is its impact on fertility. It is thought infertility in smokers is twice as high as the rates in non-smokers, with the risk increasing the more you smoke. This is the case whether the woman or man smokes, as chemicals in cigarettes can lower sperm counts and motility. It can also affect the shape of sperm and its ability to fertilise eggs.
Smoking also causes eggs to die off more quickly, often resulting in early menopause. Therefore, couples who want to start a family should plan how to quit smoking to increase their chances of conceiving.
What’s more, women who smoke during pregnancy increase their risk of having a baby with a low birth weight, an early delivery, complications in gestation and birth, stillbirth and of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). This is why pregnant women are urged to break their habit for the health of their baby.
The NHS advises: “The sooner you stop smoking, the better. But even if you stop in the last few weeks of your pregnancy, this will benefit you and your baby.”
Indeed, the study found it was another popular reason to quit, with 6.3 per cent of ex-smokers saying pregnancy or childbirth forced them to stop lighting up.
Costs
The average cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes is £12.61. So those who smoke ten a day will spend £44.13 a week on them. This amounts to a whopping £2,294.76 a year!
Everyone is cash-strapped at the moment, thanks to the rising costs of fuel and food, so saving more than £2,000 a year is a very big incentive. This could pay to keep their house warm, put extra food on the table or not fall behind on mortgage or rent payments. Of course, those who smoke more than ten a day would make even bigger savings by quitting.
The survey found three per cent stopped smoking because of the financial cost, but this figure could be even higher in the current climate.
Quitting smoking is not easy but swapping to vapes with e-liquid nicotine can certainly help smokers break the habit without going cold turkey.
