14 Facts About Smoking You Should Know

Yikes. Quitting has never looked so good. Visit iCanQuit.com.au or call the Quitline on 13 7848 for support and advice on how to quit smoking.

1. When you quit smoking, within a week your sense of smell and taste may improve.

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Which will make eating frozen yogurt SO much more enjoyable.

2. And within one to nine months, your coughing and shortness of breath will decrease.

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Which means you can finally start training for that marathon.

3. A single cigarette contains over 4,000 chemicals, including hydrogen cyanide, which is a chemical warfare agent.

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You do not want that inside your body.

4. Tobacco kills nearly six million people around the world each year.

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That's the equivalent of around a quarter of Australia's population. Every single year.

5. It can take 12–14 attempts to quit smoking for good.

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So feeling like you want to give up in the beginning is normal... just keep going.

6. Thinking of yourself as a non-smoker can help you when you're starting to quit.

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You can do it.

7. Smoking narrows the little arteries that lead to your brain, which makes them blocked and can lead to a stroke.

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A stroke can mean paralysis, loss of speech. or even death.

8. It damages the tiny air sacs in our lungs that carry oxygen into our bloodstream.

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This makes it harder to breathe and is known as emphysema, a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that occurs in smokers.

9. The damage to your blood vessels can also cause gangrene, which means amputation of limbs.

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Guys. That is terrifying.

10. When quitting, it helps to surround yourself with non-smokers or others who want to quit.

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One in four smokers are planning to quit in the next 30 days.* So you're not alone.

*Cancer Institute NSW, 2013, 2013 NSW Smoking and Health Survey, Sydney

11. Smoking can lead to periodontal disease, which means losing your teeth.

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You need your teeth. You definitely need them.

12. But after you quit, you'll start to notice changes in your appearance.

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Smoking wreaks havoc on your skin, eyes, and hair — but quitting will put a stop to that.

13. Speaking to a Quitline advisor on 13 7848 can actually double your chances of quitting successfully.

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14. But, smoking will kill half of all people who continue to smoke.

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Yes, half: Fifty. Percent.

That's why it's so important to quit, before it leads to something like this:

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You can quit. Visit the online community at iCanQuit.com.au or call the Quitline on 13 7848 for support and advice on how to quit smoking.