Did my uncle really benefitted from quitting smoking?

As I mentioned in my last hub that my uncle gave up smoking 4 months ago. He was a heavy smoker and smoked over 20 cigarettes a day for more than 25 years.  So I met him recently again on New Year eve. There was a family get together at his house. I asked him how much time is it now that he has given up smoking and he replied 6 months now.  I thought it is enough time now and the benefits of not smoking must be showing off on his body now. So I asked him , Uncle now that you have not smoked for more than 6 months so how are you feeling now as compared to when you smoked. So my uncle told me how he feels now, which I have put point wise below. Please read that and then tell me if quitting smoking really helped him.

1.       Financially: He used to smoke about 20 to 30 cigarettes a day, which costed him about Rupees 150 a day ( about 3 $ & 50 cents).  He would send his class four (a person of very lower rank in govt. offices in India employed to do clean up and run errands.) to buy him a packet of cigarettes ( Most Indian cigarettes comes in pack of 10). Now he say he hardly ever has to open his wallet to take out money and his expenditure in office has cut down to less than 90%.

2.       Food:  Since he has given up smoking he feels more hungry and food tastes lot better now. Due to smoking the taste buds on your tongue don’t work properly and hence you are not able to enjoy the taste of food. Plus the smoking suppresses your hunger so you actually do not enjoy food.

3.       Cough:  Everyone knows that when you give up smoking even for a week, you cough a lot less. When he was smoking , many a times he would cough even while sleeping or even when he is not smoking he would get in to big huge cough, which would appear like it would tear his lungs apart.

4.       Breath:  Now he is breathing more easily and deeper. First he always had shallow breaths and anyone talking to him on phone always thought he is out of breath.  Whenever he tried to laugh loud, he would always get cough. Now it is all gone. He can sing or laugh without getting breathless.

5.       Job:  When he was smoking , he has to have a cigarette every 20 to 30 minutes no matter what. So even if it is an important meeting he would make an excuse to go out of meeting room, which really gave bad impression to his bosses.  Also he would always smell of smoke which many of his clients did not like and couple even asked his boss to send another sales executive to them rather than him. This all reflected negatively in his promotions and pay.

6.       Relationships:  Now that he is not smoking, his relationship is lot better with his wife and children. Again he don’t leave her alone and go out of house for some reason or other or won’t leave her alone in a cinema hall to go out to smoke. Also since his wife is happier and he doesn’t smell bad, his intimate life with his wife has improved a lot. Also he is not as breathless while being intimate with his wife so the performance has increased by leaps and bound.

7.       Blood pressure:  Smoking increase blood pressure in humans is very well known fact. Since he gave up smoking his blood pressure has come down. Though it is still now 120 / 90 ( which doctors think won’t ever be ) but it is much lower than before and dose of his medicines for high blood pressure has also decreased

1.       Morning walk : He was so short breath that he  was not able to walk even 500 meters (1/3 of mile) now he walks 6 kms ( 4.5 miles) daily in morning without feeling breathless. He can run about 200 meters now without coughing though he gets breathless still.

2.       Weight loss: It is true that when you quit smoking you feel more hungry and taste improves, which leads on to weight gain but since now he can walk easily now and does it daily in morning , he has lost about 8 kgs ( about 18 pounds) of weight in 6 months without trying too hard.

3.       Feels young:  He feels quite young these days.  He is always singing and in jolly mood. He feels that his face has now less wrinkles and his skin tone has improved a lot. His wife says he acts more like teenagers now.

4.       Smell free house:  Now his house and car don’t smell of smoke. His clothes don’t stink and you do not feel offensive tobacco smell from his body all the time.

These are the benefits what he feels he has got in only 6 months of quitting smoking. There are lot more benefits like

• Hands and feet become warmer from improved circulation.
• Blood pressure and pulse rate lower and approach normal.
• Mouth and hair no longer smell of smoke.
• Senses of taste and smell improve.
• Cough disappears and phlegm production returns to normal.
• Stamina increases significantly.
• Energy level is higher.
• Field of vision increases by 15 to 20 percent.
• Risk of all diseases caused by smoking is reduced - emphysema, heart attacks, and cancers of all types.

In his own words he had forgotten what a smoke free life was as he was smoking since he was teenager and now finds how beautiful world is without smoke and his regret.. well  had he not smoked how better his body would have been today .

So my friends you can clearly see if he really benefited from giving up the cancer stick. I hope you also think it did benefitted from it and if he did so can you. So why keep the stub in your hand.

His words on cigarettes : What you get from cigarettes is nothing but smoke of your body ( Hindus burn their dead ones ) and money.