Health Benefits After You Quit Smoking

So maybe you smoke or maybe someone very close and important is a smoker now but they WANT to quit and they are questioning if it's even worth it. I posted some information for anyone that wants to learn the health benefits after you quit smoking.

• Just 20 minutes after your last cigarette, your blood pressure and pulse rate drop to normal and the body temperature of your hands and feet increases to normal
• A mere 8 hours after your last smoke, the carbon monoxide level decreases and the oxygen level in your blood increases to normal
• Just 24 hours after your last cigarette, you substantially lessen your chances of having a heart attack
• Two days after your last cigarette, you will notice that your ability to taste and smell is enhanced
• Three days later, your breathing should be noticeably better because your lung capacity will be greater
• Your circulation will improve and your lung functioning will increase up to 30% within two weeks to three months after quitting
• Between one month and nine months, the cilia in your lungs will regenerate, allowing your body to clean your lungs and reduce infection
• One year after quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker
• Five years after quitting, your risk of stroke is reduced to that of a nonsmoker
• Ten years after quitting, the lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smokers. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decreases
• Fifteen years after quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmokers

(U.S. Surgeon General's Reports (1988, 1990)

(Picture found by Google Images)

     The lungs come equipped with a self-cleaning cycle, but overloading them with smoke or smog will gunk up the works. The cilia, or hairlike structures in your lungs, flagellate (that's move) upward, coaxing the bad stuff out of the alveoli (little air sacs) and into the trachea, where the gunk grows into a frightening reminder of why you should have been better to your lungs to begin with.
     "It's like a mucus escalator," says Norman Edelman, M.D., a scientific advisor to the American Lung Association. "That's a major form of defense. Within a few days to a week (after quitting smoking], you start feeling better, and you start coughing up all that bad mucus you have down there."
     What you can do: "Exercise will help loosen the large chunks after you first come clean. But you should be exercising already. Retinoic acid, or vitamin A, could actually help your lungs rebuild. Rats and mice with emphysema (they smoked tiny little cigarettes) given the compound were able to restore alveoli, which swap carbon dioxide for fresh oxygen to pre-emphysema levels, according to a recent study published in the European Respiration Journal. You'll get several times the recommended daily allowance (900 micrograms) in only one serving of carrots, sweet potatoes, or mango.

("The Self-Repairing Body - Your body has a bumper-to-bumper warranty on many important organs. Here's how to cash in before it expires," by Matt Bean. Men's Health)

(Picture found by Google Images)

Cards for Cancer Patients

April 24, 2013

Today I made two cards for two individual children dealing with serious illnesses. 

One is for a little girl named Alexandra, her birthday is April 28, 2005. She is only a few months older than my baby sister, Bonnie. 

She loves all the same things Bonnie did: animals, princesses, and fairies. She had ALL Leukemia. She also has two siblings and very supportive parents. I actually called home right after I finished making my cards to hear my little sister being her silly and happy self. I wish the same for Alexandra. 

The second girl's name is Amber. She had stage 4 tumor in her brain. She is going to undergo chemotherapy and surgery around this month (website update). She was born May, 2005, so not even ending high school. Such a young, beautiful girl who should have the whole world presented to her! Instead she is stuck in a hospital, just wishing she has a few more days, weeks, months to live. Just makes me grateful for being able to attend college and a chance to pursue a future. 

It was so difficult writing for them. I was warned not to write things like "get well soon" or "good luck" because most of the times there were no cure. The site even gave us generic things to write like "stay strong" and "you are amazing." If I was sick... I wouldn't want to hear the same thing over and over again. I did the best I could, conveying my hopes and dreams for these sick children. It motivated me to try harder in school, to be a part in changing the lives of so many people and families.