You CAN quit smoking!

Quitting smoking can be hard, but there are ways to make it easier. Using quit-smoking medicines or counseling support can help you quit. In fact, using support and medicines together can make you more than twice as likely to quit for good!

Most smokers have to try a few times before they quit for good. But it pays off—half of all people who have ever smoked have quit!

You can quit, too.

You have your own reasons for wanting to quit smoking. These are the most important reasons, and they will be the ones that help you quit.

People often wonder if quitting smoking really makes a difference. It does. Click on the tabs above to see some of the ways quitting will help your health, impact your family and friends, and save you money.

Health

Quitting smoking now is the single best thing you can do for your health.
Smokers are more likely to die early than nonsmokers. A 35-year-old smoker is twice as likely to die before reaching the age of 65.

Smoking causes many diseases that can make you disabled and dependent on other people, including heart disease, many types of cancers, aneurysms, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and stroke.

Smoking can hurt a woman's ability to have a healthy baby or to get pregnant.  It is linked with miscarriage, stillbirth, infant death, low birth weight, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Smoking can cause impotence in men because of decreased blood flow.

But quitting smoking now can reverse much of the damage.
Quitting smoking makes a difference right away—you can taste and smell food better. Your breath smells better. Your cough goes away.

Women and men of all ages, even those who are older, see these changes when they quit smoking. Even if you already have a disease or condition caused by smoking, you will notice a difference.

Quitting also improves your health in the long run, no matter how long you have smoked.

Your family and friends will be glad you quit.

Your smoking affects the people you care about. When you quit smoking, you will have more energy to do things with your family and friends.  You will increase your chances of living longer to be an active part of their lives.

Secondhand smoke hurts children.
Secondhand smoke causes asthma attacks, ear infections, bronchitis, and other sickness in children.  The best way to protect your children is to quit smoking.

Secondhand smoke hurts other adults.
Adults who breathe secondhand smoke have more problems with asthma, poor blood circulation, heart disease, and lung cancer.  Nonsmoking spouses married to heavy smokers have 2 to 3 times the risk of lung cancer compared to those married to nonsmokers.

If you smoke, your kids are more likely to smoke.
Middle school students are three times as likely to have tried smoking if they live with a smoker:  High school students who live with a smoker are two and a half times more likely to smoke.

Quitting smoking saves money.

Smoking costs a lot.  In the long term, health problems from smoking can cost you money in missed work, doctors’ visits, and long-term care.  In the short term, those packs of cigarettes add up!

A pack-a-day smoker who pays $7.50 for a pack of cigarettes spends $52.50 a week. That’s $2,730.00 a year!

How much does it cost you to smoke?