It’s been 6years since I stopped smoking, I think it’s quite impossible for me to start experiencing health problems as a result of my past smoking.
Is it possible to develop health problems which result from smoking even though one already stopped smoking?
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If you were a chain a smoker, you cannot just simply reverse the effect of decades of smoking in an instant. If you have completely stopped smoking, then the effects of smoking will take its own time. Smoking does not effect only your lungs. It has an adverse impact on your entire system, as well as your family and friends.
In five years your chances of stroke returns to that of a non-smoker. In ten years your chances of cancer return to that of a non-smoker. And in fifteen years your chances of a heart attack is the same as a non-smoker. In the meanwhile, your family will be happier and really appreciate your having quit. Your home starts smelling better and fresher. The bad odour of your breath will go. The health of your loved ones improves dramatically. You are able to focus and better able to work on tasks on hand. You save a substantial amount of money which you would have “burnt” up smoking and you will save the future health care cost which you would have to incur as a result of tobacco related problems.
Of course, certain damage done cannot be reversed, but the progression of that irreversible damage can be stopped.
It is very possible that you develop COPD after you quit smoking. If you lived in a city with really dirty air, etc. there are several ways you could continue damaging your lungs. smoking is just the most obvious way. I quit smoking 18 years ago, and my doctor shows me regularly how much clearer my lungs get year by year. I’m almost back to “before smoking” lungs. It takes awhile, but after a time, your lungs can look really good. All of us people started smoking when it was cool and there was no insistence that smoking caused cancer or COPD. When they started talking about the problems you could have when you get older, we all thought, “well, I can smoke until I’m older.” Sooner or later, smoking is going to get you. Just hoping you live in a city with clean air so it doesn’t hurt you more.