Stop smoking and good things happen | News

When you quit smoking, good things start to happen — you can begin to see almost immediate improvements to your health.

After just 20 minutes of not smoking, your pulse rate will be starting to return to normal, after 48 hours all harmful carbon monoxide will have been flushed out of your blood and after 1 year your chances of a heart attack have halved compared with a smoker’s.

Our Tobacco Dependence Service is here to help and support service users who wish to quit smoking. It's much easier to quit when you have the right support. If you want to make 2024 the year to quit smoking you can access many free stop smoking services in London. Visit the Stop Smoking website to see where your nearest service is.

‘Quitting smoking isn’t easy, but it is one of the best things you can do for your health, and for the health of those around you. Free stop smoking services are available within in our communities and are there to help you. It’s much easier to quit when you have the right support’ says Christina Amin, Associate Director of Nursing Physical Health, North London Mental Health Partnership.

There are lots of tips to help quit smoking, including:

• Pick your quit date and remember to add it to your calendar.
• List your reasons to quit.
• Tell people you're quitting.
• If you have tried to quit before, remember what worked.
• Use stop smoking aids.
• Have a plan if you are tempted to smoke.
• List your smoking triggers and how to avoid them.
• Keep cravings at bay by keeping busy.
• Exercise away the urge.
• Join the Facebook group for support and advice.

If you want to make 2024 the year to quit smoking, search ‘smokefree’ or visit the Better Health website.