At Legacy, we strive to educate our patients in all areas, and smoking can greatly affect your recovery along with your overall health. Our physical therapist, Jessica Beggs, DPT, emphasizes the important of smoking cessation.
Short Term Cessation
It has been found that within just 20 minutes, your heartrate and blood pressure will drop back to normal levels. Within 12 hours, the level of Carbon Monoxide in the blood drops back to normal, and within just two weeks, circulation and lung function improves.
Long Term Cessation
The long term benefits are even more important. After 6 weeks of smoking cessation, you will have more energy, within 6 months, your smoker’s cough and shortness of breath begins to disappear and your lung capacity is greatly improved. After 1 year, your risk of heart disease is half as high as smokers.
Why Smoking Cessation is Encouraged by our Neurosurgeons and Neurologists
As we have previously address in our blog, smoking can complicate surgery and can affect your recovery time! Smoking affects more than just your lungs, it decreases blood and nutrient flow which can cause degeneration, particularly in the spine, which already has limited blood flow.
We do our best to encourage our patients, as well as educate them on the importance of smoking cessation. As studies have shown, smoking can cause fatigue, slow the healing process, make pain more prominent, and can even be linked to chronic pain!
