Quit smoking

If you're a smoker thinking about quitting, a concerned family member or friend of a smoker, or a former smoker looking for support, you're in the right place.

Quitting smoking is the most important thing you can do to protect your health. More than 430,000 people die each year from tobacco-related diseases. Tobacco use, especially smoking, is the number-one preventable cause of death and disease in the United States.3 Everyone who uses tobacco would benefit from quitting. The earlier you quit using tobacco, the greater your chance of reversing the risk of tobacco-related diseases.

Ready to quit? Learn about ways we can help you succeed, including support groups, counseling, classes, and our personalized online quit smoking program, HealthMedia Breathe®.

Want more reasons to quit? Read on.

1. Because life is worth living. Smoking increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer, and many other serious health problems and is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.

2. Because life is worth living longer. Every cigarette you smoke shortens your life by 11 minutes.

3. Your ticker. As soon as you quit, your risk for heart disease begins to decrease. After just one year of being smoke-free, your risk of dying from heart disease is cut in half.

4. The bathroom mirror. Smoking can cause wrinkles, dull skin, and stained teeth, making you look older than you are.

5. Cleaner air. Smoking harms your family and friends through secondhand smoke. Plus, you, those around you, and your home will smell better.

6. A healthy pregnancy and baby. Smoking increases the risk of problem pregnancies—affecting both the mother and her unborn baby.

7. A healthy sex life. Smoking can cause infertility and sexual problems, such as erectile dysfunction.

8. Your kids. If you smoke, your children are more likely to start smoking. Children of smokers develop more colds, bronchitis, and pneumonia than children of nonsmokers.

9. Smiling with your own teeth. Smoking can lead to gum disease and other dental problems. People who smoke are twice as likely to lose teeth as people who do not smoke.

10. Cash in your pocket. It's expensive. Quit and do something special with the money you've saved.