Nicotine triggers feel-good chemicals in your brain that make it hard to part ways with cigarettes or other tobacco products. Quitting breaks your body's dependence on nicotine - and allows you to feel good in new ways. Here are just a few of the benefits of quitting:

1. Sounder sleep. Nightly sleep can be disrupted by a mini-withdrawal. Smokers are four times more likely to feel tired after a full night's sleep than nonsmokers.
2. Sharper senses. Your senses of taste and smell are significantly dulled when you smoke. And you're more likely to experience hearing and vision loss.
3. Fewer wrinkles. With each puff, you damage your skin's tissue, stripping its elasticity.
4. Better reproductive health. Trying to get pregnant? If you smoke, your eggs and sperm are more prone to abnormalities, and you may take longer to conceive.
5. More verve and vigor. Breathe easier and boost your endurance during workouts with more oxygen to your heart, lungs and muscles.
6. Sustained joy. Though you may get a temporary rush from lighting up, it has been scientifically proven that smokers experience less pleasure than nonsmokers.
7. Longer life. Each cigarette shaves 11 minutes off your life.

• Ready to quit?
• Health benefits of quitting
• Tobacco cessation resources

Congratulations. You've taken the most important step you can to enhance the length and quality of your life.

Quitting isn't easy, but it is possible. Often, people try between seven and 10 times before finding success. We recommend you use nicotine replacement therapy as well as some form of counseling to help you quit. Remember, your probability of quitting tobacco for good increases with each attempt to quit. No need to beat yourself up for a relapse - just keep trying.

Why should I quit smoking?

Smoking is the No. 1 preventable cause of death worldwide. Smoking contributes to lung and heart diseases, stroke and many types of cancer. Smokers are twice as likely to have a heart attack as non-smokers. Men and women typically lose between 13 and 15 years of life due to smoking. Smoking also takes a toll on your looks with premature wrinkles, yellow teeth and fingernails, gum disease, tooth loss and bad breath. And it's not just about you: your smoking can cause secondhand smoke-related health issues for those around you.

Why should I quit smokeless tobacco?

Smokeless tobacco carries many of the same risks as cigarettes. Smokeless tobacco is not a means to weaning yourself off cigarettes - it's just as harmful. Your risk for the following cancers increases greatly with smokeless tobacco use: esophageal, mouth, throat and cheek, as well as pancreatic and kidney. You are also at greater risk for developing heart disease, gum disease and precancerous lesions in your mouth.

When you quit smoking, your body benefits:

• Just 20 minutes after quitting, your heart rate drops.
• Carbon monoxide levels in your blood return to normal in just 12 hours.
• In less than three weeks, your lungs gain function, and your circulation improves.
• Between one and nine months after you quit, coughing and shortness of breath subside.
• At one year, your risk of heart attack is half that of a smoker's.
• After five years, your stroke risk is reduced significantly.
• A decade after you quit, your lung cancer risk is half that of a smoker's.

Providence Health Plans and Providence Health & Services offer many resources to help you quit tobacco for good. Health plan members are eligible to receive a discount on Quit For Life® program, and on tobacco cessation classes. Quit for yourself and your loved ones today.

• Quit For Life^® program: 866-QUIT-4-LIFE
• Smoking cessation classes
• Tobacco cessation providers
• Providence Health & Services smoking cessation resource center
• Reimbursement for health education (outside of the Portland area)
• Smoking cessation health library information
• Oregon's Quit Now program: free telephone and online support for all Oregon residents
• Washington Quit Line: free telephone support available to all Washington residents

For more information on your tobacco cessation benefits, consult your Providence Health Plan benefit summary or summary plan description. Tobacco cessation benefits are covered in full with participating providers only. Coverage is not available with out-of-network providers.