I was at the dentist the other day when the dental assistant came in to get me prepped for a filling. I was surprised when he put a cuff on my arm to check my blood pressure. I asked him why in the world my dentist would want to do tha. He said it is another service they can provide and that you would be surprised at how many people never knew they had high blood pressure until the dentist checked them and asked them to follow up with their primary care doctors.
I immediately started thinking up my usual excuses for why my blood pressure might be high (anything but smoking right?), telling the assistant that anyone sitting in a dentist chair for a procedure is bound to be under high stress and maybe that moment was not a good one for checking people's blood pressure.
He said well you must be calm and cool because yours is 130/65. I thought to myself WOW! 130/65 while sitting in the dentist chair about to "get the needle"? I wonder what it is when I am not stressed now! Amazing that my old habits of making excuses for years of smoking kicked in automatically.
I also noticed now when I am at the gym on the eliptical machine I really have to crank up the resistance and extend my time to at least 30 minutes to really feel a workout. And even then, when I feel I must really be straining, my heart rate is about 125. When I first quit smoking, I could do about 15 minutes on the easist setting on the elipitcal and I would be in the stroke range at a heart rate of 147.
So I am at 79 days quit after 32+ years of smoking and I have already seen these HUGE health improvements. I say to all of you Ex'ers, no matter how long you have smoked, improvements to your health are possible.
