STOP SMOKING PROOF by Ron Peterson
reprinted from Volume 9, No 7, page 8 of the Pulmonary Paper (January/February 1999)
I would like to thank all the people in my life who have helped me to leave cigarettes behind for the past 3 years. On January 9, 1996, I stopped smoking because I coughed so much every time I took just one hit of the mildest cigarette, I thought I would die. I was as
severely addicted as anyone I have ever heard of. I can honestly say that I tried to quit all of my adult life.
The first time I tried to quit was at age 15, I quit at age 51, 36 years later. During this time, I tried every method known to man and made up a few of my own. I offer objective proof of this by looking at my peak flow meter average readings for the past 11 years. I was diagnosed with emphysema 12 years ago and currently have an FEV1 level of 18%.
Each of these average readings represent thousands of individual recordings that I made during each of the testing years. Please note that the average continued to decrease for a full year after I stopped smoking and then went back up and has stayed up for the second year after stopping smoking. The corresponding average for an individual of my age without lung disease is about 600 lpm.
Year Years since Yearly peak flow
stopping smoking average (lpm)
1998 3 341
1997 2 344
1996 1 303
1995 - 305
1994 - 345
1993 - 357
1991 - 368
I have also seen a similar stabilization of my FEV1 readings over this same time period.
Year Years since FEV1 level (%) stopping smoking 1998 2 18 1997 1 19 1996 0 18 1996 0 21 1987 - 41
If you are one of the millions still trying to quit, take heart in these numbers and know that there is hope for improvement in your ability to breathe after quitting smoking. I replaced smoking with exercise in my life. Perhaps it will work for you!
Ron Peterson. St Louis, MO
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