Today Lauren Peterson, who is the Health Improvement Practitioner, came to visit primary 4-7 this afternoon during topic.

We began by letting her know what we knew about what smoking does to the body. She went over all our ideas before giving us her facts – we had nearly all of them already so she was impressed with our knowledge! Here are a few of the facts:

• it can lead to heart disease
• less oxygen gets to your heart
• your hair smells and so does your clothes
• you are more likely to get coughs and colds
• your skin can get dry and wrinkly
• it stains your teeth

Did you know that 1 cigarette contains more than 4000 different chemicals.

Lauren had taken some chemicals in bottles for us to see – we had to get into pairs and choose 2 to research. We then had to take a leaflet and find the chemical we chose, noting down how that chemical affects your health. We all shared one chemical that we researched.

She then split us into two groups and asked us to think of the health benefits if you stopped smoking and to put these into a timeline. We share our timelines to each group before Lauren shared a few facts with us:

• After 20 minutes of giving up smoking your blood pressure comes down so you get health benefits straight away!
• 8 hours later the oxygen levels in your lungs return to normal
• 12 hours later the level of carbon dioxide reduces in your body
• 36 hours later the nerve endings that wee damaged from smoking  begin to come back
• 3 days later your sense of smell and taste comes back
• 2 weeks later your circulation gets better
• After 1 year the risk of getting heart disease reduces by half from when you were smoking
• After 5 years your risk of having a heart attack is no more than that of a non-smoker

We really enjoyed Laurens visit and thanked her very much for coming in to see us.