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Health News
HIV: Do You Know If You Have It?
What Happens When You Quit Smoking
2 Hours
After You Quit
12 Hours
After You Quit
Right now is a great time to quit smoking. Why? In as few as 20 minutes, you’ll start to feel the benefits.
Here we break down the changes that occur in your body within minutes, hours, days, and even years after you kick the habit. The health benefits of quitting today may surprise you.
The effects of quitting start to set in immediately. Within 20 minutes after your last cigarette, your heart rate will begin to drop back toward a normal level.
After two hours without a cigarette, your heart rate and blood pressure will be close to normal levels again. Your blood circulation will also start to improve. The tips of your fingers and toes may start to feel warm.
Nicotine withdrawal symptoms usually start about two hours after your last ciga- rette.
Early withdrawal symp- toms include:
• intense cravings
• anxiety, tension, or frus- tration
• drowsiness or trouble sleeping
• increased appetite
Carbon monoxide, which can be toxic to the body at high levels, is released from burning tobacco and inhaled as part of cigarette smoke.
Carbon monoxide bonds very well to blood cells, so high levels of the gas can pre- vent the cells from bonding with oxygen.
The lack of oxygen in the blood often causes serious heart conditions and other health problems.
In as few as 12 hours after quitting smoking, the carbon monoxide in your body de- creases to lower levels. In turn, the amount of oxygen in your blood increases to nor- mal levels.
Hillsborough County has one of the highest number of people in the country with.....
HOW CAN I TELL IF I HAVE HIV?
You cannot rely on symp- toms to tell whether you have HIV. The only way to know for sure if you have HIV is to get tested.
Knowing your status is im- portant because it helps you make healthy decisions to pre- vent getting or transmitting HIV.
The symptoms of HIV vary, depending on the individual and what stage of the disease you are in: the early stage, the clinical la- tency stage, or AIDS (the late stage of HIV infection).
Below are the symptoms that some individuals may experi- ence in these three stages. Not all individuals will experience these symptoms.
EARLY STAGE OF HIV
Some people may experience a flu-like illness within 2-4 weeks after HIV infection. But some people may not feel sick during this stage.
Flu-like symptoms can in- clude:
• Fever
• Chills
• Rash
• Night sweats • Muscle aches • Sore throat
• Fatigue
• Swollen lymph nodes • Mouth ulcers
These symptoms can last any- where from a few days to several weeks. During this time, HIV in- fection may not show up on an HIV test, but people who have it are highly infectious and can spread the infection to others.
You should not assume you have HIV just because you have any of these symptoms.
Each of these symptoms can be caused by other illnesses. And some people who have HIV do not show any symptoms at all for 10 years or more.
20 Min
After You Quit
If you think you may have been exposed to HIV, get an HIV test.
After you get tested, it’s important to find out the result of your test so you can talk to your health care provider about treatment options if you’re HIV-positive or learn ways to prevent getting HIV if you’re HIV-negative. Knowledge is power, and sadly you are never too young to die, or be sick, especially if you are sexually active.
FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2016 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 11-B