What Happens When You Quit Smoking?

It’s never too late to quit smoking. Quitting smoking improves your health and reduces your risk of heart disease, cancer, lung disease, and other smoking-related illnesses.

Many fear it will take a long time to see improvements in health and well-being, but the timeline for seeing real benefits is faster than most people realize. The benefits are almost instant. As soon as a person stops smoking their body begins to recover in the following ways:

20 minutes after your last cigarette 

• Your blood pressure and pulse will start to return to more normal levels.

8 hours after your last cigarette

• Within eight hours, your carbon monoxide levels will return to a more normal level. When carbon monoxide goes away, your oxygen levels start to increase to more normal levels. This increased oxygen helps nourish tissues and blood vessels that were getting less oxygen while you were smoking.

24 hours after your last cigarette

• By the one-day mark, you have already decreased your risk of heart attack

48 hours after your last cigarette 

• Previously damaged nerve endings start to regrow. You may also start to notice that senses that were previously dulled due to smoking improve. You may realize you’re smelling and tasting things better than you were before.

72 hours after your last cigarette 

• Within three days of quitting smoking, you’ll often find yourself breathing more easily. This is because the bronchial tubes inside the lungs have started to relax and open up more.

One week after your last cigarette 

• The one-week milestone is important not only for your health but for your success rate in quitting smoking successfully long term. Smokers who successfully make it one week without smoking are nine times as likely to successfully quit.

Two weeks after your last cigarette 

• Within two weeks of quitting smoking, you may start to notice you’re not only breathing easier. You’re also walking easier. This is thanks to improved circulation and oxygenation.

One month after your last cigarette 

• One is feeling a sense of heightened overall energy. You may also notice that many smoking-related symptoms have decreased, such as sinus congestion and shortness of breath with exercise.

Three months after your last cigarette 

• Within three months after quitting, a woman can improve her fertility and reduce the risk that her baby will be born prematurely.

Six months after your last cigarette 

• After six months of quitting, many people often notice they’re better able to handle stressful events that come their way without feeling like they need to smoke. They may also notice they’re coughing up much less mucus and phlegm.

One year after your last cigarette 

• After a year of quitting smoking, your lungs will have experienced dramatic health improvements in terms of capacity and functioning. You’ll notice how much easier you breathe when you’re exerting yourself and how much less coughing you have compared to when you smoked.

Three years after your last cigarette 

• In three years after quitting smoking, your risk of a heart attack has decreased to that of a nonsmoker.

Five years after your last cigarette 

• Five years after you stop smoking, your risk of death from lung cancer has dropped by half.

10 years after your last cigarette 

• At the decade mark, your risk of dying due to lung cancer has decreased to that of a nonsmoker. The cells that were previously precancerous are now replaced with healthy cells.

In addition to decreasing the risk of lung cancer, your risk of developing smoking-related illnesses also goes down. This includes a reduced risk for cancers of the:

• mouth
• esophagus
• bladder
• kidneys
• pancreas

15 years after your last cigarette 

• At the 15-year mark, your risk for heart attack and stroke has decreased to equal that of a person who’s never smoked before. While it can take time to turn back the clock on the effects of smoking, having 15 smoke-free years represents a significant milestone for your health and overall well-being.

If you are having difficulty or planning on quitting smoking, you may consult a doctor via Maxicare’s 24/7 Teleconsult Hotline, Videoconsult services powered by the Doctor Anywhere App, or Maxicare Primary Care Clinic (PCC). You may also go to a PCC or request HomeCare for lab tests and diagnostic procedures.

Reference: https://www.healthline.com/health/what-happens-when-you-quit-smoking#takeaway

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