Apart from the fact that it’s bad for your health, there are many other reasons to quit smoking. It’s expensive it makes your hair and clothes stink, and in many places in the world, it’s considered unsociable with bands and bars and restaurants meaning you’ll need to leave the crowd and head outside for a puff. Lets Stop Smoking Right Now To See These 10 Changes In Your Body.
There are plenty of pluses to kicking the habit, but what will the health results be? Let’s take a look when you at how your body will change as time passes once you’ve quit smoking.
20 minutes – In less time than it takes to commute to work your body will already be fixing itself. 20 minutes after the last cigarette is stubbed out, your pulse and blood pressure starts to drop back to normal circulation will start to improve, and your hands and feet will warm to their usual temperature.
12 hours – Cigarettes contain a lot of known toxins including a harmful gas, carbon monoxide. This gas can be fatal in high doses, as it prevents oxygen from entering the lungs and blood.
At 12 hours, halfway through your first day, your carbon monoxide level is back to normal, which is great for your heart, as it doesn’t have to pump as hard to get enough oxygen to your body. Unfortunately, though it’s at this point you’ll be feeling the withdrawal and cravings. A couple of ways to fight these feelings are by chewing gum or sipping water.
24 hours – Well done you’ve hit the one day mark and the good news is that after just 24 hours, a person’s blood pressure begins to drop, decreasing the risk of heart disease, and blood clots that can lead to stroke.
If you smoke a pack a day you’re twice as likely to have a heart attack as a nonsmoker, and that risk has already been reduced considerably after just 24 hours. And with oxygen levels on the rise, physical activity and exercise will already feel easier.
48 hours – Two days it is a good time for a tasty snack. Smoking damages the nerve endings which decreases your ability to smell and taste properly and after only 48 hours your senses will get sharper as nerve endings begin to heal. Your body will also enter a detoxification phase, with your lungs kicking out mucus left from cigarettes.
3 days – After three days the nicotine levels in a person’s body are depleted. ridding the body of nicotine leaves a person much healthier, but initially, this also adds to the effects
of withdrawal.
During the first 3 months – This is when the major improvements start. After a couple of weeks, the cravings will subside and the chance of going back to the habit is far less likely your lungs become stronger and clearer, your blood flow has greatly improved. You can exercise without huffing and puffing so much and the risk of a heart attack goes down even more.
9 months – Nine months after quitting, there will be major physical changes and improvements in the body. The lungs have significantly healed themselves. The delicate hair-like structures inside the lungs known as cilia, which help to fight infections will have recovered from the toll of cigarette smoke.
1 year – A big milestone with the habit in the distant past. Time to celebrate the achievement the risk of heart disease has decreased by half and will continue to drop beyond this 1-year mark.
5 years – After five years without smoking, the body has healed itself so that the arteries and blood vessels begin to widen again. This means blood is less likely to clot which lowers the risk of stroke, to the same level as a non-smoker.
10 years – Lung cancer is one of the greatest risks of smoker faces and after 10 years, a person’s chances of developing lung cancer and dying from it are about half compared to a smoker.
