Cigarette smoking is one of the most preventable causes of death in the world. Each year, more than 450,000 people die from diseases related to tobacco use. Smoking can lead to lung cancer, stroke and heart disease, among other health problems, and can shorten your lifespan by up to 14 years.
The good news? It’s never too late to quit smoking — and when you do quit, your body quickly begins to restore itself from all the damage caused my the harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke. See how your health — and life — improves in the moments, hours, months and years after you finally quit.
20 Minutes: Your Blood Pressure Drops
The nicotine in cigarettes decreases the amount of oxygen in your blood, and causes your arteries to constrict, meaning your heart has to work harder to pump blood to the rest of your body. As a result, smoking causes a rise in blood pressure; high blood pressure is a leading cause of heart disease.
After 20 minutes without a cigarette your heart rate drops and your blood pressure begins to return to normal levels.
2 Hours: Circulation Improves
Your circulatory system is made of blood vessels that pick up oxygen from the lungs and distribute it to your muscles and organs. The chemicals in cigarette smoke damage your blood cells and blood vessels, disrupting this oxygen-delivery process, increasing your risk of diseases of the blood vessels and heart. This damage can also increase your chance of a blood clot, resulting in heart attack or stroke.
When you’ve been cigarette-free for two hours, your circulation begins to improve.
8 Hours: Damage From Chemicals Reverses
Every time you inhale cigarette smoke, more than 7,000 chemicals and compounds—including cadmium (a component of battery acid), acetone (found in nail polish remover) and arsenic (used in rat poison)—flood into your body. Within seconds of your first puff, these harmful gases (plus others, like formaldehyde, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide) begin to irritate the sensitive membranes of your eyes, nose and throat.
As the smoke passes into your lungs, carbon monoxide (the same gas found in automobile exhaust) is immediately transferred to your blood, where it binds to oxygen receptor sites and kicks oxygen molecules out of your red blood cells. This means less oxygen makes its way to your brain and other vital organs.
After eight hours smoke-free, the carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in your blood return to normal, and the damage caused by carbon monoxide (and the other chemicals found in cigarettes) begins to reverse
24 Hours: Heart Attack Risk Drops
Nicotine and the other chemicals in cigarette smoke can put major stress on your heart. Smoking increases your risk of atherosclerosis, a disease in which fatty plaques build up in your blood stream. That plaque hardens, blocking your coronary arteries and increasing your risk for coronary heart disease. Over time, coronary heart disease can lead to chest pain, irregular heartbeat and even heart attack. Smokers are two to four times more likely to develop heart disease than non-smokers.
48 Hours: Regain Your Sense of Smell and Taste
Cigarette smoke deadens the millions of olfactory nerves in the back of your nose, diminishing sensitivity to smell. And because your sense of smell is directly correlated to taste, when you smoke, your sense of taste diminishes as well.
After 48 hours without a cigarette, all traces of nicotine have left your body, and your olfactory nerves have begun to regrow, sharpening those previously-dulled senses.
2 Weeks to 3 Months: Lung Function Improves
Cigarette smoke affects your lungs’ natural cleaning process. Smoking damages the cilia (hair-like organs that sweep fluids and foreign particles out of your airways), making it more difficult for the lungs to rid themselves of the chemicals cigarette smoke leaves behind. This damage to your lungs also spurs higher levels of mucus production in an effort to clear away the toxins from cigarette smoke.
Starting two weeks after you quit smoking, and in the months beyond, you'll notice an increased ability to perform physical activities without feeling sick and winded. Within two months, your lungs no longer need to over-produce phlegm to flush out toxins. When your lungs are cigarette smoke-free and functioning better, your risk of lung infection dramatically decreases.
6 Weeks: A Boost to Your Immune System
Smoking weakens your immune system, putting you at a higher risk for infection. With a compromised immune system, your wounds may take longer to heal and scars may heal badly. Cigarette smoking also puts you at greater risk for many bacterial and viral infections, like influenza or pneumonia.
Six weeks after you stop smoking, your immune system becomes stronger and better able to fight off infection, because all traces of nicotine (an immune system suppressant) have left your body.
1 Year: Your Risk of Heart Disease Falls
The chemicals in cigarette smoke damage your heart and blood vessels. Smoking can cause platelets in your blood to clump together, increasing your risk of blood clots, and can also trigger spasms in the coronary arteries, reducing blood flow to the heart. Plus, smoking reduces “good” cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL) and allows “bad” cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL) to enter the walls of your arteries more easily, where it can develop into plaque.
Plaque buildup in your arteries can lead to coronary heart disease — the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. By keeping cigarette-free for one year, you cut your risk for heart disease in half.
10 Years: Lung Cancer Risk Cut in Half
In the United States, smoking causes 90 percent of all lung cancer cases. Every time you inhale cigarette smoke, cancer-causing chemicals fill your lungs, increasing your risk for lung cancer. Nicotine also paralyzes the cilia in your lungs, making it harder for them to remove tar left behind by cigarette smoke.
10 years after you give up cigarettes, your risk for dying from lung cancer is cut in half. Once you hit the 15-year mark, your risk of death from any smoking-induced condition is close to that of a non-smoker.
5 to 15 Years: Stroke Risk Reduced
The same plaque build-up in your arteries that can put you at increased risk for heart disease can also block the flow of blood to your brain and cause a stroke.
Quitting smoking greatly reduces your risk of stroke — after 5 to 15 years without cigarettes, your risk of stroke is the same as someone who has never smoked.
Quit Smoking Today: Long-term Benefits
Smoking takes a toll on your health — both inside and out. Smoking can lead to premature aging, saggy and discolored skin, and bad breath. When you quit, nutrients and oxygen travel through your blood to your skin more easily to keep you looking healthier (and younger, too!).
Giving up on cigarettes doesn’t just improve your heart and lung health; it also reduces your risk of other disease, like diabetes, and other cancers, including cancer of the mouth, throat or stomach.
Ready to quit? Check out these best ways to stop smoking today and butt out for good!
