Quitting smoking

• What are some of the effects of smoking?
• What happens when you stop smoking?

It is now the best time to quit smoking. Given the pandemic virus going around, one of the best ways to boost your immune system is to quit smoking. Every time you smoke, you paralyze the protective sweeping hairs called cilia that line your respiratory passages for 5 minutes. Long-term smoking damages these cilia altogether. Your lungs rely on these hairs to sweep out mucus and microorganisms, allowing them to function better.

Aside from the immune-boosting function of quitting smoking, it takes ten whole years to reduce the risk of several. It takes ten years after smoking cessation for cancers of the throat, mouth, esophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, and colon/rectum to decrease.

It takes another five years for a total of 15 years after you quit smoking for the risk of your heart disease to get to the same level as a non-smoker.

Benefits of quitting smoking timeline

However, the good news is that within a few minutes of quitting, effects start to take place. Following, I have listed a few changes that start bringing in your body as soon as you begin quitting smoking.

20 minutes

• Blood pressure and pulse rate drop to normal
• The body temperature of extremities (hands and feet) increases to normal

8 hours

• Carbon monoxide level in the blood drops to normal

24 Hours

• Chance of heart attack decreases
• Oxygen level in the blood returns to normal

48 hours

• Nerve Endings start to regenerate
• The ability to smell and taste is enhanced

Two weeks-3 months

• Circulation improves
• Walking becomes easier
• Lung function increases up to 30%

1-9 months

• Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath decrease
• Body’s overall energy increases

Within six months, most of the cells in the body, including the lung tissue, will have been replenished at least once. Within five years, stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smoker. It takes ten years for your lung-cancer death rate to become similar to that of non-smokers when you start quitting smoking. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, and esophagus is half that of a smoker around that time. During this period, the lung cancer death rate for the average former smoker is decreased by almost half.

The sooner you quit, the faster these changes start to take place. If you need help quitting smoking, I can help with the process by guiding you and using supplements to help you with the craving. Click on the following link to book an appointment.