Improve Your Health by Quitting Smoking Sooner Than Later

Many people who are thinking about quitting smoking excuse themselves by thinking that whatever damage to their health that smoking does has already been done. Medical research, however, has shown that there are short and long term benefits of quitting.


Even just one hour after quitting your body begins to benefit. Your pulse and blood pressure will go down while the temperature of your feet and hands will go up. When chemicals in cigarette smoke that force your heart rate to go up are removed from your system, the body can normalize itself.

The amount of carbon monoxide in your blood will also normalize just a few hours later. The amount of oxygen in your blood is decreased when CO, which is present in cigarette smoke, binds with hemoglobin, which is what transports oxygen through the body. Oxygen can flow more freely and better feed the tissues of your body when the level of CO in your body goes down.

Your risk of experiencing a heart attack starts going down only twenty-four hours after you quit smoking. Your nerve cells change because of being constantly exposed to nicotine, but, after just forty-eight hours, the nerve cells will begin to normalize and you will be able to experience normal feeling once again. This also allows you to smell and taste normally again.

Nicotine cravings will begin to go away after a few weeks and may reappear randomly during the following few months. During that time your body's circulatory system can recover from the damage that smoking has dealt it. When several weeks have passed without smoking, you should be able to exercise normally without having to wheeze and gasp for breath.

The body will begin to regain energy that is usually sapped by fatigue caused by smoking. Sinus congestion and hacking will also be greatly reduced after a period of a few months of not smoking. These things occur because the body is finally recovering and starting to work at its best again.

Strokes are twice as likely to befall a person who smokes than one who does not. After a year of not smoking, your risk of having a stroke will have dropped by 50% or so. Your risk will go down to that of someone who does not smoke after five to fifteen years of not smoking cigarettes.

Other health risks also go way down. Cancer of the lung, larynx, pancreas, and bladder will all be much less likely to appear in your body. About 87% of lung cancer patients have developed lung cancer because of being heavy smokers. When you stop smoking, your risk of developing lung cancer goes way, way down.

Quitting smoking is a commitment that will last the rest of your life. If you choose to continue smoking you will be at a very high risk for a variety of diseases. The best idea is to stop smoking now.