Immediate health effects from quitting smoking
You probably know the long-term positives that stopping smoking has on your physical and mental health. However, there are so many improvements to your body that happen within hours and even minutes of stopping!
Here are some fun facts on how your body improves its physical health:
- After 20 minutes of quitting your pulse rate returns to normal
- After 8 hours both nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in your body decrease by 50% and oxygen levels begin to return to normal.
- After 24 hours there is no sign of carbon monoxide and your lungs can start to clear out debris!
- After 48 hours there is no more nicotine in your body! And your sense of smell and taste improves.
- After 72 hours breathing is a lot easier and your energy levels begin to rise.
- Between 2 and 12 weeks your blood circulation improves around your body.
- From 3 to 9 months breathing becomes easier as your lung function increases by 10%.
- After 1 year you are 50% less at risk of having a heart attack than someone who still smokes.
- After 10 years you are 50% less at risk to have lung cancer than someone who smokes.
- After 15 years your risk of having a heart attack is the same as someone who has never smoked!
Within just one day, choosing to quit smoking can make you much healthier!
Quitting can be hard though and so here are some tips on how you can quickly get yourself in an easier position to stop smoking.
Plan:
Having a plan will make your life so much easier! Noting down the time and then how many cigarettes you had will help you understand your habit. Calculating how much you needed and enjoyed the cigarette can help you decide whether you really needed that many too! There are so many free plans and diaries online to help quit.
List:
List as many reasons as you can as to why you want to quit and hang it up somewhere or keep it in your bag so that you can keep reminding yourself about why you are quitting!
Work out:
Even if it’s just a quick morning jog, getting yourself outside or working out can help relieve stress and keep you distracted so you’re not thinking about smoking or about when to have your next cigarette.
Find out about our stop smoking service here.