You probably know smoking is bad for you, but do you realize exactly how dangerous it is? It’s important to understand your risks, but there’s a lot more to quitting than frightening statistics. Your journey to smoke-free living will help you turn your life around in many positive ways.
After one month of living smoke-free:
- You’ll soon be able to exercise or perform activities with less shortness of breath.
- Your clothes, your body, your car and your home will smell better.
- Your sense of taste and smell will return to normal.
- The stains on your teeth and fingernails will start to fade.
Timeline of smoke-free living benefits
According to the American Heart Association and the U.S. surgeon general, this is how your body starts to recover:- In your first 20 minutes after quitting: your blood pressure and heart rate recover from the cigarette-induced spike.
- After 12 hours of smoke-free living: the carbon monoxide levels in your blood return to normal.
- After two weeks to three months of smoke-free living: your circulation and lung function begin to improve.
- After one to nine months of smoke-free living: clear and deeper breathing gradually returns as coughing and shortness of breath diminishes; you regain the ability to cough productively instead of hacking, which cleans your lungs and reduce your risk of infection.
- One year after quitting smoking, a person’s risk of coronary heart disease is reduced by 50 percent.
- Five to 15 years after quitting smoking, a person’s risk of stroke is similar to that of a nonsmoker.
- After 10 years of smoke-free living, your lung cancer death rate is about half that of a person who has continued to smoke. The risk of other cancers, such as throat, mouth, esophagus, bladder, cervix and pancreas decreases, too.
This section also includes information on:
Watch a video of how Mychael Patterson decided to live smoke-free.
