Health Improvements After Quitting Smoking
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Immediate Benefits
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In the first period of time after quitting smoking (from immediately after to three months later), your blood pressure drops and your heart rate slows down. You also experience a decline in the level of carbon monoxide in your bloodstream. Your circulatory system functions more efficiently, and your lungs begin to work better as well. You lose the foul smell that your breath, hair and clothes once retained. Discoloration of teeth lessens, and stains on your fingers and fingernails lighten or disappear. Your senses of smell and taste improve.
Extended Benefits
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If you continue to abstain from smoking from nine months to five years, your respiratory system functions even better. You are less likely to cough or experience shortness of breath. Exercise leaves you less winded. Your cilia, hair-shaped structures within the lungs, begin to move mucus more efficiently, which keeps your lungs cleaner and less likely to experience infection. Your risk of heart disease drops to half of the risk experienced by smokers.
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Long-Term Benefits
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Quitting smoking for 5 to 15 years (or more) has incredible benefits. Risks of stroke and coronary heart disease drop to the same level as that of non-smokers. You also are less likely to develop various types of cancer, including lung, mouth, esophogeal, pancreatic, throat, cervical and bladder cancers. You can save thousands of dollars by not buying cigarettes. Health insurance also is likely to be less expensive.
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