Friday Factoids - Your Body’s Reaction to Quitting Smoking

February 29, 2008

The “quit smoking” crowd is everywhere, and it has infiltrated allscan.org now. I’ve been smoking cigarettes for six months, my wife much longer. While it has always been a choice to start, it seems that the choice to quit is much harder. I watched an episode of Modern Marvels on tobacco where a doctor mentioned that more people are addicted to nicotine than any other drug and that nicotine is the fastest addicting drug around.

Well I don’t know about all that, but here are some interesting facts about what happens to your body when you quit, along with a nice time line from HealthBolt.net.

Click the image for a full size chart.

20 Minutes - blood pressure returns to normal
8 Hours - carbon monoxide levels in the blood stream drop by half, and oxygen levels retrun to normal
48 Hours - chance of having a heart attack will begin its long decline. All nicotine will have left the body, the sense of taste and smell will return to normal
72 Hours - bronchial tubes relax, over-all energy rises
2 Weeks - circulation increases, and continues to improve for 10 weeks
3-9 Months - coughs, wheezing, and breathing problems dissipate and lung capacity improves 10%
1 Year - risk of having a heart attack cut in half
5 Years - risk of having a stroke returns to that of non-smoker
10 Years - risk of lung cancer returns to that of non-smoker
15 Years - risk of heart attack returns to that of non-smoker

Conclusion: quit and you’ll be healthier!

Posted in Factoids