There is a great tool on a government website called womenshealth.gov where you can see what happens when you quit smoking. The site lets you choose between different periods of time after you have quit, and tell you what you can expect. Starting already 20 minutes after you put down a smoke, your heart rate drops. From then on a lot of positive things happen to your body, and many of the negative smoking facts and its side-effects start to reside. Let’s have a look at some of them.
First day of quitting smoking
The first day you quit smoking there are two important events that happen. As mentioned above your heart rate will start to drop to normal after the 20 minute mark. And after approximately 12 hours your blood should have normal levels of carbon monoxide, which is a toxic gas.
2 weeks to 9 months of smoke cessation
What happens when you quit smoking after 2 weeks to 9 months? Your risk of having a heart attack starts to drop. You will also feel that your lungs start to work better, especially if you are in to sports, and the risk of lung infections have decreased as a result of not smoking. The famous “smokers cough” will probably be gone as well.
1 year after putting down the cigarettes
At the one year mark you will receive a great payday. Not only have you saved a lot of money not smoking that you now can use for something like a nice vacation, you will also have halved you risk of getting a heart disease compared to the person that didn’t stop smoking. Happy you quit?
5-15 years after stopping smoking
When you go 5-15 years without smoking you will be at around the same risk of having a stroke than the average person that doesn’t smoke. After 10 years your risk of lung cancer will also be the same as for an average person that doesn’t smoke. The risk of cancer in other body parts as a result of past smoking will also have decreased.
After 15 years you will finally have the same risk of heart disease as someone who hasn’t smoked, and that should be a nice and comforting fact about smoking.
Timeline source: http://www.womenshealth.gov/quit-smoking/tools/calendar.cfm
What happens when you quit smoking on a practical level?
When you quit smoking there will be several physical symptoms as well as physiological side-effects. None of these are impossible to overcome, not at all, but you need to prepare yourself.
You will of course have to battle your daily urge just to have a stick between your fingers. A lot of this urge is based on the social aspect of smoking, and you will probably feel like you are left out when you don’t take your normal smoking breaks with your buddies and colleagues. And just to be clear, you probably should stop being around them when they smoke in the first period of your smoking cessation. The people you normally smoked with might even encourage you, unconsciously or deliberately, to smoke with them, just because THEY miss having the social time together with you. It is important that you practice you ability to say know to both them and yourself. You might even need to make a plan that helps you stay away from situations that might spark your desperation for a smoke.
Plan to stay away for smoke and cigarettes
You might want to sit down and make a list of all the places, settings, and experiences you might have in life that have a potential to hit you off your cessation. These could be breaks at work where you usually went out smoking, parties or a night out on the town with your friends or setbacks like a bad day at work or a fight with your partner. You need to be conscious in these situations and remind yourself that you only want a smoke for the soothing benefits. Eat a chocolate instead, as the smoking facts are just to grave to not take this seriously.
Stop smoking aids
Look at what is available on the market, as there are many stop smoking aids that might help you on your quest to stop smoking. You have the medications that you will need a doctors opinion on before starting up, and you have the nicotine replacement therapies that can be purchased over the counter.
Ask for help
Even though your fellow smokers were painted a bit egoistical in the above paragraph, they probably want what’s best for you. So ask them for help. In fact, ask everyone for help, including your family, friends, partner, co-workers, even the old lady at the buss stop with a nasty smoker’s cough that is smoking in your face. Ask her to put it out or go away.
Keep trying, don’t give up
Even if your fall of the horse so to speak at your first attempt to quit smoking you have to get back on as soon as possible. Many people need several tries before they are able to quit, and there is no shame in that. What happens when you stop smoking is that several forces act upon you to start again, and perhaps you need to try 2, 3, 4, 50, 100 times before you are able to put down cigarettes for good. But when you succeed, you have a list of happy things that will happen to you and your body!
Related posts:
This is a great thought. I am sure there are many good benefits in quitting smoking.