There’s no doubt about it: smoking damages your health. Making the choice to quit will make a world of difference to your health in the long term, but your body will also experience some instant benefits of quitting smoking in as little as just an hour following your last cigarette.

The sooner you quit smoking, the faster you reduce your risk of developing smoking-related cancers, heart and lung disease and other conditions related to smoking. If you’re interested in improving your health by being smoke-free, read on to discover some of the instant benefits of quitting smoking.

Your body begins to recover as soon as you’ve smoked your last cigarette…

After just 1 hour…

Or in fact, in as little as 20 minutes following your last cigarette, one of the initial instant benefits of quitting smoking that you will notice, is that your heart rate returns to normal. Your blood pressure will begin to drop and stabilize, and your circulation will be starting to improve.

After just 12 hours…

The carbon monoxide level in your blood has decreased, allowing oxygen to reach your heart and muscles more effectively. This is one of the most obvious instant benefits of quitting smoking, where many people feel that their hands and fingertips become warmer and steadier. This is due to the fact that the oxygen is now able to reach all the way to your extremities efficiently!

After just 24 hours…

After 24 hours of being smoke-free, your body experiences one of the most significant instant benefits of quitting smoking: your risk of heart attack decreases. Smoking increases your chances of coronary heart disease because it raises blood pressure, lowers good cholesterol in the bloodstream, increases your likelihood of developing blood clots, hence increasing your chances of having a stroke. Since your blood pressure will already be returning to normal and your oxygen levels will have risen, your risk of heart disease is reduced.

After just 2 days…

By this stage, you may find that your sense of taste and smell feel heightened, or at least have improved. This is because smoking damages the nerve endings that are responsible for smell and taste.

The levels of protective antioxidants, such as vitamin C your bloodstream will also have increased. Smoking speeds up the production of free radicals in the body. Free radicals are molecules that move around the body, damaging tissues; just one such example are smoker’s wrinkles, caused by collagen damage. Antioxidants are molecules that go around trying to neutralize free radicals to prevent or minimize damage. For this reason, blood antioxidant levels are often quite low in smokers, leading to a host of health problems.

After just 3 days…

The 3-day mark is the point at which most people who are quitting smoking begin to experience withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, moodiness, irritability and cravings. This because the nicotine levels in the body have been depleted by this time. The body is readjusting to a healthier new equilibrium! At the time it may not feel like a great thing, but it definitely is!

The health benefits continue!

Whilst you wouldn’t necessarily consider the following as instant benefits of quitting smoking, they are certainly significant changes for the better and really deserve mentioning.

Within 3 to 6 months of quitting your lungs are much healthier. You’re coughing and wheezing less, and your lungs are naturally able to clear mucus and toxic substances, such as tar from cigarettes much easier. Your immune system will have begun to strengthen itself and your blood is less viscous, with improved flow (hello, warm toes!). Your stress levels and anxiety will have reduced, making not only a healthier, but a happier you!

The health benefits certainly don’t stop there. Whilst there are some instant benefits of quitting smoking, as time goes on, over many years of being smoke-free, your health continues to benefit by your body recovering and repairing itself. Your risk of cancer, lung and heart disease and many other serious smoking-related diseases will be significantly lower than if you had continued to smoke.

The sooner you quit, the sooner you can heal your body. If you’re ready to make a healthy change, contact us so that we can organize a consultation for you and get you on your way.