How to stay healthy after quitting smoking

1. Watch out for smoking triggers

Sometimes you might get a sudden craving, even months after stopping smoking. Carefully managing the situations that make you want to smoke (called triggers) can help you avoid relapsing.

Common triggers could be spending time with friends who smoke, having a drink at the pub, stress or boredom. Avoiding these situations can be helpful, but you can’t avoid these all the time. When your triggers can’t be avoided, just identifying them as triggers and using positive self-talk (“I’m going to enjoy a walk without a smoke”) can help you to stay quit.

Even after you have quit for a long time, these triggers may still be around. It’s hard to avoid all types of stress. And you’ll probably want to catch up with some friends even if they still smoke. Understanding your triggers and preparing for them can help you avoid going back to smoking.

For example, if you’ve had a very stressful day, then a night out with people who are smoking could tempt you. Maybe see a movie instead, or go to a restaurant where smoking is not allowed.

If you are concerned about going back to smoking, quitting medications may help you avoid this. Contact Quitline for more details.[1]

Use these tips and tactics to avoid smoking again.

2. Lung cancer screening

Quitting smoking reduces your risk of getting lung cancer.² The longer you have quit, the more your risk is reduced. But people who have recently quit will still have a higher risk of lung cancer than those who have never smoked.²

At its early stages, lung cancer usually has no symptoms. Screening uses a low dose CT scan to look for lung cancer to find it early in people who have no symptoms.

The earlier lung cancer is found, the easier it is to treat. Over 65% of lung cancers can be successfully treated, if found early. Finding lung cancer early saves many lives.^{3, 4}

Australia has a program offering free lung cancer screening to people at high risk. If you are aged 50 to 70 and have smoked for many years or decades, then you may be eligible for free lung cancer screening. Speak to your doctor or healthcare provider to check your eligibility and to be referred for the free scan.

Find out more about lung cancer screening.

3. If you vape, quitting will reduce your risk

Some people are able to quit smoking but continue to vape afterwards. If you regularly vape after quitting smoking, it’s very important to also quit vaping.

Vaping has known health harms in the short-term, and the long-term effects are not yet known.

A recent study has shown that people who vape after quitting smoking did not have a reduced risk of lung cancer. But the risk of lung cancer was reduced for people who quit smoking and didn’t vape afterwards.⁵ This study implies that it’s very important to quit vaping, if you still vape after quitting smoking.

Importantly, there were some improvements to health for people who quit smoking but vaped afterwards. So quitting smoking is always worthwhile.

Find out more about the risks of vaping for your health.

What else can I do for my health?

There are many things that you can do to improve your health and reduce your risk after quitting smoking. Some examples that reduce your risk of cancer, heart diseases and other conditions are:

• eat a healthy diet

• exercise regularly

• be Sunsmart, by avoiding sunburn and suntanning

• practice safe sex, where necessary, to avoid infections

• take part in lung, bowel, breast and cervical cancer screening where these are appropriate for you

• avoid illicit drugs and minimise your alcohol intake

• seek professional help for any mental health conditions, or to develop better ways to deal with stress, anger or frustration

• ask your doctor or healthcare provider about other ways to stay healthy such as regular health checks.

If you are concerned about your weight, ask your doctor or health professional for advice.