Health benefits of quitting smoking

Good news! As soon as you stop smoking your body begins to repair itself.

Over time, your risk of life-threatening health problems, including heart disease and stroke, drops dramatically.

The health benefits of quitting smoking

Within six hours

• Your heart rate slows and your blood pressure becomes more stable.

Within a day

• The level of carbon monoxide in your blood has dropped and oxygen can reach your heart and muscles more easily.

• Your fingertips become warmer and your hands steadier.

Within a week

• Your sense of taste and smell may improve.

• You have higher blood levels of protective antioxidants such as vitamin C.

Within three months

• You’re coughing and wheezing less.

• Your lungs’ natural cleaning system is recovering, becoming better at removing mucus, tar and dust from your lungs (exercise helps to clear out your lungs).

• Your immune system is beginning its recovery so your body is better at fighting off infection.

• Your blood is less thick and sticky and blood flow to your hands and feet has improved.

Within six months

• You are less likely to be coughing up phlegm.

• You're likely to feel less stressed than when you were smoking.

After one year

• Your lungs are now healthier and you’ll be breathing easier than if you’d kept smoking.

Within five years

• There is a large drop in your risk of stroke and this risk will continue to gradually decrease over time.

After 10 to 15 years

• Your risk of lung cancer is half that of someone your age who still smokes (provided the disease was not already present when you quit).

After 20 years

• Your risk of heart attack and stroke is close to that of a person who has never smoked.

Over time, your risk of cancer, lung disease, and many other serious diseases will be much lower than if you keep smoking.

How fast and how well your body recovers can depend on the number of cigarettes you normally smoke and how long you’ve been smoking, and whether you already have a smoking-related disease.