According to statistics, more than 85% of smokers want to quit smoking. Main reason why smokers want to quit is, especially, health care. Second place goes to saving money. The majority of smokers referred to the fear of lung cancer as a major reason for their concern, but there are many other health risks associated with smoking.
At a time when smokers want to quit, to stay healthy, most of them do not know what happens during the quit smoking timeline.
Before describing what happens when you stop smoking cigarettes, it would be reasonable to describe what would happen if you will not quit. There are proven facts, that from the age of 35-40 years each year of smoking reduce your life expectancy by an average of 3 months!
What happens if you will abruptly quit smoking? First time you will feel very sad, up to a depression, fatigue, irritability, headaches and even insomnia. In a few days it will get easier, so it is important not to retreat before the decision to say goodbye to smoking and to resist the temptation to smoke “just one cigarette”.
Firstly, when you stop smoking, the level of nicotine and carbon monoxide in your blood will reduce. Carbon monoxide combining with red blood cells, prevents the supply of oxygen to the muscles. The energy level increases rapidly, if you do not smoke all day long.
Within 6 hours after smoking a last cigarette, there are painful sensations in the lungs. Smoker lungs are clogged with mucus, which is excreted from the body, clearing the airways. A day later condition will stabilize.
Within two days, you will start to feel how your breathing becomes easier and easier, lung functions start to recover. It’s unbelievable, but the risk of lung cancer is also reduced after only two days.
Talking about the quality of life, it is worth mentioning one month after you smoke your last cigarette. Energy levels will improve together with blood circulation. You will feel the taste and smell more accurate. The skin will look better. Wrinkles will not seem so deep, you will look younger. Here’s what happens when you quit smoking.
During the first month you will also feel some of the side effects, caused by removal of nicotine from the body. You may feel irritability, nervousness, not clinical depression, concentration loss, dizziness, sleep disturbance. This is a very difficult period, and many of people can’t go through this. But you are not one of them, are you?
And what about long-term quitting smoking timeline? Cough and hoarse voice will leave you a year later. Any chronic, bronchial irritation, will also begin to disappear. However, any type of emphysema, lung damage – destruction of lung elasticity – will remain at the same stage. Unfortunately, these changes are not fixable.
After the first year, risk of heart failure will be reduced by half compared with smokers. Over the next 15 years, the risk of heart failure will be reduced to a level like you had never smoked at all. Along with this the risk of lung cancer decrease twice. These reasons are probably the best show what happens when you stop smoking and they are the most significant for those who think whether to quit or not. Remember, nicotine-lack agony lasts less than a month, but if you won’t pass it, you may lose a lot more.