It is now known that smoking isn’t good for your health because of how it affects the body. But can smoking actually stop you from living longer than you normally would? Well, at the end of this article, you’ll be able to find that out for yourself.
Not everyone knows that quitting smoking comes with immediate and long-term health benefits. If you didn’t know, then I’ll be exposing what happens to your body from the time you stop smoking up to about 15 years after you must have stopped smoking.
What happens when you stop smoking?
- Within your first 20 minutes, after you have stopped smoking, your body’s blood pressure and heart rate will decrease. You’ll no longer feel that cold sensation, because hands and your feet will return to its normal temperature.
- After 8 hours of not smoking, the amount of carbon monoxide nicotine in your blood will reduce by half.
- 12 hours after you have stopped smoking, the carbon monoxide level in your blood will reduce to normalcy. Now, your heart no longer has to pump hard in order to get enough oxygen around your body.
- Within 2 days, your sense of taste and smell will greatly improve as your nerve endings have started healing. At this time, you do not have any more nicotine left in your body.
- In 3 days, you’ll realize that you now breathe better because your lungs start recovering and it will keep getting better.
- Within 2-12 weeks of not smoking, the circulation in your body improves and your lung function will appreciate.
- After 1-9 months, you’d realize that you no longer cough or experience shortness of breath like you used to. Also, by that time you also gain a significant amount of energy i.e., is to say that you are now stronger than you used to be.
- In a year, the probability of having a coronary heart disease is about half that of someone who doesn’t smoke at all.
- In 5 years, the probability of having stroke or cervical cancer is now equal to someone who hasn’t smoked in 5-15 years.
- In 10 years, the probability of having, cancer of the lungs will reduce to half that of someone who smokes and also the probability of having mouth cancer, oesophagus cancer, throat cancer, bladder cancer, pancreas cancer and cervix cancer, will all decrease.
- In 15 years the probability of having a coronary heart disease will now be equal to that of an individual who doesn’t smoke at all.
What if I have already developed a health issue as a result of smoking often, will quitting affect any change?
The benefits I’ll be providing have been compared between those who stopped and those who continued.
- If you stop at 30, you will acquire 10 years of life expectancy at most.
- If you stop at 40, you will acquire 9 years of life expectancy at most.
- If you stop at 50, you will acquire 6 years of life expectancy at most.
- If you stop at 60, you will acquire 3 years of life expectancy at most.
- After experiencing a life-threatening disease, for example, people who quit smoking after a heart attack can rapidly reduce the chances of having another by 50%.
Conclusion
There is no perfect time to stop smoking other than now. If you don’t want to stop for anybody you can at very least stop your body and in 15 years your body will thank you.
Quitting Smoking has never been easy especially when it has become an addiction but with time and few healthy practices you can say goodbye to smoking for good. One method that has helped several smokers to stop smoking is vaping. They were able to achieve that by gradually dropping their nicotine intake until they no longer had to smoke or vape anymore.
