What happens if you stop smoking NOW?

Life Health & Fitness
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healthbolt.net/2006/07/19/what-h … right-now/

[quote]I think one of the main reasons it’s so hard to quit smoking is because all the benefits of quitting and all the dangers of continuing seem very far away. Well, here’s a little timeline about some of the more immediate effects of quitting smoking and how that will affect your body RIGHT NOW.

[b]In 20 minutes your blood pressure will drop back down to normal.

In 8 hours the carbon monoxide (a toxic gas) levels in your blood stream will drop by half, and oxygen levels will return to normal.

In 48 hours your chance of having a heart attack will have decreased. All nicotine will have left your body. Your sense of taste and smell will return to a normal level.

In 72 hours your bronchial tubes will relax, and your energy levels will increase.

In 2 weeks your circulation will increase, and it will continue to improve for the next 10 weeks.

In three to nine months coughs, wheezing and breathing problems will dissipate as your lung capacity improves by 10%.

In 1 year your risk of having a heart attack will have dropped by half.

In 5 years your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a non-smoker.

In 10 years your risk of lung cancer will have returned to that of a non-smoker.

In 15 years your risk of heart attack will have returned to that of a non-smoker.[/b]

So, you have more immediate things to look forward to if you quit now besides just freaking out about not being able to smoke.[/quote]

Not trying to propogandize (or troll) here; just found this to be an edifying little report. Makes me goddang happy I quit last year! My risk of having a heart attack has already dropped by half! Woohoo!

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Congratulations! :bravo:

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I had used “dip” (smokeless tobacco) for exactly 20 years (1986-2006) and quit cold turkey on Sept 1st. It was actually my third attempt at quitting but I had learned a bit about how to quit from each of the prior attempts. I had practiced my “gung fu of quitting tobacco”.

While I very much agree with Vay’s list I would add one practical side for people who are thinking about quitting. For Brian at least the result of quitting was simply a radical rise in:
anger
fury
more anger
further fury
over all extremely bad mood, followed by further bad moods. Then general weakness, followed by slow mental processes and then a return to anger and fury.

Put another way—quitting tobacco ain’t all peaches and cream. But—gotta do it, if not for yourself, for your family and the people who rely on you for “taking care of business”. The reason I mention the “downside” is not to discourage people, but for me at least, knowing what the “real deal” is, both the good news and the bad, makes it more likely you will win the battle against tobacco.

For the people who have quit tobacco, such as Vay, that is super news. For people who are trying to quit, using science information, like Vay posted above, is a very good approach. There has been a lot of improvement in the science of quitting booze and smokes over the past 20 or 30 years. A lot of the information is available on the internet.

Great post Vay.

take care,
Brian