What Happens When You Stop Smoking Now

I gave smoking the old college try, but it didn’t catch (fortunately). Some of my friends were or still are smokers — I know it can be really hard to quit.

Part of what makes quitting hard is that the dangers and benefits are far off in the future. You think to yourself, “Lung cancer is 30 years away, so why stop today,” or “It will take forever for my lungs to heal anyway, one more day won’t matter.”

To help turn this mindset around, Healthbolt has an article on the immediate short-term benefits of quitting.

• 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.

Read the article for the all benefits you gain over the months and years — including your risk of lung cancer dropping to that of a non-smoker in 10 years (not forever).