Stop Smoking Tips

Smoking is a dirty habit that results in poor lung capacity, lung cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure. There are plenty of reasons to stop smoking and none to continue. One of the ways to become motivated to stop is to learn what happens to your lungs when you stop smoking.

It may seem that the benefits of quitting are far away. After all you don’t have lung cancer yet. Your heart seems to be working just fine. You don’t need blood pressure medication yet.

But there is a timeline of events that happens to your body as you benefit from quitting smoking. That time line begins within 20 minutes of having smoked your last cigarette!

In the first 20 minutes your blood pressure will drop back to a normal level. If you’ve been smoking for years blood pressure may take longer to return to normal levels.

In the first eight hours what happens to your lungs when you stop smoking? The carbon monoxide gas that has dissolved in your blood stream will drop by half and the oxygen levels will return to normal.

Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas that takes up room on the hemoglobin in your blood and doesn’t allow your blood to carry as much oxygen. Carbon monoxide can’t be used by the body and will decrease your trigger to breath deeply.

After the first 48 hours your chances of having a heart attack actually decrease. By this time all of the nicotine has left your body and your sense of taste and smell should be returning to a normal level. All of the changes up to this point should help you to maintain your desire to quit smoking.

Share This