Congratulations!  Lets say that you just quit smoking within the past few seconds .  Right now your body is damaged , but the healing process begins immediately!  The following is an incredible preview of what will be happening in the next few hours, months, and years as your body becomes healthy again .

After your last cigarette the benefits of stopping smoking begin within seconds

• Within 20 minutes, your blood pressure and pulse rate slow, and the core temperature of your hands and feet increase.
• Carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke inhibits the blood’s ability to deliver oxygen. At 8 hours, the carbon monoxide levels in your blood returns to normal. With the decrease in carbon monoxide, your blood oxygen level returns to normal.
• At 24 hours, your risk of having a heart attack goes down .
• At 48 hours, damaged nerve endings begin to regrow and the ability to smell and taste begins to increase .
• Between 2 weeks and 3 months, blood circulates throughout your body more easily , walking becomes easier and you don’t cough or wheeze as often. Phlegm production decreases. Within several months, your lungs are functioning much better, and continue to quickly improve.
• In 1 to 9 months, coughs, sinus congestion, tiredness and shortness of breath decrease as you continue to see great improvement in lung function. Cilia, tiny hair-like structures that help remove mucus from the lungs, have healed and operate normally .
• In 1 year, risk of coronary heart disease and heart attack is reduced to half that of a smoker .  Your body is rebuilding itself.!
• Between 5 and 15 years after quitting, your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a non-smoker.
• In 10 years, your risk of lung cancer drops. Additionally, your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas drop greatly. Even after a decade of not smoking however, your risk of lung cancer remains higher than in people who have never smoked. Your chances of developing an ulcer also drops .
• In 15 years, your risk of coronary heart disease and heart attack is now essentially that of a person who has never smoked. The chance of death returns to nearly the level of a person who has never smoked !

Your body is improbably resilient.  Obviously right now is the time to quit !

We have only scratched the surface in listing the benefits of quitting smoking.  But in spite of the overwhelmingly powerful list of benefits of stopping …to quit smoking is adifficult thing to do .  A strong addiction is hard to break without some consequence.  Your body will fight you and there are some very real physical and mental symptoms associated with quitting.

Such as? Here is a small overview of some common side effects that represent the symptoms of quitting .

• Anger and anxiousness
• Tiredness
• Coughing and mucous
• Poor concentration
• Restless sleep
• Headaches
• Mild depression
• Gastrointestinal distress
• Tingling sensations
• Increased appetite

That’s the bad news. The good news?  These side effects are all most likely to be at their worst in the first 48 hours.  Around that time they max out and begin a noticeable decline.  Within a week most symptoms have disappeared and the others have almost vanished…unfortunately this doesn’t mean that its a piece of cake after the first week.  What it does mean, however, is that with the right tools and the right plan you can handle it.  What plan to follow and what tools to use are a personal decision. 

When you do decide to stop smoking, just remember that every second afterwards is a small victory.  Remember what your body is doing and that you are getting better by the day.  If you quit now, then time really is is on your side…time makes it easier to not smoke and it lets your body do what it really wants to do:  to heal itself. 

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