Once you quit smoking your body begins to recuperate immediately. You don’t have to wait years to reap the benefits of not smoking. The American Cancer Society has outlined the repairs that your body begins to make within minutes of putting out your last cigarette.

20 Minutes:

• Pulse rate drops to normal
• Blood pressure drops to normal
• Heart rate drops to normal
• Circulation improves
• Body temperature in hands and feet increase to normal

 8 Hours:

• Carbon monoxide blood level drops to normal
• Oxygen level in blood increases to normal
• Cigarette odor on breath disappears
• Individual begins to feel generally better

 24 Hours:

• Chance of heart attack begins to decrease

 48 Hours:

• Nerve endings in nose and mouth begin to regrow
• Ability to smell and taste are increased
• Mucous begins to clear from the lungs

 2 Weeks – 3 Months:

• Circulation improves
• Walking becomes easier
• Lung function increases up to 30%

 1 Month – 9 Months:

• Decrease in: coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue & shortness of breath
• Lung cilia have re-grown, increasing the lungs’ ability to clean themselves
• Overall increase in energy level

 1 Year:

• Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker

 5 Years:

Lung cancer death rate decreases by half

 10 Years:

• Lung cancer death rate is now equivalent to that of a non-smoker
• Pre-cancerous cells are replaced by healthy cells
• Risk of other cancers (mouth, throat, bladder, etc.) decreases

 15 Years:

• Once you have been smoke-free for fifteen years, you no more at risk of heart disease than if you had never smoked.