Smoking can wreak havoc on your health. A nicotine habit puts you at risk for serious illness, such as lung disease and high blood pressure, but also can discolor your teeth, give you chronic bad breath, and contribute to premature aging of the skin. One of the fascinating positive facts about smoking is that you don't have to wait long to reap the benefits of not smoking. Some of your bodily functions can begin to revert to normal in mere minutes.
The First Day
The first few minutes and hours after you have made the decision to quit smoking can be extremely difficult, but the ways in which your body begins to change are signs that you have made the right decision. According to Be Tobacco Free, a service of the South Dakota Department of Health, higher-than-normal blood pressure levels begin to drop after just 20 minutes of not smoking. You might also begin to feel warmer, especially in your hand and feet. After eight hours, or an entire work day, your blood oxygen saturation increases because nicotine was reducing the amount of oxygen delivered to your tissues.
The First Week
According to a report about the health benefits of not smoking from the U.S. Surgeon General, more than 100,000 people die every year from smoking-related heart disease. Within the first day of not smoking, your risk for heart attack starts to decrease. Within another couple of days, your dulled senses of taste and smell begin to come back, and nerve endings throughout your body that had been damaged from prolonged tobacco use start to regenerate.
Within Months
The majority of health benefits you'll reap after quitting smoking come within months of your end-date. Be Tobacco Free states that your circulation improves within one to three months of quitting; you'll also be able to walk longer and farther without having to stop to catch your breath because your lung function improves. Between three and nine months after you've become smoke-free, your lungs will continue to heal through the growth of new cilia--hair-like structures that clean your lungs. You're congestion and smoker's cough will ease due to the spike in your lung function during this time period as well. You might also start to feel energized and less tired.
Years Later
During the first year or two after you've quit smoking, your risk for heart disease and stroke drops by 50 percent compared to when you smoked, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Five years after you dropped the habit, you are 50 percent less likely to develop lung cancer than current smokers. Not smoking for 15 years decreases your risk of heart disease even more--your risk for this particular type of illness is now the same as people who have never picked up a cigarette.
