What Happens When You Stop Smoking?
It is important for every smoker to know what he will have to undergo when he stops smoking. This article throws light on the events that would occur in the life of a person after he kicks the fag out of his life.
One of the best motivating factors to help quit smoking, is knowledge of the things that happen to your body once you quit smoking. You are bound notice the positive effects of stopping smoking as soon as you have taken your last puff. The following shows the chronological sequence of events.
The results will be obvious even within the twenty minutes of your last puff. The heartbeat and the pulse rate increase, and they actually return to normal. You begin to breathe easier. The increase pressure of blood only increases the chances of seizure. So, within twenty minutes of your last puff, you will be able to sense the difference, and the chances of cardiac arrest goes down.
After about eight hours, the amount of two of the deadliest components that cigarettes introduce into your body - nicotine and carbon monoxide - will almost reduce by half. Carbon monoxide is a highly toxic gas. It greatly affects the body as it interferes with the ability of the body to absorb oxygen. With this deadly gas out of your system, your breathing will improve by leaps and bounds. Nicotine is the addictive drug in cigarettes. As it is removed from the body, you can expect to suffer from withdrawal symptoms. This is the time when your defences have to be at their strongest to prevent you from succumbing to the craving.
With the end of the first day, the nicotine and the carbon monoxide content will completely leave the body. This will help you breathe better, and it would have actually returned to normal. The Cold Turkey would have set in completely. You might start hallucinating, or even get depressed, especially in the case of a chain smoker until a day ago. This is the hardest phase, which, when crossed, will help you out of the habit, forever. During this period, one might experience severe stomach upsets and vomiting. This is just a sign of the nicotine leaving your body.
In several weeks, the cold turkey period will be over, and your urge for smoking will also subside gradually. The blood circulation will be back to normal, and it will remain so, keeping the circulatory problems at bay.
It will take a little more while for your heart to return back to its normal functioning. Within one year, your heart will have almost repaired to the halfway point, which means the risk of heart attacks would become half of that of a smoker. However, it will take fifteen years for your heart to become as healthy as a nonsmoker’s heart.
But still, the chances of being attacked by lung cancer is still not eliminated. The tar that has settled down in your lungs are pretty hard to get off. But, it is good to know that the chances of falling a victim to lung cancer is halved within ten years. Herbal therapies will decrease that possibility also!
That means, it will take as long as ten to fifteen years to return back to an almost healthy life. But what happens when you stop smoking immediately is that you feel the zest for life and you gear up for a healthier and enriched existence.