Health benefits

You will feel the benefits of quitting as your body repairs itself.

Health benefits timeline 

20 minutes after quitting

  • Your heart rate slows and your blood pressure decreases.

Within a day

  • Almost all of the nicotine is out of your bloodstream.
  • The level of carbon monoxide in your blood drops to normal.
  • Oxygen can more easily reach your heart and muscles.

Within a week

  • Your sense of taste and smell may improve.
  • Your lungs’ natural cleaning system is starting to recover and improve.

Within 2 months

  • Your coughing and wheezing decrease.
  • Your immune system is beginning its recovery so your body is better at fighting off infection.
  • Your blood is less thick and sticky and blood flow to your hands and feet has improved.

Within 6 months

  • Your lungs are working much better, producing less phlegm.
  • You’re likely to feel less stressed than when you were smoking.

After 1 year

  • Your lungs are now healthier and you’ll be breathing easier than if you’d kept smoking.

Within 2 to 5 years

  • There is a large drop in your risk of heart attack and stroke and this risk will continue to gradually decrease over time.
  • For women, within five years, the risk of cervical cancer is the same as someone who has never smoked.

After 10 years

  • Your risk of lung cancer drops by half (provided the disease was not already present when you quit).
  • Your risks of cancers of the mouth, throat, bladder, kidney, oesophagus, bladder, and pancreas decreases.

After 15 years

  • Your risk of heart attack and stroke is close to that of a person who has never smoked.
    Date last updated:

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