I want to offer a list of the practical benefits of stopping smoking, according to the time since you stopped. It should support your decision, and help to maintain you as a smoke-free zone!
Within 20 minutes of stopping
• Your blood pressure decreases to the normal range.
• Your pulse slows down to a normal rate.
• The temperature of your fingers and toes rises to normal. After eight hours
• Carbon monoxide levels in the blood return to normal.
• Blood oxygen levels return to normal.
After one day
• The chances of your having a heart attack have diminished.
After two days
• Your senses of smell and taste are heightened.
• Your coronary vessels are much wider.
• Your blood is much less likely to clot.
After three days
• Your many branching airways (the bronchi and the bronchioles) are opened up.
• You are breathing easier.
• Your heart is much more efficient and less strained. After two weeks to three months
• Walking is easier.
• You can exercise for much longer.
• Your circulation in your feet and fingers is much improved. After nine months
• Your lungs are free of tars.
• You no longer have a morning cough.
After five years
• Your annual lung cancer death risk has dropped from 137 to 72 per 100,000.
After ten years
• Your annual risk of death from lung cancer has dropped to 12 per 100,000.
• You are also at much less risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas.
So enjoy the fact that you are now a nonsmoker. You have probably saved your life by making the decision.
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