Quit smoking: What happens a day, week, month and year after you do it

Dr Dilon Dsouza explains in detail about the changes that happen in your body after you stop smoking!

You might know that it takes a second to build a new hobby but years to change a habit. And the same is the case with smoking. Despite knowing that smoking is injurious to health and increases your risk of various health problems including cancer, most people fail to quit smoking. And if you have ever been on the track to quit smoking, you might know that the first 72 hours are the worst as this is when the withdrawal symptoms start. However, to make it easy for you, our expert Dr Dilon Dsouza, Consultant ENT head and neck surgeon, Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, explains in detail the changes that happen in your body after you give up smoking. Here you go!

20 minutes: When you smoke, your heart pumps blood too fast, which causes an increase in the heart rate. However, when you stop smoking, after 20 minutes, your heart rate returns to normal. This is the first key change that happens after you quit smoking. You might like to know about 25 things that happen inside your body when you smoke.

60 minutes: After an hour of smoking cessation, the heart rate and blood pressure close to normal levels. The fingers and toes warm up as the circulation improves during this time. The symptoms that you might experience include anxiety, tension and frustration. You can even have intense cravings, increased appetite and drowsiness or troubled sleep as you complete an hour of quitting smoking.

12 hours: During this time, the levels of carbon monoxide in the blood falls, which gets accumulated in the body when you take a puff. Slowly, the levels of oxygen in the blood also rises. This causes an increased alertness, especially after you have been quit smoking for nearly 12 hours.

24 hours: As you near completing a day or 24 hours after quitting smoking, the changes that happen in the body include a 10% decrease in the risk of heart attacks and coronary heart disease, which drops from 70% to 60%. As the blood flow increases and the body slowly flushes the toxins from the body, your overall wellbeing improves. Read more on how smoking affects your heart.

48 hours: After two days or 48 hours quit smoking, you might experience an increased sensitivity to smell and taste. This also causes an increased appreciation of food and desire to eat. Hence, you might feel an extreme urge to eat everything and anything.

72 hours: This is the toughest phase of quit smoking, as you might start experiencing withdrawal symptoms by the time you complete 72 hours. As you attain the peak of nicotine withdrawal, you might experience symptoms like headaches, nausea and sweating. Some people also experience severe cramps and symptoms like anxiety, depression and irritability, due to brain involvement. Read more on the first 72 hours Dealing with the toughest phase of quitting smoking.

3 weeks: Once you complete three weeks or 21 days of quit smoking, the chances that you might see include improved blood circulation and increased stamina. It also shows clearing of the lungs as you start coughing up mucous, which was hindering the breathing and lung function.

1 month: As you near a month of quitting smoking, the body slowly starts to repair the damage done due to smoking. It causes the repair of the cilia present in the lungs and as the lungs return to normal lung function. The symptoms such as coughing out mucus decreases gradually as the process of removing toxic waste from the lungs is fastened.

12 months: Well, the road to quitting smoking is not a smooth sailing one. However, if you can complete a year without smoking a pack, then it's a proof have overcome your fear of kicking the butt. As you near 12 months, the body clears the toxins from almost every part. However, you might take few more years to repair the circulatory system completely and clear all the toxins. The improved circulation post a year lowers the risk of heart disease to 50% of that of a smoker. Also read about do tobacco patches or nicotine patches work?

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