Your body starts to change right after you quit smoking

COURTESY THE INDEPENDENT

From the canals of your ears to the intricate blood vessels of your circulatory system, smoking can harm almost every part of your body.

For those addicted to nicotine, giving up can be a daunting task and it is easy to feel that the damage has already been done.

But research shows that your body benefits just minutes after you draw a cigarette from your mouth and stub it out.

Here is a timeline of what happens to your body from the minute you stop smoking.

20 minutes

As you inhale, smoke and nicotine enter your bloodstream and the substance raises your blood pressure and heart rate. After you finish the cigarette, your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal.

8 hours

Carbon monoxide, the poisonous gas that kills over 40 people in the UK every year, if it seeps from faulty appliances in large quantities, is one of the 4,000 chemicals which enter your body when you smoke burning tobacco.

Nicotine and carbon monoxide start to leave your body and oxygen levels return to normal eight hours after you smoke.

24 hours

A day after your last cigarette, your lungs will begin to clear out the mucus and debris caused by smoking.

48 hours

Nicotine, a toxic liquid, is the chief active ingredient in tobacco and is highly addictive. Smoking also dulls your ability to smell and taste. Two days after you stop smoking, nicotine is eliminated from your body and your senses start to improve.

2 to 12 weeks

Smoking affects your blood circulation, making physical activity much more difficult. This, in turn, impacts your overall health. Stopping smoking makes exercise easier and improves breathing after a few weeks.

3 to 9 months

Months after you stop smoking, your health continues to improve. By this point, coughing, wheezing and breathing problems caused by the harmful chemicals in smoke are reduced as your lungs repair.

1 year

Smoking damages the lining of the arteries and causes fatty substances known as atheroma to narrow the arteries. This can cause heart attacks, strokes and angina. 12 months after you quit your risk of coronary heart disease is now half that of a smoker.