This is what happens to your body after you quit smoking

To mark No Smoking Day today, here’s a timeline of exactly what happens to your body after your last cigarette.

First 20 to 30 minutes

If you’ve gone without a fag for half an hour then your pulse and blood pressure will begin to drop. Your hands and feet will also get hotter.

After eight hours

The level of carbon monoxide in your blood will go down and the amount of oxygen will rise.

Two days

You’ll be able to smell and taste better as your senses improve.

Three days

Your breathing will become easier as the lung's functional abilities are increasing. The bronchial tubes in your lungs also begin to relax.

Two weeks to three months

Your circulation, lung function and stamina begin to improve and your heart attack risk has started to drop.

One to nine months

Smoker’s cough will have disappeared, along with any kind of shortness of breath. Your lungs will be healthier and able to keep clean.

Walking will be easier and you’ll have a general boost of energy.

One year

A year after giving up nicotine, the risk of heart disease will have dropped to half that of a smoker.

Five years

The risk of getting mouth, throat, esophagus or bladder cancer or having a stroke is dramatically cut after five years.

10 years

After a decade the risk of lung disease will have decreased and you’ll have the same risk of pancreatic cancer as a non-smoker’s.

15 years

Nearly twenty years after your last cigarette, the risk of heart disease and death will finally drop to a similar level as a non-smoker’s.

It takes this long for your risk of lung or pancreatic cancer to reduce to that of a person who has never smoked.

(dailystar.co.uk)