Quit now to tip the scales in your favor!

• Save money: The average cost of a pack of cigarettes in the U.S. is $5.31. If you used to smoke a pack per day, you will save over $1,900 each year by quitting. ^[5]
• Smell fresher: The smell of cigarettes on your hair, hands, breath, and clothes will no longer follow you everywhere you go.
• Smile bigger: Your teeth and fingernails will lose that nasty yellow tinge.
• Lower your fire risk: We don’t think about this part so much, but cigarettes and other smoking materials start house fires that kill 1,000 people every year.^[6] Just another way that quitting smoking helps protect you and your loved ones.
  

  Emphysema-damaged lungs caused by smoking
  Photo credit: Yale Rosen

Your body starts to repair itself almost as soon as you put down your last cigarette. These benefits just keep getting better the longer you stay quit.

Here’s how:

In 20 minutes after your last cigarette…

• Your heightened blood pressure decreases; and
• Your accelerated heart rate begins to return to normal.^[1,2]

In 12 hours…

• The carbon monoxide level in your blood goes back to normal.^[1,3,4]

In 48 hours…

• Your nerve endings start to grow back; and
• Your senses of smell and taste become sharper.

Between 2 weeks and 3 months…

• Withdrawals symptoms begin to fade away;^[7]
• Your blood circulation improves;
• Walking becomes easier;
• You cough or wheeze less often; and
• Your lungs work a lot better.^[1,3,4]

In 1 to 9 months…

• The cilia in your lungs get better at handling mucus, cleaning the lungs, and reducing infection.^[1]

In 1 year…

• Your risk of coronary heart disease and heart attack is cut in half compared to when you were a smoker.^[1,4]

 

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[1] US Surgeon General’s Report. The Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General. 1990. http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/B/B/C/T/

[2] Mahmud A, Feely J. Effect of Smoking on Arterial Stiffness and Pulse Pressure Amplification. Hypertension. 2003; 41:183.

[3] National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Tobacco/cessation#r6

National Cancer Institute

[4] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2004/posters/20mins/index.htm

[5] http://www.smokefree.gov/savings-future.aspx

[6] U.S. Fire Administration, FEMA. http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/smoking/GeneralAudienceFactSheet.pdf

[7] http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/quit-smoking-timeline