Smoking Cessation Health Center

What are the immediate benefits of quitting smoking?

The immediate health benefits of quitting smoking are substantial:

• Heart rate and blood pressure, which are abnormally high while smoking, begin to return to normal.
• Within a few hours, the level of carbon monoxide in the blood begins to decline (carbon monoxide reduces the blood’s ability to carry oxygen).
• Within a few weeks, people who quit smoking have improved circulation, produce less phlegm, and don’t cough or wheeze as often.
• Within several months of quitting, people can expect substantial improvements in lung function.
• In addition, people who quit smoking will have an improved sense of smell, and food will taste better.

What are the long-term benefits of quitting smoking?

Quitting smoking reduces the risk of cancer and other diseases, such as heart disease and COPD, caused by smoking.

People who quit smoking, regardless of their age, are less likely than those who continue to smoke to die from smoking-related illness:

• Quitting at age 30: Studies have shown that smokers who quit at about age 30 reduce their chance of dying prematurely from smoking-related diseases by more than 90 percent.
• Quitting at age 50: People who quit at about age 50 reduce their risk of dying prematurely by 50 percent compared with those who continue to smoke.
• Quitting at age 60: Even people who quit at about age 60 or older live longer than those who continue to smoke.

Does quitting smoking lower the risk of cancer?

Yes. Quitting smoking reduces the risk of developing and dying from cancer. However, it takes a number of years after quitting for the risk of cancer to start to decline. This benefit increases the longer a person remains smoke free.

The risk of premature death and the chance of developing cancer from smoking cigarettes depend on many factors, including the number of years a person smokes, the number of cigarettes he or she smokes per day, the age at which he or she began smoking, and whether or not he or she was already ill at the time of quitting. For people who have already developed cancer, quitting smoking reduces the risk of developing a second cancer. 

What are some of the triggers for smoking?

In addition to nicotine cravings, reminders in your daily life of times when you used to smoke may trigger you to smoke. Triggers are the moods, feelings, places, or things you do in your daily life that turn on your desire to smoke.

Triggers may include any of the following:

• being around smokers
• starting the day
• feeling stressed
• being in a car
• drinking coffee or tea
• enjoying a meal
• drinking an alcoholic beverage
• feeling bored

Knowing your triggers helps you stay in control because you can choose to avoid them or keep your mind distracted and busy when you cannot avoid them.