What Happens When You Quit Smoking?

Benefits of Quitting Smoking

The reality is, that the earlier you start your journey towards quitting smoking, the better your benefits are likely to be. That being said, no matter when you quit, the benefits can improve every aspect of your life¹:

• • Your physical health
• • Your mental health
• • Your family and friends’ health

Physical health improvements are the ones we tend to think of most when it comes to the benefits of quitting smoking. In the short term, you’ll have more energy, breathe more easily, and your sense of smell and taste will improve. In the long term, your chances of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases, heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and many forms of cancer will all decrease¹.

You may also notice a positive impact on your mental health. Many smokers assume that cigarettes help reduce anxiety and manage mood, but in fact, it’s quite the opposite. After the withdrawal period, evidence has proven that anxiety, depression and stress can be relieved by quitting².

And, possibly most importantly, you aren’t the only one whose life could be improved by giving up cigarettes. Your friends and family, those in your social circle, may also benefit¹. Of course, being physically and mentally healthier means you can be more involved in their lives. More than that, you’ll also be protecting them from secondhand cigarette smoke, reducing their exposure to the harm of burning tobacco.

Ways to Quit Smoking

So, we’ve covered off the “why”, next is the “how.” Two primary methods can be used to help give up cigarettes for good:

• • Nicotine Replacement Therapy, or NRT
• • Vaping

A study run by Auckland University, published in the Lancet has shown that combining NRT and vaping is possibly a more effective way to help curb your cravings and help you quit². But let’s go through the two separate methods, so you can better understand them both, and how the two together can help.

As outlined on quitstrong.nz, although nicotine is the addictive component of cigarettes, it isn’t the most harmful. NRT is a way to reduce cravings and withdrawal, by slowly reducing your nicotine intake over time. There are five different options for NRT available in New Zealand; patches, gum, lozenges, inhalators, and mouth spray. Patches slowly release nicotine into your system through the skin, while the other four provide a more immediate hit, to emulate smoking a cigarette, and help combat cravings. By slowly reducing the nicotine strength and frequency of use, these are great tools to reduce your reliance on nicotine. You can find out more about NRT in our article ‘What is nicotine replacement therapy’.

Vaping also provides a source of nicotine, not unlike NRT products, but has the added benefit of mimicking the habit of smoking a cigarette³.

 
What Happens When You Quit?

Hopefully, now you see the start of your quit-smoking timeline. Step one will not be easy, but it will only get better from here. Let’s go over the challenges you’ll face⁴:

The first 72 hours will be the biggest hurdle, but remember once you’re over this part, it’ll get easier. Let’s go over some of the challenges you might face along with some solutions on how to overcome them.  4 hours in is when the cravings will start. You’re likely to feel a bit restless and be tempted to grab a cigarette. This will pass, so keep yourself busy. At the 10-hour mark, you might feel strangely hungry, or feel a tingling sensation in your hands. This is your blood sugar levels dropping lower than usual, and your circulation returning to normal. At 24 hours, you’ll probably be more anxious and irritable than usual, but this too will pass. Another 24 hours later, your mood may drop significantly, but after another 24 hours, this should return to normal again. At this point, after the first 72 hours, cravings will lessen considerably. The first major challenge will be over. The cravings will be most intense for the first 4 weeks, sometimes longer, and from then on it should only get easier.

Here’s the good news, Smokefree.org.nz has also shared a positive timeline⁵ of how your body will improve within 5 years.

After just 20 minutes, your blood pressure will return to normal. At 1 hour in, your resting heart rate begins to drop. At 4 hours, your breath becomes fresher, which your friends and family will appreciate. 8 hours in, the toxic carbon monoxide gas levels in your blood drop back to normal, and even your fingertips will be warmer. Within the first 24 hours, your chances of a heart attack have already decreased. In 1 week, your lungs are healing and beginning to clean out all the toxins from the tobacco smoke. 1 month and your lung function increases up to 30%. 1 year, your risk of coronary heart disease is already half that of a smoker. And within 5 years, your lung cancer risk will have almost halved.

And it only keeps getting better from there.

So… here’s what you can do now.

You probably already know that quitting smoking can improve your life. But now you know exactly how. You also know that a combination of vaping and nicotine patches could give you a great chance of stopping smoking altogether. And, that the first 72 hours will be the hardest. So, in just 3 days from now, you could already be over the hardest hurdle, and well on your way to being smoke free.

If you feel the need to dive deeper into how to quit smoking, you’ll find more helpful tips at 11 tips for quitting smoking and why is vaping effective at helping to quit smoking.

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REFERENCES

1. 1. NHS. Benefits of Quitting Smoking, https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/benefits-of-quitting-smoking/
   
   
2. 2. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(19)30269-3/fulltext
   
   
3. 3. https://www.ash.org.nz/vaping-and-harm-reduction
   
   
4. 4. Tobacco Free Life. Quit Smoking Timeline, https://tobaccofreelife.org/quit-smoking/quit-smoking-timeline/
   
   
5. 5. Smokefree. What happens after you quit smoking? https://www.smokefree.org.nz/smoking-its-effects/benefits-of-quitting