Quitting smoking: this is how the body recovers

Carola Felchner is a freelance writer in the medical department and a certified training and nutrition advisor. She worked for various specialist magazines and online portals before becoming a freelance journalist in 2015. Before starting her internship, she studied translation and interpreting in Kempten and Munich.

More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.

When you stop smoking - what happens in the body? A whole lot! For example, blood pressure, smell and taste and the cleaning function of the cilia in the airways improve within a short time. There are also many other positive effects. Read more about what happens when you stop smoking and how long it takes for your body to fully recover here.

What happens when you stop smoking?

Your body will thank you when you quit smoking. The regeneration starts almost immediately and your physical fitness returns surprisingly quickly. But what happens when you suddenly stop smoking, first thing? When does the metabolism normalize after quitting smoking? When are the lungs healthy again after quitting smoking? Here are some examples of the timing of physical recovery:

• After 20 minutes: blood pressure and pulse drop.
• After 12 hours: The carbon monoxide level in the blood drops to normal values, so that all organs are better supplied with oxygen again.
• After 2 weeks to 3 months: blood flow and lung function improve.
• After 1 to 9 months: coughing fits and shortness of breath go down. The cilia in the bronchi, which are responsible for cleaning the lungs, work better again - mucus is transported more effectively from the lungs towards the throat, which reduces the risk of infections (such as pneumonia, bronchitis).
• After a year: The risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) is now only half as high as that of a smoker.
• After two to five years: The risk of a heart attack has dropped significantly - it is now equivalent to that of a non-smoker.
• After five years: The risk of mouth, throat, esophagus and bladder cancer has been reduced by half.
• After ten years: the risk of larynx and pancreatic cancer decreases. The risk of dying from lung cancer is now only half that of someone who still smokes.
• After 15 Years: The risk of coronary artery disease is now just as high as someone who has never smoked.

Smoking less instead of quitting completely doesn't do much good. As a result, the risk of cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer hardly decreases and the lung function does not change significantly.

Quitting Smoking: The Benefits In Detail

First and foremost, quitting smoking can prolong life because: A quarter of adults who started smoking as teenagers die between the ages of 35 and 69 as a result of the direct consequences of smoking. Another quarter brings the smoke to the grave at the age of about 70 years. Not only the number of cigarettes smoked plays a role, but also the total duration of the smoking career.

Those who manage to quit smoking can at least partially reverse this development. The sooner the glow sticks are banned, the higher the chance of a long life - for example because the risk of tobacco-related cancer falls.

The risk of cancer decreases

The majority of lung cancers are caused by smoking. A look at the statistics shows how much tobacco consumption increases the risk of lung cancer: Lung cancer is the second most common type of cancer in men (after prostate cancer) and the third most common in women (after breast and colon cancer).

The risk of developing lung cancer decreases by giving up smoking - and the more so, the longer it has been since you stopped smoking. Even so, for a very long time it is still higher than for people who have never smoked. This does not only apply to lung cancer, but also to cancer of the oral cavity, esophagus, stomach and pancreas.

Still, it's never too late to stop. Even people who already have cancer benefit from quitting smoking.

The airways recover

If smoking has not caused permanent damage, the lungs will recover within a year or two. How quickly it goes in individual cases depends on how long and intensely someone has smoked and how severely the lungs have been damaged.

For patients with the chronic lung disease COPD, stopping smoking is the only chance that the disease will not worsen. In addition, fewer COPD patients die from their disease when they stop smoking.

The heart and blood vessels also "breathe easy"

Just a few weeks after the last cigarette, the carbon monoxide content of the blood is back to the level of people who have never smoked. This means that more functional red blood cells are available. In addition, the viscosity of the blood improves - it becomes "thinner". This reduces the risk of blood clots forming, which can block a vessel (such as in a heart attack or stroke).

That means: just six to twelve months after quitting smoking, the risk of a heart attack drops. After 15 years it is at the level of a non-smoker. The same goes for the risk of stroke if you quit smoking.

Skin - before and after

So your health benefits in many ways from quitting smoking. The physical changes also affect the appearance:

Smokers have around ten times more wrinkles than non-smokers. The complexion also depends on age and heredity, but environmental factors such as smoking and the sun also have a decisive influence on how “fresh and young” we look.

Slowed down skin aging

Typical smokers' skin is gray, pale and wrinkled. Of course there are also non-smokers with unhealthy complexions, but it is much more common in smokers. The increased wrinkles arise because the body breaks down the protein collagen more quickly and builds it up more slowly through smoking. Collagen is responsible for the elasticity of the skin.

The smoker's skin becomes pale because the tiny blood vessels contract and constrict as a result of the smoke - the blood supply to the skin is therefore poor. This is also the reason why smokers often have cold hands. One cigarette is enough to reduce the blood flow in the skin for more than an hour!

When you stop smoking, the processes that deplete the skin of its elasticity will slow down, so that fewer new wrinkles will appear. In addition, the blood circulation improves - the skin looks rosier and healthier again.

The combination of smoking and frequent unprotected exposure in the sun is particularly harmful. This puts the skin under extreme stress - the result is increased wrinkling and an increased risk of skin cancer.

The weight levels off

After quitting smoking, many people put on weight - women usually a little more than men. One reason for this is seen in a reduced metabolism: In the rest mode, the body burns a little less energy after quitting smoking than before. How quickly the metabolism returns to normal varies from person to person. It's usually pretty quick.

However, weight gain after quitting smoking can also have other reasons. Many people have an increased appetite as soon as they stop smoking. Even in situations in which they have previously smoked, some now resort to chocolate or nibbles instead. In addition, a Zurich research team has found that changes in the intestinal flora could also contribute to weight gain after quitting smoking.

Regardless of the reasons for the weight gain, the following applies: A few more kilos on the hips or on the stomach are much less harmful to health than continuing to smoke. Especially since you soon feel fitter again after quitting smoking and so you can often get rid of the additional kilos through more exercise - especially if you also pay attention to a healthy diet.

You can read more about smoking and weight in the article "Quitting Smoking: Keeping Weight!"

Other effects

Smoking increases the risk of osteoporosis (bone loss), cataracts, the eye disease macular degeneration and stomach ulcers. These risks decrease when you stop smoking.

But not only you benefit from quitting smoking, but also those around you. Passive smoking is also massively damaging to health by making it more susceptible to cancer, asthma and other respiratory diseases, for example.

Stop suddenly or do you prefer to wean slowly?

Even if it's difficult, if you want to quit smoking, do it suddenly from one day to the next. A study by Oxford University in the UK found that people who suddenly stopped smoking were 25 percent more successful in staying smoke-free for longer than those who gradually smoked less and less.

Quitting Smoking - Withdrawal Symptoms

However, abruptly stopping smoking is difficult and exhausting - for yourself and usually also for those around you. Because very few people detox without any withdrawal symptoms. These unpleasant side effects of quitting smoking include, for example, increased irritability through to aggressiveness and moodiness.

Both are due to the fact that the brain produces less adrenaline and serotonin after quitting smoking - the feeling of reward that these messenger substances convey does not occur. Because the "happiness hormone" dopamine is also missing, some people feel depressed after quitting smoking.

Quitting Smoking Symptoms

In addition, new ex-smokers often suffer from:

• headache
• Inattention to concentration problems
• sleep disorders
• Sweating and / or tremors
• increased appetite

How hard nicotine withdrawal becomes and how long it lasts varies from person to person. Most of the withdrawal symptoms are over after six to ten days - and this time is worth getting through after quitting smoking - for the sake of relaxation for body and mind.

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