Saline County Health Department
As soon as you quit, your body starts to repair.
After only six hours, your heart rate slows and your blood pressure becomes more stable.
In just one day, the level of carbon monoxide in your blood drops and oxygen can more easily reach your heart and muscles.Your fingertips become warmer and your hands steadier.
In a week, your sense of taste and smell may improve and you have higher blood levels of protective antioxidants such as vitamin C.
Within three months, your lungs’ natural cleaning system starts recovering, becoming better at removing mucus, tar and dust , your immune system is beginning its recovery so your body is better at fighting off infection, and your blood is less thick and sticky and blood flow to your hands and feet has improved.
By six months you can expect to be coughing up less phlegm and you're likely to feel less stressed than when you were smoking.
After a year, your lungs become healthier and you’ll be breathing easier!
Two to five years after you quit, your risk of heart attack and stroke will drop and only continue to decrease. For women, within five years, the risk of cervical cancer is the same as someone who has never smoked.
After 10 to 15 years, your risk of lung cancer is half of a continuing smoker of a similar age (provided the disease was not already present when you quit).
By 20 years, your risk of heart attack and stroke is close to that of a person who has never smoked!
Quit smoking today!
Get the facts about second hand smoke & kids
●Secondhand smoke is especially harmful to young children.
●Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations yearly.
●It also causes 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the U.S. annually.
●Secondhand smoke exposure may cause a buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 790,000 doctor's office visits per year, as well as more than 202,000 asthma flare-ups among children each year.
●More than 23 million, or about 35% of children in the U.S. have been exposed to secondhand smoke.