How quitting smoking benefits your body

More on the benefits of quitting on NHS Smoke-Free.

• 20 minutes after quitting your blood pressure and pulse rate return to normal. Circulation improves in the hands and feet, making them warmer.
• After 8 hours oxygen levels in the blood return to normal and the chances of a heart attack start to fall.
• Sleep improves on the first night after quitting, as nicotine levels are reduced. One study of very heavy smokers (40 a day) found that the time they took to fall asleep fell from 52 to 18 minutes.
• After 24 hours carbon monoxide is eliminated from the body. The lungs start to clear out mucus and other debris.
• 48 hours after your last cigarette nicotine is no longer detectable in the body. Your ability to taste and smell improves, and you will also begin to smell and taste better to others.
• After 72 hours breathing becomes easier as the bronchial tubes relax. Your energy levels will increase.
• 2–12 weeks after giving up circulation improves throughout the body. Your erections should become firmer and longer-lasting; over a longer period your overall penis length could also begin to increase slightly, and you're much less likely to develop erectile dysfunction (impotence). Smoking is implicated in up to 80% of cases of erection problems.
• After 3–9 months breathing problems such as coughing, shortness of breath and wheezing improve. Overall lung function goes up 5–10%. Since smokers' sperm concentrations are on average some 15% lower than those of non-smokers, quitting could also produce a significant increase in the quality of your semen.
• One year after quitting the excess risk of coronary heart disease you faced as a smoker will have halved. After 15 years the risk is similar to that of someone who has never smoked.
• The risk of developing lung cancer falls. One study found that stopping smoking after 30 years reduces the risk of death from this disease by about 80% over the next 15 years.