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What happens to your body when you stop smoking

Need motivation to stop smoking? Here's what happens to your body between 20 minutes and 15 years after your last cigarette

Elsa Vulliamy
Thursday 11 February 2016 20:04 GMT
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A year after you stop smoking, your risk of heart disease will be half that of a smoker
A year after you stop smoking, your risk of heart disease will be half that of a smoker

The process your body goes through after stopping smoking - in the 20 minutes to 15 years after your last cigarette - has been revealed by CVS health.

Around 10 million people in the UK smoke, and about two thirds of them want to stop, according to research from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

About half of all regular smokers will die from their addiction, which amounts to about 100,000 people a year.

The infographic from CVS Health revealed that 20-30 minutes after smoking cessation blood pressure and pulse have already started to drop, and the carbon monoxide in the blood will begin to drop after just eight hours.

In two days, sense of smell and taste should start to improve

It takes 15 years to decrease your risk of death to that of a non-smoker

Five years without a cigarette will halve the risk of heart disease, and the risk of mouth, throat, esophagus and bladder cancer.

After 15 years of not smoking, your risk of death will have almost returned to that of a non-smoker. It takes this long for your risk of lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and heart disease to reduce to that of a non-smoker.

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