Are you worried about what happens to your body when you quit smoking? Are you looking to motivate yourself to quit smoking for the rest of your life using fear or hope? If so, then this post is for you.

Make sure you stay to the end, especially if you want to be motivated and hopeful. Most of the really important benefits to your body when you quit smoking happen towards the end of the timeline.

My name is Ted Bradley, quit smoking expert. I’m going to put at the bottom of this post a link to my calendar so you can put yourself into a free 15 minute phone consultation with me. It’s fun, and it’s free! It will simply get you on the right track to quitting smoking, so take advantage of it.

Also, if this is your first time reading my content and you’re interested in quitting smoking for the rest of your life and want tips, tricks, and hacks make sure you check out my YouTube channel. Subscribe and hit that notification button. It simply tells you when I post new content, and I post 2 new videos for you every week.

Let’s hop right into the quit smoking timeline.

Here’s what happens to your body over time when you quit smoking. After 20 minutes your blood pressure, your pulse rate, and the temperature of your hands and feet return.

Now you are at the 2 hours mark. This is when cravings can begin. Here is why. When we smoke we inhale nicotine. The nicotine stimulates the pleasure sensor in our brain, and the pleasure sensor releases dopamine.

We do this all the time throughout the day so after 2 hours our brain goes, “Where’s the dopamine?” It can’t find it. So, our brain induces withdrawal symptoms and cravings. This is why cravings can start at the 2 hour mark.

After 8 hours your blood oxygen level increases and your carbon monoxide levels decrease. This is because when we smoke the carbon monoxide competes with the oxygen to attach itself to the red blood cells, but carbon monoxide is a vasoconstrictor so here’s what happens. The carbon monoxide wins when we’re smoking.

We basically are adding tons of carbon monoxide to our blood. It causes our blood vessels to constrict. It’s why smokers get cardiovascular disease and strokes. Smoking is a vasoconstrictor, but even after 8 hours your blood vessels start to return to normal.

The oxygen is winning because you’re no longer smoking.

At 24 hours your quitting smoking anxiety levels tend to peak. This is an average. It will take longer than 24 hours for those anxiety levels to go down to your pre-smoking levels. We’re going to get to that as we go through this timeline, but what you need to know is that 24 hours is going to be the peak of your anxiety from quitting smoking. This why we often say you have to get through the first 72 hours to quit for good.

Other things start to happen at 24 hours as well. Coughing tends to increase.

What’s happening when we cough more and start having additional phlegm is your body is starting to clean itself out. This can last for months, but it’s actually a good sign, not a bad sign.The other thing that happens at 24 hours is your taste buds actually start to regrow. This is the beginning of getting your taste buds back.

Now we get to 48 hours. At 48 hours our damaged nerve cell endings are starting to regrow, and your sense of smell and taste are returning.

In fact, this is your taste buds’ largest growth period. All that is happening at just 48 hours.

At 72 hours you are 100% nicotine free!

The withdrawal symptoms start to subside, but cravings start to take over. Here is why. Withdrawal is physical, but craving is mental. Quitting smoking is really a mental game. This is why nicotine replacement therapy is not very effective. It’s only 12% to 14% effective.

The gum, the patch, the lozenges, Zyban, and Chantex are all the same as placebo.

It’s why things like hypnotherapy are far more successful. Hypnotherapy has a 60% success rate because it deals with the mental part, the cravings.

Withdrawal is physical. Cravings are mental.

At 72 hours you are completely nicotine free. Most of the withdrawal, the physical symptoms, have dissipated. You’re now into the mental game – the depression, the insomnia, and the constantly thinking about cigarettes. This is where the real challenge starts.

You made it to 14 days! At 14 days the blood circulation in your gums and your teeth are now back to the same as before. Your oral circulation is repaired. Now, at 14 days it is like you’d never smoked a cigarette at all.

You’re at 1 month now. Your risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease begins to lessen already.

At 3 to 9 months the cilia in your lungs are now completely healed.

The cilia inside your lungs are little hair-like structures used to clean the air that comes in. Somewhere between 3 months and 9 months the cilia has completely grown back. They are back to doing what they’re supposed to do, cleaning the dirt and the debris out of the air that you’re breathing.

Way to go! You’ve quit smoking for 1 year. Your chance of dying from heart disease and cardiovascular disease is cut in half. After one year of quitting smoking not only will your withdrawal and your cravings be completely gone, but you have reduced your chances of dying from a heart attack and stroke. They are immediately cut in half!

Now, here’s the real benefit to quitting smoking.

Between 10 to 15 years it will be like you never smoked. That is amazing! Now this reason why you quit!

There’s a big gap between 10 and 15 years. The reason why is people smoke for different lengths of time. Some people are quitting smoking in their 60’s. Some people are quitting in their 30’s. It’s just faster for some people. It also has to do with genetics as well, but after you quit smoking for 10 to 15 years it’s like you never smoked a day in your life.

Remember, I will post a link below for a free 15-minute phone consultation where I’ll get you on track to quitting smoking for the rest of your life. Also, if you like my content please go check out my YouTube channel and make sure that you subscribe especially if you’re interested in tips, tricks, and hacks on how to quit smoking for the rest of your life. Hit that notification button too! It simply tells you when I post new content.

You can also join my Facebook group or my Instagram. I look forward to talking to you.  

Blessings to everyone! I wish you the best in your quit smoking journey.