What Happens When You Quit Smoking: The Body’s Repair Timeline

The timeline at a glance

Time after your last cigarette	What changes
20 minutes	Heart rate and blood pressure come down.
12 hours	Carbon monoxide in the blood drops to a normal level, so more oxygen reaches your organs.
48 hours	Nicotine has left the body. Taste and smell start to improve.
72 hours	Breathing feels easier and energy rises.
2 weeks to 3 months	Circulation improves and lung function increases.
1 to 12 months	Coughing and shortness of breath decrease as the lungs' cleaning hairs recover.
1 year	Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker.
5 years	Risk of mouth, throat, esophagus and bladder cancer is cut in half. Stroke risk can fall to a nonsmoker's within 2 to 5 years.
10 years	Risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that of a smoker.
15 years	Risk of coronary heart disease is the same as a nonsmoker's.

The first minutes and hours

Nicotine pushes your heart to beat faster and tightens your blood vessels. About 20 minutes after the last cigarette, that push fades, and heart rate and blood pressure start to come down.

Cigarette smoke also fills your blood with carbon monoxide, the same gas that comes out of a car exhaust. It takes the place of oxygen in your red blood cells. Within about 12 hours, the level falls back to normal and your organs get more of the oxygen they need.

Days two and three: the hard part

By about 48 hours, the nicotine is gone. Food starts to taste of something again and smells come back sharper.

By around 72 hours, breathing is easier and many people notice more energy. This is also when cravings, irritability and restlessness tend to be at their strongest. For many people the first few days are the hardest stretch of the whole journey, and it gets easier after them.

Weeks and months: the lungs start cleaning themselves

Between two weeks and three months, circulation improves and lung function increases. Walking up stairs or catching a bus stops feeling like a sprint.

Inside the airways are tiny hairs called cilia that sweep out mucus and dirt. Smoking flattens them. Over the first months they recover, so the lungs clear themselves better. That is why coughing and shortness of breath ease between one month and a year after quitting, and why chest infections become less common.

The first year: your heart

One year after quitting, the extra risk of coronary heart disease is about half that of someone who still smokes. Heart attack risk falls sharply in the first one to two years.

Five to fifteen years: the long repair

Five years in, the risk of cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus and bladder is cut in half. Stroke risk can drop to that of a nonsmoker within two to five years.

After ten years, the risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that of a person who keeps smoking. After fifteen, the risk of coronary heart disease is the same as that of someone who never smoked.

Quitting can add as much as 10 years to your life compared with continuing to smoke, and the gain is bigger the earlier you stop. But it pays at any age.

Watch: the whole timeline in 90 seconds

The first twenty minutes are free. Everything after that is your body catching up.

More short explainers on how the body works are on the FDS Creative YouTube channel.