Benefits of quitting smoking timeline

Discover the timeline and benefits of quitting smoking. Improve your health, save money, and breathe easier. Learn more about what happens when you quit.

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The effects of quitting smoking cigarettes and tobacco are dramatic and begin the moment you stub out your final cigarette.

Taking a look at the smoking withdrawal timeline and health benefits of quitting smoking aren’t always an effective motivating factor to help someone quit smoking – but they are fabulous factors to enjoy and celebrate once you become free from nicotine addiction.

If you’ve smoked for a long time you might worry that it’s going to be hard to quit – and also question whether it’s even going to be worth it? The good news is that the human body is an amazing creation and starts healing in less than 20 minutes after that final cigarette. We discuss both the short term and long term effects to your body and mind based on the findings by Centre for Disease Control and Prevention CDC.

Good news, it is worth quitting smoking for your future health!

How long does nicotine withdrawal last?

How long does it take for your body to stop craving nicotine?

Most of the nicotine leaves the body over the following 48 hours until, after a maximum of 3 weeks there are no traces left.

This is why the first few days after quitting smoking can be among the toughest when the cravings first begin and can be most intense. However, with Allen Carr’s Easyway this should not be the case because there is no sense of loss or feeling that you are giving up something that you really want and need.

Whether a smoker is in a happy situation, a concentration situation, a sad situation, a stress situation, a relaxing situation, a boring situation, or a lonely situation they simultaneously experience nicotine withdrawal, and respond by lighting a cigarette or having a vape, thereby immediately feeling better than a moment before and oblivious to the fact that that cigarette or vape will perpetuate nicotine withdrawal once it is smoked or vaped.

It’s no wonder they think nicotine helps them to be happy or to concentrate, or to cope with sadness and stress, and to help them relax or cope with boredom or loneliness! It’s got nothing to do with genuine pleasure or genuine improvement of mood. And every single time they light a cigarette in one of those situations – the brain concludes, non-consciously, “next time that happens – do that again!” hence the craving.

Non-smokers don’t have to deal with any of the mental and physical aggravation of being addicted to nicotine. They don’t suffer nicotine poisoning, nicotine withdrawal or the aberrational/unnatural impact nicotine has on dopamine and their behaviour.

All a smoker or vaper is trying to achieve when they light a cigarette or have a vape is to recapture the feeling of peace, calm, tranquillity and completeness they enjoyed their entire lives before they lit their first experimental cigarette or vaped for the first time. In other words – a smoker smokes in order to feel like a non-smoker and a vaper vapes in order to feel like a non-vaper.

Once a nicotine addict understands Allen Carr’s Easyway we explain how nicotine addiction, irrespective of nicotine’s influence on dopamine levels, is actually extremely mild, and that the really unpleasant symptoms a nicotine addict suffers when they try to quit without Easyway’s help, are the result of a mental struggle. That struggle or craving is caused by the nicotine addict feeling deprived of what they think is a genuine pleasure or crutch.

Easyway goes on to reveal how the nicotine addict’s belief system surrounding the drug, that it helps them to relax, socialize, handle stress, concentrate, enjoy alcohol, take a break from work, and so on, is illusory and based on misinformation, misinterpretation of personal experiences, and their addiction to nicotine.

The smoker then concludes that there aren’t any factual advantages or benefits to be obtained from nicotine and therefore there is no point in doing it. This effectively destroys the belief that they need the drug/smoking/nicotine and simultaneously removes the “want to smoke/vape” which ends/cures/stops/destroys/neutralises the addiction.

This leaves the smoker to handle the extremely mild symptoms of nicotine withdrawal without having to experience the discomfort of feeling that they are missing out on something they used to enjoy or receive benefit from.

This is hugely important as the former smoker develops new responses to any habitual triggers to smoke over the first few weeks of being a happy non-smoker. For example, if they used to light a cigarette as they left work in the afternoon, that might be a moment when the thought of smoking crosses their mind, but once they quit with Easyway, instead of consciously processing thoughts and feelings of loss, they process thoughts and feelings of release and freedom.

In fact nicotine addiction is at least as addictive as heroin and cocaine as per the US Surgeon General2.

Get started with a FREE online consultation

Not sure if you really want to quit smoking?

Want to stop, but concerned that you’ll find it tough?

Worried that you’ll be deprived for the rest of your life without cigarettes?

We know that taking the first step can be difficult, but we’re here to answer your questions in complete confidence – with no pressure and no judgement.

We have trained advisors available to help you right away, by calling 0800 389 2115

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Stop Smoking timeline day by day

The table below will take you through what happens when you quit smoking in a simple timeline.

ImmediatelyFreedom and no desire to smoke or take substitutes like gum or vaping providing you quit with Allen Carr’s Easyway You are no longer controlled by a drug and don’t have to suffer the mood swings, stress, and pressure of having to constantly top up nicotine to stave off nicotine withdrawal.

Period Effect
20 mins Heart rate and blood pressure drop closer to normal. This helps reduce levels of stress and danger of stroke and heart attack.

Hands and feet will also warm up to their usual temperature as a result of improved circulation.

Socialising with smokers is as fun as normal with no envy or fear of smoking again providing you quit with Allen Carr’s Easyway

2 – 12 hours Carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal meaning vital organs, such as the brain, nervous tissues and the heart, begin to receive the correct levels of oxygen, and no longer starved of oxygen, they begin to work properly.

Nicotine in your blood has halved.

Muscles and brain function is better because the correct level of oxygen is now in the blood stream.

Unpleasant nicotine withdrawal / cravings occur when quitting with many methods but not with Allen Carr’s Easyway. In fact the withdrawal process becomes a pleasant experience. It is easy to stop smoking when you know how.

24 – 48 hours Heart attack risk reduces. If you smoke a pack a day you are twice as likely to have an attack than a non-smoker but after a day smoke free this already reduces significantly.

Smell and taste improve because the nerve endings begin to regrow and return to normal function.

Lungs will be cleaning removing the junk left from cigarettes. Sometimes this manifests itself as a cough – but don’t worry – it’s all part of your body healing itself and getting rid of the junk that’s built up in your lungs.

Asthma can get worse as the lungs clean but it is temporary and easily managed. Many asthmatics become able to get rid of their asthma pumps when they quit smoking – such is the improvement in lung function.

Nicotine is no longer in your body.

5-10 days

What happens after 5 days of not smoking?

Cravings – these will decrease significantly and with the Allen Carr’s Easyway method you feel no sense of deprivation and so these feel insignificant.

Success – Smokers who make it to one week without smoking are statistically nine times more likely to successfully quit.

2 Weeks to 3 Months Heart attack risk reduces further

How long does it take for your lungs to fully recover from smoking?

Between 2 weeks to 3 months after quitting smoking, lung capacity and performance will regenerate and according to the American Heart Association enable intense activities such as running

1 to 9 Months Coughing will no longer be a hacking

Shortness of breath will decrease

Energy will increase

Illness will decrease such as having fewer colds

1 Year Heart attack risk drops to half that of a smoker
5 Years Heart attack risk is now that of a non-smoker

Cervical cancer risk is now that of a non-smoker

Mouth, throat, oesophagus and bladder cancer risk is now half

10 Years Lung Cancer risk is now half that of a smoker

Mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, larynx and pancreas cancerr risk drop

15 Years Heart disease risk is now that of a non-smoker

Allen Carr’s Easyway

Allen Carr’s Easyway has been described as ‘a real smoker’s way to quit’. You carry on smoking until you’re ready to stub out your final cigarette.

Easyway doesn’t focus on the downsides of smoking – smokers know all about those already.

Instead the method answers the question ‘What’s so great about being a smoker?’

Understanding that is the key to being set free.

Free Online Consultation

Not sure if you really want to quit smoking?

Need help to stop smoking?

Want to stop, but concerned that you’ll find it tough?

Worried that you’ll be deprived for the rest of your life without cigarettes?

We can help you to understand and remove those fears and in so doing, make it quitting easy.

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