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The first 72 Hours you quit smoking
It is a common thought that the first 72 hours are the hardest to get through when you quit smoking. Knowing what’s happening to your body and how immediate some of the benefits are can be a great boost to keep you going during those first few days.
The good, the bad & the ugly
The good?
Around 20 minutes after you quit smoking, you’ll notice the first signs. The first few things to happen are that your blood pressure and pulse begin to return to normal. Your lungs will also start the process of healing themselves. After around 8 hours the carbon monoxide levels in your blood will also decrease to normal levels as if you never smoked. What's even more amazing is that within 48 hours most of your taste and smell receptors would have recovered from the damage of smoking and vital nerve endings will also start to heal themselves. By the 72-hour mark, you’ll often find your breathing is much easier than before, this is down to bronchial tubes relaxing in your lungs.
Knowing now the recovery your body can go through in 72 hours once you quit smoking, imagine what could happen after one year!
The bad?
It doesn’t always happen, but it could. Sometimes when a person has quit smoking, they develop a bad cough, that usually lasts around a few days to a week. It’s not nice to go through, but it is a sign that your body is healing.
If you’re not into science scroll past the next paragraph!
The reason behind this is that smoking damages a part of your lungs known as the cilia. Cilia are tiny hair-like fibers on your lungs that get paralyzed by cigarette smoke. Their main function is to protect the lungs acting as a barrier between anything that might damage the tissue. The reason you might be coughing is that these are functioning again! Turning outside pollutants in the air away from the lungs and into mucus. Which is likely causing that cough!
The TL; DR: Your lungs are cleaning themselves and it’s making you cough after you’ve quit smoking. Of course, any serious coughing including, coughing up blood or serious shortness of breath could be a symptom of a more serious issue and you should consult your GP.
The ugly
Now you might still find you are craving nicotine when you quit smoking, only slightly but it might happen. Vaping is different to smoking, and the nicotine will be hitting your body in a different way. You haven’t completely replaced that nicotine hit your brain was used to and this is completely normal. So as the old slogan goes… Will power is required.
Vaping is much more than a nicotine replacement tool. There is the sensation and habit of smoking that you are also replacing so it can just take a small amount of time to adjust, remember you’re on a quit smoking journey and no journey worth going on is ever easy!
Quitting Hacks!
Don’t finish that last pack of cigarettes, throw it away and start your quit smoking journey now. The best time to quit smoking is immediately. The longer you’re smoking the harder it gets, and you won’t see the benefits of vaping if you’re still smoking!
Myth
“I’m just replacing one habit with another.”
Fact
A 2015 study by Jean Francois Etter concluded that long-term users of vapes were even less dependent on nicotine than someone using alternative nicotine replacement such as gum. The study also concluded that zero-nicotine vapers were only slightly less dependent than those using nicotine.
Read more on our
Community success stories about quitting smoking.
If you manage to quit smoking for 7 days, congratulations you’ve saved £38.50 – You can taste better now too, why not treat yourself to your favourite meal! *Calculation based on smoking 10 cigarettes a day at £11 per packet*"
