• 20 Minutes: Your blood pressure, heart rate and the temperature of your hands and feet normalize.

• 8 hours: The oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in your blood normalize.

• 1 Day: Your likelihood of having a heart attack decreases.

• 2 Days: Your sense of smell and taste improves. Nerve endings start to re-grow.

• 2 Weeks – 3 Months: Your circulation becomes better and breathing improves; it becomes easier to walk.

• 1-9 Months: Coughing, sinus congestion, shortness of breath and fatigue decrease and you have more energy.

• 1 Year: Happy Birthday! Your excess risk of heart disease is now less than half what it was a year ago.

• 5 Years: Your risk of cancer of the lung, mouth, throat and esophagus is half that of a pack-a-day smoker.

• 10 Years: Your risk of dying of lung cancer is similar to non-smokers’. Precancerous cells have been replaced.

• 15 years: You are at no more risk of heart disease than if you never smoked.

For more information about smoking cessation…..ask your doctor!

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