One of the best motivating factors to help quit smoking, is knowledge of the things that happen to your body once you quit smoking. You are bound notice the positive effects of stopping smoking as soon as you have taken your last puff. The following shows the chronological sequence of events.

The results will be obvious even within the twenty minutes of your last puff. The heartbeat and the pulse rate increase, and they actually return to normal. You begin to breathe easier. The increase pressure of blood only increases the chances of seizure. So, within twenty minutes of your last puff, you will be able to sense the difference, and the chances of cardiac arrest goes down.

Nearly after eight hours, the level of Nicotine and Carbon Monoxide that were introduced to the body by the smoking habit goes down, almost halved. The carbon monoxide that is produced will hamper the extent to which the oxygen gets distributed in the blood. When the carbon monoxide leaves the body, your ability to breathe increases. Nicotine, which is the major addictive ingredient in the body, and when it starts getting out of your body, you will surely start showing some cold turkey symptoms.This is the right time to start building your defenses.

When the first day is over, carbon monoxide and nicotine will be completely eliminated from the body. This will make two significant things happen. First, your breathing will have almost returned to normal. Second, the cold turkey will have set in completely. You might even get depressed and have hallucinations, especially if you were a chain smoker until one day ago. But the golden lining to this dark cloud is that if you pass through this phase, you will have got rid of your smoking habit for ever. You may even face vomiting and stomach upsets during this period. However, that is simply a sign that the nicotine is gone out from your body.

Within a few weeks, your cold turkey will be over, and you will no longer feel the urge for smoking again. But that depends on your resilience actually. Your circulation will be almost back to normal and risks of all circulatory diseases will be mostly gone.

It takes a little extra time for your heart to get back to the normal state though. In a year or so, the chances of cardiac arrest becomes halved. But, it is pretty sad to know that it takes at least fifteen years to actually bring your heart back to normal, just like that of the nonsmoker.

But still, the chances of being attacked by lung cancer is still not eliminated. The tar that has settled down in your lungs are pretty hard to get off. But, it is good to know that the chances of falling a victim to lung cancer is halved within ten years. Herbal therapies will decrease that possibility also!

This means that it could take as long as fifteen years for you to recover completely from the ill effects of smoking. But, you feel the zest for living and life in general from the moment you stop smoking leading a fulfilling and enriched life.