Table of Contents
- HOW DOES THE BODY RECOVER FROM SMOKING?
- WHAT ARE THE LONG TERM BENEFITS OF VAPING INSTEAD OF SMOKING?
- DOES QUITTING SMOKING REDUCE RISK OF CANCERS AND OTHER DISEASES?
- HOW DOES QUITTING SMOKING IMPROVE LIFESTYLE?
- HOW DOES SENSE OF TASTE AND SMELL CHANGE WHEN YOU QUIT SMOKING?
- HOW DOES GIVING UP SMOKING AFFECT YOUR APPEARANCE?
- DOES QUTTING SMOKING SAVE YOU MONEY?
- HOW DO YOU MANAGE WITHDRAWAL EFFECTS WHEN YOU QUIT SMOKING?
- WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STOP SMOKING AND START VAPING - CONCLUSION
- REFERENCES
Quitting smoking is a big challenge. Nicotine, the addictive component found in tobacco, acts on receptors in the brain that regulate mood, cognitive function, memory and more. After having a cigarette, these receptors are filled 100%, which is why smokers feel relaxed, focused and happy right after smoking. The nicotine then takes around 3 days to totally clear from the body, and during this time the smoker suffers from withdrawal symptoms including: cravings, headaches, irritability, difficulty concentrating, insomnia and depression, among others (1). These withdrawal symptoms cause a lot of suffering, which is why quitting tobacco cigarettes is so hard.
E-Cigarettes are a new way of consuming nicotine; they heat ‘e-liquid’ or ‘vape juice’ into an aerosol that contains nicotine, and the nicotine is absorbed through the lining of the lungs. The main difference between smoking cigarettes and using electronic cigarettes is highlighted by Public Health England, from whom a recent review found e-cigarettes to be around 95% less harmful than smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes. (2)
Studies on the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool are promising, with one indicating that e-cigarettes could be twice as effective as forms of Nicotine Replacement Therapy, when accompanied by behavioural support. If e-cigarettes are a lot less harmful to us, what happens to our body when we stop smoking and start vaping?
HOW DOES THE BODY RECOVER FROM SMOKING?
When you stop smoking and start vaping, you cut out the thousands of chemicals found in tobacco smoke, of which over 50 are known to cause cancer. It is the burning of tobacco that releases these chemicals, and as combustion is not present when using an e-cigarette, these are largely eliminated when you vape. The combustion of tobacco also forms carbon monoxide, a nasty compound that sticks to red blood cells, reducing the amount of oxygen they can carry and deliver around the body.
Carbon monoxide takes about a day to leave your system, but other components of cigarette smoke take longer to go. Benzene, a chemical found in crude oil and used to make plastics, has been linked to leukemia and takes about 48 hours to leave the body after smoking, Napthalene, a chemical used to create black smoke in simulated explosions, can take up to 3 days to leave the body after smoking (3), as can Acetone. Arsenic, a component of rat poison, takes several months to leave the body; but even that pales in comparison to Cadmium and Hexavalent Chromium, both of which have been associated with cancer, and they can stay in the body for years. (4)
So what can we expect to happen when you switch from cigarettes to vaping?
After 8 hours since your last cigarette, the carbon monoxide is being cleared from the body, increasing the amount of oxygen the red blood cells can carry. After a day, the carbon monoxide is cleared, which should lead to better oxygen transport around the body, as well as a reduction in vasoconstriction - reducing the risk of heart attack!
At 48 hours, nerve endings begin to regrow, and the cilia that line your airways should begin to work again, clearing debris from the lungs. This means you are likely to be coughing a lot more, though there is some indication that using e-cigarettes to quit will reduce the amount of coughing experienced (5). At 72 hours, the airways will be clearer, making breathing easier. This is also the point where all the nicotine is out of your system, so withdrawal symptoms will be agitating you, but vaping with nicotine will keep the body supplied - just without all the nasty additions found in tobacco smoke!
WHAT ARE THE LONG TERM BENEFITS OF VAPING INSTEAD OF SMOKING?
The good news is that after a while of not smoking, your body does a good job of repairing much of the damage done (6), so staying off the cigarettes is an absolute must if you want to see those benefits.
DOES QUITTING SMOKING REDUCE RISK OF CANCERS AND OTHER DISEASES?
After three years since your last cigarette, the risk of heart attack has reduced to that of a non-smoker. After ten years, the risk of dying from lung cancer is reduced to half that of a non-smoker, and risks of other respiratory diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are reduced too!
HOW DOES QUITTING SMOKING IMPROVE LIFESTYLE?
Having given up cigarettes for the long term, lung function will have improved, and the circulatory system returned to normal, so energy levels and the ability to handle stress are much better than when you were smoking regularly! This means being active itself should be less stressful and much more enjoyable, not only because being active improves your mood, but because you will be able to push your body harder without coughing your lungs up!
HOW DOES SENSE OF TASTE AND SMELL CHANGE WHEN YOU QUIT SMOKING?
Our sense of taste and smell returns fairly early on in the quitting process, with noticeable improvements at around 48 hours, getting better as the days pass.
Make sure to capitalise on this, but remember, weight gain is normal when quitting smoking, and this can be down to improved smell and taste leading to higher consumption due to increased pleasure in the experience - it can also be a substitute for cigarettes, as eating nice food causes the release of dopamine, the brain’s reward chemical.
Make sure to capitalise on this, but remember, weight gain is normal when quitting smoking, and this can be down to improved smell and taste leading to higher consumption due to increased pleasure in the experience - it can also be a substitute for cigarettes, as eating nice food causes the release of dopamine, the brain’s reward chemical.
HOW DOES GIVING UP SMOKING AFFECT YOUR APPEARANCE?
The act of smoking has a negative effect on our appearance, too. As far as our oral health is concerned, quitting will reduce the risk of gum disease, tooth loss, and oral cancer. Smoking impacts the quality of saliva and cigarette smoke may cause the destruction of many of the good enzymes within our saliva, reducing its effectiveness in keeping our mouths clean - and contributing to the development of oral cancer. Poor oral hygiene and missing teeth can be a source of self-consciousness; another good reason to quit smoking.
Many of the chemicals in tobacco smoke cause collagen and elastin - the fibres in our skin that keep it supple and springy - to break down. Add to that the reduced delivery of oxygen and nutrients due to the carbon monoxide attached to the red blood cells, and the constricted blood vessels caused by smoking. All of this contributes to signs of premature ageing, such as deeper wrinkles, and increases the chance of skin cancer!
DOES QUTTING SMOKING SAVE YOU MONEY?
Quitting cigarettes gives more than health benefits, though! The amount of money saved really adds up. Keeping things simple, someone smoking 20 cigarettes a day could spend £4,015 over a year, compared with as little as £580 for the equivalent amount of nicotine in e-liquid refills.
Your style of vaping, the device you use and the strength of e-liquid will all affect how expensive vaping is for you, but switching to vaping will have even the most generous vapers save money compared to the cost of their smoking habit.
HOW DO YOU MANAGE WITHDRAWAL EFFECTS WHEN YOU QUIT SMOKING?
Withdrawal symptoms are the main factor that foils most quit attempts; the body is craving the chemicals that cigarettes provide as it has become used to those chemicals stimulating the various areas of our brain. Not feeding our body with nicotine means these areas of the brain don’t function so well, bringing our mood down, and slowing our cognitive function.
The typical withdrawal symptoms experienced are cravings to smoke, irritability and depression, headaches, difficulty concentrating, and insomnia - all of which can tip a quitter back toward smoking if they aren’t prepared, so it is so important to have some ways to manage and mitigate as many of these symptoms as possible.
Exercise is likely to be the single most effective way to reduce the impact of many of those withdrawal symptoms, as well as providing many other health benefits!
Exercise stresses the body which means your focus becomes the exercise (instead of thinking about smoking) and exercise helps the body deal with stress in general. It also encourages sweating - a means for the body to get rid of toxins, and it improves mood and reduces anxiety by encouraging the production and release of endorphins and serotonin. This improvement in mood and reduction in anxiety helps reduce the time it takes to get to sleep, and improves the quality of sleep! (7)
The great thing about vaping is that many of these withdrawal symptoms are addressed because nicotine is still coming into the body, but smokers making the switch should be aware that the nicotine takes longer to enter the body through vaping, so most people find they use their vape kits a bit more than they would typically smoke when first switching over.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STOP SMOKING AND START VAPING - CONCLUSION
Switching from smoking to vaping is a sensible idea - full stop! If you smoke, you are damaging your body, taking years of your life, and reducing the quality of life for the years you do have.
Even if you aren’t interested in all the flavours that are available, there are e-liquids that mimic tobacco flavours, or if you are a menthol smoker, there are menthol flavour refills and menthol e liquids on the market. Matching your e-liquid flavour to the flavour you are used to when smoking helps to trick the brain into thinking that nothing has changed!
Whatever your reasons for quitting tobacco, vaping could help bridge the gap from being a smoker to a non-smoker. So why not check out our most popular e-cigarette and vape starter kits and begin the journey to a healthier you today!
REFERENCES
(1) Everything You Need to Know About Nicotine Withdrawal
(2) Vaping in England: evidence update February 2021
(3) Biomonitoring Summary: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Overview
(5) A Randomized Trial of E-Cigarettes versus Nicotine-Replacement Therapy
(6) Health Benefits of Quitting Smoking Over Time
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Written by Dan Overgage
Dan Overgage is a former smoker of 10 years until he became a client of SMOKO E-Cigarettes. Dan started working with SMOKO 5 years ago after successfully quitting using our e-cigarettes and works across our Customer Service and heads up our content creation and research with a strong focus on all things quitting smoking. During his tenure with SMOKO, Dan has written countless blogs and consults with countless clients every day to help them to stay smoke-free.
