Question: I just quit smoking after smoking a pack a day for more than 40 years. How long before my health will be as good as if I had never smoked?
Dr. Hibberd's answer:
The good news is that you have now stopped compounding your lifetime risk of increased atherosclerosis, stroke, heart attack, vascular disease, and cancer. But your baseline risks of developing these diseases will necessarily still be higher than someone who never smoked, based on your years of smoking, which has definitely caused irreversible damage.
After a 20-year habit, irreversible lung damage and premature vascular disease have already started to occur. So unfortunately, your body is not nearly as healthy as you would have been as a non-smoker.
But your rate of disease progression will normalize to a non-smoker's rate after about 5 years of abstinence. Simply said, it is never too late to quit. Congratulations.
© 2026 NewsmaxHealth. All rights reserved.