The Impact of Quitting Vaping: What You Need to Know
It’s well established that vaping poses significant health risks, and the U.S. leads globally with about nine million Americans regularly using e-cigarettes. Vaping increases the chances of developing cancer, heart disease, and strokes. One alarming case from Cincinnati involved a woman who nearly died, found unconscious with ‘black mucus’ from her mouth and nose due to her addiction to vaping.
Nicotine, a key ingredient in e-cigarettes, plays a powerful role in mood regulation, making quitting especially difficult. Dr. Nikola Djordjevic, project manager at MedAlertHelp.org, highlights the physical changes that occur after quitting vaping, even within a short time frame.
As soon as you quit, withdrawal symptoms can begin, both physically and psychologically. These include intense cravings, irritability, anxiety, mood swings, headaches, difficulty concentrating, insomnia, increased appetite, tremors, sweating, abdominal cramps, and constipation. Dr. Djordjevic explains that these symptoms may last for up to a month.
Just 24 hours after quitting, your blood pressure drops, and oxygen levels rise, decreasing your risk of a heart attack. By day two, your sense of taste and smell may start to sharpen. Three days in, nicotine will be fully eliminated from your body, signaling the peak of withdrawal.
If you manage to stay vape-free for a month, your lungs will begin to show improvement. By day 30, you’ll experience increased lung capacity, fewer coughing fits, and less shortness of breath. After three months, your blood circulation will improve as blood vessels return to their normal size.
By nine months, your lungs will recover their ability to fight infections, as the cilia—tiny hair-like structures that clear mucus—start to function properly again. After one year, your heart attack risk is cut in half as blood pressure, heart rate, and blood vessels return to normal.
After five years, your stroke risk dramatically decreases. Vapers are 71 percent more likely to suffer a stroke than non-smokers, but quitting brings this risk closer to that of a non-smoker. After a decade, your risk of cancer is reduced significantly, as vaping has been linked to genetic mutations associated with cancer. According to Dr. Djordjevic, “After ten years, the risk of lung cancer is reduced by 50 percent, and there are also significant reductions in the risks of pancreatic, mouth, and throat cancers.”
Fifteen years after quitting, your chances of developing coronary heart disease or pancreatic cancer will be similar to those who have never smoked or vaped. And after twenty years, your health can be comparable to someone who has never vaped at all.
If that’s not motivation enough to quit vaping, what is?