#ex-smokers

I was a heavy smoker throughout my 20s. If anyone’s struggling to quit or looking to get motivated to quit, feel free to message me. I did a lot of research and employed a lot of strategies to keep myself away from cigs & thinking positively.

On Sept. 16, Tulare County in California announced the nation’s seventh death from vaping-related illness. Its advisory warned about “the dangerous effects of using electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes.”

As federal and state health officials struggle to identify what exactly is causing the deadly outbreak, vaping advocates are stepping into the void and crafting an alternative narrative that is being echoed broadly in online communities.

The people getting sick, according to their version of events, all vaped THC — the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis — using products bought on an illicit black market. They also contend federal officials have seized on the crisis to crack down on a nicotine vaping culture they don’t appreciate or understand, a culture proponents insist has helped them and millions of others quit smoking.

As of Oct. 1, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified more than 1,000 cases of vaping-related lung illness in 48 states. Eighteen people have died, including two in California. Of the 578 patients who have reported using specific products, most said they had vaped THC, but a significant portion — 17% — said they had used only nicotine.

CDC officials maintain they can’t identify one product or chemical culprit, and while they recently began emphasizing the risks of vaping THC, they continue to warn against any vape use at all.

Meanwhile, cities and states have responded with a divergent mix of warnings and bans. Michigan, New York and Rhode Island have moved to ban most flavored nicotine vaping products. The California Department of Public Health recently warned against all vaping devices, and the governor of Massachusetts issued a four-month ban on all vaping products. (Read more at link)

There are Steps Ex-smokers Can Take to Speed-up the Healing, But at Least Some of the Damage is Likely Permanent

— By Tom Murphy | July 23, 2026 | The Wall Street Journal (WSJ)

Andrei Cojocaru For WSJ

Congratulations if you’re among the country’s nearly 56 million ex-smokers. Many health benefits are coming your way—some of them within just a few minutes.

Over the long term, though, the health picture gets a lot more complex. Some problems caused by smoking take decades to clear up, and certain lung damage can’t be fixed. Plus, a higher risk for lung cancer never completely fades.

Even so, there are plenty of steps ex-smokers can take to boost the benefits from quitting, from changing their diet to beefing up their exercise regimen. Even if restoring pristine lung condition isn’t an option, doctors say quitting still matters—both for health and quality of life.

“Quitting is absolutely one of the most powerful things that someone can do for their health at any stage, at any time,” says Eric Singhi, a Thoracic Medical Oncologist with the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Immediate Benefits

Ex-smokers now outnumber the country’s 27 million smokers two to one, according to an American Lung Association analysis of federal health data. And there is no simple answer to the question of how much they will heal after quitting. That depends on how many cigarettes someone smoked, for how long and what part of their body was damaged.

In general, screening guidelines indicate that a more intense smoking habit is a bigger concern. But “there’s really no safe level of smoking,” says Singhi. “Even any occasional or social smoking does increase the risk of lung cancer, lung damage compared to someone who has never smoked.”

Still, all smokers will start seeing some benefits immediately. Any time someone stops smoking—even temporarily—their heart rates can drop to normal levels in around 20 minutes, according to the American Lung Association. Carbon-monoxide levels in the blood fall within hours.

The benefits get even stronger the longer people stay away from smoking. Cilia, tiny hairs that clear mucus out of the lungs, resume working within weeks, prompting coughing that clears the lungs. Ex-smokers gain a slight increase in lung function weeks after quitting as swelling and inflammation settle down.

Heart-disease risk drops rapidly in the first weeks and months after quitting, says David Hill, a pulmonologist and chair of the American Lung Association’s board of directors.

“We don’t think of smoking as a systemic illness, but it is,” he says.

Call It Quits: Ratio comparing mortality rates of former and current smokers to never smokers, by cause, Cardiovascular (Left)! Cancer (Left)! Source: JAMA Internal Medicine; Blake Thomson, Stanford University School of Medicine; Farhad Islami, American Cancer Society. *Confidence Interval

Melissa Reeves quit a pack-a-day habit more than a year ago and has seen many benefits. Her senses of taste and smell have rebounded, and she gets less winded on hikes with her grandchildren.

“There’s definitely some healing going on,” the 65-year-old Danville, Ind., resident says.

Some health improvements take time. Smoking leads to the buildup of plaque on artery walls, and it can take 20 or 30 years to clear, says Aruni Bhatnagar, a professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine who researches the impact of tobacco use.

Positive Steps

Over the long term, a healthy lifestyle is critical to repairing lung damage. A 2022 study of more than 150,000 former smokers compared those who did and didn’t stick to recommendations for maintaining body weight, staying physically active, eating a healthy diet and limiting alcohol consumption.

The study, from JAMA Network Open, found that people who reported the highest adherence to those recommendations had a 27% lower risk of death from all causes compared with those who didn’t follow the recommendations closely.

Regular exercise like running or walking strengthens the heart and reduces the chances of dying from cardiovascular disease. It also builds respiratory muscles—your lungs can’t move without them—and doctors say that helps reduce smoking-related symptoms like shortness of breath. It also can slow the loss of lung function.

Exercise also boosts antioxidant enzymes in the body, which protect cells from damage. Augustine Lee, a pulmonologist with the Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville, Fla., campus, says a lifestyle and diet that promote antioxidant buildup is associated with less heart disease and cancer. Foods filled with antioxidants include dark green vegetables, blueberries, nuts, green tea or fish.

What’s more, staying hydrated helps flush toxins, keeps organs functioning optimally and thins mucus, making it easier for lungs to stay clear.

“The combination of quitting smoking, plus exercise plus a healthy diet all contributes to better lung function,” Lee says.

Doctors say there are several other things ex-smokers can do to keep major problems at bay and help their body recover. They should avoid secondhand smoke and have their homes tested for radon gas. “A lot of people don’t know that radon gas is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S.,” Singhi says.

Ex-smokers should also avoid switching to vaping instead of smoking. “The only thing you should be breathing into your lungs is clean air,” Hill says. “Vaping and e-cigarettes have been marketed as less harmful, but we don’t have that data.”

Keeping A Close Watch

But it is also important for ex-smokers to understand the limits they face. While an ex-smoker’s lungs can clear out after quitting, one important element doesn’t recover. Smoke kills alveoli, the lung’s tiny air sacs that allow the body to take in oxygen and remove carbon dioxide. Ultimately, if enough alveoli die, the smoker winds up with an irreversible condition like emphysema that makes breathing difficult.

Every Breath: Ratio comparing mortality rates of former and current smokers to never smokers from respiratory causes. Source: JAMA Internal Medicine; Blake Thomson, Stanford University School of Medicine; Farhad Islami, American Cancer Society. *Confidence Interval

“Once the airways are scarred up, there is no going back,” says Lee.

Smoking also doubles the natural rate of decline in lung function. “You can get short of breath and cough even years after smoking just because of that natural loss of lung function,” Lee says.

What’s more, the toxic chemicals in smoke damage lung-cell DNA, which acts like an instruction manual telling the cells how to behave. Some of those damaged cells die, but those that remain can trigger abnormal cell growth, or cancer.

“We actually have data that show us that decades from when you quit smoking, the risk can still be almost three to four times higher than someone who has never smoked,” Singhi says.

Doctors also see preventive medicine as a key to preserving longevity. Singhi urges former heavy smokers to have annual lung-cancer screenings. Insurance may cover the procedures for people who averaged a pack a day or more for years.

“Screening is what helps us catch lung cancer early when it’s the most treatable,” he says.

Ex-smokers also should seek help if they develop shortness of breath or a cough that lasts more than three months. Those may be early signs of a problem like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. That can’t be cured, but it can be managed, especially if care starts early.

While all damage from smoking may not be erased, quitters can add healthy years to the end of their life, which can be just as important to them as how long they live.

Patients sometimes tell Lee that they enjoy smoking, and they just plan to do it until they die. The problem, the physician says, is that smokers often don’t die quickly.

They can wind up with a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease like emphysema, tethered to oxygen as their health declines.

The Boston Qualifier Questionnaire – Nancy Stedman

Amazing to read that Nancy smoked for over thirty years and then BQ’ed in her first marathon. Congratulations, Nancy! Name Nancy Stedman Sex: Female Age (at the time of first BQ): 45 Height: 5′ 3.5″ Weight (at the time of first BQ): 115 At which marathon did you get your first BQ? Snickers (Albany, Ga) Tell us a little about the race. I was a smoker from age 12 to 43, usually a pack a day. BQd at…

Researchers at the International Agency for Research on Cancer compared the levels of vitamin B6 in the blood of people with and without lung cancer.

Those who had higher levels of vitamin B6 in the blood had lower rates of lung cancer. In fact, the risk of developing lung cancer in these people was about 60% lower!

Astoundingly, they found that smokers with high vitamin B6 levels also show a 60% reduction in risk for developing lung cancer!

Similar results were found for ex-smokers and non-smokers.