Quitting Smoking and Restored Lung Health

Stephanie: Hi! I am Stephanie from New York. How long after quitting smoking does it take the lungs to repair themselves?

Charlie Strange: So, when we begin to smoke and we smoke repetitively, what happens to the mucus glands in the lungs are that they get bigger over time because we need that extra mucus to get out all the particles that come in with cigarette smoking.

So, the mucus glands of the lungs get bigger and bigger over our life-time of cigarette smoking and therefore, when it's time to quit, those mucus glands don't go away ever. And so, in that sense, the cumulative features of cigarette smoking lead to some chronic changes in lung that don't go away.

As far as lung cancer is concerned there are studies that suggest it takes about ten years before your risk of lung cancer goes back close to the normal population.


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