If I quit smoking, will my lung function improve?
The degree to which someone sees improvement in their breathing after they have quit smoking depends on how much damage they have done to begin with. If you have not smoked long enough to notice decline in your exercise tolerance, your shortness of breath, your cough, then you probably won't notice anything different when you quit smoking. Your lungs will eventually just clean itself out and you will be optimally well and no longer have any deterioration. If you have already begun to notice changes in the way you breathe, a cough often gets better in weeks. With shortness of breath with moderate or maximal exercise, you'll notice that will improve within days, maybe 5 to 10 days after quitting smoking. If you have advanced lung disease, it may take 3 to 6 months of remodelling, cleaning and renovation for all the cells in your lungs to really see how much improvement your going to have. In fact, some lung specialists say give it a year to a year and a half before you give up. Changes are going to occur because your lungs can continue to improve and clean out and calm down that inflammation in the airways over that whole period of time. The progression of tobacco incited disease over the lungs stops the day you quit smoking. Your ability to regain and improve your lung condition just depends on how severe it was when you quit.
