Just quit smoking? This is how long it will take for your health risks for serious illness to return to normal

It may take more than two decades for heart disease risk to return to average levels after someone quits smoking, a new study suggests.

Experts have known for decades that puffing cigarettes can cause significant damage to the heart.

According to the British Heart Foundation, at least 15,000 cardiovascular disease deaths in Britain each year are attributed to smoking.

Now researchers in South Korea have discovered exactly how long it takes for an ex-smoker’s cardiovascular system to resemble that of a never-smoker: 25 years.

Furthermore, the findings revealed that heavy ex-smokers who have been puffing for more than eight years have a similar risk of impending heart attack or stroke as those who still smoke.

In the studypublished in the journal JAMA, researchers examined health data from more than 100,000 former smokers and more than 4 million never smokers.

The ex-smokers were followed for ten years after they had stopped smoking.

Other details were recorded, including age, how old they were when they started smoking, how many cigarettes they smoked per day and their age when they quit.

According to the British Heart Foundation, at least 15,000 cardiovascular disease deaths in Britain each year are attributed to smoking.

The study found that the link between smoking and cardiovascular disease risk was dose-dependent – ​​meaning those who were light smokers saw their risk drop relatively quickly after quitting.

But for heavy ex-smokers, who had smoked for at least eight years, the researchers concluded that it could take 25 years for the risk of heart attack and stroke to decline to that of someone who has never smoked.

The study authors said: ‘It should be assumed that heavy ex-smokers have a risk of cardiovascular disease equivalent to that of patients who continue to smoke.’

Smoking kills around 78,000 people in Britain every year, and many more suffer from diseases as a result of their habit.

Half of all smoking-related diseases in Britain are cardiovascular diseases, such as heart problems and stroke.

Dozens of studies have shown that smoking is linked to heart failure – when the heart muscle doesn’t pump blood around the body as well as it should, usually because it is too weak or stiff.

As a result, the heart cannot provide the body’s organs and tissues with the oxygen and essential nutrients it needs to function normally.

The 7,000 chemicals in tobacco – including tar and others – can damage the blood vessels that supply the heart, which is thought to account for some of the damage smoking does to the organ.

Meanwhile, nicotine – a highly addictive toxin found in tobacco – is strongly linked to dangerous increases in heart rate and blood pressure.

Smoking also releases toxic gases, such as carbon monoxide, into the body, further reducing our oxygen supply.

Around one in eight Britons and Americans currently smoke, compared to almost half of the adult population in the 1970s.