After 28 years, 5 years ago, today, April 4th...
...I QUIT SMOKING!
After 5 years of not smoking...
After 5 years without smoking, the body has healed itself enough for the arteries and blood vessels to begin to widen again. This widening means the blood is less likely to clot, lowering the risk of stroke.
The risk of stroke will continue to reduce over the next 10 years as the body heals more and more
source
If I can do it, anyone can!
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That's 4+ packs of unflitered Pall Mall regulars per day. Quit cold turkey due to medical report of "well advanced emphysema with greater than 40% destruction of both lungs."
After 35 years my cancer risk is about the same as someone who had never smoked. Lung capacity, unfortunately, never recovers since the portion of lung destroyed by emphysema is dead - gone forever. On the happy side, I happen to have very large lungs, and manage quite well with what I have left. I do not, for instance, require supplemental oxygen.
The bad side is that after I turned seventy I would up with three bouts of pneumonia in fairly rapid succession, each of which came close to killing me. The infection was up in the dead portion of my lungs which are mostly scar tissue and dead air space. No blood flow to speak of and therefore no good way to get antibiotics to the infection.
After the third one I got real serious about strength training in a gym with a personal trainer. The bastard has been trying to kill me twice a week for four years now, , and I have not so much as had a cold. I feel about ten years younger than I did before the first bout with pneumonia, and my pulmanologist is ecstatic.
There must be a moral to this story. Oh yes, I got it. Physical exercise is good for you.
you deserve a big hand.
You should be very proud! 
Well done!
Well done!
