Reformed Smoker = Winner

Smokers who quit may experience improved arterial health within one year.
NBC Nightly News (3/15, story 8, 0:20, Williams) reported that there is a "new incentive for smokers to quit" considering a "big new study...says quitting can improve artery function" and "actually make blood vessels healthier."
Indeed, the work coming out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison indicates that people tend to "pick up pounds" when they quit smoking, the AP (3/16, Marchione) reports. But "a year after kicking the habit, smokers' arteries showed signs of reversing a problem that can set the stage for heart disease," according to the paper in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
In fact, the "benefit was the equivalent of a 14% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/15, Fauber) noted. Investigators reached that conclusion by using "a test known as flow-mediated dilation, which uses ultrasound to look at the ability of the brachial artery to relax." Participants who "who quit smoking had an improvement in flow-mediated dilation from 6.2% to 7.2%."