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~ Back to Articles Index Page ~  Okay, here comes Lecture Number 532, Paragraph 14, Section 8 on why you should stop smoking. How many times have you heard it all? You know that it’s bad for your health and the health of those around you. You know how expensive it is and that the money you spend on cigarettes could be put to better use. But I’m sure you’re also sick of being harped at so, let’s take a serious look at the main reason why people haven’t quit yet. Quitting takes every ounce of effort and dedication you have and is as difficult, if not more so, than losing weight. The act of trying to quit upsets the routine of your life and with the hurly-burly lifestyle we lead these days, who wants to have to deal with upset? Smoking is an addiction. Cigarettes deposit chemicals in your body and leave it wanting more, and these are cravings you can’t ignore easily. In a sense, your body is fighting against you when you try to quit. It has a need, similar to hunger, that is mentally challenging to disregard. Medical professionals who would tell you to quit recognize this difficulty and that’s why efforts by lobbying groups, on behalf of the medical community, have resulted in warnings on every package, some that include fairly graphic images, to help inspire you to stop. In this article, we’ll look at what happens to specific parts of your body when you smoke. We’ll examine the damage done to your body and discuss which damage is reversible and which is not. We’ll talk about the damage possible to others’ health resulting from your choices and we’ll learn about the holistic effect smoking has on your body’s systems. You could also read “The Psychology of Change” – another article featured in this month’s flyer and on the website. It will explain a lot of the psychological reasons why people have difficulty changing a behavior. WHAT IS AN ADDICTION? – Listen to Your Body Talk In medical terminology, an addiction is a state in which the body relies on a substance for normal functioning and develops physical dependence…When the…substance on which someone is dependent is suddenly removed, it will cause withdrawal, a characteristic set of signs and symptoms. …common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence.1 Withdrawal “…refers to the characteristic signs and symptoms that appear when a [substance] that causes physical dependence is regularly used for a long time and then suddenly discontinued or decreased in dosage.” 2 Why do you need to know these definitions? Educating yourself about addiction helps you to understand why your body is fighting your mind when you decide to quit. It is clear that when you smoke, you deposit thousands of chemicals into your body with each cigarette. When the process is repeated over and over on a daily basis, your body acquires an addiction to these chemicals. When you stop injecting these chemicals into your body, it starts to send you little reminders, in the form of cravings, to deposit more chemicals and, if you’ve quit smoking, you’re now in withdrawal.  This is a tough place to be but it is important for you to understand what you’re up against and why it is so difficult to quit smoking, from a physiological point of view. The worst thing you can do is think that you’re weak because you can’t quit. You’re fighting an addiction that has built up in your body, sometimes over years. You are not alone. It is tough on everyone who decides to quit, with no exceptions. BEING A QUITTER – Is Willpower Enough? While willpower can work, it usually does not. Willpower has to be coupled with some pretty solid and convincing reasons to change a behavior before any progress will be made. If all the wonderful outcomes of becoming a non-smoker aren’t enough to inspire you to quit, find out what the habit of smoking is fulfilling in your life? It may be that smoking is a social experience for you; it may give you something in common with others who you might not usually associate with. This is only one example. Only you can do the work to find these answers. Fear of success is one of the biggest obstacles to making a serious attempt at quitting. Your dependency-conditioned mind is likely terrified at the thought that life without smoking won’t be worth living, or that you’ll leave part of you behind. But, usually within two weeks of quitting, you’ll begin to develop a sense that life without nicotine might actually be easier, and cheaper. More Than Willpower Required Here – Incentives Needed to Quit A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people who were influenced by a financial reward to follow a 16-week weight-loss plan—either via a lottery open only to those making progress or a deposit contract, in which people could put money in the pot every day and get it back, plus matching funds, if they met their monthly goals—lost more weight than those without a financial incentive.3 When we give up a behavior, shouldn’t it be replaced with something of equal enjoyment and pleasure to fill the void? The answer is yes. So, if you light up when you have your coffee in the morning, brush your hair for 100 strokes between sips of coffee instead. Or, instead of lighting up every time you step into your car, plug in your favorite CD and sing at the top of your lungs. The activity of singing keeps your mind off your cravings and, at the same time, you’re enjoying your favorite music. (Just keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road.) Who knows? The guy in the car next to you at the red light might start singing too! THE CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME – The Physiology Behind A Nicotine Addiction Studies have shown that tobacco (nicotine) can be harder to give up than heroin or cocaine. Nicotine physically alters and desensitizes the brain. It causes eleven different brain regions to grow millions of extra acetylcholine receptors.
Nicotine assumes command and control over the flow of more than 200 of our body’s neurochemicals, including dopamine (behavior, cognition, sleep, mood, attention, learning), adrenaline and serotonin (our mood, anger, sleep, appetite regulator, among other things). Because nicotine physically alters and desensitizes the brain, time should be allowed when quitting for re-sensitization and reconditioning of subconscious nicotine feeding cues. The half-life of nicotine is two hours. Unless replenished, the amount of nicotine remaining in your bloodstream will be cut by half every two hours. When quitting cold turkey, 100% of the nicotine and 90% of its metabolites will be out of your system within 72 hours. It’s then that neuronal re-sensitization can begin in full. HANDLING WITHDRAWAL It’s fairly safe to blame most of what you’ll feel during the first three days on quitting. After that, report anything out of the ordinary to your doctor. Why? It is possible that one or more of the 4,000 chemicals you inhaled while you were a smoker could have been interacting with medications you were taking and an adjustment may be necessary. Or, these chemicals may have been masking an underlying hidden health problem such as a thyroid condition (iodine), asthma (bronchiodialators), or even chronic organic depression (nicotine).  A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine “presents evidence that in women with hypothyroidism [under-active thyroid], smoking decreases both thyroid secretion and thyroid hormone action.”4 Be prepared to experience a normal sense of emotional loss when quitting. Expect to travel through and experience denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance and complacency. Once in the heat of battle, it is normal for your mind to quickly forget many of the reasons that motivated you to quit smoking. Write yourself a reminder letter, carry it with you, and read it often. Make it your first line of defense – a motivational tool that you can pull out during moments of challenge. Do you know, physiologically speaking, why people who quit smoking typically gain weight? Each puff of nicotine releases stored fats into our bloodstream. This allows a smoker to skip meals and avoid the nasty blood sugar swings and symptoms that come with those swings; hunger, inability to concentrate and anxiety. Learn to properly fuel your body at regular intervals and do not skip meals. This will help curb any weight gain you may be afraid of. DAMAGE TO YOUR BODY The Lungs We’ll be presenting two sets of pictures of human lungs; one healthy set and one set depicting a smoker’s lungs. If you’re currently a smoker, you may see these pictures popping up on your package of cigarettes in the near future.
What is on those lungs!? The black lung is covered in tar, a sticky brown material that gums up your lungs so less oxygen gets into your bloodstream. Is this irreversible damage? No, although this patient may be beyond hope anyway. Usually, anywhere from two weeks to three months after you quit, your lung function will begin to improve by as much as 30%. You may find yourself coughing more than usual but don’t worry. It will be a productive cough. As the cilia in your airway begin to come back to life, they will bring up deeply held secretions that have hindered your lung function for years. Think about this productive cough as if you are expelling the addiction from your body. When you quit smoking you immediately decrease your risk of bronchitis and pneumonia. Any respiratory infections you get will likely clear up much faster. After ten years, your risk of lung cancer from smoking will decline by almost half if you smoked a pack a day (average smoker). BENEFITS OF QUITTING TO THE REST OF YOUR BODY The following factoids are barring any other existing internal disease:
Nicotine addiction is every bit as real and permanent as alcoholism. Treating a true addiction as though it were a nasty habit is a recipe for relapse. Nicotine dependency recovery is a temporary journey of readjustment. Here’s a few uplifting and enlightening facts to consider:
Please CLICK HERE to access this site. DO UNTO OTHERS – The Effects of Second-Hand Smoke According to Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, the following diseases are known to be caused by second-hand smoke:
What Is Third-Hand Smoke? Third-hand smoke is the chemical-laden residue left behind on surfaces when someone has been smoking in a location. When you get into a smoker’s car, this third-hand residue is on everything inside their car including all surfaces that you will touch or sit on. It is then transferred to your hands and your clothing and you’ll probably smell like smoke after being in their car. If you visit a friend who smokes in their house, third-hand smoke will be on their furniture and the surfaces in their house, no matter how cleanly they are. This is bad news for you, but especially for children who tend to touch everything and then put their hands in their mouth. Some smokers might say that all this research is simply a form of harassment and discrimination but they have to remember that their choice is affecting the health of others. If you want to smoke, keep it to yourself. Your choice can kill others. Hopefully, this article has given you information on smoking that you hadn’t had before. There are a lot of tried and true methods to quit but, the bottom line is this…you can’t quit until you make up your mind to. It’s mind over matter; if you don’t mind, the cigarettes won’t matter. Carol Roy is a Natural Health Practitioner, registered with Natural Health Practitioners Canada, who received her diploma from the Alternative Medicine College of Canada in Montreal, Quebec. With 9 years experience in her area of expertise, naturopathic medicine, Carol has also trained to become a fully qualified Reiki Master, Quantum Touch ® Practitioner and Reflexologist. are recommendations only and not a substitute for any medical advice or a replacement for any prescriptions. Seek medical advice for any health concerns. Consult your health care provider before using any recommendations herein. References: 1. wikipedia.org – Search string “addiction”. 2. wikipedia.org – Search string “withdrawal”. 3. Financial Incentive-Based Approaches for Weight Loss: A Randomized Trial, Kevin G. Volpp; Leslie K. John; Andrea B. Troxel; Laurie Norton; Jennifer Fassbender; George Loewenstein, JAMA. 2008;300(22):2631-2637. 4. The New England Journal of Medicine, Number 15, Volume 333:1001-1002, October 12, 1995. 5. Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada http://www.smoke-free.ca/factsheets/pdf/Q&A-healtheffects.pdf 6. Intermittent information in this article was obtained from www.whyquit.com. Please visit www.whyquit.com for a wealth of information that may help you quit smoking. |
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