The vast majority of people connect smoking with breathing problems and lung cancer. However, were you aware of the fact that smoking is also the main cause of heart disease both for men and women?
The American Heart Association states that more than fifty per cent of all smoking-related deaths are caused by cardiovascular diseases like heart attack or stroke. Moreover, a patient’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease significantly goes up along with the number of cigarettes he or she smokes. Smokers continuously increase their risk of experiencing disease the longer they smoke. Smokers who smoke one pack of cigarettes daily are on the double risk of heart attack than non-smoking people. Smoking women who also take contraceptive pills at the same time raise several times their risk of suffering from heart attack, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.
Cigarette smoke has a negative influence not only on smokers. Whenever you have a cigarette, all people in your surrounding, particularly children, are also at risk of developing health problems. Environmental tobacco smoke (also known as passive smoke or second-hand smoke) adversely influences people who are often in the surrounding of smokers. Second-hand smoke may lead to chronic respiratory conditions, cancer and heart disease.
How Smoking Increases Heart Disease Risk
Nicotine in cigarettes quickens the heart beat and narrows the arteries, which makes it more difficult for enough blood to reach the heart.
Smoking together with high cholesterol level considerably increases your risk of developing heart disease.
How to Give up Smoking
One perfect way to give up smoking by everybody does not exist. To stop smoking, you have to be ready both emotionally and mentally. You also need to be willing to stop smoking for yourself, and not to satisfy your friends or relatives. It is helpful to plan it ahead. This guide may help get your started.
What Ought I To Do First?
Choose a date to quit smoking and then stick to it.
Write down all the reasons for giving up the habit. Read through the list every day, both before and after you stop smoking. Here are several tips to consider:
* Write down when you have a cigarette, why you do it and what you are doing while smoking. You will learn what makes you smoke.
* Give up smoking in certain situations (such as during your work break or just after dinner) before really quitting.
* Make a list of all the activities that you can do instead of having a cigarette. Be prepared to do something else when you are willing to smoke.
* Ask your healthcare provider about using nicotine gum or patches. For some people these aids are really helpful.
* Join a smoking cessation support group or this kind of program. Call your local chapter of the American Lung Association.
How Can I Avoid Relapsing?
* Never carry a lighter, matches or cigarettes with you. Keep all of these smoking reminders out of sight.
* If you live under one roof with a smoking person, ask him or her not to smoke when you are present.
* Don’t concentrate on things which you are missing. Think about the healthier way of life you are obtaining.
* When you feel the necessity to smoke, take a deep breath. Hold it for about ten seconds and release it very slowly. Repeat this a few times until the desire to smoke disappears.
* Always keep your hands busy. Draw, play with a pencil or straw, or work on a computer.
* Alter activities that you associated with smoking. Have a walk or read a book instead of taking a cigarette break.
* When it is possible, avoid places, people and situations connected with smoking. Spend time with non-smokers or visit places that do not allow smoking, such as the movies, museums, shops or libraries.
* Never substitute food or sugar-based products for cigarettes. Consume low-calorie, healthful meals (such as carrot or celery sticks, sugar-free hard candies) or chew gum when the necessity to smoke appears so you can avoid weight gain.
* Drink plenty of fluids, however restrict alcoholic and caffeinated beverages. They may activate the necessity to smoke.
* Practice some sports. Physical activity will help you achieve relaxation.
* Get support for giving up smoking. Inform your friends and reklatives about your milestones with pride.
* Work with your healthcare provider in order to construct a plan using over-the-counter or prescription nicotine-replacement medications.
How Will I Feel When I Give Up Smoking?
You may need cigarettes, experience irritability, feel very hungry, cough frequently, suffer from headaches or have difficulty concentrating. Such symptoms of withdrawal happen due to the fact that your body is used to intaking nicotine, the active addicting agent within cigarettes.
When withdrawal symptoms take place within the first two weeks after you stop smoking, keep control. Consider your reasons for giving up the habit. Repeat yourself constantly that these are the symptoms that your body is healing and getting accustomed to staying without cigarettes.
The withdrawal symptoms are merely impermanent. They are the strongest when you first give up smoking and in the most cases they will begin to decrease or even go away within ten to fourteen days. Keep in mind that withdrawal symptoms are much easier to treat than the main illnesses that smoking may lead to.
You may still feel the urge to smoke, due to the fact that there are a lot of strong connections with smoking. People may link smoking to particular situations, with a diversity of emotions or with certain people in their lives. The perfect way to defeat these associations is to experience them without cigarettes. If you lapse do not lose hope. Seventy-five per cent of people who give up smoking do it again. The majority of smokers give up the habit three times before they achieve success. If you do lapse, don’t give up! Plan everything ahead and consider what you will do next time you feel the necessity to have a cigarette.
