Feed: How to Quit Smoking - AggScore: 50.0

When you finally quit smoking, your body instantly senses not only the unpleasant effects of quitting but the positive effects as well. Within just a few hours after you have quit, your body starts a healing process that will last for the succeeding years and will ultimately improve your overall health.

The thing is, once you reach the decision to quit your smoking habit, you do not necessarily view the health benefits as concrete concepts, but rather as abstract notions that may occur at whatever point in your distant future. The key is to understand the “quit smoking timeline”, which can help you determine and monitor your body’s regenerative process. You might be surprised that some of these benefits can occur just hours after you quit smoking.

First Two Hours

Within the first couple of hours after you quit smoking, your blood pressure and heart rate will decrease to normal levels. In addition, your circulation significantly improves, and you might notice a warming sensation in your hands & feet.

After Eight Hours

Carbon monoxide is among the lethal substances contained in cigarette smoke. Thus, smokers have toxic levels of this substance in their blood. However, once you quit, the carbon monoxide in your blood begins to drop in just 8 hours. As your body’s carbon monoxide decreases, your oxygen increases to optimal levels.

Twenty-Four Hours After

At 24 hours after cleansing your body of cigarette smoke, your risk for heart attacks considerably decreases.

After 48 Hours

At 48 hours in the timeline, you begin to experience the worst symptoms of withdrawal. A nervous regeneration takes effect, initially reducing your sense of smell and taste, but then later improving them from this point forward.

At 2-3 Weeks

Within 2-3 weeks after quitting, your circulation will show significant improvement. You will be able to perform physical activities and strenuous exercises with ease. Covering long distances on foot will no longer be a problem. The function of your lungs will also greatly improve, with coughing and phlegm reduced.

At 1-9 Months

Lung regeneration occurs in the next 1-9 months of your quit smoking timeline. The tiny cilia cells present in your lung structure start to develop and function again. You will experience a general improvement in your breathing, and your sinuses will become healthy once more. At this point, you will feel more alert and less tired.

The 1 Year Mark

In about a year, your risk factor for cardiac disease or heart attack is decreased by 50% in comparison to when you were still smoking.

In the Long Run

In the long term, here are some points to consider: After 5-15 years, you are still as much at risk of getting a stroke as someone who has not smoked in his/her entire life. After 10 years, you have a lesser risk of getting lung cancer or other types of cancer (e.g. pancreas, esophagus, bladder, kidneys, throat, mouth, etc.) that usually attack smokers. In 15 years, your risk of experiencing a heart problem (coronary disease or heart attack) is reduced to the level of a nonsmoker.

With this quit smoking timeline to guide you, you can more efficiently visualize your goals and thus make the decision to quit smoking easier and more bearable to make.

By: Amy Hudson
About the Author:

Most smokers want to quit at some point. But those smokers that want to quit soon forget their healthful ambitions of quitting. We all like to turn our head from things that cause us stress or that are difficult. But it’s completely logical, and that’s because nicotine is said to be more addicting than heroin. But did you know that the makers of cigarettes add tons of chemicals to them to increase their addictiveness? But smokers can really kick the habit by using many of the methods that are out there. So much is known about smoking cessation, and there are some powerful stop smoking products and tips available.

If you hope to quit smoking, the best thing you can do is start exercising. Even if you haven’t exercised in many years, it’s a good idea to get up and get your body moving somehow.

It doesn’t matter what you do, as you can even do something really slow like walking. When you do take the past puff, any exercise you do will help alleviate the stress involved with quitting. But if you are have excess fat on your body and you haven’t worked out in a while, you may want to make an appointment with your doctor. Once you begin exercising, you will see how good it can make you feel while you quit. A large component of quitting cigarettes for good include as many psychological edges as you can use. You need to completely change many of your habits and anything related to smoking. One thing you can try is to make an appointment with your doctor so that you can get your teeth cleaned. This will take care of the staining on your teeth and that will make you feel better. Plus, you will psychologically not want to start up again because you won’t want to stain your teeth anymore.

It’s important to note that nicotine is a substance that invokes relaxation, but you can become easily addicted to it. You need to find something to replace that relaxing feeling if you want to quit smoking for good.

There are many things you can do to minimize or even alleviate the stress. Find the things that work for you and then put them into practice. The most trying time when you are quitting is right after you put the last one down. It will take about 72 hours for the harshest effects to go away. That is why it’s important to have a plan in place and be prepared before you quit. There are plenty of tips for smoking cessation that are known to help some people quit smoking. That means you need to delve in deeper on your own so that you can learn about the various methods available to stop smoking. Many of these methods can be done on your own, but you can also find help from your doctor and many other means. What you want to do is accumulate as much in your favor as possible. When you can control or minimize the cravings for nicotine, then that will be a major part of the battle. If you can do that, you just have to stop your old habits and you have to throw out all things that make you think of cigarettes.

By: Neil Rischall
About the Author:

Your body is seriously affected by smoking, causing it to depreciate and loose strength especially at an advanced stage. Just like with any other addiction, you will experience various symptoms that would determine the kind of treatment required for permanent recovery. Here is a description of what actually happens inside your body after you’ve quit smoking.

First are three main areas where smoking affects most; respiratory and digestive systems, then the blood circulation. Under respiratory, there is the congestion of the sinus which is brought about by the clearing of the sinuses which may only stay for about two months. Other conditions include cough, throat clearing and hoarseness that may last for a few months. One can use any sore throat medication or even warm lemon to deal with it.

In the digestive system; indigestion of acids also known as heartburn is common which may take three weeks to three months if you’ve never experienced it before, otherwise it will take a longer period. Flatulence or gas; one may consider to take non gas generating foods. Due to the body adapting to new digestive changes, you might suffer from diarrhea as well as constipation and nausea that might last for a week.

Blood and oxygen circulation; amplified circulation of oxygen to the brain because you quit smoking, causes dizziness to occur periodically until the brain acclimatizes to the extra oxygen levels usually within a few days. Leg pains or stiffness should be viewed as a sign of improved circulation, the same with tingly fingers and toes. Other symptoms include sleepiness and fatigue because nicotine constricts the blood vessels while stressing the heart, causing it to beat 10,000 times more. The heart beat decreases when you stop smoking decelerating the metabolism which causes tiredness and sleepiness.

Sore mouth and breeding gums due to the replacement of old tissues with new once; sometimes the mouth might feel like its on fire but this condition will only stay for about eight weeks or so before you recover fully to normalcy. Another ordinary aspect is Irritability because of fluid retention in the body. You can take lots fluids while reducing the amounts of sodium intake. Salt causes you to retain water while retention of water in the body makes you irritable.

Additionally, not all of the mentioned symptoms would affect anyone who quits smoking. Itchiness, depression, headache, excitement and hot flashes are more frequent side effects that usually don’t last more than a couple of weeks, although Increasing on your caffeine intakes should chase away the headaches and the depression. Women would naturally have a hard time quitting smoking compared to men because of change in hormones, and they should be affected if one decided to stop smoking. In conclusion, ‘smoking is death’ there is no other way of saying it.

By: Juan C Ruiz

About the Author:

Hypnotism is gaining popularity as it is considered to be the one of the simplest ways to stop smoking. Self help to stop smoking is believed to yield positive results through self hypnosis as a natural cure. There are several methods to stop smoking such that some are quick and easy, while some consume more time ensuring higher levels of success.

In reality, every person is different from one another, and a method that may bring wonders on a person, may not necessarily give the same effect on another. To be precise, self hypnosis is found to be an appropriate natural cure as self help to stop smoking, while it uses an amazing power to divert the mind from smoking habit. There is no doubt that the mind is a powerful part of the human body and can bring any activity or work under its control easily.

Choosing and deciding to stop smoking is itself a big step, and that too opting for self help to stop smoking is one step ahead towards achieving success. It is also observed that people prefer going to specialists to acquire training for self hypnosis so that they can quit smoking, while many others try self hypnosis on their own. Either way is perfect and self hypnosis is highly recommended as it is one of the natural ways of quitting smoking that does not involve pills or any other form of medicine. Choosing a natural step to quit smoking not only protects the health, but also is a great way of assuring your body to heal effectively and naturally.

Once one starts the hypnosis sessions and then starts working with the subconscious mind, he will start believing that he will be able to quit smoking. The downside to hypnotism is that it usually demands many sessions to be attended as the cure to win over the addiction of smoking takes some time. There are tapes and CD`s providing subconscious stimulation even while a person is sleeping or meditating. Recently, certain studies show that people using self help to stop smoking by the natural way of self hypnosis enjoyed better results in comparison to those who chose quitting smoking on his own. However, this study also stated that there are positive outcomes from people who receive emotional support from their friends and relatives.

Beginning by understanding that smoking is bad for anybody’s health should be the main factor as it damages the lungs and respiratory system. This also leads to various heart and life threatening complications, besides suffering with bad breath and yellow teeth. Comprehending the damage and welcoming suggestions to stop smoking in a natural way is good for anybody`s health, and self hypnosis is a way of recording in your mind about giving up smoking. Initially, it may be challenging, but emphasizing it as the right step, and creating an image in the mind of quitting smoking and living happier life, it should strengthen the decision.

People having emotional and psychological stress can certainly use self hypnosis and eradicate from the mindset by telling him that smoking is not the solution to reduce stress or forget problems. Complementary tools also play a vital role to support self hypnosis such as exercising and finding alternative healthy outlets when a person craves for nicotine. Above all, deciding on self help to stop smoking is not an easy task and requires lot of preparation and hence they should not hesitate in accepting support and help from their loved ones.

By: Roberto Sedycias
About the Author: