I know it’s harder said than done to quit smoking, especially when you have been smoking for years. While some actually enjoy smoking, others are doing everything they can to quit. These “others” know it’s going to lead to worse things in their life, and possibly death. It’s like doing dangerous drugs or even drinking alcohol, eventually something in the body will mess up, causing something else to mess up, and there goes the domino effect. Nicotine is remarkable for the vast number of harmful chemicals it naturally contains, plus those which are added to it during growth or processing of the leaves. Nicotine is also remarkable for its addictive qualities. It ranks with heroin, and some who have been hooked on both declare it to be harder to quit than heroin. Like heroin, cocaine and alcohol, tobacco gives sense of relaxation while making the heart pump harder causing palpitations and a generalized feeling of anxiety. Could you imagine what smoking does to the people with already high blood pressure? I would not want to be in that situation. And for the smoker who takes the last puff before bedtime, the circulatory system is only normal 2 hours out of every 24. Interesting huh?
Each cigarette destroys 25mg of vitamin C; a full pack in on day eliminates more of this vitamin than is in the diet. If you don’t already know, vitamin C is a HUGE benefit to the body too, especially in sick people. Nicotine has lead, carcinogens, cadmium, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, and over 5,000 other irritating chemicals in the tobacco. Tobacco not only injures you, but it also damages those around you; your spouse, your children, your unborn, and friends. The breath of a smoker contains slightly more nicotine than the side smoke from the cigarette. Smokers are constantly exhaling air into the room for their children to breath. Isn’t that horrible? I have witnessed this first hand. I know someone who is close to me that smokes, and when they talk to me sometimes I feel this weird sick feeling. It is the feeling you get when you know you are getting sick, my lungs feel cold and my eyes start watering. It’s really weird. I never experienced this before because I used to be an occasional smoker, and unhealthy. It seems when I started to take care of myself better is when I started to notice more toxic smells. Now I understand how bad smoking cigarettes really are, or even being around them. Yet people still don’t believe it, while people continue to die from it.
Now we can laugh about this and say it’s never going to happen to me or whatever, but truth is, if we keep leading these unhealthy lifestyles we most certainly will feel these effects one day. The effects are usually bad results like a health issue, then we get those infamous words, “the health issue we are having runs in your family genes, or it’s hereditary.” It sure is if your parents, their parents and their parents didn’t exercise, ate, drank, smoked, partied all the same way. But what people don’t know is that we can change this, break the “curse,” by changing our unhealthy lifestyles to healthy ones. For example, if your grandparents ate meals that were high in sugar and saturated fats and lacked a certain vitamin, let’s say vitamin A, they most likely had eye problems. So now the baby in the womb is eating like this, and grows up eating like this and now they have eye problems. It can happen with any disease really, it’s how we eat, exercise, think, or even the lack of fresh air and sunlight we are exposed to. Like with smoking, if your parents or someone in the family smoked, the kids are more likely to smoke too. We all know our children mimic us. So let’s be good examples, we all make mistakes but if we know the truth, why would we want to go backwards.
Cigarettes smokers have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Factors like high blood pressure can stretch out the arteries and cause scarring. Bad cholesterol, called LDL, often gets lodged in the scar tissue and combines with white blood cells to form clots. The good cholesterol, called HDL, helps remove LDL from the arteries. So not only does it help increase your risk for lung cancer, it raises blood pressure, robs you of your good cholesterol, and it increases your risk for blood clots, and the list goes on.
Did you know that women will have intensified problems with menstruation and menopause, and men will have greater prostate trouble? Women who smoke age twice as fast as other women. Their skin rapidly ages and the result is a dull, lifeless, gray, deteriorating complexion and wrinkles. The men chew tobacco, there is irritation and inflammation of the lips, mouth, teeth, throat, and esophagus. This eventually leads to cancer of the lip, mouth, tongue, larynx, esophagus, pharynx, and other diseases.
Although cigarette smoking alone increases your risk of coronary heart disease, it greatly increases risk to your whole cardiovascular system. Smoking also increases the risk of recurrent coronary heart disease after bypass surgery.
Atherosclerosis is the buildup of fatty substances in the arteries, and is a chief contributor to heart disease – the No. 1 killer in America.
Stroke risks are higher, too. Because smoking temporarily increases blood pressure, and also increases cholesterol build-ups and the tendency for blood to clot, both types of strokes are more likely for a person who smokes. There are strokes caused from bleeding because of a weakened blood vessel and strokes caused by blockages and clots that form in a vessel and cut off blood flow to the brain. Strokes are one of the leading causes of death and adult disability in America.
Smoking also contributes to peripheral artery disease. Again, because of the added strain smoking places on the arteries and veins, peripheral artery disease is much more like among smokers, and the habit also further increases the risk for aortic aneurism.
Despite all these scary facts, there is hope if you’re a smoker. Did you know that almost immediately after you quit smoking, your lungs and other smoke-damaged organs start to repair themselves? You can start getting better the day you put down the cigarettes.
After one month of living smoke-free:
- You’ll soon be able to exercise or perform activities with less shortness of breath.
- Your clothes, your body, your car and your home will smell better.
- Your sense of taste and smell will return to normal.
- The stains on your teeth and fingernails will start to fade.
Timeline of smoke-free living benefits
According to the American Heart Association and the U.S. surgeon general, this is how your body starts to recover:
- In your first 20 minutes after quitting: your blood pressure and heart rate recover from the cigarette-induced spike.
- After 12 hours of smoke-free living: the carbon monoxide levels in your blood return to normal.
- After two weeks to three months of smoke-free living: your circulation and lung function begin to improve.
- After one to nine months of smoke-free living: clear and deeper breathing gradually returns as coughing and shortness of breath diminishes; you regain the ability to cough productively instead of hacking, which cleans your lungs and reduce your risk of infection.
- One year after quitting smoking, a person’s excess risk of coronary heart disease is reduced by 50 percent.
- After 5 years: Your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder are cut in half. Your risk of cervical cancer and stroke return to normal.
- After 10 years: You are half as likely to die from lung cancer. Your risk of larynx or pancreatic cancer decreases.
- After 15 years your risk of coronary heart disease is the same as a non-smoker’s.
We need to understand how important our lungs are to our body, our lungs are “air-exchange organs.” They’re made up of tubes that branch out into small sacs called bronchioles and alveoli where oxygen exchange takes place. Your body takes in the oxygen you breathe and uses it as fuel. When you breathe in, the sacs inflate. When you breathe out, the sacs deflate. In a healthy person, these tubes and sacs are very elastic and spongy. In a person with a chronic lung disease, these sacs lose their elasticity and oxygen exchange is greatly impaired. When that happens, your body is in grave danger because we can’t live without oxygen! The lungs protect themselves with a thin layer of protective mucus and by moving toxic particles out with small hairs. In a smoker’s lungs, the small hairs, called cilia, move slower and struggle to remove harmful particles. You can’t cough, sneeze or swallow effectively to clear these toxins. They become trapped in your lungs, leading to higher risk for numerous dangerous health problems, including heart disease, stroke and cancer. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is usually made up of two conditions that make breathing difficult: emphysema and chronic bronchitis. When you have emphysema, the air sacs in your lungs start to deteriorate and lose their elasticity. Chronic bronchitis occurs when the lining in the tubes in your lungs swell and restrict your breathing. These conditions are directly related to smoking.
All this information should be enough to make you want to quit smoking, especially if we have children or if we have people to take care of, or if we are sick, or dying, who is going to do that for us? I know it is hard to quit, I have seen how it hurt people in my family and in my friend’s families. I still see people suffer to this day, but we have to be the ones to make that decision to want to change. Once we make that decision, we can begin to take appropriate steps to healing our bodies. If you think nothing is or will work for you, ask God for help. I have seen miracles how God helped people to quit smoking. Whether it’s how He makes you lose interest in smoking or makes you quit because of a health issue. God works in mysterious ways. Remember, we can’t expect something to happen if we don’t want it to happen, like I said before, we have to make that choice and stick to it.
Don’t forget about the withdrawals, this usually happens. Withdrawal symptoms include cough, depression, anxiety, headaches, stomach cramps, irritability, hunger, and cravings for tobacco. This continues for about 2 weeks. If supplementary treatment is given, the crisis can be weathered easier, with less likelihood of a return to smoking.
- The craving for a smoke only lasts 3-5 minutes; then it returns later for another 3-5 minutes. As time passes, it gets easier to resist the urge.
- In order to quit, it is best to accompany a firm decision with a cleansing program. This helps speed up the elimination of stored-up nicotine and other poisons. The quicker this happens, the faster the cravings cease.
- A nutritious diet must be adhered to. Carrot juice and citrus juices are very helpful. Vitamin C (5,000-25,000mg in divided doses daily) is important.
- Take the tobacco pack, or can, and throw it away. In its place put a candy bar. Blood sugar level is a factor in the addiction. When the cravings are successfully gone throw away the candies.
- Take extra calcium and chamomile 3-6 times a day. Both will help to relax during the withdrawal period. Vitamin B complex is also important for the nerves.
- Keep a stick of licorice in your pocket, and suck on it when you want to smoke. Or munch on a raw carrot.
- Do deep breathing exercises, whenever you feel an urge to smoke.
- Steam Baths during the withdrawals
- Heating and sweating packs can be used for the elimination of nicotine from the body, thus lessening the physical craving for more tobacco.
- Daily Colonics
- Lobelia contains lobeline, which is similar to nicotine. It is non-addictive, but helps a person quit tobacco.
Here is how Lobelia is used in aversion therapy:
- Only smoke one hour each day, at which time 15 drops of lobelia, Diluted in water is swallowed every half an hour and then 15 minutes before lighting the first cigarette. With each 15 minute period, an additional 15 drops are added to the water to drink while the cigarettes are smoked. The result will be nausea, which the mind will associate with the cigarettes. This kills the desire for the cigarettes.
The following herbs help get you off tobacco, take which ever ones you want together or alone.
- Ginger
- Catnip
- Skullcap
- Hops
- Burdock Root
- Red Clover
- Slippery Elm
- Cayenne
- Raw Garlic (eating)
God can give you the help you need. Go to Him and tell Him you need His help. Surrender your life to Him. In His strength, you can overcome the tobacco Habit.
Works Cited:
Ferrell, V., & Cherne, M.D., H. (2008). Natural Remedies Encyclopedia (Sixth ed.). Altamont, Tennessee: Harvestime Books.
WebMD.COM
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