Table of Contents
Electronic cigarettes: the models
Why stop
THE reasons to quit smoking there are so many and it is impossible to list them all. First, we should say goodbye to cigarettes for obvious health reasons. Nicotine and above all the countless chemicals present in cigarettes, combined with those that are formed in the combustion process, cause infinite damage to our body, generating free radicals and more. It is quite intuitive to understand how cigarette smoke irritates and damages all the mucous membranes and tissues with which it comes into contact, therefore the mouth, gums, throat and all the respiratory system, including the bronchi and lungs. Nicotine also causes direct damage to blood vessels, heart, stomach, kidneys and bladder. In addition, carbon monoxide is generated during combustion, a molecule that binds much more easily to hemoglobin than to oxygen and this means that all organs and tissues receive less quantities of oxygen.
THE benefits on health when you stop smoking are therefore many: you breathe better, you no longer suffer from a sore throat, the immune defenses are raised, the risk of caries and gingivitis is reduced, the teeth return to white, blood pressure is lowered, decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease and of developing emphysema, lung, stomach and bladder cancers. Not only that, the decrease in free radicals and the increase in oxygen makes all organs work better, promotes cognitive functions and improves the appearance of skin, hair and nails.
Getting out of addiction then allows you to enjoy your time feeling free from the constant desire to smoke and also has emotional repercussions because it increases self-esteem, confidence in oneself and in one’s abilities. The psycho-physical benefits are then added to the economic ones: quitting smoking immediately means saving significant amounts, from hundreds to thousands of euros a year. Despite the benefits of quitting smoking, many smokers become trapped in this addiction believing that it is impossible to break free. In reality, quitting smoking is much simpler than you might think.
Tips for quitting
Write your reasons
As we have seen, the reasons for getting rid of cigarettes are so many but everyone must find what really motivates them. Identify and write your own reasons it is essential to be able to quit smoking, because they are a great help on the path to quitting addiction.
Understanding why you smoke
After having written down the reasons for quitting smoking, you need to understand why you smoke. For this purpose, it is useful keep a diary on which to write down all the cigarettes smoked during the day, specifying the time and the reason for which the cigarette was lit. You will notice that most cigarettes are not smoked just because you feel like smoking at the time, but there can be a lot of different reasons. For example, many cigarettes are lit out of boredom, to gratify oneself after finishing a job, or to respond to an emotional distress or feeling (anger, agitation, anxiety). The diary is used to understand which are the recurring reasons that lead to smoking.
Find alternatives
When you understand the reasons why you smoke it is possible replace the cigarette with something that responds to the real need that led to turn it on, finding healthier alternatives. If you smoke out of boredom, instead of lighting a cigarette it might help to call a friend. If the need to be gratified is hidden behind the need to smoke, gratification can come from a pleasant activity, while when the cigarette is used to calm anger or agitation, you can resort to breathing exercises or meditation or, more simply, take a walk. After about a week, reading your diary you will notice that cigarettes will have drastically decreased, replaced by something else. But be careful not to replace cigarettes with food: unless it is a fruit, the risk is to gain weight very easily.
Stop permanently
After two or three weeks of filling in the diary, the cigarettes smoked will be about three or at most five per day. At this point you are ready to quit, completely eliminating cigarettes for three days. Throwing out cigarettes, lighters and ashtrays and staying away from other smokers certainly makes it easier to resist temptation and, while this may scare you, keep in mind that physical dependence from nicotine lasts only 72 hours. THE withdrawal symptoms are really very mild: you can suffer slightly from constipation, have some sleep disturbance, feel agitated or dizzy, due to the increased oxygenation of the brain.
After three days, there is no longer any trace of nicotine in the body, the symptoms disappear and all that remains is to deal with it psychological dependence. On the latter, however, we have already started working by writing our motivations and filling out the diary, so we already have the tools to overcome it. In difficult moments, it will be sufficient to resort to the alternatives already tested and to re-read one’s motivations in order not to give in to the temptation to light a cigarette. If this is not enough, in the five minutes in which the desire to smoke is felt, you can distract yourself by drinking an herbal tea or a glass of water, munching a carrot or brushing your teeth. Avoiding anything that can rekindle the desire to smoke can also be helpful for the first time. For example, if you smoke after coffee, the advice is to replace coffee with barley, ginseng coffee, tea or herbal tea. The trick is not to give in: a single puff of a cigarette even after a long time, although it may seem harmless, is able to reactivate the mechanism of addiction in the brain, making you start smoking again as and more than before.
The support of the groups
Some people find it easier to quit smoking when they have the support of a group. To get in touch with other smokers who want to get rid of nicotine addiction or with former smokers who have succeeded, you can contact the Italian League for the fight against cancer (LILT) or join online support groups.
Remedies
To quit smoking, there are no real natural remedies, but it is possible to resort to plants and herbs that can alleviate the symptoms of addiction. To relieve anxiety, agitation and nervousness, for example, lavender, lemon balm, lime and passionflower are useful, also able to promote sleep and rest. Against constipation that can occur in the first days after quitting smoking, you can instead rely on laxative and emollient remedies such as mallow and flax seeds.
To preventweight gain first of all it is necessary to follow a balanced diet and exercise; secondly, you can consider taking supplements that speed up the metabolism such as garcinia, green coffee or guarana. Often then, the people who struggle the most to get rid of an addiction, have low levels of dopamine and serotonin: in this case it could be useful to take hypericum-based remedies, able to increase the levels of these neurotransmitters and improve mood. Before buying and taking smoking cessation supplements, it is always advisable to talk to your doctor, pharmacist or herbalist.
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