Everyone knows about the harmfulness of cigarettes, but not everyone is in the mechanisms of recovery and return to life without a bad habit. Understanding all the processes in the body can be an additional motivation in the fight against nicotine addiction. Consider how this happens and what it means to give up cigarettes and what to do to make it as comfortable as possible to end the addiction.
What happens to the body when you stop smoking?
By quitting smoking before the onset of irreversible pathological processes, a person can, albeit for a long time, restore their own health. Complete recovery of the body even after a short but regular use of tobacco products takes 5 to 10 years. However, the first signs of improvement in its performance can be seen after a few days.
To do this, it is worth trying to write down on paper all the feelings that occur during smoking cessation. By keeping a smoking cessation diary every day you can see all the changes that happen every day. It is also a way to create good motivation for yourself, celebrating every local success in this difficult endeavor.
Then we will tell you more precisely how all organs and systems are restored.
How does the condition of the internal organs change?
Complete smoking cessation has a beneficial effect on the human body, but not all changes are visible to the naked eye. Let's look at some of them:
- Blood pressure decreases, the risk of myocardial infarction decreases several times.
- The walls of blood vessels are strengthened, the organs are enriched with oxygen.
- The bronchi are healed, the lungs are cleared of viscous sputum - it becomes easier to breathe, difficulty breathing and annoying cough disappear.
- The chances of oncological diseases are decreasing, including the most common diseases of this type - lung cancer.
- Smell and taste return.
- The liver is cleansed after prolonged exposure to toxic substances.
- The risk of sudden death is reduced 10 times.
This is just the main part of what happens after smoking cessation, as almost all smoker’s organs recover from the effects of toxins and carcinogenic ingredients contained in tobacco smoke.
External changes in the body after smoking cessation
Women are most interested in what happens when you stop smoking with your appearance. Let’s hurry to answer that a life without cigarettes will only bring positive changes to your appearance. Visual improvements can be noticed within 4-6 weeks. First of all, the complexion becomes healthier, the grayish color goes away due to the fact that toxins no longer enter the body and the blood is saturated with oxygen.
Teeth become noticeably whiter without the influence of tar contained in tobacco products. The yellowish hue that accompanies each smoker disappears from the fingers.
After 6 months, women notice a strengthening of hair follicles and, as a result, a reduction in hair loss, an improvement in their appearance. Without the effects of tar and toxins, the body's skin improves thanks to the natural production of collagen, which is no longer blocked by smoking.
Quit smoking: what happens in the body of a man and a woman
Human reproductive function suffers from smoking no less and no more than the cardiovascular system or lungs. But timely cessation of the intake of toxic substances contained in cigarettes will preserve the health of women and men. Thus, women, in addition to general improvements, may notice the following changes in the body after smoking cessation:
- Normalization of hormonal levels, because the toxins contained in tobacco smoke, which negatively affect the balance of hormones in the female body, will no longer be supplied.
- Improving the condition of facial skin and reducing the risk of premature aging due to normalization of collagen production.
- You are more likely to get pregnant and carry a healthy baby.
For men, parting with a bad habit will improve sexual function. This refers not only to increasing potency, increasing the duration of sexual intercourse, but also to the ability to reproduce healthy offspring.
The most common negative consequences of smoking cessation
Most people who have tried to overcome their own nicotine addiction, first of all, notice not positive but negative changes. This is not surprising, because when a person stops taking nicotine, he develops a withdrawal syndrome - a type of withdrawal. To know what to prepare for, consider what happens after you quit smoking:
- From the nervous system: increased irritability, decreased concentration, depression, anxiety, poor quality sleep or insomnia, general weakness and rapid fatigue.
- From the digestive tract: nausea, sudden increase in appetite, stomach pain.
- On the part of the respiratory system: intensified cough with discharge of dark sputum.
- By the ENT organs: sweating or feeling of a “dumpling” in the throat, nasal congestion, slight runny nose.
All of these symptoms can be reduced by providing support to your body.
How to maintain immunity in the body?
The immune system responds immediately to changes associated with nicotine withdrawal, and is most often the opposite of what is expected in the initial stages. So often there are arguments that I have not smoked for a month and that I get sick much more often than during smoking. Ex-smokers become more susceptible to various viruses and easily pick up any of them, which is associated with body restructuring. Therefore, measures should be taken to strengthen the immune system. So, in the process of giving up tobacco products, doctors advise taking multivitamin complexes, in which all the necessary vitamins and trace elements are balanced.
In addition, the recipes of traditional medicine in this case will not be superfluous. Echinacea tincture, ginseng, green tea with honey and lemon will be a useful helper.
Keep in mind that resorting to medication is not recommended when you break up with a bad habit.
How to help the lungs?
Tobacco smoke especially affects the lungs and bronchi, so you should help them clear the thick mucus as soon as possible. To do this, you should drink plenty of fluids. Plain still water is ideal. Also, you must pay attention to the humidity in the house. Dry air is known to inhibit productive coughing, thus slowing down the cleansing process.
Herbs and syrups based on them are a good alternative to synthetic mucolytics. Licorice syrup is a budget and efficient option. In the form of tea, you can also use herbal mixtures of lung slice, horsetail, plantain, elecampane and elderberry. Thus, during smoking cessation, changes in the body, ie in the organs of the respiratory system, will take place with minimal discomfort.
How to overcome nervous system disorders associated with breaking a bad habit in the first month?
Most of the negative reactions that a former smoker feels about himself fall on the nervous system. Thus, almost every person notices a depressed, and in some cases even depressed state. If you take into account what happens when you stop smoking every day, then in the initial phase, the nervous system suffers more than the others.
As mentioned above, taking medication while quitting cigarettes is highly undesirable, but this rule does not apply to sedatives, which can effectively deal with increased stress on the psyche. However, medications should only be used as directed by a physician.
Herbal lovers should cook soothing herbs like thyme, mint and valerian as tea or take it in pill form.
What can you do to prevent smoking cessation from gaining weight?
Special attention should be paid to diet so that changes after smoking cessation do not affect body weight. Weight gain is the result of increased appetite and, if you don’t take this problem seriously, you can gain a lot of weight. This fact is often what scares women who smoke, forcing them to abandon the idea of quitting a bad habit.
A diet with lots of vegetables and fruits should be included in the diet during the withdrawal period. Fiber perfectly suppresses hunger and will allow you to feel full for a long time. You should also rule out the use of spicy and fatty foods, and also be careful with desserts and pastries. The same can be said for lollipops and seeds, which for many become a substitute for cigarettes. You should prefer apples, carrots or a glass of clean water.
What happens when you quit smoking every day?
In the first days, a person can feel the first results of the fight against addiction. Moreover, it is during this period that the negative reactions are most pronounced, which, like the positive ones, should be entered in the smoker's diary (if any) in order to gain a general picture, strengthen the spirit and understand what has already passed and is not broken. So, what is the risk of quitting smoking per day:
- Day 1: appetite is disturbed, apathy occurs.
- Day 2: nervousness occurs, insomnia may occur.
- Day 3: The urge to smoke becomes especially strong.
- Day 4: The cough is intensified by the discharge of sputum.
- Day 5: There is a constant feeling of hunger.
- Day 6: A depressed state may develop.
- Day 7: Withdrawal syndrome gradually recedes.
At the same time the pulse and blood pressure are stabilized, the risk of heart attack is reduced, the sense of smell is improved and the organs are saturated with oxygen.
Changes in the body after smoking cessation, which occur in a month, a year
For a person who stops smoking, the effects on the body every day are just the beginning of a long journey of recovery, which lasts for several years. However, the first year is the most productive, because in that period there is a maximum number of changes that affect not only the appearance, but also the general condition of the former smoker:- Lung volume increases, increased fatigue and difficulty breathing during physical exertion disappear.
- Both physical and psychological addiction to cigarettes is disappearing.
- The risk of developing cardiovascular disease is significantly reduced.
- The skin looks more attractive, it prevents its premature aging.
- Hair becomes shinier, nails stronger.
- Affected liver cells are regenerating.
- Cough and hoarseness disappear.
At this stage we can say with certainty that the addiction is no more.
What is the best way to throw vigorously or gradually?
This is the question most often asked among smokers with different experiences. There is an opinion that it is worth fighting against addiction based on the duration of your own addiction. However, most doctors are of the opinion that the gradual cessation of tobacco smoking will not bring a positive result. The smoking habit, therefore, does not stop, and the body continues to search for nicotine. Therefore, the best solution would be to completely and decisively reject tobacco products. Despite the fact that the smoker will face the difficulties we described above during the trip, in the end he will preserve the most valuable thing - health.
But there are times when it doesn’t come out abruptly to break up from the addiction. This applies to avid smokers who on average consume 1, 5-2 boxes a day. In this it is worth trying to methodically reduce the amount of smoked until it completely stops within a month.
As you can see, there will be many obstacles to a healthy nicotine-free life. The main thing is to understand that everything is temporary and to rely on the fact that these temporary difficulties will not allow you to withdraw before the main goal - to become independent of nicotine.