Everyone knows about the harmful effects of cigarettes, but not all are about the mechanisms of recovery and return to life without a bad habit. It is the meaning of all the processes that take place in the body that can serve as additional motivation when fighting nicotine addiction. Let us consider how this happens and what it means to quit smoking and what we need to do to make it as comfortable as possible.
What happens to the body when you quit smoking?
Stopping smoking before the onset of irreversible pathological processes, a person can, albeit for a long time, restore his health. Complete recovery of the body even after a short but regular use of tobacco products requires 5 to 10 years. However, the first signs of improvement in his performance can be seen after a few days.
To do this, it is worth trying to record on paper all the feelings that occur while quitting smoking. By keeping a smoking cessation diary every day, you can be sure of 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.
Next, we will show you more specifically how all organs and systems are restored.
How does the condition of the internal organs change?
Complete cessation of smoking has a beneficial effect on the human body, but not all changes can be seen with 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 heal, the lungs clear of viscous saliva - it becomes easier to breathe, gasp and cough annoyingly.
- The chances of developing cancer, including the most common disease of this type, lung cancer, are reduced.
- The sense of smell and taste buds are restored.
- The liver is cleansed after prolonged exposure to toxic substances.
- The risk of sudden death is reduced by 10 times.
This is just the main part of what happens after quitting smoking, because almost all the organs of a smoker are cured by the influence of toxins and carcinogens contained in tobacco smoke.
External changes in the body after quitting smoking
Women are more interested in what happens when you quit smoking with your appearance. We hasten to answer that life without cigarettes will only bring positive changes in your appearance. Visual improvements can be seen within 4-6 weeks. First of all, the complexion becomes healthier, the gray color disappears due to the fact that toxins no longer enter the body and the blood is saturated with oxygen.
Teeth become whiter without being affected by the tar contained in tobacco products. The yellow color that accompanies every smoker disappears from the fingers.
After 6 months, women notice strengthening of the hair follicles and, as a result, a decrease in hair loss, an improvement in their appearance. Without exposure to 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 than the cardiovascular system or lungs. But timely cessation of taking toxic substances contained in cigarettes will preserve the health of women and men. So women, in addition to general improvements, can observe the following changes in the body after quitting smoking:
- Normalization of hormonal levels, as the toxins contained in tobacco smoke, negatively affecting the balance of hormones in the female body, will no longer be supplied.
- Improving the condition of facial skin and reducing the risk of its premature aging due to the normalization of collagen production.
- There is a high probability of getting pregnant and keeping a healthy baby.
For men, parting with a bad habit will improve their sexual function. This applies not only to increasing potency, increasing the duration of sexual intercourse, but also the ability to reproduce healthy offspring.
The Most Common Negative Consequences of Quitting Smoking
Most people who have tried to overcome their nicotine addiction, first of all, notice not positive but negative changes. This is not surprising, because by stopping nicotine intake in a person, a withdrawal syndrome occurs - a kind of withdrawal. In order to know what to prepare for, consider what happens after quitting smoking:
- From the nervous system: increased nervousness, decreased concentration, depression, anxiety, poor sleep quality or insomnia, general weakness and fatigue.
- From the digestive tract: nausea, a sharp increase in appetite, stomach pain.
- On the part of the respiratory system: increased cough with discharge of dark saliva.
- On the part of the ENT organs: sore throat or feeling of a "lump" in the throat, nasal congestion, light nose.
All of these symptoms can be minimized by giving your body support.
How to maintain immunity in the body?
The immune system responds immediately to changes associated with cessation of nicotine intake, and more often in the early stages this reaction is the opposite of what is expected. So there are often arguments that I have not smoked for a month and that I get sick much more often than while smoking. Ex-smokers become more susceptible to various viruses and easily get any of them, this is accompanied by restructuring of the body. Therefore, measures should be taken to strengthen the immune system. So, during the process of quitting tobacco products, doctors advise taking multivitamin complexes in which all the necessary vitamins and minerals are balanced.
Furthermore, traditional medicine prescriptions will not be superfluous in this case. Echinacea tincture, ginseng, green tea with honey and lemon will be a helpful helper.
Please note that it is not recommended to use medication when breaking a bad habit.
How to help the lungs?
It is the lungs and bronchi that are particularly affected by tobacco smoke, so it is worth helping them clear their thick saliva as quickly as possible. To do this, you need to consume a large amount of liquid. Calm water is still ideal. Also, attention should be paid to humidity in the home. 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. A budget and effective option is licorice root syrup. You can also use herbal mixture of lung, horsetail, plantain leaves, elecampane and berry in the form of tea. Thus, during smoking cessation, the changes in the body, respectively in the organs of the respiratory system, will continue with minimal disturbances.
How to overcome nervous system disorders associated with breaking a bad habit in the first month?
The greatest number of negative reactions an ex-smoker feels about himself falls on the nervous system. So almost every person notices a depressive state, and in some cases even a depressive state. If we consider what happens when you quit smoking every day, then it is the nervous system that suffers more than others in the initial stage.
As we noted above, taking medication while quitting is highly undesirable, but this rule does not apply to sedatives, which can effectively treat the added stress on the psyche. However, medications should only be used as directed by your doctor.
Herbal enthusiasts should take sedatives such as motherwort, mint, valerian as a tea or take it in tablet form.
What can be done to prevent smoking cessation from weight gain?
Special attention should be paid to diet so that changes after quitting smoking do not affect body weight. Weight gain is a result of increased appetite and, if you do not take this issue seriously, you can gain a lot of weight. Often this fact frightens women who smoke, forcing them to abandon the idea of quitting a bad habit.
A diet high in vegetables and fruits should be included in the diet during the withdrawal period. Fiber is excellent at suppressing hunger and will allow you to feel full for a long time. You should also exclude the use of spicy and fatty foods, and also be careful with sweets and pastries. The same can be said for lollipops and seeds, which are becoming a substitute for cigarettes for many people. They should prefer apples, carrots or a glass of clean water.
What happens when you quit smoking every day?
A person can feel the first results of the fight against addiction in the first days. Moreover, it is during this period that the most pronounced are precisely the negative reactions, which, like the positive ones, should be entered in the smoker's diary (if any) in order to get an overview, strengthen the spirit andunderstand what has already passed and is not broken. So what is the risk of quitting smoking by day:
- 1 day: appetite is disturbed, apathy occurs.
- Day 2: nervousness appears, insomnia may appear.
- Day 3: The urge to smoke becomes particularly strong.
- Day 4: cough intensifies with saliva discharge.
- Day 5: there is a constant feeling of hunger.
- Day 6: A depressive state may develop.
- Day 7: Withdrawal Syndrome gradually recedes.
At the same time, the pulse and pressure stabilize, 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 quitting smoking, which occur in a month, a year
For a person who quits smoking, the effects on the body every day are just the beginning of a long recovery journey, lasting several years. However, it is the first year that is most productive, because during this period the maximum number of changes occurs, which are reflected not only in the appearance, but also in the general condition of the former smoker:
- Lung volume increases, increased fatigue and shortness of breath during physical exertion disappear.
- Physical and psychological dependence on cigarettes disappears.
- The risk of developing cardiovascular disease is significantly reduced.
- The skin looks more attractive, its premature aging is prevented.
- Hair becomes more shiny, nails stronger.
- Affected liver cells recover.
- Coughing and hoarseness disappear.
At this stage, we can say with certainty that the addiction is gone.
What is the best way to throw hard or gradually?
This is the question that most often arises in smokers with different experiences. There is an opinion that it is worth fighting addiction based on the duration of your addiction. However, most doctors are of the opinion that quitting smoking will not bring a positive result. The smoking habit, then, does not go away and the body continues to crave nicotine. Therefore, the best solution would be a complete and decisive rejection of tobacco products. Despite the fact that smoking along the way will face the difficulties we described above, in the end result it will preserve the most valuable thing - health.
But there are some times when it does not suddenly work to break free from addiction. This applies to smokers who consume on average 1, 5-2 packs per day. In this it is worth trying to methodically reduce the amount of smoked until it stops completely within a month.
As you can see, there will be many obstacles in the way of a healthy, nicotine-free life. The main thing is to understand that they are all temporary and decide on the fact that these temporary difficulties will not allow you to retreat before the main goal - to become nicotine independent.