The decision to quit smoking is stressful for a person. Everything that happens to the body after quitting smoking manifests itself with severe symptoms in all internal organs. Such changes can scare anyone. The first days without nicotine are especially difficult, when a withdrawal syndrome develops in response to the absence of the usual doping drug.
A smoker's diary can help patients cope, in which the addict himself describes in detail everything that happens to him dynamically, understanding cause and effect.
Pros and cons of quitting smoking
Nature is so wise that it gave a person the possibility of compensatory recovery after illness, injury, stress. The regenerative potential of each is very high. Therefore, quitting smoking should be assured that, on your own or with the help of specialists, you can get rid of a bad habit, regardless of the duration of your addiction to tobacco smoke and the severity of organ damage. internal. The important thing is to want to do it.
Positive points
Complete rejection of tobacco significantly reduces the risk of numerous diseases: bronchitis, tracheitis, laryngitis, pneumonia, asthma, pneumonia, destructive pathologies of the bronchi. Varicose veins, thrombophlebitis, endarteritis obliterans, diabetic foot will regress. Cholesterol levels are normalized, along with it, the development of atherosclerosis of the large arteries that feed the brain and heart, kidneys and liver will slow down.
This will help prevent heart attacks and strokes.
Tobacco smoke is a powerful intoxicant. The purification of organs and tissues from their metabolites will allow the body to start the self-healing process. Clean blood flow will fill cells with nutrients and oxygen, which will relieve headaches, fatigue, irritability, and balance blood pressure. Since there are about 90 carcinogens in cigarettes, blocking and eliminating them will become cancer prevention.
Surprisingly, such changes will begin in the first few hours without nicotine. Your trace reaction will be there for some time, but for someone in a week, for someone in a month it will disappear without a trace. More difficult with the psychological attachment to the pleasure of nightshade poison.
Stress must be dealt with consistently and wisely. You can not neglect anti-smoking drugs, you need to organize rest, interesting leisure. Sometimes it's good to put your feelings on paper.
It's so good to know that you "earned" a trip or a trip to the theater by quitting buying tobacco products. Savings can be very useful.
unpleasant details
It should be understood that it is very difficult to part with the nightshade alkaloid due to the following points:
- Pyridine poison increases the emotional background, which, in turn, helps to focus in difficult situations.
- The joy hormone produced in response to nicotine intake relieves stress and helps you survive grief.
- Belladonna alkaloid creates the illusion of peace, gives self-confidence, causes moral satisfaction.
Those positive effects are hard to forget, and even harder to get rid of.
Acetylcholine receptors, which are accustomed to tobacco poison, require its presence. In protest, they trigger the withdrawal syndrome. If at the beginning of smoking the pleasure of a cigarette lasted a couple of hours, then over time such an emotional increase lasts for half an hour. So, you need to increase the amount of doping.
Otherwise, the feeling of discomfort will significantly exceed the euphoria in strength and sharpness.
An abrupt parting with a cigarette makes the awkwardness unbearable. This is a real break. It is necessary to somehow compensate for the deficiency of nicotinic acid - a metabolite of tobacco poison, otherwise it is impossible to cope with irritability, which is transformed into aggression.
There is also:
- Loss of attention.
- Craving for tobacco products.
- An intense feeling of hunger.
- Inability to sleep.
- hyperhidrosis
Only a specialist can help stop withdrawal syndrome.
The body's reaction to gradual and abrupt cessation of tobacco products.
Every person is different, and so is their decision to quit. Some prefer immediately, others need time. The body reacts differently to the chosen method of quitting tobacco.
If we are talking about a chronic user of the nightshade alkaloid, then saying goodbye to nicotine will not work quickly, it will be a slow and painful process. A novice tobacco lover has the opportunity to simply stop communicating with cigarettes, her self-healing system will cope.
However, most often the reaction to the absence of habitual doping is manifested by withdrawal syndrome or withdrawal.
In fact, it is a restructuring of the entire organism, accompanied by:
- Intense desire for tobacco.
- Unreasonable nervousness.
- Conditions close to fainting.
- Depression.
- loss of strength
- Lower mood.
- Anxiety with the development of phobias.
- Bradycardia.
- Skin rash.
- Aphthous lesions of the buccal mucosa.
- Constant upper respiratory discomfort: shortness of breath, cough, sweating, runny nose, watery eyes.
- Disorder of the digestive system up to colic.
Each of these symptoms can appear individually or as part of several disorders at the same time. The severity of symptoms varies from person to person.
Sometimes there is no abstinence.
Cleaning stages
The release process of nicotine metabolites is complex, but it starts from the first minutes of quitting the cigarette, going through a series of stages.
| failure time | body changes |
|---|---|
| Half an hour | Tachycardia passes, blood pressure begins to normalize, the kidneys work more intensively and prepare to remove toxins. |
| A couple of hours | The kidneys remove pyridine poison metabolites from the blood. |
| midday | The blood is saturated with oxygen, carbon monoxide is removed from the lungs. The kidneys continue to eliminate the nicotine and a withdrawal symptom develops. |
| Day | The nightshade alkaloid is completely eliminated, there is no replacement for it, and withdrawal occurs. |
| In a few days | The lungs begin to remove the tar and toxins from the cigarette. A cough appears - a natural reaction to accumulated soot. |
| On the third day | Lung cleansing continues. A strong feeling of hunger develops, since the poison of tobacco has ceased to block the brain's satiety center and is restored, provoking a person's appetite. In addition, blood pressure returned to normal, which causes, due to the saturation of neurons with oxygen and blood flow to the brain, tinnitus. |
| Fourth day | Circulation returns to normal. The mucous membrane of the digestive tract regenerates, the pancreas begins to function normally. Sticky sputum comes out. |
| Fifth day | An intense wet cough with oxidized sputum from soot continues, the taste is restored. |
| Sixth day | An agonizing cough and irritation due to lack of nicotine. There is a desire to return to cigarettes. |
| One week | Metabolites and toxins are eliminated. Organs and tissues have partially recovered or are beginning to recover. The liver re-synthesizes endogenous nicotine, the physiological need for it is satisfied. The exhausting cough persists. |
| eighth day | Taste and smell receptors are also restored, food acquires meaning, becomes tasty. A person eats a lot and gets better. The vessels are not stable yet, the jumps in blood pressure are worrying. Nervousness gradually disappears. |
| ninth day | The stomach restored secretion. The intestines are in the process of this, pain appears in the lower abdomen, problems with the stool. At this time, aphthous stomatitis, herpes, acute respiratory infections can develop. |
| Ten days | The cough continues. Immunity begins to recover. The emotional state is difficult. You need help and support from loved ones. |
| 11-14 days | Vascular tone is restored, blood flow is normal, due to active oxygen saturation, dizziness and hand tremors occur. The lungs are being cleaned. There are problems sleeping. |
| second half of the month | The mucous membranes of the bronchi regenerate, the cough subsides, the immune system works at full capacity, the skin acquires a normal tone, the pressure is normal, there is no dyspepsia. Many people decide that everything is over and you can try a cigarette. If this happens, everything goes back to the first days of retreat. |
| next three months | From the second month, the work of the body is leveled. The systems work in harmony. Toxins are removed in all natural ways. Hair, skin, nails improve a lot. The lungs continue to recover. Metabolism and blood pressure normalize, weight stabilizes. But the withdrawal is still felt. |
| half-year | The hematopoietic system was completely restored. The cough stops. Sleep is normal. The liver has regenerated. To speed up the cleansing of the lungs, physical exercises are connected. |
| Ten months | This is a milestone when a breakdown is possible due to the fact that: smokers begin to dream of cigarettes, in the morning there is a strong desire to take a sip of a tobacco product, sleep is disturbed. So there is a restructuring of brain activity without nicotine. Here, the ligaments are restored, the voice acquires its usual timbre. Teeth whiten, bad breath disappears. |
| Year | Almost all organs and tissues are up to date. The lungs may still be in the process of recovery. Potency is excellent, reproductive function is normal. Almost no desire to smoke. The "tobacco diseases" disappear. |
| Two years | The lungs have recovered. The brain is eating well. The body is so pure that accidentally smoking a cigarette will be perceived as smoked for the first time. You can plan a pregnancy. |
| Five years | The risk of stroke is compared with non-smokers. |
| Decade | The probability of developing lung cancer is the same as that of those who have never had a cigarette in their mouth. |
| Fifteen years | The risk of heart attack is compared with that of non-smokers. |
Many changes in the body are not subject to restoration and, over time, become triggers for cellular malignancy.
These include:
- Destruction of the alveoli of the lungs, unable to get rid of resins and carcinogens.
- Long-lasting non-regenerative burn of the oral mucosa, capable of transforming into hyperplasia and cancer of the lip.
- Toxic damage to the oropharynx resulting in cancer of the larynx, throat.
Warning: what not to do?
It is not recommended in the first three months of parting with a bad habit:
- Taking medications without vital necessity.
- Quit smoking during menstruation - real weight gain is guaranteed.
- Leave the diet unchanged. The body needs vitamins and minerals.
stop smoking calendar
To help everyone who decides to get rid of nicotine bondage, psychologists recommend keeping a proper diary of your feelings, emotions and thoughts.
The structure of these records consists of several sections:
- The first is dedicated to the changes that occur in the body every day. It describes in detail the disappearance of the symptoms of tobacco intoxication related to each system: nervous, cardiovascular, digestive, pulmonary, endocrine, reproductive, genitourinary. In addition, the appearance of new symptoms, both negative and positive in the dynamics, is observed.
- The second is for emotions, thoughts. Here an analysis is carried out at the sensory level of everything that happens to the patient, self-hypnosis and self-control are used.
- The third section is physiology. What attracts the patient, what he wants to eat, where it hurts, what kind of sleep, how the skin looks, the degree of shortness of breath and the severity of the cough. Everything he cares about at the level of physiological transformation.
- The fourth section is the recommendations of the doctors and how they are implemented.
- Fifth - Recipes of traditional medicine and their use.
- The sixth is physical exercises, what works, what doesn't, the result.
- The seventh section is help from loved ones. Your advice, requests for them. Strategy planning and behavioral tactics for the future.
Many who have broken away from a harmful addiction emphasize the usefulness and necessity of such a journal.
How to speed up the cleaning?
Although the body is a self-regulating system, there are ways to speed up the recovery process from nicotine poisoning:
- Sport. Movement is life, so measured physical activity is shown to smokers from the first day of kicking a bad habit. Running, for example, will strengthen the contractions of the diaphragm, it will stimulate the lymphatic flow, that is, it will help eliminate poisons from the body. The cardiovascular load will also affect the blood. Breathing exercises will saturate the lungs with oxygen and help cleanse them of resins, carcinogens, and toxins. Feeling much better.
- Cleaning drugs. Ascorbic acid, B vitamins and folic acid compensate for the lack of trace elements and biologically active substances necessary for normal metabolic processes. Help them in this: chrome, zinc, nickel, selenium, manganese. The amino acids will support the synthesis of immunoglobulins. Vitamin A will act as an immunostimulant.
- Food products. Blueberries, ginger, spinach are natural stimulants of hematopoiesis and blood supply to the lungs in the process of their recovery.
Here are many helpers that can ease the difficult process of saying goodbye to nicotine, restoring health and prolonging life.