There is a widespread myth among smokers that quitting smoking abruptly is harmful and fraught with serious consequences for the body. Many people prefer to prolong this process, gradually reducing the number of cigarettes smoked per day. In fact, everything is not so scary and doctors have an unequivocal answer to the question of whether it is possible to quit smoking abruptly. Let's figure it out.
Nicotine as a drug
Nicotine belongs to the category of "fast" drugs - addiction to it appears in just a couple of months of use, but it is also abandoned quickly. On average, it can take from three to seven days to overcome a bad habit at a physiological level.
Tobacco smoke contains about 4000 chemical compounds, of which 250 are poisonous. An organism accustomed to nicotine requires new doses every hour and a half, after two hours of abstinence, blood pressure may rise, a person will feel nervous. However, if you overpower yourself and not smoke for at least three days, then things will go much easier.
Practice shows that phasing out cigarettes is a dead-end path. More often than not, the smoker still breaks down and returns to the previous dose of nicotine. But abruptly quitting nicotine can actually work.
What happens in the body
If you quit the daily portion of nicotine, the following changes will occur in the human body:
- Increased blood flow. Blood begins to flow more actively to the brain and heart. After some time, the blood pressure will stabilize, and the restoration of the vessels that have been damaged during the period of addiction will begin.
- Normalization of bowel function. The gastrointestinal microflora suffers greatly from carcinogens that the smoker inhales with smoke. With a sharp rejection of nicotine, the intestines stabilize, vitamins and nutrients begin to be better absorbed.
- Restoration of immunity. In people with nicotine addiction, the immune system is weakened, it is not able to fully perform its functions. You've probably noticed that smokers get sick much more often than people without addiction.
- Oxygenation of the body. Due to the improved ventilation of the lungs, more oxygen begins to enter the body. Fatigue disappears, the feeling of weakness during the working day decreases, and sleep improves.
Side Effects
Recall that nicotine is a drug, and smoking is an addiction. Like any other drug addiction, it does not disappear without a trace, and the first days a person will not feel very comfortable. The following side effects may occur when you quit tobacco suddenly:
- Anxiety and irritability. The first effect that a person who quits smoking will feel. It may appear after two to three hours of abstinence.
- Slight dizziness. It is caused by oxygen starvation - the vascular tone returns to normal, and this takes time. It takes place on average per day.
- Dyspnea onset. Another consequence of oxygen starvation, but here the reason is the restoration of the lungs. It disappears completely after a maximum of a month, usually after one to two weeks.
- Decreased appetite. It is most pronounced in the first days of abstinence. Within a week the appetite comes back. Moreover, a person begins to feel the fullness of the taste of food, which he did not even know about before.
- Cough. The toxic substances accumulated in the lungs of the smoker are removed from the body, and therefore a cough appears. The cough is often accompanied by phlegm and mucus. It decreases after a month, and after six months it completely disappears.
- Insomnia. Emotional depression from a lack of nicotine makes it difficult for a person to fall asleep. In some cases, insomnia may occur. It goes away on its own after three to four days, but you can use medications to suppress anxiety and better sleep.
As we can see, there are no serious side effects that can cause serious damage to the body. Of course, a sharp cessation of smoking will require a lot of willpower, especially in the early days, but nothing will threaten your health. On the contrary, after only a week of abstinence, a person begins to feel much better than the entire period of nicotine consumption.
Psychological factor
For many smokers, it is much easier to overcome physiological side effects than to deal with psychological addiction. Smoking is a whole ritual, everyone has their own. Someone smokes a cigarette before breakfast, someone does not imagine how you can wait for public transport and not smoke, and coffee with a cigarette is generally sacred. It can be extremely difficult to give up such small habits and completely rebuild your life.
If you don't have enough willpower to quit smoking, you can turn to your family and friends. Let them distract from bad thoughts and provide maximum support. Another option is to seek help from a psychologist, there is nothing shameful in this.
Smoking and women
A separate myth in this category concerns women - how harmful is it for them to quit smoking abruptly? For example, it is believed that pregnant women should not abruptly give up nicotine. They say it will cause stress, which will negatively affect the baby. In fact, doctors strongly recommend that in such a situation, it is the immediate abandonment of the addiction. Each cigarette smoked will affect the development of the fetus.
The situation is the same with the myth that you can't quit smoking during your period. In fact, you can. At the physiological level, nothing negative will happen to the body, difficulties can arise only at the psychological level. Another misconception is that abrupt cessation of tobacco will affect the effect of medications taken. However, there is not a single scientifically proven case when medicines change their pharmacological properties due to a sharp cessation of nicotine intake into the body.
Buffs
The positive changes in the body were written above, now we will describe the effects that are more noticeable for a former smoker:
- The skin looks fresher. The yellowish tint of the epidermis disappears, as more minerals, vitamins and oxygen begin to enter the blood. Healthy skin color will return in about six months after quitting tobacco.
- Sensitivity to taste and odor increases. The smoker's sense of smell and taste buds do not work at full capacity, the longer a person smokes, the more they become dull. If you give up the addiction, you can feel the fullness of taste and smells.
- Improving tone. Vigor, increased activity, lack of fatigue. All this is felt by a former smoker. You can forget about ailments and feelings of apathy.
Summing up, we can say - you can suddenly quit smoking! And even necessary. There will be no serious negative consequences for the body.