How to Beat Smoking ill Effects

It’s easy for us to keep telling people to stop smoking, which is the right thing to do because we all know smoking leads to a number of diseases. Ailments are caused by free radicals in the human body.  It is said that one puff of a cigarette contains up to a million different free radicals and free radicals in the body is what gives rise to disease, low immunity and several other problems. One way of minimizing free radicals is by using antioxidants. You can find antioxidants in your foods right from fruits, vegetables to nuts and seeds. Sometimes you may need a plant based formulation which is rich in antioxidants and the only reason I suggest a supplement is because you could be smoking one cigarette or you could be smoking a pack. People who smoke less can get all this nutrition out of food but people who smoke constantly may just need a supplement. 

Carbon Monoxide
Carbon monoxide is that odourless colourless gas that comes out of the tailpipe of your car or sometimes even a faulty gas heater for example. Now your red blood cells have one function to carry oxygen from your blood to all the cells in your body. Oxygen is your life force. It is what gives energy to our cells and build immunity. It is required for almost every single function in the human body. The red blood cells carry oxygen to all the cells in your body. What actually happens is, oxygen latches onto a molecule called haemoglobin. Hence, when we have high amounts of haemoglobin we have high amounts of oxygen reaching all the cells in our body. When we have too much Carbon monoxide instead of oxygen latching onto your red blood cell, they get carried to all the cells in your body which can be very toxic and very deadly. Even small amounts of carbon monoxide from the cigarettes that you smoke or even from environmental pollution can cause shortness of breath and higher heart rates.

It’s very important to understand what a cigarette contains. I know everyone knows this but when you understand how it works in your body you have a little more awareness of what it’s doing to you and how you can manage the collateral damage.

How Cigarette Affects Body
Nicotine found in cigarettes is the most dangerous parts of the cigarette, it is what reaches the lungs and causes addiction. Cigarettes also contain tar which is very toxic and has the function of carrying nicotine to your lungs. Cadmium is a metal that causes toxicity in the human body and cigarettes contain a lot of cadmium. Smoking too many cigarettes puts a lot of iron in your body and that creates more free radicals. Cigarettes deplete certain vitamins and minerals from your body while you smoke it.

Replenishing Vitamins
It’s very important to replenish these vitamins and minerals because each and every one of them have a function ranging from immunity to your heart health to the prevention of diseases like cancer, diabetes, thyroid and several other things including weight gain and weight.

So Vitamin E, taking a good quality emulsified vitamin E or getting it out of natural foods like pumpkin seeds, seeds, nuts, almonds, walnuts is great but like I said depending on how much you smoke you just may need a high-quality supplement. Now what happens is when you smoke, the smoke damages and cause the scars in your arterial walls which can cause heart issues and many other issues in the body. Vitamin E helps repair those scars that helps keep the arterial health in order. Vitamin E is also rich in antioxidants and it helps to neutralize free radicals in the body.

Vitamin B5 is extremely important when it comes to your health as well. Cigarette smoke depletes vitamin B5 and vitamin B5 along with collagen is what prevents aging of skin, wrinkles, heart issues and it also is very important to understand that it leads to blood vessel dilation. So shortness in breath, the inability to have good stamina and endurance can be caused by low B5. So taking a supplement which is high in B5 or a pure supplement. Eating foods that are plentiful in B5 is also necessary if you smoke cigarettes.

Tobacco blocks the formation of vitamin B6 which is what converts protein from the food that we eat into protein that the body needs. It also converts carbohydrates that are stored in our body for energy. So when we have less B6 which is depleted by smoking we have these issues, so replenishing B6 in your body is very important.

Cigarette smokers have almost forty percent lower vitamin C levels than most people because cigarette smoking depletes vitamin C. It is said that one cigarette depletes almost 25 milligrams of vitamin C. Vitamin C is what boosts immunity, prevents & heals diseases, vitamin C is needed for good skin, good hair, metabolic function in the body. So I definitely advise that if you are smoking you need to replenish your vitamin C by eating citrus fruits, foods rich in vitamin C and in most cases you will have to take a good quality vitamin C supplement.

Selenium is my favourite trace mineral. Trace mineral are things that are found in traces in the human body. Selenium is so important because diseases right from thyroid to diabetes usually have depletion of selenium and just by boosting selenium in the body can actually help you handle these diseases better. We also know that chemotherapy and radiation deplete selenium. Selenium has a function of forming the architecture of your cells. It also has the ability to latch onto heavy metals like cadmium and remove it from the body so in most cases people who smoke cigarettes will be required to take a selenium supplement. You also get natural selenium in pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, watermelon seeds, almonds and walnuts but like I said it depends on how much you smoke you may just need a high-quality plant-based supplement.

Magnesium gets depleted when you smoke cigarettes. Deficiencies of magnesium cause immense issues in the human body like heart problems, calf pains, muscle spasms and neck pains. So there’s a calcium magnesium balance in the body that’s required for the proper functioning of your heart and when there’s an imbalance in too much calcium and less magnesium, calcium tends to get deposited in your heart muscles allowing for improper contractions, which is why many smokers have an issue of irregular heartbeat that’s caused because of a depletion of magnesium. Magnesium is also required to break down fatty acids from the food you eat into healthy fats that can actually develop cell membranes; but when you have a depletion of magnesium this conversion of fatty acids to fat doesn’t happen and it results in deposits of these fatty acids in between joints, in your arteries everywhere causing pain, causing muscle spasms, causing the ineffectiveness of so many healthy foods that you eat.

Proper levels of Vitamin B12 need to be maintained. Low b12 leads to diseases like arthritis, Parkinson’s, dementia and many other brain diseases. So make sure you have B12 and remember if you’re taking a B12 supplement, keep at least two hours of a gap between Vitamin C and B 12 because Vitamin C can destroy B12 taken in the body.

All these vitamins must be included in your diet if you want to balance and manage the collateral side effects of smoking better. If you are smoking, the best way to enhance your health is by making sure you replenish what smoking takes away from your body.