How does quitting smoking affect the body?
Giving up smoking can be an extremely daunting process, and you may find the withdrawal symptoms very disruptive to your life. There are a variety of side effects which may occur when quitting smoking, including:
- Mood swings
- Hunger and digestive issues
- Coughing
- Sleep problems.
Read on to find out a bit more about these side effects, and get some tips to help support you through the process of giving up this addictive habit.
1. Mood swings
Nicotine acts as a stimulant on the adrenal glands as it promotes the production of adrenaline. Adrenaline triggers a whole range of physical responses in the body, one being that it raises blood sugar levels.
Without nicotine giving you a spike in blood sugar, your blood sugar levels may fluctuate quite a bit, but will mainly be lower than usual. This can cause you to feel down, and make your energy levels decrease, resulting in feelings of lethargy and low mood.
You may also be more irritable and snappier, and constantly in need of a pick-me-up in the form of another adrenaline-triggering stimulant.
When you first give up smoking, you may find your cravings cause you to feel anxious, with a build-up of nervous tension. Many smokers admit that they would like to stop smoking, but they continue because it seems to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety.
Whilst having a cigarette may temporarily relieve these symptoms, smoking long-term actually increases anxiety and tension. Because cigarettes interfere with certain chemicals in the brain, it is often the effects of smoking which cause feelings of anxiety in the first place.1
Studies show that when people stop smoking, anxiety, depression and stress levels are lowered, and general mood is improved.2
Making sure you have a healthy nervous system is one helpful way to support you through the process of giving up smoking. Steadier nerves mean fewer prompts to pick up a cigarette, and less trouble with mood swings.
Your nervous system loves:
- B vitamins & Avena sativa – try taking a vitamin B complex and 20 drops of Avena sativa with breakfast to start your day off calmly. Take another 20 drops of Avena sativa later in the day to continue the good work.
- Magnesium - use food sources of magnesium as well as a supplement: Brazils, cashews, sesame seeds, soya, haricot and kidney beans, chickpeas, millet, oats, brown rice, figs, spinach, dark green veg, dried apricots, buckwheat, and bananas are good sources.
- Vitamin C is great for your lungs – it's one of the nutrients that cigarettes destroy. Take it little and often for best effect.
2. Hunger and digestive issues
Another effect of adrenaline on the body is that it shuts your digestive system down, so you stop feeling hungry.
When you quit smoking, your digestive system will potentially start to come back to life! You may feel hungry and your body will look for alternative stimulants such as refined sugar and caffeine. The rumblings and grumblings that go on whilst your digestion re-boots may be disconcerting, especially if you have smoked for a long time and, as a result, have a heavily suppressed appetite.
If you make sure to keep your blood sugar levels stable when giving up smoking, this will make you less likely to crave other stimulants, and more likely to avoid mood crashes and energy dips.
Try eating a healthy meal or snack every 3-4 hours to reduce the likelihood of your blood sugar falling, causing demand for a stimulant (nicotine, caffeine, refined sugar, etc). Snacks such as nuts, dried fruit and bananas keep your energy up, whilst providing plenty of nutrients. Plus, these foods don't cause you to crave sugar or salty snacks.
Because nicotine has such an impact on appetite and digestion, withdrawing from it can have undesirable effects on the bowels, such as constipation or diarrhoea. You may also experience stomach pain, nausea and heartburn for around 2 weeks after giving up cigarettes.
A great way to improve your energy levels, and keep your bladder and bowel moving properly, is to increase your water intake. This also reduces false hunger signals, and often improves the look of your skin. If you are not a big fan of water, you may wish to try these other tasty options:
- Green tea – this is great for your metabolism
- Rooibos tea – this tea is caffeine-free and may help to alleviate stomach cramps and aches and pains.
- Herbal teas such as fennel (for fluid balance) and liquorice (for your adrenal glands).
3. Coughing
After quitting smoking, your lungs will start to push out the tar and nicotine that have been coating them, and the resulting cough may take a long time to resolve if you don't help your respiratory system along.
Many of the chemicals in tobacco prevent cilia, the hair-like structures along our airways, from being able to push tar and other debris out of the lungs properly. When you stop smoking, the cilia become active again!
As the cilia recover and begin to clear mucus from the lungs, you may find that you develop a cough – perhaps for several weeks. After a while, though, you should in fact see an improvement in many respiratory problems, such as shortness of breath and mucus production – a great incentive to keep you motivated!
If you are struggling with a cough, vitamin C can help by supporting the repair of the lung lining. Our Nature-C tablets provide a rich source of naturally occurring vitamin C, which strengthens the immune system as well as supporting lung function.
Regular gentle exercise (e.g. 20-30 minutes steady walking per day) can also help support your lungs as they start to come back to life, but don't try to do too much too soon.
It may also be beneficial to reduce your intake of dairy products. They tend to be mucus-forming, and so, if you're struggling with a chesty or mucus cough, these products may make it worse.
Bronchoforce may also be a beneficial product to try if you are suffering from a chesty or mucus cough. It helps to relieve chesty coughs resulting from excess mucus or catarrh in the respiratory tract.
4. Sleeping issues
Sleep problems are a common side effect of nicotine withdrawal, and can range from insomnia to regularly needing a nap throughout the day.
Studies have also shown that, when you quit smoking, the rapid eye movement
(REM) stage of sleep may be adversely affected. REM is the stage of sleep where your brain sorts out all the day's experiences and files them! If this is affected, your quality of sleep is therefore reduced and you may feel extremely tired the next day, as if you haven't properly slept.
An accumulation of other withdrawal symptoms can disrupt sleep, too. If you're suffering from a cough or discomfort in the stomach, for example, this could leave you tossing and turning throughout the night. In addition to this, some medications used to aid smoking cessation can affect quality of sleep.
If you are finding it hard to sleep whilst giving up, try using lavender oil in a warm bath last thing before bed. Also, it may be beneficial to try our Dormeasan Sleep tincture, which helps to restore natural sleep.
Stay away from E-cigs!
Lastly, don't replace your regular cigarettes with electronic-cigarettes! E-cigarettes are often perceived as safer than traditional cigarettes; however, research has found they are just as dangerous, or even worse, for your heart.
One study found vaping can worsen several heart disease risk factors – cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose levels – at levels equal to traditional cigarettes.3 A second study found that e-cigarettes decrease blood flow in the heart even more than traditional cigarettes.4
So, stay clear of the E-cigs (and traditional cigarettes!), and you'll be feeling the health benefits in no time!
References
1 https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/lifestyle/why-is-smoking-addictive/
2 https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/quit-smoking/stopping-smoking-mental-health-benefits/
4 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326979.php#1
