What’s your excuse? Are you giving up cigarettes for the escalating cost or the increasing health risk? Has smoking become a social problem among friends or at work?
5 Health Tips To Help You Stop Smoking Cigarettes:
If you’re looking to change a bad habit, you may want to stop but only to discover how difficult it is to kick the habit.
1) Make Exercise Work For You
Smoking tobacco has already affected your respiratory system. The sooner you can correct it the better. And, you can make a difference with physical exercise.
Running outdoors will flush your lungs with fresh air, And, as your systems improve so, too, will your running. You will run further and with increasing ease even if you are running on a gym machine.
Any disciplined and repeated physical exercise—running, skiing, swimming, aerobics, and more—will help reduce the stresses attached to giving up smoking.
The positive stresses in exercise release endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin to improve mood and comfort.
2) Change Your Diet
You might find relief in sugar-free gum, gums marketed for smoking cessation, toothpicks spiked with nicotine, or wearing nicotine patches. But, these tricks continue to serve the habit.
You would do better to analyse your dietary habits. The American Cancer Society recommends:
- Stay away from alcohol
- Avoid spicy and sugary foods
- Nibble on low-calorie foods, including carrot sticks, apples, and other healthy snacks
Chewing on crisp vegetables should satisfy the oral fixation served by cigarettes.
3) Give Yoga A Try
Some participants swear by yoga’s effects on brain and body. Yoga can be a low impact form of exercise but at the same time, a very demanding physical workout. Yoga stretches muscles and nerves to reduce physical stresses, helping to reduce the need to want to light up a cigarette.
Yoga also seeks to calm and relax practitioners as it encourages meditation and distraction from the stresses often attached to cigarette smoking.
4) Consider Alternative Therapies
Some smokers have found relief in non-traditional therapies. Acupuncture, for example, targets key spots in the central nervous system with an ancient science.
Laser therapies target the same areas with focused heat or cold to stimulate the flow of endorphins. And, hypnotherapy tries to reduce a smoker’s psychological desire to smoke.
5) Look Into Vaping
E-cigarettes, vape pens, and vape mods offer an effective, convenient, and discreet way to wean yourself from cigarette smoking.
They allow smokers to satisfy their oral fixation while switching to non-nicotine options or by moderating the nicotine content until you are satisfied. This vaping guide explores the mechanics, techniques, and resources behind vaping.
Looking To Change A Bad Habit?
The British Medical Journal concludes:
- Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) were originally designed as a smoking cessation aid, and the limited evidence available suggests e-cigarettes containing nicotine may help people stop smoking.
- Evidence suggests e-cigarettes are considerably safer than traditional cigarettes.
- The technology used in e-cigarettes has evolved considerably over time, and newer devices are typically better at delivering nicotine, which might enhance the effectiveness.
No one argues with the need to stop smoking. It causes enormous personal and social costs. It burdens the healthcare system directly and indirectly. And, smoking cessation simply makes good sense. It’s just enough reason to consider these five healthier alternatives to smoking cigarettes.