We all know that smoking can be detrimental to our health, but did you know that smoking significantly increases your risk of heart disease? With all the scary statistics about smoking, the information is there to show that it’s best to kick the habit for good. Read on to find out more about the connection between heart health and smoking and how you can kick the habit for good.
1. Taking Charge of Your Heart Health: The Benefits of Quitting Smoking
Often, we forget that the heart is the most important organ in the body. Whatever we do has a direct effect on its functioning, and one of the worst things we can do is smoking. Smoking causes thick build-up of plaque in the arteries, reducing their elasticity and increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases. In short, it is an unhealthy habit that has to be broken for good.
However, quitting smoking can do wonders for your heart health. Here are just a few of the powerful benefits:
- Reduced risk of coronary heart diseases: Quitting smoking is known to remove fat plaques from the arteries, reducing the risks of many heart diseases.
- Reduced risk of stroke: Studies have suggested quitting smoking can reduce the risk of stroke by as much as 50%.
- Cholesterol levels: After quitting smoking, the levels of “good” cholesterol and other fatty acids are known to rise, further reducing the risks of coronary heart diseases.
Moreover, quitting smoking can reduce your overall mortality risk by at least 15%. Improvement in overall health is guaranteed to follow, as your metabolism will increase, your breathing becomes easier and your circulation improves.
Therefore, it is no surprise that quitting smoking is the first step towards taking charge of your heart health. So what are you waiting for? Make the change for a healthier, happier lifestyle!
2. Too Close for Comfort: Understanding the Link Between Smoking and Heart Disease
Smoking has long been known to cause life-threatening diseases, especially cancer, COPD, and emphysema. However, what may not be as commonly known is the close link between smoking and cardiovascular disease, including stroke and heart attack. Smoking damages and constricts the small blood vessels that penetrate the heart, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke, and significantly affecting the blood flow to the limbs, organs, and brain.
Unsurprisingly, this risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. Those with the highest risk are those who have smoked the longest and the most. Even just one cigarette per day can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Fortunately, the risk reduces over time with smoking cessation.
- Smoking decreases the amount of oxygen in the blood, leading to an increased heart rate and constriction of the arteries, thus creating a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
- Smoking directly damages the heart muscle and makes it harder for the organ to pump blood efficiently.
- Cigarette smoke contains substances, such as Carbon Monoxide, that reduce the oxygen level in the blood.
When paired with even one other risk factor for heart disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure, the risk of cardiovascular disease goes up even more. So, if you want to protect your health, take action now and start to quit smoking. It is never too late to make a positive change in your life.
3. Beyond the Legal Age: Breaking Your Bad Smoking Habit
You’ve reached the legal smoking age, and you’re itching to take that first puff. Half the battle is won. But you still have to actually stick to whatever you decide. And if your choice is to get rid of the nicotine addiction, then it’s time to do something about it.
Breaking away from an unhealthy habit like smoking can’t be done overnight. It’s hard, and it requires a herculean effort on your part. Lucky for you, here are some strategies that you can use to help you kick the habit:
- Find triggers and avoid them: Analyze and find out your triggers. Are you most likely to light up when you’re in certain places or with a certain group of people? Eliminate the triggers as much as possible and focus on avoiding those situations.
- Start exercising: Exercise can improve your health, act as a stress relief, and even provides you with a distraction from cravings. It can also help you start building a healthier lifestyle from a more positive foundation.
- Try quitting cold turkey: Cold turkey is a way to break the habit without using any stop-smoking aids. This approach is not suitable for everyone, but if you think you can do it – just throw away your cigarettes and start living a healthier life.
Whichever strategy you choose, it’s important to remember that you might stumble and randomly have cravings. Such relapses are normal, but it’s your job to make sure you don’t get too discouraged and you continue fighting your way to smoker- freedom.
4. Laying the Groundwork: A Four-Step Plan To Help You Quit Smoking
Say goodbye to cigarettes and hello to a healthier lifestyle with this 4-step plan for quitting smoking. Taking a few moments to plan your quit journey can be a game-changer, and make your transition to being smoke-free easier.
Step One: Set Your Goals
- Define your goals: why are you quitting?
- Choose a date to quit and write it on your calendar.
- Tell friends and family of your quit plans.
Doing this often helps create positive peer pressure and helps you keep yourself accountable. Quitting is all about you, but having the support of your loved ones is helpful and powerful.
Step Two: Cut Back Slowly
- Start reducing the number of cigarettes and the amount of exposure you have to smoking.
- Replace smoking with alternate activities like stretching, exercising, or taking a walk.
- Notice the changes in your body.
These activities can become your new habit if you plan for them. The rewards of healthier mobility and improved breathing will be worth the effort.
Step Three: Monitor Yourself
- Be mindful of your cravings so you can notice when they hit you.
- Discuss triggers with your support team.
- Utilize all the resources available to help you quit, such as support groups, online resources and quit-smoking aides.
It is important to stay aware of your progress and struggles. Approaching quitting with an open and honest mindset will bring you closer to your goal.
Step Four: Celebrate Your Success
- Reward yourself with non-smoking activities like golfing, painting, or eating a healthy dinner out.
- Track your milestones as you reach them.
- Break out of your comfort zone and explore enjoyable activities that you haven’t done in a while.
Your quit journey is all your own, so choose rewards that you love doing. If you are feeling anxious, meditating can help you ground yourself in the moment and remind you of why you are quitting.
5. Ready to Reap the Rewards: Unleash the Power of Heart-Healthy Living
Now that you’ve taken the plunge and incorporated heart-healthy habits into your lifestyle, it’s time to reap the rewards. Trust us—the benefits of living a heart-healthy lifestyle go far beyond just avoiding the potential for a future health scare.
- Use Your Heart-Healthy Habits as a Building Block
With each habit you incorporate, use the momentum to build on as you continue to healthfully construct your lifestyle. Small changes can make a big impact, so once you find what works best for you in terms of maintaining a heart-healthy lifestyle, strive to build on it more and more each day.
- Prioritize Your Heart Health in Every Situation
Be mindful of the decisions you make and the situations you allow yourself to be apart of. Whether it be which foods you choose to buy at the store, or the distance you take away from smoking areas—condition yourself to prioritize your heart health in every decision you make.
- Enjoy Life Stress-Free
Maintaining a heart-healthy lifestyle paves the way to a more stress-free life. When you learn to take care of your physical health, those positive habits act as a pivot in the way you think and approach stressful situations. With those healthy changes in place, you’ll find that your mood swings and outlook on life will even out into a much more manageable lifestyle.
By understanding the impact that smoking has on our heart health and making conscious decisions to become an exsmoker, we can start living healthier, more fulfilled lives and be more in control of our physical health. Kicking the habit forever may seem hard at first, but it will be one of the best decisions you ever make. So take the pledge: no smoking, no compromise. Live better, live healthier, and protect your heart and overall wellbeing.
