Tobacco, brought to Europe centuries ago by Columbus, kills one person worldwide every 6 seconds. In Poland and in other European Union countries, 30 percent of citizens smoke. To this must be added passive smokers exposed to tobacco smoke. Actually, we are all at risk!
After 10 seconds of taking a puffnicotinereaches your brainand stimulates the release of dopamine, a substance that makes you feel pleasure. At the same time, it causes the release of norepinephrine, the hormone that keeps you energized. But about an hour after smoking a cigarette, your dopamine and norepinephrine levels drop so much that you start to feel anxious.
You reach for a cigarette to calm down. But after an hour the level … - and so on over and over again, even 20 times a day. The organism of the smoker demands constant doses of nicotine, without them it cannot function.
Replenish the lack of vitamins and calcium
Cigarettesincrease the secretion of gastric juice, which irritates the gastric mucosa. Therefore, it is easier for smokers to develop gastric ulcers, and more difficult to treat them than in non-smokers. Eat 5 times a day, never smoke on an empty stomach.
One cigarette destroys approx. 25 mg of vitamin C (you need 100 mg per day). To make up for the shortage, eat citrus, kiwi, in the season black currants and strawberries, parsley, peppers, cabbage (also sour), broccoli, tomatoes.
The smoker must replenish the deficiency of B vitamins. So eat whole grain products (whole grain bread and pasta, brown rice), nuts, dried fruit and legumes. Smoking is closely related to the incidence of fractures in the hip, vertebra, and forearm.
Postmenopausal women are particularly exposed to osteoporosis. The best way to avoid osteoporosis is to eat a calcium-rich diet (milk and milk products). Vitamin D promotes the absorption of calcium. It is most abundant in oily sea fish (salmon, herring, mackerel).
You poison not only yourself
Passive smoking causes similar he alth effects to active smoking. Side-stream tobacco smoke (i.e. from a smoldering cigarette) contains 35 times more carbon dioxide and 4 times more nicotine than the smoke inhaled by a smoker.
Smoke inhalation that has passed through the lungsa smoker also increases the risk of lung cancer and heart disease in non-smokers. Children forced to inhale tobacco smoke more often suffer from infectious diseases of the respiratory system (pneumonia, bronchitis, infections of the upper respiratory tract).
Light to lipa!
Three out of four smokers believe that light, ultra-light or mild cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes because they contain less tar. The problem is that the smoker inhales harder and more often to satisfy his craving for nicotine.
Effect: inhales more smoke and delivers the same amount of poison as an amateur cigarette.
Cholesterol control
Smoking has been shown to raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol. Under the influence of nicotine, platelets are much more prone to aggregation (sticking together), which plays an important role in the formation of atherosclerotic plaques.
Tobacco smoke can also increase the level of fibrinogen - a substance that increases blood clotting. In order not to worsen the situation, avoid high-cholesterol foods in your diet.
Instead of red meat, choose white ones, eat fish as often as possible, preferably sea fish. Replace butter with margarine. Use only oil for frying and stewing, use extra virgin olive oil for salads. Give up processed cheese, replace cream with yogurt, full-fat milk - the one containing 2 percent. fat, keep yellow cheeses to a minimum.
You are at risk of becoming infertile
Scientists have shown that smoking can cause sterility. Women who started smoking early and smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day are particularly vulnerable. Nicotine also affects male fertility (decreased sperm count).
Smoking is one of the common causes of miscarriages and premature births. A woman who is planning a pregnancy should stop smoking as soon as possible. Babies born to heavy smokers have a lower birth weight and are more likely to suffer from respiratory diseases, and toxic substances pass through the placenta directly into the fetal bloodstream.
If a nursing mother smokes, she gives the baby a portion of toxins along with the food, including nicotine.
Watch out for coughs and hoarseness
The lungs protect themselves against any type of irritation caused by polluted air, including smoke, by coughing. Once they get used to the regular smoke supplied to them, coughing is not enough. To prevent harmful substances from entering the bloodstream, they start to produce more mucus. Its excess is removed during expectoration, but this is a different type of cough than for a beginnersmoker.
It is less violent than with normal irritation, attacks usually occur in the morning and end with the removal of mucus from the lungs. These are the first symptoms of chronic bronchitis. After years of destroying the alveoli by smoke, COPD, a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, may develop.
To detect it at an early stage, have a spirometry test. You will learn what the lung breathing reserve is (after 30 years of addiction, half of the alveoli are lost). Get x-rays of your lungs regularly. If you have a hoarseness (without symptoms of infection) for more than 2 weeks or a cough for more than 3 weeks, or have a chronic sore throat, don't hesitate to see your doctor.
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