If you have ever tried to stop smoking, you know how terribly hard it is to do. There are some things you need to know if you are quitting or have already quit.
You will need to protect your body before and after you quit. It is VITAL that you understand what really happens when you quit smoking.
When you smoke, your body is constantly under attack from the carcinogens found in smoke. Over time, your body 'learns' how to deal with them by changing the way it deals with toxins. Your body gets 'used to' dealing with the extra toxins found in cigarette smoke and expects them.
Your body learns how to handle the extra toxins. Although you smoke, your body is able to keep you relatively healthy. However, changes happen quickly at a cellular level when you stop smoking.
Stop Smoking Facts
When you stop smoking, if you don’t have the right combination of key antioxidants in place, your body will go into ‘toxic shock’.
You see your body has become accustomed to dealing with extra toxins, but when you quit smoking, you are no longer barraging it with carcinogens. Your body is still 'looking for' toxins that are no longer 'coming in' to your body. So, your body reacts.
The cells that protected you for so long may start to change or to attack themselves.
We’ve all heard about free radicals. Free radicals are Cancer causing cells that enter your body regularly but are normally handled by your antibodies. Antibodies help form our immune system and keep us free from disease and bacteria. At the root of all Cancer is genetic damage. Genetic damage is the result of repeated attacks on the genes in the nucleus of your body’s cells. Cancer may form if just ONE cell in your body loses it’s ability for normal growth. Once affected, it can then multiply in a disorganized and uncontrollable manner. This is called the initiation of Cancer.
If you recently stopped smoking, your risk for Cancer is HIGH because of the high levels of exposure to carcinogens in your body. That's why it is particularly important for you to maintain high levels of cancer fighting antioxidants if you have recently quit.
The best case scenario would be for you to start taking antioxidants before you quit, but it’s never too late to start being more healthy!
It's also very clear that a diet rich in vitamins and antioxidants lowers your chance for Cancer. Unfortunately, we can't always eat five healthy servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Many of us have such frantic schedules that we just don't have time to prepare healthy meals often enough. It’s hard to eat properly when you eat out or travel or fall sick. Even when you do eat a good healthful diet all the time, it may not be enough to protect you against carcinogens or disease.
Why? Because we are all unavoidably bombarded with carcinogenic substances every day. We all need more antioxidant protection that we can't always get from just eating well. This is true even more so now, as our food substance is just not the same healthy food we consumed years ago. Now our food is stuffed with steroids, trans fats, hormones, and vast amounts of preservatives and sodium that our bodies were not made to handle in abundance.
You’ll also need to provide sufficient liver protection if you stop smoking. You can help support your liver by taking protective antioxidants like Glutathione or NAC or Selenium. (Selenium forms NAC which forms Glutathione.) Enzymes in your liver help detoxify your body. Individuals vary in their production of these enzymes which in turn, makes you more venerable to some types of Cancer, particularly Cancer of the bladder and lung.
You can’t change your individual genetic makeup, but you can do everything possible to help your liver deal with waste products efficiently and to compensate for normal variations in your liver enzymes. To do so, it is particularly important to maintain a high level of Glutathione in your body.
My Father's Story
My father was diagnosed with Lung Cancer in 1995. He had smoked HEAVILY for over 20 years. He was forced to stop smoking COLD TURKEY when he fell and broke his hip in 1992. Of course, he had to be hospitalized because of the break and had to stay in the hospital for over a week. While he was at the hospital, my mother went home and threw away all his cigarettes and lighters. When he got out of the hospital, he went home to 'no cigarettes'. He was unable to drive at the time, so he was basically 'out of luck'. He stopped smoking because he had to, not because he wanted to exactly.
Three years later, my father was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. His prognosis was three years. During the time that dad went through Chemotherapy, I ran across a book on Glutathione: The Ultimate Antioxidant, (by Dr. Alan H. Pressman), at the drug store. It was a small paperback book. I read it from cover to cover.
The way I interpreted one part of it, was that daddy had not taken any extra antioxidants to help his body fight free radicals when he was forced to stop smoking. I wondered if Cancer could have formed in his body because he stopped smoking?
The next time dad had an appointment with his Oncologist I asked the doctor about it. He acted like I had personally offended him by even suggesting that dad had gotten Cancer because he quit smoking. (Western medicine at its finest!)
As time passed by, I became increasingly convinced that it’s true. My dad never had Cancer when he smoked. Its only when he quit that Cancer ensued. I might be crazy for even suggesting it, but I doubt that the two events were unrelated. To say that it’s not even feasible, is like turning a blind eye to what’s right in front of you. 2+2=4, not 5! Coincidence or correlation? I’m not sure, but the likelihood is that these two events are related. I would suggest that you do the math!
I would never try to scare anyone. I leave scare tactics to the politicians instead. I am simply providing information to you that you may not have heard about or might care to know. Please be sure to get extra antioxidants if you plan to stop smoking or have already stopped. Read the book about Glutathione. Do everything you can to protect your life. It is precious!
*A new study published by Duke University Medical Center shows that certain foods can actually enhance the enjoyment one gets out of smoking, while other foods do the reverse. Among the stuff that actually make smoking taste better are coffee, alcohol, red meat, and anything caffeine. Meanwhile, foods that seem to interfere with the taste of smoking include fruits, dairy products, water, and vegetables.
If you’re having a hard time trying to stop smoking, maybe you can control what you eat at certain parts of the day when you feel most susceptible to smoke. The research is preliminary but it sure is something worth checking out. Who knows, it just may work for you.