Weight control🌵 and Lifestyle Medicine🌿 Part3- smoking cessation 🚭

 

There cannot be a discussion in weight control without addressing smoking tobacco 🚬 products. The 7000 chemicals that are inhaled into the lungs quickly become systemic, leading to distribution through the whole body 🧍🏼. As carbon monoxide inhaled competes for a place with oxygen to be carried around by the red blood cells, less oxygen is available to be transported to the 30 trillion cells in the body. 

Yet here we are with an addictive habit which many are drawn into based on social pressure from around us, pictures and films 🎥 with outrageously good looking and slim actors 🕺🏽 who romanticize and power promote this cool, hip and happening way to be. Yet the true outcome is a habit that 99.9% of smokers wish in their deepest heart to abstain from and leave behind. 

Smoking can lead to many digestive system disorders and diseases including heartburn, cancers (including larynx, oesophageal, gallbladder and Billary duct , neuroendocrine tumors, stomach, pancreas, liver, small bowel and colorectal) and others. 

An important danger to note involves the changes in fat distribution, especially in women. This means the mid body region fat increases around the waist area, demonstrated by height per waist hip ratios (WHR) in smokers. This change of fat to their mid body region can still be in the presence of an apparently lower weight. This causes more risk of accelerating heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and death. The important link is why smoking causes this. It is related to increased insulin resistance, which further increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes. 

When heavy smoking is associated with increased fatigue, reduced exercise and weight gain in association with insulin resistance, there is a continuing risk of more dangerous fat accumulation. 

Some other negative consequences of smoking 🚬 include: 

•   Less stamina to carry out activity including exercise ⛹🏽🚴🏽🏋🏽 (can add to weight gain)

•   Associated with development of stress, anxiety and depression 🥹, which can all alter eating habits

•   More risk of injuries, with slower healing

•   Slower healing of wounds

•   Diminished level of activity performance

•   Interference with the level of sleep quality, which often leads to higher hunger levels for fatty 🍔 🍧 🍰 food in the daytime. Based on changes in leptin and ghrelin levels impacting on hunger. 

Therefore, some important recommendations come out of the above research. If you quit smoking 🚭, you may put on 1- 5KG of extra weight over 5 years on average. However, following my lifestyle medicine pillars in this blog series, there will probably be minimal weight gain and then leading towards weight control/loss🌵. Fat distribution in smokers is more around the waist region. This is especially more dangerous for women smoking, who distribute fat to the waist area and increase their danger further for heart disease, stroke and death. But the distribution of this fat will be in a much healthier WHR and may significantly change the distribution of fat from around the waist in women (caused by taking up smoking), back to being deposited in the healthier region where female fat is normally distributed. In addition to exponentially lowering your risk of the chronic diseases listed above. Unhealthy fat distribution around the waist normally takes place in men anyway, whether overweight or obese. Smoking for men can also lead to insulin resistance and lead to continuing weight gain while smoking, that means keeping deposits of fat in the unhealthy mid region. But in women smokers who may appear skinny can still have dangerous levels of internal fat in the mid region surrounding vital organs (visceral fat), the most dangerous fat for both men and women. Interestingly enough, research shows there are very little difference in the weight of smokers and non-smokers, despite the absence or presence of smoking. Young adolescents need to know this, especially young girls. 

Not only will you feel better physically but also you will have the following advantages without smoking 🚭: 

•   Increased stamina levels

•   Have better smelling breath, less nicotine stains and less smell of smoke on your clothing

•   Increased oxygen delivery to all the cells in your body

•   Less risk of breathlessness and reduced respiratory related diseases

•   Better quality sleep

•   Reduced risk of Type 2 Diabetes

•   Less danger of cardiovascular diseases including heart attack and stroke risk reduction (Please see my blog dated 18.5.2023 on talking Lifestyle Medicine) 

https://talkinglifestylemedicine.blogspot.com/2023/05/smoking-cardiovascular-disease-and.html  

•   Less risk of over 40 different cancers developing, that are directly related to smoking tobacco 🚬

 

Seeking guidance for quitting smoking 🚭 

You may be included in a number of people who have already tried to quit smoking but have returned to it. You are not alone. As I have mentioned before, there are more ex- smokers in the world than people who presently smoke, so do not be discouraged. Do not let weight gain stop you from quitting. The effect on your medium to long term weight control will be extremely significant. Remember, weight control must be healthy weight control. As up to 75% of smokers who quit without any assistance are smoking again in 30 days, I recommend seeking assistance from your family doctor 🧑‍⚕️ to discuss treatment programs that are available. Each country around the world has smoking quit lines, that can give you more access to counselling, which is an important part of successful quitting. There are a variety of medicines available, which are discussed in my Cardiovascular health and Lifestyle Medicine Part 3 -smoking blog, see the link above. 

In summary, I urge you to not wait any longer, to harness this moment and make a commitment to plan a quit date, take away the risks that smoking tobacco products has on accelerating the risk of the above disorders. This will allow you to have an enormous determination to apply the other pillars of lifestyle medicine 🌿to invent the new you. I always think that if you want to predict what your future health will look like in 5, 10 and 20 years and so on, you must be the one to invent it. I believe you can do it. Don’t let the thought make you feel stressed or lonely, as many people are quitting right now around the world- Join them! Being an ambassador for change to inspire those you used to smoke with. 

One more thing. How about writing into your quit plan 📜 something you have dreamed about doing 🚤? Watch those savings from not purchasing tobacco, accumulating every day towards your dreams. Truly cherish the effect this will have on realistic weight control goals and blossoming health🌵. See you next week and we shall be discussing weight control and Lifestyle Medicine Part 4 - alcohol harm reduction.