PowerLiving with Kimberlee Langford
PowerLiving with Kimberlee Langford
Now is the perfect time to quit! - Nicotine Cessation
Did you know that smoking affects more than just your lungs? Discover the hidden impacts of nicotine on your body in our latest episode. Kimberlee from Specialty Care Management unpacks how nicotine binds to vitamin C, disrupting crucial collagen production that keeps your blood vessels healthy. This neglect not only strains your heart but also affects your blood pressure and kidney function. We also delve into identifying personal triggers and rewards associated with nicotine use to help you quit more effectively. Learn why deep breathing is the true stress reliever and explore healthier alternatives to replace the habit.
Imagine the life-changing benefits of quitting smoking—better health, financial savings, and improved physical appearance. We focus on the rewarding journey of going smoke-free, highlighting the improvements to every organ in your body, your skin, and even your hair. Picture yourself using the money saved from quitting on a dream vacation or simply enjoying the enhanced sense of victory and vitality. This episode is packed with practical tips and emphasizes seeking support from healthcare providers or services like 1-800-QUIT-NOW. Remember, you possess the strength to succeed, and Kimberly is here to support you every step of the way. Be healthy, friends!
Hey friends, it's Kimberly here with Specialty Care Management. So did you know that smoking hurts so much more than just your lungs, that smoking hurts so much more than just your lungs? Most of us know the dangers of smoking as pertains to lung cancer, but it hurts so much more. You see, just on a very high level. The nicotine in a cigarette binds vitamin C, which is largely how it goes to work to really wreak havoc on our microvascular system. So, keeping in mind that vitamin C is really important. It's a precursor for collagen, right. So we like that in our face creams, right? It helps keep our skin nice and smooth and elastic. Does the same thing on the inside. Vitamin C and collagen are really important to help the inner lining of the blood vessels. It keeps our blood vessels nice and smooth and elastic right, instead of brittle and frail. So what happens when we smoke and that mechanism is inhibited and we can't make enough collagen to really support healing and just the health of our vasculature? That's how it does so much damage, you'll see here. Damages the circulatory system. That's why it's implicated with heart disease, high blood pressure. Also because it's a vasoconstrictor, meaning it makes the vessels constrict and makes those smaller. When you think about how that plays in the kidneys. A lot of people don't know that smoking definitely does contribute to kidney damage, and the way that it does that is through this microvascular system, right? So it's going to make those, keeping in mind your glomerulus, right? Think of your glomerulus. You have lots of them in the kidneys, they're the filtering units. I think of them like little balls of yarn and made up of capillary-like little, tiny, tiny blood vessels. And so when you have these glomeruli that become fragile and delicate, and now you're also jacking up blood pressure because of this vasoconstrictive effect and circulation becomes more difficult, especially in these tiny little glomeruli, especially in these tiny little glomeruli, right, it makes it really hard for the glomeruli to be able to do the filtering work that makes our kidneys famous. And so it's super important, not just for your lungs, for your skin, for your circulatory health, even your bones, for your circulatory health, even your bones, your brain, even in your intestines, and for your digestive health, but especially, you know, with the role of your kidneys. It's a huge player in kidney disease.
Speaker 1:If you're been wanting to try to think about quitting smoking, know that you absolutely can. If you've tried before and you've failed, it doesn't mean that you're done failing yet. Right, try again. Most people have to try at least seven times before they finally kick the habit. And, between you and me, it is really difficult to stop any habit if we're not going to fill that habit with something else. Right, smoking?
Speaker 1:When I talk to people all across the country, they'll tell me they smoke because it helps them with stress. And I will tell you, chemically, there's nothing in a cigarette that helps you with stress. There's nothing in a cigarette that relaxes you. Quite the opposite, you with stress. There's nothing in a cigarette that relaxes you. Quite the opposite.
Speaker 1:However, the act of smoking has a very relaxing effect. Why is that so, if it's not supposed to be relaxing? Why do people claim that they're not lying, they're not fibbing? If you think about the act of smoking, right, there's this deep, lovely inhale and exhale. Deep breathing, in particular, triggers your body to secrete nitric oxide, which is very relaxing and is very good for you. Now, it's not enough to negate the damaging effects of the cigarette, so don't get excited. However, know that you absolutely can. You can figure out for yourself what those two components that are important to think about not to judge yourself and beat yourself up.
Speaker 1:Life is hard enough, but what my advice usually is to folks and if you call it advice at all is to help them think through what is smoking giving them right, where a lot of people gives them something to do so they don't eat, or it has this end effect where they feel it helps them cope with stress and so and oftentimes when they look at that that's the reward that they're after. So take that reward and put it over here on a shelf We'll come back to that in a minute and then think about what are the triggers for you. For some people it's right after dinner. That's what they have. They don't have dessert, they have a cigarette. For some people, it's a stressful time at work. They get up and they walk out, they take a break. For other people, it's, you know, the friends that they hang out with. If you're hanging out at a bar or whatever and they're smoking, it's going to be really hard to quit.
Speaker 1:There are certain triggers. Other people I have talked to folks that they say you know, I get in my truck and go to work and come home and I'll go through five or six cigarettes, right, that's their trigger. So you have to think about a couple of things what's the reward that you're getting from smoking and what are those triggers? And then think about for yourself what else could you put in the place, what would give you the same reward without smoking, and make sure that you make a toolkit for yourself. So if I'm saying that I want to quit smoking and to me, this, I feel this helps me relax and these are my triggers, I want to make sure that when I'm triggered, I have something already at my disposal that I can use. That's going to give me the same reward that I'm going to learn to train myself to reach for. Instead, I'm going to be much more likely to quit smoking. There's so many resources out there. So that's just one idea. You can reach out to 1-800-QUIT-NOW and they'll send you a little toolkit.
Speaker 1:All on smoking, talk with your doctor. My personal opinion. People often ask me well, what about Chantix? Or the gum, or the patches? And those are fantastic, but keep in mind it's not just the nicotine. Nicotine is very addictive. It's not the only reason why you smoke, right, you smoke because why? Well, I smoke because it relaxes me. I smoke because I don't want to gain weight and I have these triggers. Well, nicotine is a substance. It's not going to replace those two factors. It's one piece of the equation.
Speaker 1:You could also limit your nicotine. You're still going to get nicotine from a gum or a patch. It's still going to have the same effects that you see here. Right, you could quit smoking by smoking a little bit less. You could, every time you want a cigarette, smoke half instead. Don't hold onto that cigarette to smoke it later either. Right, gradually wean yourself off of the nicotine.
Speaker 1:While you're figuring out, how am I going to?
Speaker 1:You know what am I going to put in the place of the habit to give me the same reward? Right, and the nicotine is not the only reward that you're getting from smoking. Right, the nicotine is not the only reward that you're getting from smoking. It's important to look at those things. So keep that in mind. Talk to your doctor, talk to your provider. Certainly, 1-800-quit-now.
Speaker 1:If you want somebody in your corner who's going to cheer you on to quit, you call me up. I'll cheer you on. I believe in you a squillion percent. Not only are you going to save and improve the health of every organ in your body, think of what you're going to do with the money that you're going to save. My goodness, we could go on a vacation. Doesn't that sound great? Where would you go? What would you do with that money? It's really important for your health and just your feeling of being a champion and being victorious. You're going to look better. It definitely improves your skin and your hair's texture. You'll have more vitality and it's definitely going to protect you from a host of other conditions, and that's my thought for you today. Friends, be healthy. Bye.