Stop Smoking to Prevent Mental Problems

If you are seeing so many people quitting smoking nowadays, they sure have made the right choice. Smoking can give rise to many diseases and is the cause of million deaths around the world every year. If you are smoking, you should stop now, because there are many ways on how to do so.

Why You Should Stop Smoking

Smoking can increase the risks for coronary heart disease, stroke and lung cancer. Aside from this, smoking can also give rise to poor health, frequent illnesses, prolonged absences from work and school and increase in health care costs. The health problems that smoking can bring to us are too many. Smoking gives rise to coronary heart disease and stroke and can damage blood vessels in the body, making them narrower and thicker so that blood pressure goes up and the heart pumps harder to overcome the elevated blood pressure. Aside from these, smoking also reduces blood flow to the legs and to the skin of the other parts of the body, creating mottling, ischemia and gangrene.

Smoking can also cause lung disease by creating damage to the airways and the alveoli or small sacs in the lungs. It can also cause COPD, emphysema or chronic bronchitis, and can trigger an asthmatic attack especially in patients who already have asthma. Smoking can also cause cancers especially in the bladder, the blood, cervix, colon, rectum, esophagus, kidneys, ureter, liver, larynx, pancreas, stomach, oropharynx, trachea and lungs. Among pregnant women, smoking can cause preterm deliveries, stillbirth, low birth weight infants, congenital anomalies, sudden infant death syndrome and ectopic pregnancies. Smoking can reduce fertility, give rise to osteoporosis and can cause gum problems and tooth loss. Other problems caused by smoking are diabetes mellitus, inflammatory problems, immune system defects and rheumatoid arthritis.

Smoking and Mental Health

Aside from these numerous medical conditions, new research says that smoking can also give rise to mental health problems. This study, created by researchers from Washington University School of Medicine was able to show that people with mood problems and other mental disorders should quit smoking to be cured with their ailments. The results, which were published in the journal Psychological Medicine, have shown that quitting smoking can improve mental health outcomes. To lower the risk for mood disorders such as depression, one should consider quitting smoking by as little as reducing cigarette consumption by half. There is a strong link between cigarette smoking and a better psychiatric outlook.

In this study, researchers gathered data from the National Epidemiologic Study on Alcohol and Related Conditions from the early 2000s. Data were gathered from 4,800 daily smokers who were made to answer questionnaires about smoking, drinking alcohol and mental health. The researchers found out that those with addiction and other psychiatric problems have alleviated symptoms three years after they quit smoking. The risk of acquiring mental health problems is even lesser for those who had not history of any psychiatric illness. Those who continued smoking still suffered mood disorders because they have failed to quit. Drug abuse problems also failed to prevail among those who quit smoking. The results of this research are important to let other health practitioners be aware how smoking can raise the risk for mental health problems. Thus a practitioner should urge a patient with psychiatric problems to stop smoking so that there will be relief of symptoms.

Do you want to quit smoking but you don't know how to start? First of all, make a list of the things of what makes you want to stop smoking, including the dangers and health hazards that smoking brings. You can also use nicotine replacements such as nicotine gums and patches. Stay away from places and thoughts which may make you want to smoke. Shy away from your usual smoking buddies. Lastly start believing on yourself that you can do it because a lot of people have made it and there was no turning back for them

To read more about the ill effects of smoking, you can read our other articles on this site.