How Exercise Can Help You Quit Smoking?

The health effects of smoking are well-established, making smoking a bad habit for your health. Smoking is most commonly associated with respiratory illnesses and cancer, but did you know that smoking is equally damaging to your heart health as well?

Roughly one out of five deaths from heart disease are directly related to smoking. People who smoke are two to four times more likely to get heart disease. Smoking is addictive and not easy to quit. However, exercising regularly can help you quit your addiction and regain your heart health. Dr. Shruvanan Ray has suggested some easy ways to improve your heart health by quitting smoking.

What You Should Know:

• The link between smoking and heart health
• Effects of smoking on the respiratory system
• How can quitting smoking improve your heart health?
• How to quit smoking with exercise?

The link between smoking and heart health

Every cigarette you smoke is filled with nicotine, a highly addictive chemical that makes it harder for your heart to pump blood. Smoking causes atherosclerosis, a build-up of fatty substances in your arteries that causes blockages, reducing the amount of oxygen that reaches your heart. Smoking also increases your blood pressure, which is directly linked to adverse heart health. It makes you more prone to blood clots and increases the chances of getting a stroke or heart attack.

Effects of smoking on the respiratory system

Smoking can cause lung diseases and adversely affect your respiratory system. 

• This harmful habit can damage your airways and air sacs (alveoli), causing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis (a long-term inflammation of the large airways (bronchi). 
• For individuals who have asthma, even passive or secondhand smoking can trigger an attack. 
• Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. It leads to abnormal growth of cells, resulting in lumps, masses, and tumors, which may start in the lining of the bronchi. Some common symptoms of lung cancer include shortness of breath, cough, chest pain, wheezing, swelling of the neck and face, and recurring lung infections, among others.

How can quitting smoking improve your heart health?

Quitting smoking has several health benefits for your heart. Quitting smoking not only reduces your chance of contracting respiratory illnesses but also reduces the risk of high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems. People who quit smoking experienced a reduced risk of heart disease within one-two year of kicking the habit.

How to quit smoking with exercise?

Smoking is hard to quit due to the changes that your body goes through while experiencing nicotine withdrawals. The nicotine receptors created in your brain during the addiction period send out dopamine rush and cravings that your brain cannot ignore. However, these cravings do not last long if you persist with strength. Here’s how exercising can help you do that.

• Reduces Stress

A lot of smokers argue that smoking helps to tackle stress. However, this argument can become a roadblock when you are trying to quit. Exercising releases endorphins, or happy hormones, that have the ability to reduce stress and anxiety.

• Distraction

Sometimes all you need to shun cravings is a little distraction. Exercising is the healthiest distraction ever known to man and thus keeps your mind off thoughts that instigate smoking.

• Limits Weight Gain

A lot of smokers are concerned about their weight after quitting smoking. Exercising is a healthy way to keep your weight in check without smoking.

Quitting smoking is hard but not impossible. However, motivation and willingness are some of the basic attributes that smokers need to adhere to maintain their commitment to not smoke. Exercising is a great way to achieve both. Here are some basic workout plans you can try out as a beginner. You can calculate the cost of smoking on your health by using the Activ Living cost of smoking calculator.

Stay tuned to the Activ Living Community. Keep up to date with the latest health tips and trends through expert videos, podcasts, articles, and much more in nutrition, fitness, mindfulness, and lifestyle conditions like Asthma, Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, and Diabetes.