Vitamins and Minerals to Help Stop Smoking

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Introduction

If you’re wondering about the role vitamins and minerals play in the stop smoking process, this article has an answer for you! And the answer is: smoking depletes the body of essential vitamins and minerals and to successfully quit, those nutrients must be replaced.

Smoking Cessation Requires Vitamins

• Dr Jodi Gelfand, a physician assistant in an article titled: Nicotine dependency and smoking cessation, concurs. According to him, “patients who are undergoing smoking cessation need higher doses of certain vitamins and supplements.” He then goes on to mention the important supplements as Vitamin C, Vitamin A, CoQ-10(a cardio-protective antioxidant), Lipoic Acid (an anti-oxidant capable of penetrating deep into tissue lungs, heart) and Zinc (which aids healing of mucous membranes).

Smoking Cessation Requires Vitamins(2)

• From the above, we can safely say a diet containing the full supplies of vitamins and minerals is crucial not only to good health, but to the body recovery and healing process after smoking cessation.

• However, be sure to consult with your doctor that you can do this in safety, and don’t forget that, too much can also be injurious, so don’t over-consume any particular nutrient through diet, supplements or both. Consuming excess niacin can cause liver damage while too much of vitamin C can cause diarrhea or excessive stooling.

Smokers Have Lower Levels of Vitamins

• Various researches including the INTERMAP study on dietary intake in smokers, ex-smokers, and non smokers as well as a 1998 meta-analysis published in the Journal of Nutrition signify that smokers have lower levels of vitamin C, A, E, B6 and other essential vitamins than people who don’t smoke and those who have dropped off cigarettes; even though these vitamins are needed to fix the harm caused by smoking.

Smokers Have Lower Levels of Vitamins(2)

• Both studies concluded that “public health interventions in smokers should focus not only on helping them to quit smoking but also on improving their diets to further reduce cancer and cardiovascular disease risks.”

Benefits of Consuming Vitamins and Minerals While Quitting

• Daily ingestion of vitamin C improves the body’s ability to resist illness, boosts energy and repairs tissue, bones and blood vessels that have been damaged by cigarette smoking.

• Vitamins A and E contain antioxidants which restore and repair cellular damage occasioned by smoking, advancing collagen growth and general organ function.

Benefits of Consuming Vitamins and Minerals While Quitting(2)

• Vitamins set up the body with a natural resistance against the addictive and exciting properties of nicotine which intensify withdrawal symptoms and cause smokers to go back to cigarettes.

• The B vitamins have natural calming properties which lessen the withdrawal symptoms of depression and anxiety, so you may want to consume more of foods containing this vitamin while quitting.

Which Vitamins and Minerals Should I take During Smoking Cessation?

• Vitamin C• Cigarette smoking leads to the increased

oxidative damage of lung tissue. Basically, the toxins found in cigarette smoke boost the production of free radicals that affix themselves to lung cells and cause their damage or death, according to a study published in 2008 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Still on Vitamin C

• Therefore, you need antioxidants to help the lungs repair and heal. Vitamin C, a water-soluble vitamin found in foods including oranges, lemon, sweet lime, is one such vitamin. According to the researchers, it has the ability to reduce the damaging effects of cigarette smoke. Higher doses of vitamin C may also lessen nicotine cravings. It is an essential nutrient in the quit smoking process.

Vitamin E

• Increase your Vitamin E intake. Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that helps to keep your arteries and lungs free of toxins. It is considered to be important in preventing heart attacks. Because of the increased stress to the heart caused by smoking, the heart attack prevention that vitamin E provides is especially important to smokers.

Still on Vitamin E

• In addition to helping to prevent heart attacks in smokers, Vitamin E’s antioxidant properties can also help to diminish damage to the respiratory system.

• And since smokers have poorer levels of vitamin E in their bodies than non-smokers, it’s imperative to add this vitamin to your diet as you try to quit cigarettes. It will not only boost the health of your respiratory system, it will also help you fight oxidative stress.

Vitamin A

• Vitamin A is another good vitamin to take during smoking cessation. It is believed to shield the cilia (the hair-like structures that keep the lungs dirt-free). It is also responsible for the health of certain cells found in the lungs. These cells secrete mucus that acts as a barricade against germs coming into the lungs. Some research has indicated that vitamin A may help invalidate some of the damage to the lungs of long-term smokers.

Vitamin D

• Vitamin D is another vitamin that may help quitters. It is connected to reduced levels of many forms of cancer, including lung cancer. In his book, “Quitting Cold: A Guide to Quit Smoking,” Carling Kalicak, notes that vitamin D is also good for reducing depression and stress, which can crop up as a result of cessation, particularly in the first few days. Kalicak ,therefore, advises smokers to start taking vitamin D supplements 7 to 14 days before they put out their last cigarette.

Beta Carotene

• Even though Beta carotene boosts the immune system, helping to keep you healthy during nicotine withdrawal, smoking is bad for Beta carotene. It destroys carotene’s beneficial antioxidant properties. So it is much more likely that smokers need higher doses of antioxidants than non-smokers. But care must be taken in the consumption of Beta carotene in supplemental form as studies say it can increase the risk of lung cancer among current smokers.

Still on Beta Carotene

• Due to this, it is recommended that beta carotene be taken as a supplement only if you are in the process of smoking cessation. Natural beta carotene that comes from foods such as green leafy vegetables, orange or yellow fruits and vegetables are more beneficial than beta carotene taken in pill form.

Calcium

• Aside the damage that nicotine and cigarette smoke does to heart and lungs, smoking depletes the body’s supply of calcium, leading to bone loss, which naturally occurs with age. A year 2000 study by the Center for Clinical and Basic Research indicates that smoking can boost the rapidity of bone loss because calcium, a vital mineral for healthy bones, is stripped from the body by nicotine. Adding a calcium supplement or increasing natural calcium consumption can neutralize this effect, keeping bones strong and healthy.

Vitamin B6

• Vitamin B6 is a water-soluble vitamin (cannot be stored in the body and so must be consumed daily) that’s used by the central nervous system for the production of neuro-transmitters that are signaling brain compounds. Vitamin B6 has also been severally found by scientists to help present as well as former smokers boost their lung health. Specifically, a study documented in the Journal of the American Medical Association (January 2011 edition) discovered that vitamin B6 was linked to a reduced risk of lung cancer in present and ex-smokers.

Vitamin B3

• Even though Vitamin B-3, or niacin, is most times indicated for stop smoking, too much of it can cause liver damage. It is therefore advisable that you talk to your Doctor before using this Vitamin supplement.

Should I take these Vitamins as Supplements or Naturally in Food?

• As always, 2stopsmokingtips.com favours the natural approach. This is because you get the full benefits of these nutrients in their natural form rather than in a processed form. Most, if not all, of these vitamins and minerals can be gotten from fruits and vegetables. Avail yourself of these gifts of nature. They will help you pull through the nasty symptoms of cigarette withdrawal.

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