Category: Health Risks

When a person quits smoking, their body goes through many difficult changes because it is trying to rid itself of the poisons from smoking. These are called nicotine withdrawals. Withdrawals present themselves in a variety of ways and can vary in terms of severity.

Smoking cigarettes is very damaging to the health of the smoker for many reasons. Some of the dangerous side effects of smoking range from cancer and diabetes, to yellowing of the fingers and other physical symptoms. Quitting smoking will greatly improve the quality of your life as well as increase longevity.

When you quit smoking there are always side effects, but they are much less severe than what lays in store health-wise should you continue to smoke. One of the less severe withdrawal symptoms sometimes experienced is twitching or spasms of the muscles. While this is an irritating condition, it is temporary. This article will discuss muscle spasms, withdrawal symptoms, the ways to make the spasms subside and how Clinical Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy can help alleviate these symptoms.

What Are Muscle Spasms?

Muscle spasms can occur in many parts of the body. These spasms are caused by dehydration, overuse, and decreased electrolytes. They are usually abrupt and painful, but generally short-lived. Muscles spasms generally occur when they are over-used or tired, over-stretched, or have been inactive for a long period of time. The muscles run out of fluids that keep them loose and become hyperexcitable, which then forces a contraction of the muscle. Muscle spasms can also occur with the narrowing of the arteries, making it hard for the heart to get blood to all the areas of the body. This is common in smokers because nicotine slows blood flow by restricting the blood vessels in the body. This also means that the vessels are not receiving enough oxygen.

Muscle twitching is different than a muscle spasm in that it is the uncontrolled movement of a small segment of a larger muscle and can be seen under the skin. Many people who have just quit smoking will experience muscle twitching or spasms because their body is trying to rid itself of all the toxins that come from smoking. As the heart grows stronger and can process blood to all the areas of the body more efficiently, the spasms and twitching should go away. If the twitching persists after a month or so, you should check with your doctor to see if there is more permanent damage.

Withdrawal Symptoms

Along with muscle twitching and spasms there are some other withdrawal symptoms that you could experience. These can vary in intensity and should only last a few weeks. Some of these symptoms include:

• Headache
• Sore throat
• Coughing
• Nausea
• Sweating
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Fatigue

These are all symptoms that come with quitting smoking and vary with intensity. They are usually mostly mild but some can be quite severe. Fortunately, muscle twitches are one of the less severe withdrawal symptoms, and should go away quite quickly. Unfortunately, they can also be one of the more annoying symptoms!

Ways To Make Muscle Twitching Subside

Besides being a symptom of smoking withdrawals, another cause of muscle twitching and spasms is stress. Stress tightens muscles and weakens the blood supply to them, causing them to contract. Often times the act of quitting smoking can be stressful, particularly to those who have been smoking for a long time. There are many ways to alleviate stress. Some options include:

• Exercise
• Going out with a friend
• Reading a good book
• Taking a hot bath
• Massage
• Eating comfort foods

The main idea is to find something that you enjoy doing. Not only will that take your mind off your withdrawal symptoms, it will relax the muscles and allow the twitching to subside. Since the arteries in your heart are constricting the flow of blood to the other muscles in the body, the best way to get the blood back them is to exercise. Start off slowly and stretch a lot because your heart and muscles may not be used to the strain. As your body gets more and more exercise, the blood flow will return to normal and muscle spasms and twitching will subside. Remember, one cause of muscle spasms is inactivity in the muscles, so get out there and activate them!

Clinical Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy

There are always a few people who have withdrawal symptoms worse, or longer lasting than others. This is due to how long they smoked, how much they smoked, and body chemistry. Muscle twitching after quitting smoking is quite common and most people may not even notice it. If you are someone who is experiencing muscle twitching or spasms in an uncomfortable way, there are ways to subside them. Combined with the techniques above, Clinical Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy can help you tolerate the muscle twitching more easily.

Joseph R. Giove is a certified Clinical Hypnotist with over 30 years of experience in Clinical Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy. By using the power of the mind, he helps people quit smoking and deal with the after effects of withdrawal symptoms. He uses no chemicals or carcinogens, just gently altering brain patterns to relax you and help you quit smoking.

Quitting smoking will give you a longer and healthier life. Twitching of the muscles is a small price to pay for adding years to your life. By having a relaxed mind and body, your muscle twitching problems will be much easier to handle and subside more quickly!

It should come as no surprise to anyone that people who smoke cigarettes will most certainly get one or more of the multiple health risks that come along with smoking cigarettes, cigars, pipes, e-cigarettes and any other product that burns tobacco for inhalation purposes. The truly troubling issue is how other people’s cigarettes, and any of the other aforementioned products, affect the people around them who may not smoke.

Secondhand smoke is dangerous to everyone who encounters it, and it is unfortunate when it becomes unavoidable.

In this article we will discuss the following points related to secondhand smoke and the ways that it is just as dangerous smoking cigarettes firsthand.

• What is Secondhand Smoke? When smokers exhale smoke from cigarettes and other devices the smoke is inhaled by a second party.

• The Effects of Secondhand Smoke on Everyone: Tobacco smoking contains many chemicals and potentially life-threatening carcinogens that are passed on through secondhand smoke.

• The Effects of Secondhand Smoke on Children: Secondhand smoke is even more harmful to children and youth.

• Secondhand Smoke By the Numbers: Studies and connections between secondhand smoke and diseases.

• How Joseph R Giove Can Help You and Others Quit smoking: Joseph R Giove is a Clinical Hypnotist and Hypnotherapist who can help you, or those around you, quit.

What is Secondhand Smoke?

Secondhand smoke is exactly what it sounds like. When someone smoke a cigarette, a cigar, e-cigarette, a pipe or anything else that burns tobacco and the chemicals that are contained within the product, it produces smoke that is instantly inhaled by people in the smokers vicinity. Secondhand smoke is also known as Passive Smoking or Environmental Tobacco Smoke.

Often times these are people that do not smoke, but nevertheless are placed at risk for many of the same afflictions that affect real smokers, sometimes, with dire consequences. Secondhand smoke is extremely dangerous for the people affected by it, and it’s most troubling because they did not opt to undertake this risk on their own accord.

The Effects of Secondhand Smoke on Everyone

There are many health risks that come from smoking cigarettes and other tobacco inhaling products. Some of these factors include strokes, blindness, cataracts, macular degeneration, periodontitis, aortic aneurysms, coronary heart disease, pneumonia, atherosclerotic peripheral vascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tuberculosis, asthma, diabetes, reproductive defects, hip fractures, ectopic pregnancy, erectile dysfunction, rheumatoid arthritis, immune dysfunction, overall diminished health and causes 15 types of cancer.

As we can see by this extensive list, there are many conditions and diseases that can afflict people who smoke cigarettes. Alarmingly, however, it is possible for all of these conditions to affect regular, non-smoking people that are habitually around those who smoke. For instance, only a few years ago you could smoke inside public areas, including bars, restaurants, lobbies and numerous other places. Non-smoking bartenders, servers, hostesses, concierge and numerous other patrons were continuously placed at risk for all of these conditions.

The Effects of Secondhand Smoke on Children

The effects of secondhand on the adult population are numerous and alarming, however there are even greater risks for young children. Often a parent or other member of the household smokes cigarettes in their homes in close proximity to the children who live there. This is one of secondhand smoke’s biggest problems. Firstly, the lungs of small children may not be fully developed, and thus unable to counteract a long list of deadly side-effects. Some of these side-effects include:

• Middle ear disease
• Problematic respiratory symptoms
• Impaired lung function
• Lower respiratory illness
• SIDS (Sudden infant death syndrome)

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is obviously the most severe and traumatic of the list. There is no doubt that secondhand smoke is extremely dangerous to, not only everyone, but especially young children. Not only are they mentally influential at a young age and may take up smoking in the future, but they are at serious and immediate risk if their parents, or anyone else, is smoking around them.

Secondhand Smoke by the Numbers

The effects of secondhand smoke, or passive smoke, are evident. There are also some sobering statistics that have been compiled by multiple studies and experts over the last few decades. In addition to studies being done in the United States, there have been many other studies conducted in other countries around the world that are equally concerned with the health effects of secondhand smoke.
For example, a study done by the National Asthma Council of Australia has published the following results:

• Asthmatic adults have found that secondhand smoke gives them symptoms of an attack
• Living in a smoking household increases a child’s risk of developing asthma
• Children who have asthma are more susceptible to other diseases when one or both parents smoke

Another study from France has concluded that secondhand smoke causes between 3000 and 5000 premature deaths per year. In 1992, a study from the United States found that secondhand smoke caused 35,000 to 40,000 total deaths per year. We can clearly see that it has been proven without a doubt that there is a very real and very dangerous link between secondhand smoke and the risk of lung cancer.

Quitting smoking obviously will help improve your health and life longevity, but it will also greatly benefit the health of those around you. If you are smoking around other people, then you are inflicting them with the same chemicals and carcinogens that you as a smoker are taking in voluntarily. Children are an especially vulnerable segment of the population, as they have little or no choice except to breathe in whatever air you provide for them. Children do not and will not understand the health factors of cigarettes unless they are educated as early as possible.

How Joseph R. Giove Can Help You and Others Quit smoking

If you are interested in quit smoking, for your health and for the loved ones around you, then seeing a hypnotherapist such as Joseph R. Giove can help. He is specialist with over 25 years of experience in Clinical Hypnosis which has been proven to be one of the most effective methods to quit smoking. Clinical Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy has helped many people quit smoking for good, greatly benefiting both themselves and those around them.

It is no secret that smoking cigarettes, pipes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, e-cigarettes and all other tobacco products are dangerous to your health and potentially fatal. Scientists and researchers have examined in great detail all of the chemicals involved in the manufacturing of cigarettes, and have laid out many of the troubling outcomes of prolonged cigarette use. This article will focus on the most alarming of these.

The Harmful Chemicals in Cigarettes

A cigarette is more than just tobacco rolled in paper, in fact there are more than 7000 chemicals that are released when a cigarette is lit and smoked. Additionally, more than 600 ingredients go into the farming, manufacturing and production of cigarettes. Obviously there are too many to list here, but here are some of the more common and most harmful components:

• Ammonia- also found in household and industrial cleaning supplies
• Arsenic – commonly used as poison to kill rodents
• Benzene – a complex chemical used in many industrial products such as plastics, rubber cement, gasoline and pesticides
• Butane – the main ingredient in lighter fluid
• Carbon Monoxide – also found in car exhaust
• Formaldehyde – commonly used in glues, plywood and insulation materials
• Lead – used in batteries
• Nicotine – used in insecticides
• Tar – used for paving roads and roofing

These are just a few of the ingredients that can be found in cigarettes. There are many, many more, all with varying side effects and complicated names that obscure their harmful effects. Cigarettes have warning labels on them but they are often not nearly specific enough. Most of the household or industrial products that contain these same chemicals carry warning labels stating that consuming these products are harmful to your health, some even list the number for poison control. Meanwhile, warnings on cigarette packages simply carry a mild warning of lung cancer or potential impotence.

E-Cigarettes: Not a Safe Alternative

E-cigarettes are a nicotine delivery system. They heat flavoured nicotine (and many of the other dangerous chemicals found in cigarettes) with a battery operated ignition. Puffing an e-cigarette activates the heating device which then vaporizes the flavored liquid, and the user then inhales. This process is called ‘vaping’, and although it is often touted as a safer alternative to smoking, it nevertheless makes use of the aforementioned chemicals also found in cigarettes.

Studies from the Harvard School of Public Health found at least one of the most toxic chemicals found in regular cigarettes in over 50 flavors of e-cigarettes. These chemicals are diacetyl, acetoin and 2,3 pentanedione. In a quote from the report, author Joseph Allen says “the amount of diacetyl in 39 of the e-cigs exceeded the amount that was detectable by the laboratory.” This means the amount was too great to even measure, and as such we are unable to determine what effect such an unfathomable amount would have on a person’s health.

The test results regarding e-cigarettes are only now becoming available to the public, and they are showing us that the risks associated with e-cigarettes are at least equivalent to, and in some cases greater than conventional cigarettes. Big tobacco companies have found a way push these products onto the public with the message that e-cigarettes are a ‘healthier’ alternative, or even an effective way to quit smoking. “Vaping”, which is what smoking an e- cigarette is called, may seem like a healthier alternative to a conventional cigarette, but they contain many of the same chemicals, as well as additional chemicals, often in significantly higher concentrations. One of these chemicals, found in the flavoring component of several e-cigarettes, is formaldehyde, and will therefore not only cause addiction but also severe lung damage.

Secondhand Smoke and Our Youth

The damaging health effects of smoking cigarettes by smokers aside, there is significant danger from secondhand smoke, particularly for children. Any time parents, teachers, babysitters, grandparents or anyone else smokes around children or youth, it is a tragedy. Children are not only susceptible to the horrific health risks that come from secondhand smoke, but are also influenced by behaviors of those around them, especially their parents.

Youth are starting to take up smoking at younger and younger ages, due to peer pressure, advertising on TV, or because they have a parent who smoked. E-cigarettes are being offered in flavors such as cotton candy and fruit squirts, making smoking more appealing to those under the age of 18. Most wish later in life that they had not started smoking, and find it difficult to quit.

Everyday, more than 1800 youth and adult casual smokers become daily smokers. Many of these people were one of the 3200 people who smoked their first cigarette before they were 18 years of age, or even younger. The addictive characteristics of cigarettes and other tobacco products means that nearly 7 out of 10 adults now want to quit smoking but only about 4 in 10 have made an attempt to quit.

Smoking Causes Many Forms of Cancer

Smoking cigarettes can cause and exacerbate all forms of cancer. Some of the leading cancers that can come from prolonged smoking are cancer in the lungs, mouth, throat, kidney, liver, stomach and colon. Smoking can also cause acute myeloid leukemia. These are only a few of the disastrous long term cancerous effects of smoking.

There Are No Safe Ways to Smoke

Many people think there are safe ways to smoke. There are not. Smoking tobacco and nicotine will always be harmful to your health. Waterpipes, hookahs, pipes, bidis, and kreteks are all different ways of smoking tobacco. These methods use different methods to ingest the smoke by using water or other seemingly ‘natural’ products, but still have the same dangerous and cancerous effects that come with smoking conventional cigarettes.

Health and Hypnotherapy

Youth and adults alike are not receiving proper health information regarding the risks and dangerous effects of cigarettes, e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. Problems associated with smoking do not just affect the original smoker, secondhand smoke is passed on to other people, including people’s own children. Surely this is reason enough to make an attempt to quit.

One of the most effective tools for those wishing to quit smoking is the proven method of Clinical Hypnosis. Certified Hypnotherapist Joseph R. Giove has over 25 years of experience working to help people of all ages leave cigarettes behind for good. His methods are unintrusive, and pose no additional risk factors such as increased carcinogen or chemical intake that come with other quitting smoking methods. Joseph R. Giove Clinical Hypnosis provides the tools to help rewire your brain so you are no longer dependent on cigarettes, allowing you to live a healthier, smoke-free lifestyle that benefits both you and everyone around you.