To smoke or quit....

mugatea

mugatea

Jedi Master
Hi. I'm 40. I smoke a lot of roll ups a day... maybe 40, could be up to 60. I didn't start smoking till my late teens and I got hooked cause my friends and I were smoking a lot of dope in those days. At school all my friends smoked but I didn't and I was proud of that.

Since my very early twenties I've had small hard swollen bumps on my throat, either side of voice box, maybe its my thyroid or glands, but I reckon its the smoking thats caused it and its been like that 20 years. I've been to doc twice, and twice blood test showed nothing. I also remember waking up in the middle of the night in my early 20's with a absolute knowing that I had to quit.

Anyway, I smoke loads now, I even have to make 6 ciggies to take to bed since my nicotine levels need constantly topping up even through the night. A couple of years ago I went cold turkey throughout the day... my brain felt zapped/fried by the evening and even though I started smoking again that night, the effects on my brain lasted till the next day. I suffer aniety, some depression, come from a family where that is common so I cant be sure smoking isnt helping...but my fitness sucks.

I walk several hours a day for my job but tried running on Sunday and could only run about 70 metres before I had to stop. Kept stopping and starting and did that for two miles. I can't cut down, I'm a fidgeter , so if I dont smoke, I roll. so I have to either quit or keep smoking. I've just bought patches and am gonna try tomorrow to stop. I reckon no harm in trying... cause I can always start again.... Any thoughts anyone? I see on the smoking is good topic that some just smoke 2-4 a day which I can smoke with my first coffee.
 
Hi mugatea,
If you are out of balance with smoking and feeling bad because of it, you might just try to quit your habit...
My 2 cents
 
Regarding your running it could also be your main condition. I imagine that I also could not run that far, also when I smoke about 10-20 cigarettes a day. When fitness is your main problem have you considered the main topic: Body by Science / HIIT Experiment?

Another thought that comes to mind: How is your diet like since you are writing that you are fidgeter? Do you have a chance using neuroptimal? With that diet, some supplements and neuroptimal could calm you more down.
 
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Thanks for the link, I'm checking it out now. I'm on the carnivore diet - but only two weeks though - but liking it. So basically meat and water with the occasional black coffee as a treat. Way better (for me) than attempting the keto diet.
 
If you need to "top up" throughout the night with nicotine, that is a sign that there are some issues with your nervous system. Without knowing more of your symptoms, it is difficult to say exactly what is going on. But as per my understanding of smokings' effects on biochemistry, it is can effectively act like a band-aid to provide temporary nervous system regulation. If you are needing to smoke that many, I would imagine there there is something deeper going on that merits further investigation.
 
If you walk several hours a day for your job, and you could run a bit (I'm assuming you hadn't done it in a long time?), then you may not be in as bad a shape as you think. Gawan made some very good suggestions. The Body By Science workout could strengthen your muscles and make it easier to run later/feel stronger.

Given that you brain seems to need nicotine that much, it sounds like you are a "born" smoker or that there may be some neurochemical imbalance you may want to have checked. Have you ever had a neurotransmitters test done? Based on the results, you may find some good supplementation.

If in the meantime, if you really have a bad feeling about it, you could trying cutting down by rolling a certain amount of cigarettes a day and keeping them in a box, and make them last the whole day. You may need less than you smoke from habit. You can also practice Éiriú Eolas, and in particular pipe breathing (no pun intended, it's called like that!:lol:). Some breathing exercises can provide you with more acetylcholine, and then your brain seems to need less nicotine (see here if you can filter out any propaganda, them calling tobacco a "drug", etc.).

But for fitness itself, I don't think smoking has any real effect, or at least not as much as we are supposed to believe from all the anti-smoking propaganda, or not for everybody. You would have to try and see. I reduced the amount of cigarettes I smoked for a while, and that didn't change anything. What DID change was to exercise regularly, do gentle exercises every morning, the Body By Science workout, trying to be a bit more active in general and keep a reasonable diet (mostly paleo).
 
Do you do EE breathing program before going to bed? I would experiment with doing Pipe-Breathing every day (and maybe the full program 1-2 times a week) and see whether your urge for smoking declines a bit.
 
I'm not sure what to tell you, but I can tell you this: I smoke roughly half as many rollies as you do, and I can run 4km no problem (having not run at all for 15 years). And I'm 41.

So, maybe smoking is bad for you, and/or there are very likely other factors involved.
 
Chu said:
Given that you brain seems to need nicotine that much, it sounds like you are a "born" smoker or that there may be some neurochemical imbalance you may want to have checked. Have you ever had a neurotransmitters test done? Based on the results, you may find some good supplementation.
Click to expand...

Perhaps also better check the function of the thyroid? Because if I remember correctly, there was a correlation between iodine intake and nicotine craving.
 
I quit 3 and half months ago and my cardio went up significantly, prior to that did had problem catching a breath under heavy physical duress after longer training, and there was some pain on the left side of chest probably a muscle or something else that is now gone, not that I ever had a need for nicotine but read it here it was beneficial, but it had opposite effect on me, that is it did not calm me but excite me more. What works for one does not for another and the best thing is to listen to your body and self when it comes to it.
 
Ok, thanks for the amazing replies. I had to have a think after reading them.

That was my first run btw, so I definitely wanna get fitter as I feel tired like most days like you would if unfit.
Chu said:
If you walk several hours a day for your job, and you could run a bit (I'm assuming you hadn't done it in a long time?), then you may not be in as bad a shape as you think. Gawan made some very good suggestions. The Body By Science workout could strengthen your muscles and make it easier to run later/feel stronger.

Given that you brain seems to need nicotine that much, it sounds like you are a "born" smoker or that there may be some neurochemical imbalance you may want to have checked. Have you ever had a neurotransmitters test done? Based on the results, you may find some good supplementation.

If in the meantime, if you really have a bad feeling about it, you could trying cutting down by rolling a certain amount of cigarettes a day and keeping them in a box, and make them last the whole day. You may need less than you smoke from habit. You can also practice Éiriú Eolas, and in particular pipe breathing (no pun intended, it's called like that!:lol:). Some breathing exercises can provide you with more acetylcholine, and then your brain seems to need less nicotine (see here if you can filter out any propaganda, them calling tobacco a "drug", etc.).

But for fitness itself, I don't think smoking has any real effect, or at least not as much as we are supposed to believe from all the anti-smoking propaganda, or not for everybody. You would have to try and see. I reduced the amount of cigarettes I smoked for a while, and that didn't change anything. What DID change was to exercise regularly, do gentle exercises every morning, the Body By Science workout, trying to be a bit more active in general and keep a reasonable diet (mostly paleo).
Click to expand...

Hi Chu, yeah that was my first run so I wanna keep doing it, get fitter. Hopefully that will help my general fatigue and crankiness. No, I've never had or even knew you get a neurotransmitter test done... I dont know how I'd actually ask the doctor for that anyway.

When I got without smoking for some reason I get lethargic where as on nicotine I'm like a wee manic mouse. I'm gonna try the patches tomorrow just for one week, just to see (assuming I can do it) if my neck glands/thyroid?? settle down after 20 years of being swollen. It may or may not be for me, hopefully one week should let me know. If not maybe I can ask for a thyroid test.


Btw Chu... are you on paleo? Not keto?

Thanks everyone, your comments are insanley valuable. I couldnt ask this question any other place without the "Dont you know the dangers of smoking" routine.
 
Ina said:
Hi mugatea,

Have you ever considered IQOS and Heets istead of cigarettes or cigars?

Ina
Click to expand...

I was going to maybe suggest and ask if anyone else has been using these.

I have been for a year, seems to be OK so far. None of the tar or other by-products of burning.

I'm curious if there's any info out there about these as well.

I've even seen M.Ds. writing articles in local MSM that if you can't beat "peoples' addiction, at least suggest these alternatives" since the problem with smoking stems from the by-products of the burning.

Mind you, this makes it a straight nicotine delivery system without the potential lung reaction of added mucus, that may be beneficial?
 
You probably wont find any MD who would do them for you unless you did them privately. Anyway, you would be looking for a "Functional Medicine Practitioner" rather than any standard MD to run that sort of test. The one I would opt for in your scenario would probably be the organic acids, although a DUTCH would also come in handy, as these both provide evidence of the downstream metabolites of dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline.
 
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