World No Tobacco Day is absorbed on 30th May every year. The theme for this year's No Tobacco Day is “Poisoning our planet”. As we are aware, smoking cigarettes is extremely unhealthy and harmful to our bodies. However, the production of cigarettes also has a huge negative impact on our planet's health.
According to WHO (World Health Organisation), about 600 million trees have been chopped to make cigarettes. Furthermore, the smoke emitted by cigarettes releases about 84 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. This has also contributed to global warming.
At a personal level, the best way to help the planet and your own health is by quitting smoking completely. Smoking can cause cancer, speed-up skin ageing, reduce lung capacity, and cause various other health complications.
Dr. Jitin Yadav, Onco Surgeon, Regency Health said,” Smoking can also make managing the diabetes and regulating insulin levels more difficult. This is because high levels of nicotine can lessen the effectiveness of insulin, causing smokers to need more insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.
In case of hypertension or BP, the nicotine in cigarettes and other tobacco products makes blood vessels get narrow and leads the heart to beat faster, which makes your blood pressure get higher. If you quit smoking and using tobacco products, you can lower your blood pressure and your risk for heart disease and heart attack, according to doctors.
Hence, if you wish to quit smoking, there have been various effective ways that can help you. Most common are nicotine patches, nicotine gums, exercises, meditation, and so on.
Yoga has emerged as another workout regime that might help us quit smoking. Yoga as a workout regime focuses on physical as well as mental wellbeing. Some studies have shown, that yoga may be an effective way to quit smoking completely. In this article, we discuss how can yoga help us quit smoking. Furthermore, which yoga positions can be helpful if you are planning to quit smoking.
How can yoga help us quit smoking?
Better for stress
As discussed above, yoga helps promote better physical as well as mental health. Smoking is considered a way to reduce and release stress. However, even if smoking helps reduce stress, it is an extremely unhealthy and harmful way to do so. On the other hand, yoga has also been proven to reduce stress and tension in a healthy way. Yoga relaxes the mind and also releases any tension that might have built up in the body (through joints and muscles).
Boosts happy hormones
Yoga has been proven to promote the production of happy hormones. This means, that practicing yoga might not only reduce stress and tension but might also elevate your moods. This can work as a great way to better your overall mental health. Studies show that yoga boosts the production of serotonin and dopamine along with other happy hormones and neurotransmitters.
Heals the damage
Along with being a better way to reduce stress, yoga has also been proven to reverse some of the damages smoking might cause to the body. Although some of the damage of smoking is rather irreversible, yoga can promote better functioning and healing to various parts of the body.
Reduce cravings
When people are trying to quit smoking, they might experience other unhealthy habits such as alcohol, junk food, and so on. One might even succumb to these habits as a way to cope with the absence of tobacco. However, yoga as an effective way to quit smoking also reduces the craving for other unhealthy habits.
What yoga exercises can help us quit smoking?
Exercising as a whole can elevate your overall health along with helping you quit smoking. However, these are some of the most common yoga poses proven effective for people trying to quit smoking.
Here are some easy-to-do exercises that will help you in quitting smoking:
- Child's pose
- Breath of fire
- Yogendra Pranayam
- Savasana
- Cat-cow pose
- Bow pose
You can incorporate various other yoga poses that may be headful in making you quit smoking.
In conclusion, quitting smoking is a mental challenge. Taking measures to alter your mentality and focusing better on your mental health can help you better if you wish to quit smoking. Furthermore, what you eat and your lifestyle also play a crucial role in your smoking habits. We encourage you to try and quit smoking today.
Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.
