Since my childhood, I have been feeling suffocating when I smell smoke, especially the cigarette smoke. Smoke is somewhat an inevitable thing. Wherever you go you will find a little amount of smoke. When you are on the roads, you will smell the smoke from the vehicles. Some people like this vehicle smoke. Yes, it sounds bizarre but it’s true. Some of my university friends used to like the vehicle smoke.
But it’s just my observation that in general, smokers stink a bit more than the non-smokers. So, I did a random Google check and found some mind-boggling facts about this. I realised my simple observation was not a mere thought, rather it drove me to some interesting research done in the past.
The sweat glands of the smokers absorb nicotine through skin and the lungs. That’s why nicotine makes the smokers sweat more than the usual and changed the way your pheromones smell. If such individuals sweat profusely, then they start smelling like rancid acid. Cigarettes smoke also impact the smokers’ overall oral health. That’s why oral cancer is quite common among the smokers.
Impact of smoking on men and women:
In May 2022, the National Institute on Drug Abuse published a report, where they mentioned how the neuroimaging of men is different than women for the smokers. Smoking activates reward pathways for men more than women. Further study also showed that men are involved in smoking to reinforce the effects of nicotine, whereas women prefer smoking to control their mood swings.
When smokers try to quit smoking, men show less stress hormone (cortisol) regulation compared to women during abstinence. During research, the scientists also found that, women easily develop COPD who are regular smokers. In some cases, it was found that female smokers developed oral and lung cancer faster than the male smokers. Pregnancy issues is a long-term health problem arises. Even if women quit smoking before getting pregnant, the number of eggs reduces rapidly than the non-smoker females.
Statistics on smokers:
As per the statistics from the WHO in 2023, almost 8 million people die prematurely every year because of smoke. About 1.3 million people dies every year for being passive smokers. So smoke is not taking away lives of the people who practise smoking but also who don’t practise smoking. Isn’t it an alarming situation?
In 2019, when Our World in Data conducted a survey, they found after high blood pressure, smoking is the second most life threatening reasons causing deaths. In 2018 – 2019, almost 7.9 million smokers died globally. Among this, almost 18.4% of the EU smokers died. Bulgaria ranked first among all the EU countries. Greece, Latvia, Germany, Croatia and Cyprus are following later.
Get rid of smoking smell:
- Try using alcohol-based hand wash or skin cleaning pads to get rid of the smoking smell. Bathing frequently is highly advised.
- Applying shampoo and conditioner at least twice a weak can help you to get rid of your smoke smell from hair. If you live in a tropical region then this is an important step because, sweat absorbs this stinky smell.
- Using cough drops or mint chewing gums can help with you bad breath too.
- Clothes of the smokers also stink. You may use fa rid freshening deodoriser or some baking soda. But using soda frequently can impact your attire quality and will damage the clothes pretty quickly. You can also carry small spray bottles of lavender, eucalyptus or jasmine oil. You can apply it directly on skin to reduce the smell.
Ways to quit smoking:
Some smokers feel that replacing vaping with cigarettes would be helpful, but they are equally wrong. Vaping also gives you long-term respiratory and cardiac issues (read more: https://worshipveganism.com/index.php/2024/01/16/vaping-is-it-good-for-you/). During COVID19, it was found that non-smokers recovered quicker than the smokers. The number of deaths during COVID19 were mainly found from the smokers. The non-smoker COVID19 deaths were found with other co-morbidities. Here are some easy tips to quit smoking:
- Going ahead with nicotine replacement therapy is very effective for the smokers. Some experts prescribe nasal sprays or inhalers to the quitters.
- ‘Quit smoking chewing gums’ are also equally effective who wants to withdraw smoking. This is also a long-haul job but have shown remarkable results in the pharmaceuticals industry.
- Physical exercises can also help the smokers to take away their mind and fixation from the smoking. Craving for cigarettes is a kind of oral fixation, so when you exercise, you trigger dopamine (happy hormone) which helps you to control your cortisol levels. Thus, you focus less on smoking. Sweating during workouts also flush away the toxins from your body.
- Seek professional help from a therapist. Relaxation therapies can help regulating the smoking cravings. The individuals can implement the same relaxation therapies to take their mind off the cigarettes.
- There are many ‘quit smoking’ support groups available in the nearby places. You can find out such support groups and can participate to narrate your story. When you listen to others’ inspirational stories you will feel the reinforcement to quit smoking faster.
I’m sure after reading these statistics, one will change their mind pretty easily. These statistics are quite accurate, and we still can make changes at this point of time. Its still not so late to quit smoking. At least, quit smoking for the loved ones.
On a Facebook group, I recently read a post where a woman mentioned that she has filed for divorce because her husband never quit smoking after marriage. The wife and their teenager son turned asthmatic due to passive-smoking. This is just one incident, I remembered and sharing here; like this there are many more. Instead of wasting that money in buying cigarettes and later on cancer, you can invest the same money in other healthy things or probably you can build some wealth.