Smoking

[Katys1981zzz]

Has anyone had any experience quitting smoking? I've smoked for 20 years and haven't had a cigarette for 8 days (was a light smoker - about 7 a day) and all my symptoms have got a lot worse in the last few days.

[clivealive Forum Support]

For me it was the badgering of my wife and two daughters followed by sheer will-power and financial pressures back in the 1980s after more than 25 years at 20 a day.

Are you still taking folic acid?

[helvella]

Katys1981zzz,

One of the regular stories over in the Thyroid UK forum is of people becoming hypothyroid, or worsening, when they give up smoking. Sometimes they go from apparently well, to very hypothyroid in a matter of months, sometimes it is just a slight worsening and can happen very quickly.

There is some published research which hints at the connection (I am certain there is such a connection). Unfortunately, no clear, simple and authoritative paper.

I was diagnosed some months after giving up.

If you have not yet done so, get a thyroid test. Even if it says little right now, it will help to show your history. (Mostly, you will only get a TSH test, but sometimes they do FT4 as well.)

Overall, I am glad I did give up - definitely feel better for it. And the world around me no longer smells of smoke.

It is an utter disgrace that despite the millions spent on anti-smoking campaigns, this factor is apparently ignored. You won't find any mention of it at all in most sources.

[KimberinUS]

I quit smoking several years ago (appox 8 years) and was jogging 3 miles, 5 days a week. After 2 or 3 months i went to the doctor completely depressed. Only change i could think of at the time was the stopping smoking. I was baffled as i thought the endorphins from exercise were supposed to counter balance depression which i had been diagnosised with and prescribed antidepressants for a time or two previously. I was prescribed antidepressants again, but could not afford them. I didnt have health insurance at the time. It was cheaper to smoke so i started right back up.

I have no facts as to if i was b12 deficient back then but i dont think so as i have recently tested positive for h pylori and all indications/signs are that i got it appox 4 years ago.

I now wonder if all my prior "depression" diagnosises were actually folate deficiency symptoms as i used to eat for crap. And have not felt depressed during the last 2 years which is how long i have been eating vegetables daily.

I have read this link concerning nicotine.

selfhacked.com/blog/28-prov...

Nicotine has many effects. I would reccommend using a patch, if your symptoms are unbearable, not picking up cigarettes again.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

have you tried posting on one of the quit-smoking forums as well?

These are links to a couple

healthunlocked.com/quitsupport

healthunlocked.com/nosmokin...

giving up anything that has an addictive component can be very difficult - nicotine certainly affects the way the brain processes signals so that alone could be having an effect.

[mrpenguin]

What do you mean by quitting? Do you mean no nicotine containing products at all? No Vaping, no e-cigs?

The number of people who said "Thanks to Vaping I managed to quit smoking!". No you didn't! You've just swapped one way of smoking for another much safer way.

I also smoked for 20 years and it was illness which caused me to initially quit 100% for 8 months but I just couldn't function without Nicotine in my life (My brain just won't work!) so I started Vaping.