Smoking and Sports? Today is a wonderful day to quit smoking! Right?
Day after day, cigarette after cigarette. Things are going well. You think that you are healthy and that you are well, tobacco producers are rejoicing and placing more and more attractive advertisements.
Like that of the adventurer, dressed in camel skin … Yes, that’s smoking. An irresponsible adventure with one’s own and other people’s lungs, and hence with global health.
Table of Contents
Toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke
Nicotine
Nicotine is a drug. Yes, it is a substance with a rapid sedative effect on the psyche. It only takes seven to eight seconds after inhaling tobacco smoke for the nicotine molecule that enters the bloodstream through the lung alveoli to reach the brain.
Yes, nicotine products are legal, but that doesn’t mean they are harmless. The desire of certain circles in society to proclaim the “normality” of smoking based on traditions is a market policy with a centuries-old tradition and strong interests.
In Rome, killing people in the arena was also normal, similar to slavery before the advent of the modern United States and a united Europe. Nicotine is a substance without a social future.
Carbon monoxide (CO)
This substance occurs in the form of a toxic gas. It is formed during the burning of tobacco and enters the blood of smokers through the alveoli of the lungs. Immediately afterwards, it is captured by red blood cells, where it binds to hemoglobin 240 times stronger than the carbon dioxide-hemoglobin bond.
This means that carbon monoxide competes and dominates, making it difficult to breathe by blocking normal respiratory circuits. This, accompanied by low levels of red blood cells, leads to chronic fatigue, dizziness and headaches. Something quite familiar to women smokers.
Some carbon monoxide molecules reach various organs and tissues, where they have a number of negative effects. Generally speaking, they slow down cellular metabolism. It is enough to slow down the metabolism and action of erythrocytes (red blood cells) for a long time to talk about delayed recovery, delayed nutrition and slow growth of all oxygen-dependent cells.
Muscle tissue is rich in myoglobin, similar to hemoglobin in red cells, it binds and carries oxygen to the muscles for the successful realization of the Krebs cycle (tricarboxylic acid cycle).
However, the heart is also a muscle that stops working. Carbon monoxide sometimes breaks the bond with hemoglobin and binds to cardiac hemoglobin. As a result, cerebral ischemia of the heart (ischemic disease) can occur.
The endothelial cells stimulate the release of free radicals, including peroxynitrite. In the brain, it leads to capillary bleeding, mitochondrial malfunctions, alienation of leukocytes, and often to the stimulation of programmed cell death. Literally, it softens your brain.
Tar
Contained in cigarette smoke. Inhaled, it adheres to lung cells and reduces the active oxygen-absorbing surface. With long-term smoking it can cover up to 70%. It irritates the mucous membranes and is responsible for pneumonia and extreme stress on the heart and increased blood pressure, even with moderately high cardioactivity.
What is the negative effect on athletes?
- reduces aerobic capacity;
- additional stress on the heart;
- eliminates cardio benefits on the heart;
- increases the risk of heart attack in cardio smokers;
- cigarette after cardio increases the carcinogenic effect of tobacco smoke;
- slows down the metabolism;
- causes hormonal imbalance (leptin-androstenedione in men, leptin-estrogen, leptin-insulin);
- eliminates the benefits of exercise in terms of slowing the loss of bone mineral density.
Health risks associated with smoking:
- premature aging;
- increased risk of premature death;
- doubled risk of cardiovascular disease;
- ten to eleven times higher risk of lung cancer than non-smokers.
Diseases and adverse effects associated with chronic smoking:
- reduced potency;
- supports the progression of atherosclerosis (by participating in the formation of calcium-cholesterol plaques and narrowing of blood vessels);
- supports the appearance of at least 11 types of malignant (cancerous) formations;
- supports the spread of airborne viral and bacterial infections;
- leads to the appearance of chronic bronchitis;
- leads to emphysema; damages the fetus and enters breast milk in pregnant and lactating women;
- leads to coronary heart disease.
Tobacco depression (abstinence and weight gain)
Smoking has been shown to affect the secretion of the hormone leptin. This hormone plays a role on metabolism by regulating appetite and fat cell activity. This is especially important in people trying to quit smoking, because leptin levels increase many times during the period of nicotine withdrawal.
Periods of irritability and wolfish appetite are known as tobacco depression, and those who try to quit smoking often but unsuccessfully always suffer from it. This can be avoided if the latter include sports, diet and active nutritional supplements to overcome this biological stress.
Benefits of quitting cigarettes
- improved breathing;
- improved ability to cope with sudden loads;
- reduced recovery time after exercise (for example, in the breaks between sets and gym exercises);
- improved taste and smell;
- over time, the basic ability of the lungs to absorb oxygen as it would be without a person smoking (for people before the age of 65) is restored;
- reduced risk of disease compared to active chronic smokers.
Sources used for Smoking and Sports :
People who look for Smoking and Sports also look for :
-
Asthma and Sports ? Is the Combination Possible ?
-
Corn – Health Benefits – Negatives everything you have to know before eating
-
Mineral deficiency and mineral toxicity
-
Ginger – Better in a food Supplement than in Spice for Cooking
Smoking and Sports
