Quitting Smoking May Reverse Aging: Tips for Kicking the Habit

Everyone is aware that smoking has negative consequences. The habit can lead to the development of chronic illnesses like lung cancer, weaken your immune system, and may cause dental issues, including tooth decay. This makes quitting smoking vital—but not just for better health.
Our article “Secrets to Staying Young” notes that smoking cessation can defy aging, too. For one, it’ll halt smoking’s effects on your skin, preventing signs of premature aging like sagging and wrinkles. Yet that’s not all: the American Cancer Society reveals that quitting at any age can lower your risk of developing life-threatening health conditions, adding as much as 10 years to your life.
If you want to kick your smoking habit successfully and turn back the clock, here are some tips that can help:

Find relaxing hobbies

Many people turn to smoking when they feel stressed, as cigarette chemicals release dopamine in the brain. Many factors like relationships, family issues, or midlife crises can bring on stress, which becomes a primary motivation for smoking; if that’s the case, you can try picking up hobbies that produce the same relaxing effect instead.

Some activities you can try include gardening and yoga. Planting and weeding can get you into a soothing rhythm to release stress, while yoga encourages physical and mental relaxation through movements like the butterfly and cobra pose. Finding a healthier coping mechanism for stress relief can ultimately keep you from picking up cigarettes, and you can better reap the anti-aging benefits of quitting.

Quit gradually

Quitting cold turkey may not be an effective solution. Since it involves suddenly depriving your body of cigarettes, you may experience withdrawal symptoms that encourage relapse. By quitting gradually using smokeless-tobacco-free nicotine products like pouches and patches, you can help ease your body out of cigarette dependence for better results.

Nicotine pouches are oral products you can use for up to an hour. You might want to start with those from ZYN, one of the most popular brands in the US. ZYN pouches are produced by the Philip Morris-owned Swedish Match, which guarantees nicotine derived from tobacco plants using high-tech distillation procedures. This results in quality pouches that come in varying strengths and can make it easier to quit smoking gradually. Nicotine patches work similarly, except they’re placed on your skin and work for up to a day. You can get patches like those from Habitrol over the counter, as they’re proven safe and effective for quitting. That means they’re easy to access—and since Habitrol patches slowly release nicotine over time, you can use them to better manage withdrawal symptoms.

Join a smoking cessation support group

Quitting smoking can take a toll on your mind and emotions. It can be hard to let go of the habit, and kicking it may be even more challenging, especially if you experience withdrawals. Given this, it will be helpful to have people support you along the way.

Apart from your loved ones and friends, you can seek support from people in the same situation. Smoking cessation support groups, like Freedom From Smoking and Nicotine Anonymous, let you interact with fellow quitters. You’ll share stories and tips, learn quitting strategies from experts, and provide one another with needed moral support. You might even find like-minded people looking to quit smoking to reverse the aging process, making it easier for you to share advice on how to quit to meet this specific goal.

Consider taking smoking cessation medication

These prescription medicines are usually prescribed to smokers with a strong dependence on cigarettes. Alongside the methods above, these can significantly boost your chances of successfully quitting smoking: they’re specifically designed to prevent you from enjoying smoking and alleviate withdrawal symptoms. Some smoking cessation medications your doctor may prescribe you include Bupropion SR and Cytisine.

This article defines Bupropion SR as a nicotine-free medicine that can help with withdrawal symptoms and your urge to smoke. However, not everyone is eligible to take it: for example, you may have allergic reactions to the drug, so be sure to consult a doctor first. Another medication you may look forward to taking soon is Cytisine. Recent results from Cytisine’s medical trials show that this plant-based medication can effectively boost your smoking cessation efforts by reducing the severity of withdrawal symptoms. It’s already being used in Europe, so it’s likely to be one of the medications your doctor may prescribe you once it’s approved in the US.

Quitting smoking is essential to defy aging. Use these tips for higher chances of success as you kick the habit.