Recently, CVS Pharmacy, the second largest drugstore chain in the United States, announced that it will no longer sell tobacco products. This is a step in the right direction, as cigarette smoking remains a major health problem both in the U.S. and throughout the world.
Of course, it is well-known that smoking increases the risk of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which can lead to death. But there is also data showing that smoking is related to a number of other disease processes and malignancies.
The public still doesn’t understand the true nature of the addiction that comes with cigarette smoking. Everything we see focuses on nicotine addiction. However, the true culprit, in my opinion, is the carbon monoxide in cigarettes.
For instance, most patients have told me that they smoke when they want to relax or calm down. Yet nicotine is a known stimulant.
On the other hand, carbon monoxide intake slows the function of the brain. In fact, it can actually kill the brain if the level gets to too high.
In my experience, the average carbon monoxide level in smokers is about halfway to toxic. This is the reason why firemen who smoke pass out first when they are exposed to the carbon monoxide of a fire.
People who smoke a significant amount for a long period of time end up with enlarged fingertips. I believe this condition is due to carbon monoxide shrinking capillaries, which are extremely small blood vessels in the body’s tissues. In the fingertips of a chronic heavy smoker, additional capillaries are developed to maintain blood flow, thus enlarging the fingertips.
One problem that people frequently face when they stop smoking is weight gain. Once again, this is related to the effect of cigarette smoking on capillaries, which, in a chronic smoker, are contracted in the intestines and therefore do not absorb all of the calories that are taken in.
When a person stops smoking, the capillaries return to normal diameter. Then, even if food intake has not increased, more calories are being absorbed from the food that is eaten.
In my opinion, the best way to stop smoking is simply to make the decision that you are going to stop smoking and quit. Usually, the third day is the hardest to stay away from cigarettes, because this is the day under standard atmospheric conditions that carbon monoxide levels come down to zero.
Those who have tried to quit and have not been successful may find that hyperbaric oxygen treatment at the time of smoking cessation can be of benefit. One hyperbaric treatment for an hour at pressure will bring the carbon monoxide level in the body down to zero, reducing the three days of being without cigarettes to only an hour and a half.
Stopping smoking is a major step in the right direction towards better health and longevity. Again, in my opinion, the emphasis on nicotine as the addiction in cigarette smoking is not valid. It is the carbon monoxide in the cigarette smoke that causes the problem.
Hyperbaric oxygen can also help person significantly improve symptoms of COPD, which include shortness of breath, wheezing, persistent cough, and presence of mucous. For instance, the wife of theoretical physicist Edward Teller, who had been a smoker, developed severe COPD. She was given only a few months to live by the pulmonologist at Stanford University Medical Center. However, after she was put on hyperbaric oxygen therapy, she regained her normal functions — and lived an additional five good years.
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