Be smart
In all areas our lives we try to do what is smart, Except for our Health and our Habits, both will kill us sooner than later. We should not have to come face to face with our Mortality before we put down a bad Habbit such as Smoking, before it puts us down. I have been Smoking Cigaretts since fourteen, over fifty years later this Blog puts me on a Timeline to quit Smoking, or a least develop a formidable cestation program while I can still tell you about it. I have to tell someone, My goal is to save at least one person from sharing my Fate. first let me give you my impression of depriving your body of that which you have giving it for over fifty years, your body is not going to like it. Withdrawal is not an easy task for anyone.
Nonetheless sometimes it becomes Life and Death, and coming full circle with your mortality, or just plain as the nose on your face, that it’s time for action. My Mother was succumbed by Respiratory Failure, being the one who kept watch gave me first-hand at seeing someone grasp for each last breath, it’s not a pretty sight. I am a Sixty Six years old male who gets a Physical every six months, my Doctor once said she wished all her Patients were as Healthy as us. My Wife woke up one Day and quit cold Turkey, other People I know have done the same. Cashing in your own Chips is smarter than being cashed in when the Doctor tells you that you must. There it is in a nutshell, I have decided not to wait untill I am Told.
My Advice to you is to do the same and buy yourself a couple of years. Why? Because Life is Precious and good Health is a Blessing that shouldn’t be squandered. I believe that my gift of good Health is supplemented by Exercise and plenty of Liquids preferably water, I am not into Gurus, I have considered Hypnosis to quit. It should not have to come to that, strong Will have been known to Conquer All. I am not trying to move any Mountains, just take back a couple of years that I have Squandered. So it becomes a matter of will to Live a couple of years more. Most importantly there have been cases where my Doctors have told me being a Smoker puts me at risk when Anesthesia is needed, I don’t want to be told.
One month ago I started writing this Blog but I didn’t want to complete it and post it until I was absolutely resolved. Since then I have been to my Doctor for my Physical which I get twice yearly. The reason for getting a Physical every six months is, if I develop any adverse conditions I want to know about it right away, so that if anything can be done to avert the course, early intervention is way better than sitting on a Time bomb. I am happy to tell you that getting a Physical every six months worked. Six months ago I was given a clean Bill of Health, Blood work, EKG, X-ray. Phenomenol I thought to myself for a sixty six years old Man who had been Smoking since fourteen same time I started smoking Weed and holding it in my Lungs till near passing out, to be in such excellent Health and Physical condition.
Now six months later same routine and She tells me that I have Emphysema. After fifty two years of Slowicide( slowly committing suicide) what do I expect, why am I not surprised why am I not sad, why am I not depressed. Because I dug my own Grave for fifty two years, that my friend is a pretty deep hole of dependency and Addiction. The Toxins have grafted themselves to my Cells and Organs. Going cold Turkey is going to put a beating on my Body and Mind, but I have no choice. I came to Florida to live out my life with a Bang, there is no bigger bang than knowing how you are going to Die. and so My friend by you continuing to put the Poison to your Lips you are sharing my Fate. Some ways I consider myself fortunate, Emphysema is slow Death, Heart Attack, Stroke and Cancer is much quicker and painful, all the above can come from smoking.
I thank the Lord for my wake-up call. This is a little awkward somewhat like writing my Death Journals. I thank him for a Wife who worked in a VA Hospital for twenty five years and have seen it all and knows the importance of constant screening. If it was left up to me I would only go to the Doctor when something hurts. By catching Emphysema from the onset is strategic in the course of Treatment but most importantly I know that I have no other choice than quitting. The Tobacco is now ready to spiral to other Diseases, one Tobacco related Illnesses is enough for me to see the Light, that the Surgeon General have been right all along. Which takes me back to us playing Devils Advocate with our Health by putting Poison to our Lips, minute by minute, hours on into years and not believing or expecting my Diagnosis would come one Day.
Lucky me I have been fortunate to live so long living on the edge. Many have left us in half my years Lorna died at thirty nine from Cancer, Vincent also thirty nine unexpectedly. I have lived a Dove Life with a Halo over me the amount of times that I used up my nine Lives and is now on my tenth. I intend to spend this tenth life well by trying to save at least one life from traveling the same Path that I have traveled, because If I passed through this Life to the other and posses nothing in the way of knowledge that I can’t pass on to someone coming up. Then I will have only existed and not truly Lived. As the saying goes you win some you lose some, you live and you learn. Well my Friend I have learned that being a Pack Mule or a Sheep is living other people’s lives and not your own.
When I started smoking everyone in the Three stories House smoked except for my Mother she knew better she had Asthma most her life, also the hundred years old Grandma didn’t otherwise she probably wouldn’t be around. When my Kids were teenagers the biggest fights my Wife and I had were about who the kids hung with, due to peer pressure. Her take on the Subject was that everyone needs to live their own Lives and learn by their own mistakes. I on the other hand knew that she was deadly wrong seeing as how the first Joint and the first Cigarette that touched my Lips were handed to me by a twelve year old Catholic School kid when I was fourteen.
You would think that me being the oldest would have known better, not where peer pressure is concerned, how would it look my best Friend younger than I calling me a Woss. I took my first Hit of Colombian Gold and Coughed till I had to sit down. Once the potent Canabis let us flat on our Ass we drank a Beer and smoked a Cigarette, Man were we ever Cool, or so we thought. It’s a known medical fact that the earlier you start smoking the greater the damage to your under developed Body. What did I know about Medical statistics, peer pressure had claimed its newest Victim. In High School all my friends were cool slick people( the in crowd) they all smoked, still being the Man about Town there was nothing cooler than being under Aged sitting at a Table in a Night Club blowing smoke in some fine girl’s Face killing her along with myself. The damage was done from way back then, the rest of my life was just going through the motions feeding the Addiction. As it’s been said time keeps on slipping slipping slipping into the Future. I am ending this Blog asking you to do the right thing Quit!!!!
Future Posts on the Subject can be found on my Health Page. LOL
Methods
How Smoking Destroys Blood Circulation
True or False? Following the fracture of any bone within the human body the average length of time for a non-smoker to form 1 cm of new bone is 69.6 days as compared with 89.4 days for smokers. True, but why?
Here are a few more links to medical studies concluding that smoking makes the blood content and/or circulatory systems of smokers lousy tools for healing: Unfallchirurg 2002 Jan;105(1):76-81; Injury 2001 Jan;32(1):61-5; Ann Chir Gynaecol 1993;82(4):254-62; Clin Orthop 1999 Aug;(365):184-200; Tex Dent J 1994 Jun;111(6):21-3; Early Wrinkling – Br J Dermatol 2002 Apr;146(4):588-94; Hearing Loss – J Occup Environ Med 2000 Nov;42(11):1045-9
When we think of the damage being done to our body by smoking we tend to focus on our lungs. It’s natural to do so. We can hear the wheezing, feel the cough and actually sense the gradual deterioration occurring inside. But if we’re going to worry or be concerned based upon the magnitude or size of the health risk we face, then our greatest concern should be on the damage smoking inflicts upon our body’s blood flow systems. Yes, smoking related circulatory disease kills far more smokers than lung cancer and the damage started with that very first puff.
Blood is a vehicle for delivering oxygen and nutrients to our body’s tissues and organs. Without it they die. Our blood vessels (our circulatory system) are blood piping highways. The inside of each healthy blood vessel is coated with a thin Teflon like layer of cells that ensure smooth blood flow. Carbon monoxide from smoking or second-hand smoke damages this important layer of cells, allowing fats and plaque to stick to vessel walls. Nicotine then performs a double whammy of sorts.
First, each time new nicotine arrives in our brain it causes the body to activate its fight or flightstress defenses. This in turn causes the immediate release of stored fats into the bloodstream, fats intended to be used to provide the instant energy needed to either fight or flee the saber tooth tiger. But there is no tiger
The extra food we consumed during our big meals each day was converted to fat and stored. It was then pumped back into our bloodstream with each new puff of nicotine. It’s how we were able to skip meals and what causes many of us to experience wild blood sugar swings when trying to quit. In fact, many of the symptoms of withdrawal – like an inability to concentrate – are due to nicotine no longer feeding us while we continue to skip meals.
We don’t need to eat more food in order to avoid extreme blood sugar fluctuations when quitting. We need to learn to spread our normal daily calorie intake out more evenly over the entire day. We need to learn to once again feed ourselves.
The heavy blasts of stored fats released by nicotine stick to vessel walls damaged by toxic carbon monoxide. Sound bad? It gets worse. We’ve recently learned that nicotine itself, inside our vessels, somehow causes the growth of new blood vessels (vascularization) that then provides a rich supply of oxygen and nutrients to the fats and plaques that have stuck to damaged vessel walls. This internal nicotine vascularization (vessels within vessels) hardens a smoker’s arteries and veins and further accelerates their narrowing and clogging.
We each have a rough sense of the damage we’ve done to our lungs but what degree of clogging has already occurred inside our blood vessels? How long do we have before our coronary arteries – that supply life giving oxygen and nutrients to our heart muscle – become 100% clogged? When it happens it’s called a heart attack and the portion of the heart muscle that receives oxygen from a particular coronary artery will quickly suffocate and die. How long do we have before our carotid arteries – supplying life giving oxygen and nutrients to our brain – become 100% clogged? When it happens it’s called a stroke and the portion of the brain serviced by the artery suffocates and dies.
NEWSLETTER
NUTRITION
Evidence Based
11 Proven Health Benefits of Garlic
“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”
Those are famous words from the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, often called the father of Western medicine.
He actually used to prescribe garlic to treat a variety of medical conditions.
Modern science has recently confirmed many of these beneficial health effects.
Here are 11 health benefits of garlic that are supported by human research.
Share on PinterestGarlic is a plant in the Allium (onion) family.
It is closely related to onions, shallots and leeks. Each segment of a garlic bulb is called a clove. There are about 10–20 cloves in a single bulb, give or take.
Garlic grows in many parts of the world and is a popular ingredient in cooking due to its strong smell and delicious taste.
However, throughout ancient history, the main use of garlic was for its health and medicinal properties (1).
Its use was well documented by many major civilizations, including the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans and Chinese (2).
Scientists now know that most of its health benefits are caused by sulfur compounds formed when a garlic clove is chopped, crushed or chewed.
Perhaps the most famous of those is known as allicin. However, allicin is an unstable compound that is only briefly present in fresh garlic after it’s been cut or crushed (3).
Other compounds that may play a role in garlic’s health benefits include diallyl disulfide and s-allyl cysteine (4).
The sulfur compounds from garlic enter the body from the digestive tract and travel all over the body, where it exerts its potent biological effects.
SUMMARYGarlic is a plant in the onion family that’s grown for its distinctive taste and health benefits. It contains sulfur compounds, which are believed to bring some of the health benefits.
Calorie for calorie, garlic is incredibly nutritious.
A 1-ounce (28-gram) serving of garlic contains (5):
- Manganese: 23% of the RDA
- Vitamin B6: 17% of the RDA
- Vitamin C: 15% of the RDA
- Selenium: 6% of the RDA
- Fiber: 0.6 grams
- Decent amounts of calcium, copper, potassium, phosphorus, iron and vitamin B1
Garlic also contains trace amounts of various other nutrients. In fact, it contains a little bit of almost everything you need.
This comes with 42 calories, 1.8 grams of protein and 9 grams of carbs.
SUMMARYGarlic is low in calories and rich in vitamin C, vitamin B6 and manganese. It also contains trace amounts of various other nutrients.
Garlic supplements are known to boost the function of the immune system.
One large, 12-week study found that a daily garlic supplement reduced the number of colds by 63% compared to a placebo (6).
The average length of cold symptoms was also reduced by 70%, from 5 days in the placebo group to just 1.5 days in the garlic group.
Another study found that a high dose of aged garlic extract (2.56 grams per day) reduced the number of days sick with cold or flu by 61% (7).
However, one review concluded that the evidence is insufficient and more research is needed (8).
Despite the lack of strong evidence, adding garlic to your diet may be worth trying if you often get colds.
SUMMARYGarlic supplements help prevent and reduce the severity of common illnesses like the flu and common cold.
Cardiovascular diseases like heart attacks and strokes are the world’s biggest killers.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is one of the most important drivers of these diseases.
Human studies have found garlic supplements to have a significant impact on reducing blood pressure in people with high blood pressure (9, 10, 11).
In one study, 600–1,500 mg of aged garlic extract was just as effective as the drug Atenolol at reducing blood pressure over a 24-week period (12).
Supplement doses must be fairly high to have the desired effects. The amount needed is equivalent to about four cloves of garlic per day.
SUMMARYHigh doses of garlic appear to improve blood pressure for those with known high blood pressure (hypertension). In some instances, supplements may be as effective as regular medications.
Garlic can lower total and LDL cholesterol.
For those with high cholesterol, garlic supplements appear to reduce total and/or LDL cholesterol by about 10–15% (13, 14, 15).
Looking at LDL (the “bad”) and HDL (the “good”) cholesterol specifically, garlic appears to lower LDL but has no reliable effect on HDL (9, 10, 16, 17, 18).
High triglyceride levels are another known risk factor for heart disease, but garlic seems to have no significant effects on triglyceride levels (13, 15).
SUMMARYGarlic supplements seem to reduce total and LDL cholesterol, particularly in those who have high cholesterol. HDL cholesterol and triglycerides do not seem to be affected.
Oxidative damage from free radicals contributes to the aging process.
Garlic contains antioxidants that support the body’s protective mechanisms against oxidative damage (19).
High doses of garlic supplements have been shown to increase antioxidant enzymes in humans, as well as significantly reduce oxidative stress in those with high blood pressure (7, 9, 20).
The combined effects on reducing cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as the antioxidant properties, may reduce the risk of common brain diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia (21, 22).
SUMMARYGarlic contains antioxidants that protect against cell damage and aging. It may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
The potential effects of garlic on longevity are basically impossible to prove in humans.
But given the beneficial effects on important risk factors like blood pressure, it makes sense that garlic could help you live longer.
The fact that it can fight infectious disease is also an important factor, because these are common causes of death, especially in the elderly or people with dysfunctional immune systems.
SUMMARYGarlic has known beneficial effects on common causes of chronic disease, so it makes sense that it could also help you live longer.
Garlic was one of the earliest “performance enhancing” substances.
It was traditionally used in ancient cultures to reduce fatigue and enhance the work capacity of laborers.
Most notably, it was given to Olympic athletes in ancient Greece (1).
Rodent studies have shown that garlic helps with exercise performance, but very few human studies have been done.
People with heart disease who took garlic oil for 6 weeks had a 12% reduction in peak heart rate and better exercise capacity (23).
However, a study on nine competitive cyclists found no performance benefits (24).
Other studies suggest that exercise-induced fatigue may be reduced with garlic (2).
SUMMARYGarlic may improve physical performance in lab animals and people with heart disease. Benefits in healthy people are not yet conclusive.
At high doses, the sulfur compounds in garlic have been shown to protect against organ damage from heavy metal toxicity.
A four-week study in employees of a car battery plant (excessive exposure to lead) found that garlic reduced lead levels in the blood by 19%. It also reduced many clinical signs of toxicity, including headaches and blood pressure (25).
Three doses of garlic each day even outperformed the drug D-penicillamine in reducing symptoms.
SUMMARYGarlic was shown to significantly reduce lead toxicity and related symptoms in one study.
No human studies have measured the effects of garlic on bone loss.
However, rodent studies have shown that it can minimize bone loss by increasing estrogen in females (26, 27, 28, 29).
One study in menopausal women found that a daily dose of dry garlic extract (equal to 2 grams of raw garlic) significantly decreased a marker of estrogen deficiency (30).
This suggests that this supplement may have beneficial effects on bone health in women.
Foods like garlic and onions may also have beneficial effects on osteoarthritis (31).
SUMMARYGarlic appears to have some benefits for bone health by increasing estrogen levels in females, but more human studies are needed.
The last one is not a health benefit, but is still important.
Garlic is very easy (and delicious) to include in your current diet.
It complements most savory dishes, particularly soups and sauces. The strong taste of garlic can also add a punch to otherwise bland recipes.
Garlic comes in several forms, from whole cloves and smooth pastes to powders and supplements like garlic extract and garlic oil.
However, keep in mind that there are some downsides to garlic, such as bad breath. There are also some people who are allergic to it.
If you have a bleeding disorder or are taking blood-thinning medications, talk to your doctor before increasing your garlic intake.
A common way to use garlic is to press a few cloves of fresh garlic with a garlic press, then mix it with extra virgin olive oiland a bit of salt.
This a healthy and super satisfying dressing.
SUMMARYGarlic is delicious and easy to add to your diet. You can use it in savory dishes, soups, sauces, dressings and more.
For thousands of years, garlic was believed to have medicinal properties.
Science has now confirmed it.
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