If you know me, you know I care about nutrition and mental health. You know I like to connect the dots between brain health, neurology with food and nutrition.
This week I came across some work around supplementation support for people trying to quit smoking. Now, it’s important to know here that quitting smoking is quite possibly one of the most important things someone can do to improve their health with exponential benefits.
WHY?!
Because smoking cuts off our blood supply, inhibits nutrient absorption, alters the gut microbiome and hormone regulation, disrupts neurotransmitters communication between the gut and the brain. Smoking also has a profound effect to push the body into excessive oxidation, promoting inflammation, and damaging cellular repair.
Essentially, smoking tobacco cigarettes causes many problems within our body and our brain, preventing us from promoting our health, preventing disease, and reducing risks of adverse events like a collapsed lung, dental caries, plaque build up in the lungs, respiratory illness or even cancers. It’s not an easy habit to break as I’m sure you can imagine.
So, one way in which we can help someone (or ourselves) breakup with smoking is to actually feed the brain what it desperately needs while someone enjoys some additional counseling, therapy, coaching, or tobacco cessation programming by a local health authority. Various nutrients are important for optimizing resilience, calm, and relaxation in the often overly anxious and irritable nutritionally deprived brain of someone who smokes.
One of those many nutrient of interest is our Omega 3s, known for promoting brain health, reducing inflammation, and specifically reducing cravings for someone trying to kick the 1-pack-per day habit of smoking. I’ve written about Omega-3 importance for the ADHD brain recently here if you care to learn more.
In this study detailed below you can also find just how Omegas can play a role to promoting cellular health and help someone overcome the cravings of nicotine.
Results: There was a greater reduction in levels of nicotine dependence, cigarette craving and cigarettes smoked per day in the omega-3 fatty acid group compared to the placebo group, and the difference between the two groups increased from baseline to 3-month follow up. The model estimated that these differences were statistically significant ( p < 0.001, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). Also, a significant decrease was observed in levels of total oxidant status ( p = 0.008) and oxidative stress index ( p = 0.011) in the omega-3 fatty acid group after intervention.
Conclusions: This study showed that high-dose omega-3 fatty acid supplementation appears to be useful in reducing cigarette craving and oxidative stress index in heavy-smoker males.
Personally, I recommend Omegas, Protein, Fiber, reducing simple carbohydrates, promoting good quality sleep hygiene, exercise, and potentially a few other nutrients of concern for those who smoke like a B-complex!)
This woman tells the story of her own personal journey of quitting smoking and how she used Omega 3s to help support her in the process here.
You can check out some of my other most recent and impactful stories here:
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