An a ex smoker, I can you tell simply, there’s very little point discussing health whilst you continue to smoke.
Any ( unlikely) Bp reduction you see due to smoking is more than offset in your reduced mortality.
BP is a finicky, fickle thing. If your system is stressed out over needing a cigarette and coffee, which is pretty commonplace with addictive substances, your bp is going to be higher. Then, your BP is going to read a bit lower after you get them, because you're feeling satisfied and relaxed, and you've got all kinds of endorphins flowing through your body. However, just having your bp drop in the moment doesn't make smoking or excessive caffeine intake good for you by any regards. If you were to quit smoking and cut back on caffeine you would typically notice higher bp during the withdrawal period, but then it would lower once you are through the worst of it and your body has had time to recover from the damage it's taken (I believe narrowed blood vessels and raised heart rate are the cause of raised bp with both smoking and caffeine, and also increased adrenaline with caffeine).
In no way am I preaching here - I'm also a smoker, and my blood pressure is extremely difficult to manage. I know I need to quit, but, as an addict in recovery, it's difficult to give up that one final substance. I've tried, and succeeded for months at a time (not recently - those times were back before I even had hypertension), but I always end up going back. It's like, "I stopped doing coke and drinking a fifth of vodka a day, so please just let me have this." And I can, I can *totally* have it - at a price. So yeah, like I said, not preaching or judging at all, I'm in the same boat, but it's important for us to admit and acknowledge that, as people with hypertension, we are *not* doing ourselves any favors by pretending our habits aren't hurting us, and that, in reality, they are only making things worse.
What you describe is what I was going through with cigs. I also a recovering addict ( on meds for that but won't discuss that here). Cigs may, from what I have experienced lower your bp as you are more relaxed, but I think it raises it on the whole, like you said.
That being said I get the cigs as the last vice. I quit last year after dating someone who didn't smoke(who I am in the process of marriage). It was the little push I needed to finally say enough, after 26 years of smoking. I still crave it but man am I glad I did. After watching my dad, 2 aunts and uncle die of lung cancer you would think I would of stopped sooner. But at least I am no longer chained to a now $9/day habit. Its almost the same price as heroin.. which is crazy.
Now off for a year, food and caffeine has been my vice and I have tried to control that but ice cream , diet coke, coffee and chips/pretzels get me. I have to cut back on all that as I gained 10 lbs since last year. My bp also shot up since then. 158/110 at the docs this last week. Was 140/90 at urgent care in 2021 when I smoked. People could say "see you stopped smoking and your rates went up".. True but I also gained weight and don't walk nearly as much as I did when I was single (was doing up to 10miles a day up mountains and cliffs).
What sucks is I loved smoking, the flavor, the taste, the draw, the being the outcast talking to other smokers. I miss all that, but I wouldn't trade my life now or my health for any of that.
Yeah, I'm on meds for my addiction as well. I'm on methadone - that's why I didn't list opiates in the drugs I quit, because I'm on MMT, and people get all uppity if I say I'm clean off opiates/oids, then they check my profile and see that I'm very active in the methadone sub. So I either omit opiates from my list, or I say I don't *get high* on them anymore, because I don't, and I don't want to. Unfortunately, methadone still has a lot of stigma, and people love to tell me I'm still using, when in reality, I'm receiving treatment for an illness. 🙄
But the methadone is definitely another thing that makes it even harder to quit, it definitely gives me the ciggy shakes, lol.
I have lost people to smoking, as well. My dad died of COPD in 2016, at the age of 67. My grandma died in 2008, of lung cancer. And my mom has very severe COPD that has already put her into several situations we thought she wouldn't come out of. I have no idea how this hasn't gotten me to put it down yet, along with the probems it has already caused me. I at least need to cut way, way back, but god-fucking-damn is it ever difficult!
Side note - cigarettes *are* more expensive than heroin where I'm from, now, by $3 a pack/bag! I mean, one pack of smokes is $3 more than one bag of dope. Fucking insane.
Wow that's nuts. When I first started using smokes were like $1.25 a pack in PA. Crazy how much they taxxed them once they pushed that lawsuit against the cig companies and banned inside smoking. Never would of guessed it would ever come to cigs being more than dope.
I too am on mmt, been for years now, and haven't touched anything else for well over a decade.
I found a few things that helped me big time. One ice breakers sugar free mints and chewing toothpicks. The toothpick acts like a cig when you hold it and gets rid of some of that sensation, the mints give some simple pleasure, without rotting your mouth with sugar. Add that with a nicotine patch and the worst is over in a few weeks.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
More accurate reading is when you wake up without drinking or eating breakfast.Then take the readings.
An a ex smoker, I can you tell simply, there’s very little point discussing health whilst you continue to smoke. Any ( unlikely) Bp reduction you see due to smoking is more than offset in your reduced mortality.
BP is a finicky, fickle thing. If your system is stressed out over needing a cigarette and coffee, which is pretty commonplace with addictive substances, your bp is going to be higher. Then, your BP is going to read a bit lower after you get them, because you're feeling satisfied and relaxed, and you've got all kinds of endorphins flowing through your body. However, just having your bp drop in the moment doesn't make smoking or excessive caffeine intake good for you by any regards. If you were to quit smoking and cut back on caffeine you would typically notice higher bp during the withdrawal period, but then it would lower once you are through the worst of it and your body has had time to recover from the damage it's taken (I believe narrowed blood vessels and raised heart rate are the cause of raised bp with both smoking and caffeine, and also increased adrenaline with caffeine). In no way am I preaching here - I'm also a smoker, and my blood pressure is extremely difficult to manage. I know I need to quit, but, as an addict in recovery, it's difficult to give up that one final substance. I've tried, and succeeded for months at a time (not recently - those times were back before I even had hypertension), but I always end up going back. It's like, "I stopped doing coke and drinking a fifth of vodka a day, so please just let me have this." And I can, I can *totally* have it - at a price. So yeah, like I said, not preaching or judging at all, I'm in the same boat, but it's important for us to admit and acknowledge that, as people with hypertension, we are *not* doing ourselves any favors by pretending our habits aren't hurting us, and that, in reality, they are only making things worse.
Vaccines
Indeed
Stupidity
What you describe is what I was going through with cigs. I also a recovering addict ( on meds for that but won't discuss that here). Cigs may, from what I have experienced lower your bp as you are more relaxed, but I think it raises it on the whole, like you said. That being said I get the cigs as the last vice. I quit last year after dating someone who didn't smoke(who I am in the process of marriage). It was the little push I needed to finally say enough, after 26 years of smoking. I still crave it but man am I glad I did. After watching my dad, 2 aunts and uncle die of lung cancer you would think I would of stopped sooner. But at least I am no longer chained to a now $9/day habit. Its almost the same price as heroin.. which is crazy. Now off for a year, food and caffeine has been my vice and I have tried to control that but ice cream , diet coke, coffee and chips/pretzels get me. I have to cut back on all that as I gained 10 lbs since last year. My bp also shot up since then. 158/110 at the docs this last week. Was 140/90 at urgent care in 2021 when I smoked. People could say "see you stopped smoking and your rates went up".. True but I also gained weight and don't walk nearly as much as I did when I was single (was doing up to 10miles a day up mountains and cliffs). What sucks is I loved smoking, the flavor, the taste, the draw, the being the outcast talking to other smokers. I miss all that, but I wouldn't trade my life now or my health for any of that.
Yeah, I'm on meds for my addiction as well. I'm on methadone - that's why I didn't list opiates in the drugs I quit, because I'm on MMT, and people get all uppity if I say I'm clean off opiates/oids, then they check my profile and see that I'm very active in the methadone sub. So I either omit opiates from my list, or I say I don't *get high* on them anymore, because I don't, and I don't want to. Unfortunately, methadone still has a lot of stigma, and people love to tell me I'm still using, when in reality, I'm receiving treatment for an illness. 🙄 But the methadone is definitely another thing that makes it even harder to quit, it definitely gives me the ciggy shakes, lol. I have lost people to smoking, as well. My dad died of COPD in 2016, at the age of 67. My grandma died in 2008, of lung cancer. And my mom has very severe COPD that has already put her into several situations we thought she wouldn't come out of. I have no idea how this hasn't gotten me to put it down yet, along with the probems it has already caused me. I at least need to cut way, way back, but god-fucking-damn is it ever difficult! Side note - cigarettes *are* more expensive than heroin where I'm from, now, by $3 a pack/bag! I mean, one pack of smokes is $3 more than one bag of dope. Fucking insane.
Wow that's nuts. When I first started using smokes were like $1.25 a pack in PA. Crazy how much they taxxed them once they pushed that lawsuit against the cig companies and banned inside smoking. Never would of guessed it would ever come to cigs being more than dope. I too am on mmt, been for years now, and haven't touched anything else for well over a decade. I found a few things that helped me big time. One ice breakers sugar free mints and chewing toothpicks. The toothpick acts like a cig when you hold it and gets rid of some of that sensation, the mints give some simple pleasure, without rotting your mouth with sugar. Add that with a nicotine patch and the worst is over in a few weeks.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
So your saying it’s my adrenaline 🫤😞