Vitamins and Minerals are essential to the smoking cessation process. Find out how to engage them to successfully quit smoking.

1. Vitamins and Minerals to Help
Stop Smoking
By
http://2stopsmokingtips.com

2. Introduction
If you’re wondering about the role vitamins
and minerals play in the stop smoking process,
this article has an answer for you! And the
answer is: smoking depletes the body of
essential vitamins and minerals and to
successfully quit, those nutrients must be
replaced.

3. Smoking Cessation Requires Vitamins
• Dr Jodi Gelfand, a physician assistant in an article
titled: Nicotine dependency and smoking
cessation, concurs. According to him, “patients
who are undergoing smoking cessation need
higher doses of certain vitamins and
supplements.” He then goes on to mention the
important supplements as Vitamin C, Vitamin A,
CoQ-10(a cardio-protective antioxidant), Lipoic
Acid (an anti-oxidant capable of penetrating deep
into tissue lungs, heart) and Zinc (which aids
healing of mucous membranes).

4. Smoking Cessation Requires
Vitamins(2)
• From the above, we can safely say a diet containing the
full supplies of vitamins and minerals is crucial not only
to good health, but to the body recovery and healing
process after smoking cessation.
• However, be sure to consult with your doctor that you
can do this in safety, and don’t forget that, too much
can also be injurious, so don’t over-consume any
particular nutrient through diet, supplements or both.
Consuming excess niacin can cause liver damage while
too much of vitamin C can cause diarrhea or excessive
stooling.

5. Smokers Have Lower Levels of
Vitamins
• Various researches including the INTERMAP
study on dietary intake in smokers, ex-
smokers, and non smokers as well as a 1998
meta-analysis published in the Journal of
Nutrition signify that smokers have lower
levels of vitamin C, A, E, B6 and other essential
vitamins than people who don’t smoke and
those who have dropped off cigarettes; even
though these vitamins are needed to fix the
harm caused by smoking.

6. Smokers Have Lower Levels of
Vitamins(2)
• Both studies concluded that “public health
interventions in smokers should focus not only
on helping them to quit smoking but also on
improving their diets to further reduce cancer
and cardiovascular disease risks.”

7. Benefits of Consuming Vitamins and
Minerals While Quitting
• Daily ingestion of vitamin C improves the
body’s ability to resist illness, boosts energy
and repairs tissue, bones and blood vessels
that have been damaged by cigarette
smoking.
• Vitamins A and E contain antioxidants which
restore and repair cellular damage occasioned
by smoking, advancing collagen growth and
general organ function.

8. Benefits of Consuming Vitamins and
Minerals While Quitting(2)
• Vitamins set up the body with a natural
resistance against the addictive and exciting
properties of nicotine which intensify withdrawal
symptoms and cause smokers to go back to
cigarettes.
• The B vitamins have natural calming properties
which lessen the withdrawal symptoms of
depression and anxiety, so you may want to
consume more of foods containing this vitamin
while quitting.

9. Which Vitamins and Minerals Should I
take During Smoking Cessation?
• Vitamin C
• Cigarette smoking leads to the increased
oxidative damage of lung tissue. Basically, the
toxins found in cigarette smoke boost the
production of free radicals that affix
themselves to lung cells and cause their
damage or death, according to a study
published in 2008 in the American Journal of
Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

10. Still on Vitamin C
• Therefore, you need antioxidants to help the
lungs repair and heal. Vitamin C, a water-
soluble vitamin found in foods including
oranges, lemon, sweet lime, is one such
vitamin. According to the researchers, it has
the ability to reduce the damaging effects of
cigarette smoke. Higher doses of vitamin C
may also lessen nicotine cravings. It is an
essential nutrient in the quit smoking process.

11. Vitamin E
• Increase your Vitamin E intake. Vitamin E is a
powerful antioxidant that helps to keep your
arteries and lungs free of toxins. It is
considered to be important in preventing
heart attacks. Because of the increased stress
to the heart caused by smoking, the heart
attack prevention that vitamin E provides is
especially important to smokers.

12. Still on Vitamin E
• In addition to helping to prevent heart attacks in
smokers, Vitamin E’s antioxidant properties can
also help to diminish damage to the respiratory
system.
• And since smokers have poorer levels of vitamin E
in their bodies than non-smokers, it’s imperative
to add this vitamin to your diet as you try to quit
cigarettes. It will not only boost the health of
your respiratory system, it will also help you fight
oxidative stress.

13. Vitamin A
• Vitamin A is another good vitamin to take
during smoking cessation. It is believed to
shield the cilia (the hair-like structures that
keep the lungs dirt-free). It is also responsible
for the health of certain cells found in the
lungs. These cells secrete mucus that acts as a
barricade against germs coming into the lungs.
Some research has indicated that vitamin A
may help invalidate some of the damage to
the lungs of long-term smokers.

14. Vitamin D
• Vitamin D is another vitamin that may help
quitters. It is connected to reduced levels of many
forms of cancer, including lung cancer. In his
book, “Quitting Cold: A Guide to Quit Smoking,”
Carling Kalicak, notes that vitamin D is also good
for reducing depression and stress, which can
crop up as a result of cessation, particularly in the
first few days. Kalicak ,therefore, advises smokers
to start taking vitamin D supplements 7 to 14
days before they put out their last cigarette.

15. Beta Carotene
• Even though Beta carotene boosts the immune
system, helping to keep you healthy during
nicotine withdrawal, smoking is bad for Beta
carotene. It destroys carotene’s beneficial
antioxidant properties. So it is much more likely
that smokers need higher doses of antioxidants
than non-smokers. But care must be taken in the
consumption of Beta carotene in supplemental
form as studies say it can increase the risk of lung
cancer among current smokers.

16. Still on Beta Carotene
• Due to this, it is recommended that beta
carotene be taken as a supplement only if you
are in the process of smoking cessation.
Natural beta carotene that comes from foods
such as green leafy vegetables, orange or
yellow fruits and vegetables are more
beneficial than beta carotene taken in pill
form.

17. Calcium
• Aside the damage that nicotine and cigarette
smoke does to heart and lungs, smoking depletes
the body’s supply of calcium, leading to bone
loss, which naturally occurs with age. A year 2000
study by the Center for Clinical and Basic
Research indicates that smoking can boost the
rapidity of bone loss because calcium, a vital
mineral for healthy bones, is stripped from the
body by nicotine. Adding a calcium supplement
or increasing natural calcium consumption can
neutralize this effect, keeping bones strong and
healthy.

18. Vitamin B6
• Vitamin B6 is a water-soluble vitamin (cannot be
stored in the body and so must be consumed
daily) that’s used by the central nervous system
for the production of neuro-transmitters that are
signaling brain compounds. Vitamin B6 has also
been severally found by scientists to help present
as well as former smokers boost their lung health.
Specifically, a study documented in the Journal of
the American Medical Association (January 2011
edition) discovered that vitamin B6 was linked to
a reduced risk of lung cancer in present and ex-
smokers.

19. Vitamin B3
• Even though Vitamin B-3, or niacin, is most
times indicated for stop smoking, too much of
it can cause liver damage. It is therefore
advisable that you talk to your Doctor before
using this Vitamin supplement.

20. Should I take these Vitamins as
Supplements or Naturally in Food?
• As always, 2stopsmokingtips.com favours the
natural approach. This is because you get the
full benefits of these nutrients in their natural
form rather than in a processed form. Most, if
not all, of these vitamins and minerals can be
gotten from fruits and vegetables. Avail
yourself of these gifts of nature. They will help
you pull through the nasty symptoms of
cigarette withdrawal.

21. Thanks for Reading!!!
• For more incisive articles, please visit:
• http://2stopsmokingtips.com