How Bad Do Ciggerettes Effect You

[sparksc1]

I was diagnosed with POTS when I was 16 but really have only come to accept this fact a couple months ago at 21. Im a senior in college and along the way, i have picked up the habit of smoking. After a couple bad spells I decided to move home where I mainly spend time laying down on the couch or upstairs on the computer doing work for my online classes. About every hour once an hour ill go outside and have a ciggerette. Sometimes after a ciggerette Ill feel great and other times ill feel so run down. My grandfather came to town and I smoked one of his ciggerettes and almost passed out. So my question is, how do ciggerettes effect you thats if you smoke, and do ciggerettes effect me way WORSE because of my POTS?? I want to quit but Ive been smoking a pack a day since i was 19. I know its stupid but Ive tried the gum and stuff and really cant quit. Im gonna try to start weening myself off of them, but in the mean while I was just wondering the effects of ciggerettes.

[rach73]

Hi,

I too suffer with the evil addiction to nicotine. I have no problem stopping smoking I just cant stay stopped. I have had to reduce my intake, at one point a few years ago it was nothing for me to get through 2 packs a day! I was working so I dont know how I managed to fit them all in.

I dont have any problems with it making my heart race and if I am feeling really bad I dont smoke - the reason being is we (hubby smokes too) only smoke in the back garden. If I am bad I will be in bed and no matter how much I may want one I wont risk the journey downstairs. The cigarette or fag as we call them here in the UK - which has a totally different meaning for you guys in the states- that causes me the most problems is my first one of the morning. I have to be really careful as my BP drops dramatically during the night. I have had occasions where I have been very close to passing out when smoking that first one. Now I try and move around a bit and get a cup of tea before sparking up. If I feel the stars and black dots coming on, I put it out and get on the floor. I'd rather arrive on the floor under my own steam than through blacking out.

Ive also had to reduce the amount I smoke due to the terrible nausea I suffer with due to the fact I possibly have gastroparesis.

Other than that I dont have any problems with the smoking other than I would like to quit and actually stay that way.

Rach

[wareagle]

I was a smoker...I stopped smoking over 4 yrs ago and have stayed a non-smoker mainly b/c of POTS. It's a catch 22 with smoking & dysautonomia. Nicatine is a vasoconstrictor so for some there will be benefit...but it also increases heartrate and does a bunch of other nasty things to your system. For me, I was feeling so horrible all the time that when I smoked it just made everything worse...I would get dizzy etc.

I also smoked only outside so I had to decreased the amount I smoked everyday b/c I couldn't get outside as much...then right before my 30th I had to have surgery. I decided that was the time to quit b/c I would be forced to stay in bed for several days and could get through that initiall withdrawl. Up until then I had smoked everyday since I was 18....I had NEVER tried to stop before. For me it was more of a mental thing vs. a physical craving. Everyday that passed that I didn't smoke was a victory and by time I had reached a week I was too stubborn to give in. Surprisingly, it hasn't been all that difficult for me. I really am shocked b/c I was a smoker through and through...my friends smoked...it's associated with so much of my life. I just remember how horrible I would physically feel and have absoulutly NO desire to try it again. I NEVER get cravings...and when I'm around smokers now it just reinforces my decision. It's honestly one of the ONLY good things that POTS has done for me!! LOL

Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones...but that's how I did it.

[blueskies]

Hi,

I'd given up smoking over 11 years ago. I started again about 7 weeks ago. A couple of reasons why I started were 1) something a neurologist had told me when I mentioned that when I gave up cigarettes my migraines got worse -- he told me he had heard that a lot and 2) I have chronio constipation and I remember a cigarette in the morning always got me 'going.' There was a third reason why I tried smoking again but I've forgotten what it is -- blame it on brain fog.

I gave up again about a week back. I found that smoking made really no difference to my migraines and although it did help with the constipation a bit, for a while, that effect soon stopped.

I couldn't stand the taste of the cigarettes. Nor could I stand the smell (Even though I was only smoking a few a day). Generally, I found that I feel better, physically, when I don't smoke. Hubby smokes like a train and while I was smoking we got on better so less stress there. But not enough pluses to outweigh the minuses of smoking, for me.

blue. (POTS)