MALLA REDDY HOSPITAL ADVOCATES YOGA FOR SMOKING CESSATION.BREATHE PURE AIR AND QUIT SMOKING ON WORLD YOGA DAY

The ill effects of smoking can be seen more and more today as higher stress levels drive people to seek modes and methods of relaxation. But this International Yoga Day, Malla Reddy Hospital is focusing on Yoga as the best stress buster, and one that can even help smokers quit the habit and be released from this unhealthy addiction.

Says Dr. Preeti Reddy, Director of Malla Reddy Health City, “Like all kinds of addictions, smoking presents an illusion of escape – a pass time that you can indulge in if you want to relieve stress. But the fact is that smoking is one of the most harmful habits. It is indeed disturbing to know that smokers are at a greater risk for cardiovascular diseases. Smoking causes stroke and coronary heart disease, which are among the leading causes of death. Even people who smoke fewer than five cigarettes a day can show early signs of cardiovascular disease. What is even more alarming is that smoking damages blood vessels and can make them thicken and grow narrower. This makes the heart beat faster and leads to high blood pressure and even clot formation. This can in turn lead to the debilitating effects of a stroke, as a stroke occurs when a clot blocks the blood flow to part of the brain or when a blood vessel in or around the brain bursts. Blockages caused by smoking can also reduce blood flow to the legs and skin.”

Smoking can cause lung disease by damaging the airways and the small air sacs (alveoli) found in the lungs. Lung diseases caused by smoking include COPD, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Cigarette smoking causes most cases of lung cancer. If you have asthma, tobacco smoke can trigger an attack or make an attack worse. Smokers are more likely to die from COPD than nonsmokers. Smoking is also the leading cause of cancer anywhere in the body.

Says Dr. Preeti Reddy, “Fortunately, there are effective ways to curb the habit, and one of these methods is to perform Yoga. In fact, most medical experts recommend this exercise as it helps heal the body, mind, and emotions, all at the same time.” 

Yogic breathing exercises train practitioners to use the diaphragmatic and abdominal muscles more efficiently thereby emptying and filling the respiratory apparatus more efficiently and completely. Sedantary population have lower values of pulmonary function compared to yoga practitioners. Sedentary life style is associated with development of restrictive lung function.

We recommend that sedentary people should adopt yogic exercises for improving their health. Hence regular practice of yoga should be promoted among the sedentary subjects that may bring desirable physiological, psychological and physical changes in the individual said Dr. R Adityavadan Consultant Interventional Pulmonologist at Malla Reddy Narayana Multispeciality hospital.

An ancient practice, Yoga is a complementary therapy for quitting smoking, as many experts have discovered that it relieves stress, and therefore eliminates the need for cigarettes. Apart from relieving stress, practicing Yoga helps lower blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood glucose levels, as well as heart rate, making it a useful lifestyle intervention while quitting smoking. 

Smokers are at a significantly higher risk for developing Atrial Fibrillation (AF), a dangerous and abnormal heart rhythm. But a study has shown that slow-paced yoga classes twice a week reduced the frequency of atrial fibrillation episodes in patients with this condition. 

Studies have found that smokers develop congestive heart failure at twice the rate of those who have never smoked. But patients with heart failure who went through an eight-week Yoga program showed improvement in exercise capacity and quality of life. 
Today, on International Yoga Day, let us urge all smokers to quit this harmful habit and take up Yoga