Depending on where you live, spring is either just around the corner, or has already arrived. After the darker and colder days of winter, spring is annually greeted with its brighter and warmer days, as an opportunity to “shake the dust off” and do some spring cleaning. In addition to sprucing up your home, it can also be a good time to take care of yourself as well.

The longer hours of daylight and warmer temperatures naturally lend themselves to opportunities for outdoor activities including walking, sports and recreations of many kinds such as gardening, raking the yard, and working on outdoor projects. For many people, this time of year is an easier time to incorporate many of the activities that can help to make the change from using tobacco to being tobacco free.

Just as you might select a particular day in the spring to air out the house and wash the winter grime off the windows, you can pick a day to air out your lungs and begin your tobacco-free life. With both home and “self” cleaning, it is important to be prepared. To clean the house you might stock up on cleaning supplies, and develop a plan that prioritizes what you want to get done and in what order. Develop a similar plan for re-learning your life without cigarettes that includes stocking up on supplies (such as nicotine or non-nicotine medications), developing a plan (who will support you during your transition to becoming tobacco-free, how will you manage stress, and what will you use to replace the habit part of tobacco use), and selecting a quit date. Talk to your healthcare provider. Click here to get started on identifying your smoking triggers as part of your EX quit plan.

Develop a plan and get organized. You can do it!

Dr. Richard D. Hurt is an internationally recognized expert on tobacco dependence. A native of Murray, Kentucky, he joined Mayo Clinic in 1976 and is now a Professor of Medicine at its College of Medicine. In 1988, he founded the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center and since then its staff has treated over 33,000 patients for tobacco dependence. Send your questions directly to Dr. Hurt at AskTheExpert@becomeanex.org

Doctors have long been aware that smoking can impair healing in many different circumstances. Research with patients who have had surgery show smoking can lead to increased complications in wound healing. In fact, some plastic surgeons will refuse to perform cosmetic surgery for people who smoke because the outcomes are so much worse (1).

Post operative patients who smoke have more infections, wound dehiscence (skin doesn’t “knit together” right), and wound and flap necrosis (the skin tissue dies and needs to be cut away) (2). Continued smoking can lead to poor outcomes with dental implants and related dental surgery (3) as well as many other kinds of surgeries including those for breast cancer, coronary artery bypass, abdominal surgeries (such as having your appendix removed), and orthopedic surgery (like having an operation on your back or having a hip replacement). Smoking also impairs healing after a bone fracture.

Smoking affects wound healing because of decreased oxygen delivery to the tissue. Smoking for 10 minutes can decrease the tissue oxygen concentration for as long as 1 hour, and the tissue of people who smoke a pack per day would be constantly deprived of oxygen known as hypoxia (1). Smoking causes decreased oxygenation because carbon monoxide attaches to the red blood cells and displaces the oxygen while other chemicals such as hydrogen cyanide interfere with various cell types involved in the healing process.

Stopping smoking promotes healthy healing. You can begin the process to relearn your life without cigarettes by visiting www.BecomeAnEX.org and start putting together a quit plan and consider medication options that might be helpful. Seeking support from others in the EX community can help, too.

Dr. Richard D. Hurt is an internationally recognized expert on tobacco dependence. A native of Murray, Kentucky, he joined Mayo Clinic in 1976 and is now a Professor of Medicine at its College of Medicine. In 1988, he founded the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center and since then its staff has treated over 33,000 patients for tobacco dependence. Send your questions directly to Dr. Hurt at AskTheExpert@becomeanex.org