Note: The views expressed in this article are exclusively that of the author and NOT Bespoke Unit. Please consult your health advisors before taking any vitamins and supplements.
When choosing vitamins and supplements for cigar smokers (and smokers at large), it is crucial to understand the adverse health effects we risk when enjoying our favorite stick.
We will start by highlighting the most relevant and severe health effects of smoking cigars and then tell you what vitamins and supplements can aid in lessening these effects so you can enjoy your favorite smokes for many years.
Health-Related Conditions For Cigar Smokers
Cancer Risk
While cigars are safer than cigarettes due to the many carcinogenic chemicals used by big tobacco, smoking tobacco of any kind still has substantial health consequences. Most people think cancer risk is the only thing you face when deciding to smoke, but unfortunately, there is much more to the equation than just carcinogens.
Increased Blood Pressure and Hypertension
The first and most common concern with smoking tobacco (and anything else) is the risk of increased blood pressure and hypertension. Smoking tobacco and its chemical ingredient, nicotine, causes a constricting of the blood vessels all over the body. This results in decreased blood flow to all your major organs, including your heart, brain, lungs, and skin. Less oxygen and nutrients flow to organs and cells that desperately need them, not to mention significantly increasing your risk of heart attack and stroke. Hypertension is known as the silent killer for a reason, and the constant constriction of your blood vessels contributes heavily to this devastating disease. Decreased blood flow also means aging and wrinkling skin, lower testosterone, lower sex drive, and a greater risk of erectile dysfunction. When blood flow is constricted, your body prioritizes sending blood to the major organs needed to keep you alive, and even though many of us men might feel otherwise, our sexual organs are not one of them.
Increased Free Radicals
The next major issue we face as brothers and sisters of the leaf is an increase in free radicals in our blood. Free radicals are unstable atoms that damage and injure healthy cells, causing various diseases and more rapid aging. Numerous studies and theories have linked the increase in free radicals to severe conditions such as:
- Central Nervous System diseases like Alzheimer’s, Cerebral & Bell’s Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson’s Disease
- Auto-Immune and Inflammatory diseases such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis
- Cardiovascular disease due to clogged arteries (yes, we get this one from multiple angles)
- Faster aging-related decline, such as reduced skin-elasticity, wrinkles, grey hair, and hair loss (again, our skin gets a beating from multiple angles)
- Diabetes
Unfortunately, tobacco isn’t the only cause of increased free radicals we face daily. Others include toxic chemicals, air pollution, alcohol consumption, and heavily processed and fried foods.
Immune System Function
The final issue we will cover here is weakened immune function and the host of issues that come along with that. Due to the reduced bioavailability of selenium and a decreased white blood cell count caused by smoking tobacco, our immune system struggles to defend our body from viruses, infections, and other foreign bodies. This makes us more susceptible to things as benign as the common cold to those as severe as cancer. Beyond that, decreased bioavailability of selenium is linked to infertility, muscle weakness, fatigue, brain fog, and hair loss. While tobacco use has some other health consequences, these are the most significant and detrimental so we will stop here for now.
Vitamins & Supplements To Help Cigar Smokers
Whew, I’m glad that’s over! Now we can get to the fun stuff. I promise our intention is not to scare you with this information, but it is vital to know the problems we are facing to understand how best to solve them. The great news is there are many vitamins and supplements that research has shown can help with many of the above health effects of smoking tobacco. You can adjust your diet to get more of them into your body, supplement them all individually, or find a multivitamin that puts them all into one capsule. Before we begin, there is one caveat with the multivitamin route. Most generic multivitamins on the market contain some vitamins that multiple studies have shown to actually INCREASE cancer risk in smokers! That is right; if you smoke tobacco and take a daily multivitamin, there is a good chance you are increasing your risk of cancer. These are Vitamin E, Vitamins B6 & B12, and Vitamin A, AKA Beta-Carotene. We suggest you stop immediately and do some research if you are taking any of these currently. We will share some links at the end of this article to help guide you.
Vitamin C – Antioxidants & Immunity Boost
The first supplement smokers should focus on is Vitamin C. Vitamin C is an essential vitamin meaning our bodies don’t produce it or store it; the only way to get it is to ingest it. Vitamin C is found in many fruits and vegetables like oranges, strawberries, kiwis, peppers, broccoli, kale, and spinach. It is a powerful antioxidant that eats up free radicals, boosts immunity, and helps produce white blood cells. Research shows it may help manage high blood pressure by relaxing the blood vessels that get tight and stiff from smoking. Low levels of Vitamin C have also been linked to decreased memory and ability to think clearly, AKA brain fog. All in all, Vitamin C is essential for anyone interested in maintaining their health, but even more so for people who smoke tobacco!
Vitamin D3 – Immune Support & Wellness
Vitamin D3 is another superpowered vitamin for smokers. Vitamin D3 is found in foods such as salmon, tuna, beef liver, egg yolks, shrimp, milk, yogurt, and mushrooms. Low levels of Vitamin D3 are linked to high blood pressure, hypertension, heart failure, and stroke. It gives a powerful boost to the immune system to support the fighting off of infections and diseases, including many of the central nervous system and autoimmune diseases we discussed earlier. Vitamin D3 has also been researched for its ability to fight fatigue, depression, and anxiety. Getting enough Vitamin D3 through diet alone is challenging, so you should supplement this alongside a healthy diet. With that said, too much Vitamin D supplementation can cause issues like nausea and dehydration, so be sure to stick to 15mcg unless you are over 70 years old, which means you can take up to 20mcg.
Zinc – Immune System Support
Zinc is an essential nutrient (technically a mineral), so it needs to be taken in through diet and supplementation. Zinc is found in various plants and animals, such as shellfish, meat, poultry, fish, legumes, nuts, seeds, eggs, dairy, mushrooms, kale, peas, and asparagus. Its primary function is its strong immune system support. Zinc is essential for immune cell function and signaling, and zinc deficiency is directly correlated to susceptibility to infections and diseases. Zinc is researched to reduce the risk of many age-related diseases and decrease inflammation that leads to heart disease, cancer, and mental decline. Zinc is another supplement where too high of a dose can cause some complications, so it is best not to go above 11mg of supplementation unless specified by a doctor.
Collagen – Skin Health & Elasticity
Collagen is an essential protein in skin health and maintenance and one of the main building blocks of muscle, bone, cartilage, blood vessel lining, respiratory tract, and other connective tissues. Smoking tobacco degrades our own collagen causing skin aging, wrinkles, and loss of elasticity. Further, collagen plays an integral role in cellular processes such as tissue repair, immune response, and cellular communication. As tobacco smoke increases the rate your skin and other connective tissues age, collagen is a vital supplement in combatting the effects of smoking. Collagen isn’t as easy to get from diet as some of the others on this list, but it can be found in high quantities in bone broth, chicken skin, fish skin, sardines, and organ meats. It can be found in lower amounts in poultry, meat, seafood, legumes, dairy, and eggs. As a general rule, it is much easier and more effective to supplement collagen with one of the many forms of collagen supplements on the market. Collagen is also most effective when paired with Vitamin C and Zinc, as they are both required for your body to produce its own collagen.
Turmeric – Antioxidants & Inflammation Reduction
Turmeric is a “superfood” antioxidant with inflammation-fighting properties to combat the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other metabolic syndromes associated with smoking. For thousands of years, turmeric has been used for medicinal purposes, and science is now catching onto its massive benefits. So much so that Healthline.com said it “may be the most powerful nutritional supplement in existence.” Turmeric has been researched to improve cardiovascular function and lower the risk of heart disease due to improving the function of blood vessel lining. It has been shown to contribute to the death of cancerous cells, reduce the growth of blood vessels in tumors, and slow the spread of cancer. If that wasn’t enough, many studies suggest turmeric improves memory and learning, can fight depression, arthritis, and delay aging. All in all, turmeric is something everyone should take daily, and even more so if you smoke tobacco. Studies have shown it to help with nearly every ailment associated with smoking and improve the functioning of your body as a whole!
Quercetin – Anti Infammatory & Immune Support
Quercetin is a natural flavonoid antioxidant and anti-inflammatory found in many fruits and vegetables. It is known to boost the immune system’s effectiveness, reduce hypertension and lipid profile, and reduce stress hormones. Quercetin has been researched for its effects in inhibiting carcinogenesis (cancer), improving cardiovascular health, enhancing athletic performance, and having neuroprotective properties! It does exceptionally well when paired with Vitamin C, displaying a synergistic effect between the two. Foods rich in Quercetin include onions, capers, broccoli, cherries, red apples, red grapes, and berries.
Final Thoughts On Vitamins & Supplements To Aide Smoker Health
Depending on how much you focus on the quality of your diet, it can be challenging to get enough of these vitamins without supplementation. Still, it is possible if you are determined and disciplined.
If you choose to supplement individually, be sure to follow the dosage guidelines for D3 and Zinc, as they are easy to overdose. Suppose you would like to have all of these ingredients in one supplement with the proper dosage and without the vitamins that can cause cancer in smokers.
In that case, a daily multivitamin made specifically for smokers called Smoke-Rx does precisely that. Whatever your choice, we implore you to get more of these vitamins in your life to help counteract the effects of smoking so we can live longer, happier, and healthier lives!
You Can Buy SmokeRX here: mysmokerx.com
About the Author: Logan Terry
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