Could you make a healthy change this Ramadan?

Could you make a healthy change this Ramadan?

Ramadan Mubarak, Sheffield!

This special time offers you a chance to reflect spiritually and practice self-improvement, and is therefore a great opportunity to make some healthy changes, and use your self-belief and self-discipline to form a healthy habit.

There are lots of reasons why Ramadan is the perfect time to quit smoking.

Think about it this way, abstaining from smoking during daylight hours means you’re already halfway there. This demonstration of willpower and determination can help you to give up smoking for good.

Normal routines are broken during the month of Ramadan, which gives you the chance to break damaging habits like smoking and create a healthier mindset.

But the health benefits don’t stop with you…

Creating a smokefree environment for your family

The benefits of stopping smoking during Ramadan will be felt by your family too.

A wonderful thing about Ramadan is spending extra time with the family. Keeping your home a smokefree space is, therefore, really important.

Children are particularly vulnerable to the dangers of second-hand smoke. They have small airways and breathe faster meaning their lungs take in more of dangerous chemicals found in secondhand smoke, putting them at risk of health problems like Asthma, Pneumonia and Bronchitis. Tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals including carbon monoxide and tar, and a sticky soup of around 250 toxic chemicals (more than a quarter of which are known to cause cancer).

Learn more about Smokefree Homes

Saying no to Shisha

We know that smoking Shisha is a popular way to socialise during Iftar and Suhur, for both smokers and non-smokers alike. However, the impacts on your health can be just as serious as smoking cigarettes.

Even if you don’t smoke traditional cigarettes, you are still exposing your body to the same risk by smoking Shisha.

An hour-long Shisha session is equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes. Exposure to tobacco in any form is bad for your health and even in small doses can make asthma and other chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases worse.

Why not take the first steps towards quitting smoking and creating a healthier lifestyle for you and your family this Ramadan.

By quitting smoking during Ramadan, you will experience many benefits like:

Less risk of serious complications from illnesses such as colds, flu and COVID-19
Less risk of developing smoking-related illness like cancer, heart disease and stroke
Shielding family from secondhand smoke
A boosted immune system
Less risk of worsening pre-existing conditions like COPD and Asthma
More energy
Improved sense of taste and smell

The benefits of quitting smoking start as soon as you stop, even in the hours where you are abstaining from cigarettes during fasting periods your body starts to recover. Just 2 hours after your last cigarette, your heart rate and blood pressure fall. The longer you stay smokefree the better the outcomes.

Smokefree Sheffield is here to support you in your quit attempt and stay smokefree during and after Ramadan.

Fasting alone is hard but dealing with nicotine withdrawal at the same time makes it even harder. But you don’t need to struggle. There are a range of options available to help you deal with the temporary side-effects of nicotine withdrawal. Specialist stop smoking advisors can help find the best method or combination of methods for you.

Instead of reaching for a cigarette to break your fast, Nicotine Replacement Therapy is available in lots of different forms including gum, patches or lozenges. Or consider switching to e-cigarettes to satisfy nicotine cravings in a much safer way than smoking cigarettes or Shisha.

Stop smoking support is available over the phone and online: