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Are You Mission Ready?
Are You Mission Ready?
Serving your country means a lot of hard work, training, and preparation to be mission ready. Pushing yourself to truly be mission ready means sharpening your physical and mental readiness to the best of your ability, but using smokeless tobacco can stand in your way. Smokeless tobacco (snuff or chewing tobacco) impairs your mission readiness in addition to causing gum disease, tooth loss, and oral cancers. The good news is that by quitting smokeless tobacco, you can start improving your performance right away—not just for yourself, but for your buddies who count on you every day. Some benefits of quitting smokeless include:
Prevent fatigue. Tobacco use can cause fatigue, muscle weakness, and decreased readiness and physical performance by increasing your heart rate and blood pressure. When your heart beats rapidly, it pumps less efficiently—providing less blood flow and making it harder for your body to get the oxygen it needs. Smokeless tobacco produces prolonged, sustained levels of nicotine, even after you’ve finished chewing, so the effects don’t stop once the tobacco leaves your mouth.1 When you quit smokeless tobacco, blood circulates through your body at a normal speed, letting you increase your endurance and provide your body with more oxygen.
Improve your night vision. Healthy circulation is vital for your eyesight. When nicotine runs through your veins, it reduces blood flow, causes poor circulation, and makes it harder to see (especially at night). Nicotine also inhibits the formation of rhodopsin, a light-sensitive pigment that is critical for vision in dark conditions.2 Quitting tobacco can increase your rhodopsin production and improve your night vision.
Say goodbye to withdrawal symptoms. Nicotine temporarily stimulates alertness, but if you’re downrange and don’t have access to chew, your body will experience withdrawal symptoms. That includes irritability, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, and slowed reaction time.3 There is enough stress and anxiety downrange without piling on withdrawal symptoms that could take away your edge. Quitting will help you stay at the top of your game and avoid symptoms that could distract you from your job.
Increase your cognitive ability. Not having access to your chew can not only cause withdrawal symptoms but it can also weaken your short-term ability to perform complex tasks or make quick decisions.4 Combined with longer reaction times, this could mean serious danger when you’re driving, flying, handling equipment, or dealing with a difficult situation. Losing the chew or snuff can help you keep your mind sharp, especially when you don’t have time to second-guess yourself.
Recover quicker. We don’t like to think about it, but if you are regularly using tobacco and get injured, your body could need extra time to recover. You’ll also be at a greater risk for experiencing surgery complications and wound infections. When you quit, your body will be able to heal even faster.
Smokeless tobacco and the high doses of nicotine it delivers can also cause sweating, nausea, erectile dysfunction, diarrhea, mouth sores, receding gums, tooth decay, stomach cancer … the list goes on and on. But you can cross these symptoms off your list when you quit.
The bottom line is that smokeless doesn’t mean harmless. Think about improving your readiness and quitting the spit. Quitting will improve your health and make you stronger, and you’ll have even more energy to contribute toward your training and readiness. When you’re ready to quit, we’re here to help.
References
1 http://www.nature.com/clpt/journal/v44/n1/pdf/clpt1988107a.pdf (PDF, 454 KB)
2 http://www-nehc.med.navy.mil/downloads/tobacco/jun2005.pdf (PDF, 551 KB)
3 http://www.metrohealth.org/body.cfm?id=862&oTopID=862http://www.nnsw.ca/factsheets/health_effects_tobacco.pdf
4 http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12632&page=42