Smoking Cessation
The Lecture
If you are a smoker and you have taken the decision to improve your health and well being, stopping smoking is the obvious place to start. Smokers usually know all the facts about the downside of smoking; smoking is the biggest cause of illness and death in Britain today, smoking shortens lives and also causes serious health problems, often fatal, for other non-smoking friends and members of the smoker’s family. Every packet that you as a smoker pick up, tells you that it is going to cause serious illness or kill you or someone dear to you so we can assume that by and large, you’ve already got the message. Well, have you?
If you are a smoker you’re probably going to die because of it. If you’re a smoker you’ve probably only got a fifty percent chance of seeing your seventieth birthday compared to an eighty percent chance if you were a non-smoker. And if you don’t die as a result of your smoking, your quality of life will almost certainly be severely reduced; apart from the obvious risk of cancer – and not just in the lungs but also the bladder, oesophagus and kidneys, your arteries may be blocked, you may suffer serious long-term lung disease, the circulation in your legs and feet may be reduced – you may even lose a limb or two, you might lose your sight, your teeth and you’ll almost certainly age quicker and lose your looks – the least of your worries!! If you’re not worried about any of this, if you like having stained teeth, bad breath and having your clothes, hair and home permanently smelling like an ashtray, not to mention standing outside like a naughty school child to burn your hard earned money, then don’t read on!
The Good News
The good news is that it is never too late to stop smoking and almost as soon as you do stop, the health benefits will start. If you have smoked all your life it is still worth stopping because you will reduce your risk of contracting one of the many fatal diseases that smoking causes.
You Are Not Alone
Forty years ago, around half of UK adults were smokers and twenty years ago this had fallen to around thirty percent. Today, because of governmental measures and increased awareness about the health effects of smoking, the number of adult smokers has fallen to around twenty five percent.
Where Do I Start?
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already started and hopefully you’re geared up for a bit of a fight – it’s not going to be easy. The problem is that nicotine, one of the 4000 chemicals in a cigarette (400 of which are toxic), is an addictive drug. If you have been smoking for a while, nicotine builds up in your system and affects your brain. Stopping smoking, even for a short period, will make your body go into withdrawal and you will almost certainly experience symptoms such as headaches, stress, irritability, hunger, cravings, lack of concentration and an inability to sleep - amongst others. The truth of the matter is that nicotine causes all these symptoms and when you smoke, you just get a temporary relief so that you feel ‘normal’, as you would all the time if you didn’t smoke at all.
The Next Step
The first thing you should do is set a date to stop and do your best to stop completely from that date onwards. Tell your friends and family and ask for their support and get rid of any smoking paraphernalia from your home, bag and desk. Get as much information as you can on support for quitting and if you want some free professional help, your doctor or local pharmacist can provide information and support to help you quit smoking. You may also have an NHS Stop Smoking Clinic in your area which your doctor will have the details for if they think you could benefit from the service. There is a wide range of nicotine replacement products available in different forms as well as prescription medications which may aid you in your quest to quit.
As soon as you stop you’ll start to feel the benefits; your general health will improve, your senses of taste and smell will get better and your heart will be under less strain and start to work more efficiently. There’s no short cut to stopping and no guaranteed method either but keep focused on the health benefits to you and your family and you will get there.
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