Quit Smoking

Tobacco use is a major cause of death worldwide, and to quit smoking can be very difficult. Perhaps you’ve tried before and failed, as tens of thousands of people do every year. The important thing is to not get disheartened. Arm yourself with the facts, and the road to giving up will be much easier.

Nicotine is the number one reason why smokers find it hard to quit. Nicotine is a drug found naturally in tobacco, which produces a pleasant feeling by depressing the nervous system.

It is as addictive as heroin or cocaine, and over time smokers build up a tolerance to its effects, which leads to an increase in the amount of cigarettes smoked. Regular smokers become both physically and psychologically dependent on nicotine, and studies have shown that both of these addictions must be overcome if quitters are to be successful.

When smokers try to quit or cut back on cigarettes, they experience withdrawal symptoms from the absence of nicotine. Withdrawal symptoms can include: dizziness, depression, irritability, feelings of anger and frustration, sleep disturbance, restlessness, trouble concentrating, headaches, tiredness and increased appetite.

These symptoms can cause a person to start smoking again in order to boost blood levels of nicotine back to where there are no longer any symptoms.

Withdrawal symptoms usually start within 2-3 hours of the last cigarette being smoked, and peak around 2-3 days later. They can last for a few days, or several weeks.

Most smokers decide to quit smoking for health reasons. Around half of all smokers who continue to smoke will die from a smoking-related illness. Smoking causes lung cancer, but is also a substantial risk factor in other kinds of cancer, including cancer of the mouth, voice box, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, cervic, pancreas and stomach.

Smoking also increases the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPDs) such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. COPD causes chronic illness and disability, and is eventually fatal.

Smokers are twice as likely as non-smokers to die from a heart attack. They are also at substantially increased risk of developing peripheral vascular disease, a narrowing of the blood vessels that carry blood to the leg and arm muscles, and also the cerebrovascular disease that can cause strokes.

Recent studies indicate that a male smoker will shorten his life expectancy by 13.2 years because of his habit, and a female smoker will lose 14.5 years to smoking.
The good news is that it’s not too late to turn things around.

Your lungs have astonishing regenerative capacity, and if you quit smoking now they will immediately begin to repair the damage you have caused. After around 2 weeks, your circulation and lung function will have improved. One year after quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease is halved. After giving up cigarettes for 5 years, your stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smokes, and around 10 years after quitting smoking, your risk of dying from lung cancer is half of what it would have been if you had kept smoking.

In addition to these extensive health benefits, when you give up smoking you will experience the cosmetic benefits too. Smoking causes premature wrinkling of the skin, stained teeth and fingers, gum disease, bad breath and foul-smelling hair and clothes.

These are things you can live without, and your friends and family will thank you for it. Having kicked your habit, you will also find that your sense of smell returns to normal (did you even realize it was impaired?).

Food will taste better and you may even be able to climb a flight of stairs without getting dizzy and out of breath. Welcome to sanity.

But we are not done yet. Cigarettes cost money. A lot of money. Pop open the calculator on your computer and multiply the amount you spend on cigarettes every day by 365.

That is how much smoking costs you financially each year. Now multiply that by the number of years you have been smoking. Then pick yourself up off the floor and think about what you could have done with that money if you hadn’t smoked it all away and shortened your life expectancy at the same time.

So you want to quit, right? But maybe you need a little help. 70-90% of smokers say that withdrawal symptoms and cravings are their only reason for not giving up cigarettes. Fortunately there is now a wide range of nicotine replacement products on the market to help ease these symptoms and help people through the difficult part.

Nicotine patches have a timed-release effect, so ease your cravings all day long. If you are a moderate to heavy smoker, start with a full strength patch and gradually reduce your nicotine intake until you reach a point where you don’t need it anymore. Nicotine gum is convenient, and has the added benefit of providing a physical ‘crutch’ to replace the actual act of smoking, which many people find helpful.

Nasal sprays, inhalers and lozenges are also available, so you should be able to find a solution that fits your lifestyle and needs.

There are also several drugs available that can help quitters without nicotine replacement. Bupropion (Zyban) is an antidepressant that effects chemicals in the brain related to nicotine craving and is reported to ease withdrawal symptoms.

Varenicline (Chantix) works by interfering with nicotine receptors, whuch lessens the pleasurable physical effect a person gets from smoking and also reduces the effects of withdrawal after quitting. Studies have shown that Varenicline can more than double a person’s chances of successfully giving up smoking.

Some statistics about quitting smoking:

• Seven percent of over-the-counter nicotine patch and gum quitters quit for at least six months
• A physician's advice to quit can increase quitting odds by 30 percent to ten percent at six months
• High intensity counseling of greater than 10 minutes can increase six month quitting rates to 22 percent when added to any quitting method, cold turkey or NRT
• Quitting programs involving 91 to 300 minutes of contact time can increase six month quitting rates to 28 percent, regardless of quitting method
• Quitting programs involving 8 or more treatment sessions can increase six month quitting rates to 24.7 percent
• Bupropion (Zyban/Wellbutrin) use can generate quitting rates 13 percentage points above placebo rates at six months. This fact is stated as such in that all bupropion studies to date have included counseling or support elements (having their own proven efficacy) and bupropion has not been tested in an over-the-counter type setting, as has NRT.