Quit Smoking Help

Quit smoking: Gradually or Cold Turkey?

Quit Smoking Author — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:57:57 +0000

Quitting smoking is a tough decision and requires determination and perseverance. There have been discussions on whether it’s more effective to start right away or to gradually decrease the amount of cigarettes per day, working your way down to none. The first approach is called “cold turkey,” and it means that you virtually do not light up a single cigarette from the moment you take the decision. It works best for people with milder nicotine addiction. Gradual cessation is medically easier for addicts with many years of smoking. It is more feasible that one quits, if they are used to finishing a couple of packs a day, by first reducing them. Also, those who failed to succeed using the “cold turkey,” usually opt for the gradual method at their next attempt.
The gradual approach is a trick you do to yourself, trying to deceive yourself that your lifestyle is not changed, and your smoking habits are the same that your body has been used to for a while. If you are smoking, say, 30-40 cigarettes a day, you could start by taking out that one-two cigarettes you light out of reflex, those you do not really remember why you pulled out from the box. Continuing to smoke the 28-38 cigarettes for a while will tell your body this is the same amount of nicotine you took up before.
With this tactics, one can become smoke-free in nine months without making his body suffer abrupt nicotine hunger. The smoker might decide to cut back on the amount of cigarettes at a faster rate, but this is risky and might trigger the negative effects of quitting since the body will not be adjusting properly to the decrease in nicotine intake.
The “cold turkey” method has certain indisputable upsides, not the least of which is money saving. Also, you instantaneously stop damaging you lungs. Yet, it is very dangerous to put your nerves through this amount of stress, which automatically translates into health problems and probably the worst cravings for a smoke one can experience. This approach could even lead to a depression and, eventually, failure to surrender smoking.

Passive Smoking and its Effects on your Pets

Quit Smoking Author — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:43:28 +0000

Surprising as it may seem, passive smoking has negative effects not only on people, but also on animals. Therefore, in recent years, numerous researchers, scientists, and vets have been warning smokers against the dangers they may be inflicting on their pets. Here are some of the risks to which four-legged family members may be exposed.

A study, carried out by vets in the United States, reached the conclusion that cats, whose owners smoked were prone to feline lymphoma, a form of cancer that kills 3 out 4 cats within a year of its diagnosis. The researchers found out that such cats were twice as likely to develop the disease when compared to cats with non-smoking owners. Furthermore, it was discovered that if two people living in the house smoked, the risk for the cat to contract cancer was four times as big.
Dogs are similarly endangered by passive smoking. Researches have established that the development of canine asthma, nasal and lung cancer may be prompted by exposure to secondhand smoke. So, if someone in your household smokes, watch out for your dog coughing, wheezing, or having difficulties to breathe. These are all bad signs for your pet’s health. Passive smoking is particularly dangerous for puppies, which have weaker immune systems and are, therefore, more susceptible to infection.

But the risk of getting ill as a result of involuntary smoking is not restricted to cats and dogs. In fact, other pets such as rabbits, guinea pigs, or any bird species are no less vulnerable to the dangers of secondhand smoke inhalation.

So what is to be done? One thing you can do if you are a smoking pet-owner is to avoid smoking in the room where your pet lives. This, however, is only a partial solution as 85% of the smoke is invisible, and you can never be completely sure that it doesn’t affect your pet. You can also try smoking outdoors, but this will be rather uncomfortable for you, especially in the winter months. There is also third option: you can simply quit smoking; it is this solution that will benefit both your pet and you the most.

A Quit Smoking without Gaining Weight

Quit Smoking Author — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:03:20 +0000

The healthiest decision a smoker can make is to quit smoking. However many smokers, women in particular, due to the fear of gaining weight, continue to indulge in the harmful habit.

Weight gain, after quitting smoking, is quite common but luckily, it is avoidable. On average, most people gain about 2 pounds during the initial weeks after quitting, and around 8 pounds in total. There is a second group of people who don’t gain weight at all and still others who even slim down.
Weight gain that comes with quitting is related to increased appetite. Furthermore, the stomach begins to more fully absorb the food. Nicotine has the property of suppressing the appetite and once the body is devoid of its regular dose, people may feel excessive hunger. Moreover, smoking activates the metabolism. A pack of cigarettes per day equals to 250 calories. When a person quits, his or her metabolism inevitably slows down.
The right approach to avoid packing on pounds is to stick to a healthy diet and regular physical exercises. Once a person kicks the habit, he or she may often experience an urge to lit a cigarette, especially in the first few days. A glass of water and a selection of healthy snacks, such as apples, dried fruits, sugarless gum, or air-popped popcorn, is a great way to deal with the cigarette cravings.
In order to avoid unwanted pounds, it is essential to opt for a greater variety of fruits and vegetables and to increase the number of meals (4-5 small portions per day). Moreover, non-smokers-to-be should include larger amounts of protein – milk, eggs, fish, and chicken, along with carbohydrates such as whole grains, pasta, and rye bread.
Studies reveal that quitting smoking is easier when a person is engaged in some form of physical activity. Walking, jogging, and yoga are some excellent options. In addition, there is a breathing exercise which helps to reduce the appetite and the need to smoke: rapid breathing. Once you feel hungry or you have the urge to lit a cigarette, start to breathe more quickly as if after a long run. Do it for a couple of seconds, and you will feel relief.
All of the above come as handy tools in the fight against weight gain related to smoke cessation. And if you gain an extra pound, stick to your new lifestyle. The trade-off is worth it.

Smoking and Its Harmful Effect on Nature

Quit Smoking Author — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:57:28 +0000

Smoking is a matter of personal choice but it seriously damages the health of those around us. It poses threat not only to smokers but also to non-smokers and the environment.
Though there is a lot of information on the adverse and even lethal effects of smoking on the human body, scanty of knowledge is available on the environmental impact of tobacco and smoking.
Cigarettes contain more than 4,000 chemical compounds, including over 40 known carcinogens and 600 other toxins such as carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, arsenic, ammonia, cyanide, etc. These shocking substances end up in the air we breathe, in the water we drink and in the soil that feeds us. With such a great percentage of smokers on Earth, the amount of pollution released into the environment on a daily basis is immense.
Some smokers are often negligent and discard cigarette butts onto the ground where it takes about 25 years for all these chemicals to decompose, thus spreading pollution. Other smokers, heedless of negative consequences, throw cigarette butts directly in rivers and lakes where they endanger the local fauna. Smokers are also responsible for many of the forest fires started by a discarded lit cigarette butt. A single but is sufficient to destroy thousands of acres of pristine forests, together with multiple plant and animal species that inhabit them.
A recent study of ocean waste, conducted in several marine regions, has revealed some disturbing results. Researchers have found out that out of the 103 million classified marine pollutants, 25 million are cigarette butts and whole cigarettes.
Furthermore, cigarette production itself, has a serious detrimental impact on our environment. The facts are devastating – it takes 1 tree for every 300 cigarettes that are produced while 4 miles of paper per hour are used to roll and package the ready production. If you add up all natural resources that are used during the manufacturing process (plus the toxic chemical wastage), it is obvious that smoking and cigarettes are extremely hazardous to mankind and the environment.

Benefits from Quitting Smoking

Quit Smoking Author — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:07:59 +0000

Millions of people around the world try to quit smoking each year but unfortunately, only 2.5% of the attempts are successful. Here is a brief timeline of the positive effects of giving up that harmful habit.
The smoker’s blood pressure returns to its normal level just twenty minutes after smoking his or her last cigarette. If a smoker refrains from smoking for just eight hours, the levels of carbon monoxide in his/her blood decrease by half, and the level of oxygen returns to normal. Three days after cutting out the habit, the smoker’s bronchial tubes relax, and the energy level inside the organism increases. Added a bit more will, and you are a two weeks young ex-smoker. At this stage, you blood circulation increases and keeps improving over the next two or three months. At the start of the third month, wheezing and breathing problems begin to dissipate. By month nine of your smoke-free life, your lung capacity is improved by ten percent. In five years, an ex-smoker’s risk of suffering apoplexy returns to that of a non-smoker. Then in fifteen years, the same happens with the risk of heart attack.
However, quitting smoking may have some negative side effects – especially in the first few days after you bid farewell to cigarettes. Due to the sudden drop in blood sugar level, participants in quit smoking programs may report symptoms such as dizziness, concentration lapse, nausea, and light-headedness.
The relationship between nicotine and blood sugar level is rather indirect. Although nicotine does not supply glucose or carbohydrates to the smoker’s body, this substance excites particular organs which release the organism’s sugar supplies. The higher level of sugar in the bloodstream makes up for the low level of oxygen. Thus, the smoker’s system can keep functioning normally. When one quits smoking, his or her body starts the process of adaptation to the increasing level of oxygen and the falling levels of sugar in the blood. For this reason, ex-smokers usually tend to eat more, trying to sustain the balance between the dipping blood sugar levels, which may lead to weight gain. Although the dipping of blood sugar can be a truly irritating symptom, it is not insurmountable. The condition is easily remedied after drinking some juice during the first few days of non-smoking.
In addition to health benefits, quitting smoking may also yield some financial benefits. This aspect of giving up the habit appears somehow secondary in the developed countries, but comes as a major issue in the developing and the under-developed states. In Bangladesh, for instance, some parents would send their children begging on the street and use the money to buy cigarettes and liquor. In developing countries, many parents would deprive their children of essential staples such as meat, milk, and seafood in order to save money for their daily pack of cigarettes.

Quit Smoking, Eliminate an Addiction

Quit Smoking Author — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:58:51 +0000

When people become addicted to a harmful substance, they have a compulsive need to seek out and use this substance, even though they are aware of the harm it causes. Virtually all tobacco products – cigarettes, cigars, pipes, as well as smokeless tobacco, lead to addiction. According to statistical data by the World Health Organization, nearly thirty-five million people around the world try to quit smoking each year.
Unlike some more serious and far deadlier addictions such as the heroine addiction, for instance, tobacco products do not kill the user directly. What kills the smoker is not as much the tobacco that he or she smokes as the diseases that the habit causes, such as cancer, heart-attack, or apoplexy.
It is actually the nicotine contained in tobacco which the smoker becomes addicted to. In fact, researchers have established that nicotine is far more addictive than crack, heroine, or cocaine. Each cigarette is a highly sophisticated device for supply of nicotine to the brain. It contains about 10 milligrams of nicotine, but only one or two milligrams are actually absorbed by the smoker. With time, the smoker’s organism starts seeking progressively higher supplies of the drug, and the addict starts to smoke more and more cigarettes each day. Because nicotine is a psychoactive drug, the substance activates the pleasure centers in the smoker’s brain, such as the mesolimbic dopamine system. This fact explains, to a great extent, the addictiveness of the habit.
The use of nicotine in the form of tobacco products is legal: the drug is widely accessible and easy to supply. Moreover, abstinence syndromes are not as obvious and disturbing as with heroine or cocaine, for example. Still, a number of anti-social behaviors such as extreme nervousness, anxiety, irritableness and, in some cases, light tremor, have been observed in chain smokers deprived of access to tobacco products for more than twenty-four hours.
A better understanding of the tobacco addiction and the social factors which may underlie it has helped scientists in the development of medications for the tobacco addiction. Among them are nicotine patches and gums, with proven effect in assisting smokers to overcome their addiction. It is even better if individuals combine them with an appropriate behavioral therapy. Recent surveys demonstrate that the organism starts a process of recovery within twenty minutes of quitting the detrimental habit. Eventually, the body restores its normal functioning within a period of three to five years.

Support Groups and Online Communities

Quit Smoking Author — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:15:07 +0000

Although quitting smoking is a notoriously arduous task, it is still possible. Moreover, once individuals are committed to changing their lifestyle, it could be a fairly straightforward task. If you tried to quit and failed, this is not a reason for despair – each new attempt is easier. It is very important to choose a date and stick to it. Quitting works differently for everyone but usually, those joining support groups fare better and are most likely to quit for good. Quit-smoking communities have been very popular for the past 60 years.

The strong sense of belonging to a cause is a powerful determinant for their success, as is the constant support from people who are going through the same process. Also, these communities usually involve the participation of a professional, which is another upside, as opposed to taking such an important step on your own, the more so since it concerns your health.
Online communities combine this professionalism and team spirit with a more intensive interaction, which is not limited to a particular meeting time. Also, these have larger scope and provide more different perspectives from the numerous members. Most commonly, these groups have a moderator and feature an active forum. Some of the popular online communities for quitting smoking are the Smoking Cessation Forum at About.com (it is a very active society, with a worldwide scope and knowledgeable moderators).

Woofmang.com is another group created by Kevin Foster, who quit eight years ago, because of emphysema diagnose and is offering his experience and competence. Nicotine Anonymous is an in-person group, similar to Alcoholics Anonymous which implements a 12-step program to ensure the sustainability of their members’ effort. Smokebusters-Just4u offers advice and support through an online message board while SMART Recovery helps people figure out their own way out of addiction with the help of a four-step program, which includes incentives to quit, dealing with cravings, solving of issues and achieving a new balance in life.

Quit Smoking Plasters: Aids for People with Strong Will

Quit Smoking Author — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:35:08 +0000

Quit smoking plasters are a nicotine replacement product which has been used as a method to stop smoking since the early 90s.
These plasters work by releasing a controlled dose of nicotine to the body and thus reducing the withdrawal symptoms in the users. The plasters come in doses of 21 mg, 14 mg, and 7 mg, which allows for the steady decrease in nicotine intake during the course of the treatment. The 21 mg plasters have the most nicotine and are usually used in the beginning of the therapy.
A quit smoking plaster should be applied to a clean, dry skin once a day and should be worn between 16 and 24 hours. The duration of the plaster therapy will depend on the particular brand you are using (for more information, consult the product’s instructions). If you have sleep disturbances, do not apply plasters during the night.
It is also recommended that you refrain from smoking while you use them because you may get a severe nicotine overdose. Among the symptoms of the nicotine overdose are: dizziness, strong headaches, vomiting, indigestion, cold sweating, redness and swelling at the plaster site. If you have severe bouts of any of these, do not hesitate to call a doctor.
Also, if you have some special medical conditions such as stomach ulcers, heart diseases, overactive thyroid, diabetes, high blood pressure or allergies to medicines, consult a medical expert before starting a program with quit smoking plasters.
Different studies conducted throughout the years have given contradicting results regarding the efficacy of the plasters. Some have concluded that they are efficient when the particular user has had a strong will and determination to quit smoking. Therefore, if you really want to give up this dangerous habit, carry out the plaster therapy with the firm resolution that you will do whatever it takes to succeed.

Curb the High Blood Pressure

Quit Smoking Author — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:24:51 +0000

Freedom of choice is among the fundamental principles of democracy. Indeed, smokers have chosen on their own discretion to become such, most often as a result of peer pressure or family influences.
Before taking a puff on your next cigarette, please consider the following smoking facts:
Scientists have discovered that smoking is the most important source of preventable morbidity and premature mortality in the world.
Every day, three thousand children around the world light their first cigarette.
The earliest recorded attempts to curb smoking were crude and rudimentary: in 1600s, several countries, among which: Turkey, China, and Russia outlawed tobacco use. Tobacco users were persecuted and very often killed.
High blood pressure is but one of the health problems caused by smoking. The substances inhaled with the cigarette smoke injure the walls of the blood vessels and unleash a process of hardening of the arteries, which is also known as Arthrosclerosis. This effect of smoking is especially harmful to people who are already diagnosed with high blood pressure. In addition, the nicotine contained in tobacco products causes the blood vessels to constrict. This substance overstimulates the functioning of the adrenal gland. The produced adrenaline constricts the blood vessels, and thus increases the heart rate. As a result, smokers often experience attacks of high blood pressure, and they are also at risk of the all health hazards ensuing from that. For example, cigarette smoke may obstruct the blood supply to the heart, as fumes clog the blood vessels with plaque. Add the limited supply of oxygen to the heart, which is caused by the inhaled carbon monoxide, and the risk of cardiac arrest in smokers increases drastically.
Another study has proven that smoking may cause dangerously low blood pressure. Nicotine often acts as an appetite-reducer and can cause nutrition disorders in smokers. Among the conditions is anorexia, which in turn leads to massive weight loss and dangerously low blood pressure.
In addition to cardiac issues, high blood pressure, caused by tobacco use, may lead to bloody nose, dizziness, eye problems, headache, and kidney problems. Furthermore, smoking may lower one’s libido.
Quitting smoking significantly lowers the risk of cardiac problems, apoplexy, and heart attack, and helps to maintain a healthy blood pressure.

Electrical Stimulation Therapies

Quit Smoking Author — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:25:04 +0000

Scientists have discovered that the human body’s nervous system is built according to a precise electrical design, the building block being the neurone. Neurones are nerve cells that carry electric impulses from the brain – the body’s command center – to all of the organs and body tissues. When one light’s a cigarette, he or she does so because the brain detects dipping levels of nicotine or another factor that activates the smoking reflex. Then, the brain sends electric “messages” to the smoker’s hands. It logically follows that there might be a way to prevent the delivery of such “harmful messages” from the brain or, alternatively, prevent the brain itself from sending them. With the advance of science and technology over the past few years, several quit smoking therapies, based on electrical stimulation of certain brain areas have evolved.
The Bioresonance therapy is a drug-free and painless method to kick out the habit of smoking. This method has demonstrated the astounding ninety-percent success rate! Basically, smokers crave their next cigarette because the nicotine contained inside has an electromagnetic charge over their bodies. The bioresonance device inverts the energy patterns of nicotine which are then passed to the body via electrodes. At this point, the process is at the cancellation phase which means that the message “I want to smoke”, sent by the brain, rarely reaches the smoker’s hand. As a result, the electromagnetic charge of nicotine is reduced. In addition, cancellation erases the energetic pattern of nicotine from the brain, i.e. the brain no longer sends “harmful messages to the smoker’s hand because the memory of nicotine has faded away.
Another highly-successful quit smoking method, based on electrical stimulation, is the auricular therapy. The effectiveness of this treatment program is due to the fact that it treats both, the psychological aspect of the problem and the desire for nicotine. This therapy involves safe and painless treatment of the auricles at several acupuncture points, induced with mild electrical stimulation.
As mentioned, the message “I want to smoke” is sent when the nicotine level in the smoker’s body drops. Much like the Bioresonance treatment, auricular therapy interrupts the sending of this harmful message. Moreover, the electrical stimulations, given at exact points of the outer ear, help to interrupt the signals sent to the brain and demanding more nicotine. Thus, the smoker gradually overcomes his addiction to nicotine. It should be mentioned that the chain smokers who undergo auricular therapy do not face any withdrawal symptoms. However, this smoking cessation method is effective only if the smoker is ready and highly-determined to kick out the habit.