Smoking Cessation

Smoking cessation has gained huge momentum in recent years -- especially in Western society.

Smokers in record numbers have dumped their cigars, cigarettes, snuff, chew, pipes and other tobacco usage, and switched them for the relief of knowing they have also dumped the threat of emphysema, angina, breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, heart attack and a host of other smoking-related diseases.

Rapidly escalating tobacco costs have weighed in on their reason for quitting. In Canada, a pack of your favorite smokes now costs Canadians $10 ($15 U.S.), and the price is scheduled to rise even higher. Perhaps nowhere in the world has public awareness of the danger of smoking been more soundly and efficiently addressed than in Canada, where a responsible and accountable government is taking the lead in the free world to bring smoking addiction to its knees.

Meanwhile in the United States, enormous class action suits, some reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars, have been filed, tried and won against tobacco giants. A recent survey indicates some 4 million U.S. and Canadian smokers are jumping on the smoke cessation wagon each year.

The promise is a tomorrow in which the use of tobacco products, and the terrible addiction that results, will be an old nightmare, or at least, a practice that has been diminished to a tiny percentage of the world's population.

Many successful approaches to smoking cessation have been conceived in recent years. The U.S. Surgeon General proposes a 5-day countdown as follows:

5 days before:

• Write a list of reasons for ridding your life of tobacco.

• If you feel you need support, tell your friends and family about your 5-day plan.

• Stop buying cigarettes.

4 days before:

• Buy a small tablet and makes notes on when and why you think you smoke.

• Discover other things you can hold in your hand once you don't have a cigarettes to hold anymore and plan new routines in exchange for your present habits.

3 days before:

• Consider the many wonderful things you can achieve with the money you aren't spending on cigarettes.

• Consider other helpful support, such as downloading a "quit meter" on your computer.

2 days before:

• Think of who you'd like to reach out to when you need help and get them to agree to "be there" for you.

• Consider purchase of a nicotine patch or nicotine gum or see your doctor to get the nicotine inhaler, nasal spray or non-nicotine pill.

1 day before:

• THROW OUT (do NOT put away) lighters, cigarettes and ashtrays. Clean your clothes to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke. Find ways to exercise that also benefit you in other ways, such as cleaning the house, garage, shed, etc.

And finally, on your Smoking Cessation Day:

• Stay busy, as mentioned above (This is first and foremost).

• Remind family and friends this is your Smoking Cessation Day.
• Do something special that helps someone else, with the idea of placing the focus on someone else's problems instead of yours. Nothing will make you feel more fortunate than to spend several hours a week helping those less fortunate. It is an emotional, physiological and character builder to spend energy and time on others.

Other helpful hints are now available on a variety of sites reserved by the U.S. Surgeon General. These sites include:

http://www.surgeongeneral.com
http://www.surgeongeneral.org
http://www.surgeongeneral.net
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov

An especially useful assist is also available at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/lowlitsp.pdf, from which the following tips have been extracted:

Smoking cessation can be hard. Many people try several times before they quit for good. This booklet discusses ways you can get help to quit smoking.

More than 450,000 Americans die each year from smoking. Smoking causes illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, problems with pregnancy and lung disease. When you leave tobacco products behind, your chances of getting sick from smoking will decrease appreciably. You will have more energy and you'll be able to breathe much easier.

If you are pregnant, your baby will get more oxygen and be healthier. The people you live with, especially your children, will be healthier. Breathing in tobacco smoke can cause asthma and other health problems. You will have more money to spend on things now that you aren't throwing it away on the unhealthful and dangerous practice of smoking.

There has never been a better time to quit than NOW. A combination that works is to observe these 4 rules:

1. Get ready.
2. Get help.
3. Consider a prescription from your doctor or an over-the-counter aid.
4. Once you've eliminated tobacco from your life, resolve to leave it that way.

Additionally:

• Set a Smoking Cessation date, write it down and post it in several places at work and in the home.

• Change the things around you.

• Get rid of all cigarettes and ash trays in your home, car and place of work.

• Do not let people smoke in your home. After you have made your decision, don't smoke...not even a puff.

You can buy nicotine gum or the nicotine patch at a drug store. You can ask your pharmacist for more information. Ask your doctor about other medicines that can help you like Nicotine nasal spray, Nicotine inhaler and Bupropion SR (pill).

Tell your family, friends and people you work with that you have left cigarettes. Ask for their support. Talk to your doctor, nurse or other health care worker. They can help you and even supply you with a list of people you can lean on. Get together with other people who have chosen smoking cessation or call a hotline. To find out where to get help in your area, call the American Cancer Society toll-free at 1-800-ACS-2345.

If you slip and smoke don't give up. Set a new date to get back on track. Remember you didn't get addicted in a day and the urge to smoke isn't going to leave you in a day either. Avoid alcohol. Avoid being around smoking. Eat healthy food and get exercise. Keep a positive attitude. Switch from coffee to tea, or at least switch to a non-caffeinated coffee.

More than anything, remember: You can do it.

Myth #1: Smoking is just a bad habit, nothing more.

Tobacco use is an addiction. According to the U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline, "Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence," nicotine is a very addictive drug. For some people, it can be as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Some actually place it in a category 10 times more addictive than heroin.

Myth #2: Smoking cessation is just a matter of willpower.

Because smoking is an addiction, breaking with it is often very difficult. A number of treatments are available that can help.

Myth #3: If you can't quit the first time you try, you will never be able to quit.

Leaving tobacco products can be hard. Usually people make 2 or 3 tries or more before they succeed.

Myth #4: The best system is "cold turkey."

It is not only the best way, it is doubtless the only way because even if you use smoke cessation aids, you will eventually abandon them too, leaving you to kick your remaining addiction (to the drugs in the aids) "cold turkey".

Many researchers believe the most effective way to break with nicotine addiction is by using a combination of counseling and nicotine replacement therapy (such as the nicotine patch, inhaler, gum, or nasal spray) or non-nicotine medicines (such as bupropion SR). Your health care provider or smoking cessation clinic is the best place to go to for help.

Myth #5: Smoke Cessation aids are very expensive.
Not so, but true, they do cost as much as a package of cigarettes, ranging in cost from $3 to $10 a day. A pack-a-day smoker spends about $1450 per year on cigarettes. Check with your health insurance plan to find out if smoking cessation medications and/or counseling are covered. Also, it is far wiser to spend money on health than on smoking.

To get a free copy of other consumer products on smoking, call any of the following toll-free numbers:

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 800-358-9295

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 800-CDC-1311

• National Cancer Institute, 800-4-Cancer

• Or log onto the Surgeon General's Web site at 222.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco.

You will live longer and feel better. Eliminating cigarettes and tobacco products from your life will lower your chances of heart attack, stroke, or cancer. The people you live with, especially children will be healthier. If you are pregnant, you will improve your chances of having a healthy baby. And you will have extra money to spend on things you didn't have money for before.