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Smoking Cessation: Quitting Your Way

We believe there is nothing more important than your health. That's why we're pleased to bring you information to help you take an active role in the management of your health.

Smoking cost the nation about $92 billion in the form of lost productivity from 1997 to 2001, up about $10 billion for the years 1995 to 1999, according to June 2005 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The new lost-productivity estimate when combined with smoking-related health care costs, which was reported at $75.5 billion in 1998, exceeds $167 billion per year in the United States.

The report also finds that during 1997 to 2001 an estimated 438,000 premature deaths occur each year as a result of smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke. In comparison, approximately 440,000 smoking-related deaths were estimated to have occurred annually from 1995 to 1999.

Smoking is not only a dangerous and destructive habit, but it's also an expensive one. Smokers who smoke a pack a day (at $4.00 a pack) are spending $1,460 per year on cigarettes. At two packs a day, that's $2,920 wasted on cigarettes.

"Cigarette smoking continues to impose substantial health and financial costs on individuals and society," says CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. "We've made good progress in reducing the number of people who smoke, but we have much more work to do. If we want to significantly reduce the toll in this decade, we must provide the 32 million smokers who say they want to quit with the tools and support to do so successfully."

Since 1965, more than 40 percent of all adults who have ever smoked have quit. More than 4 of 5 smokers say they want to quit. And each year about 1.3 million smokers do quit. With good smoking-cessation programs, 20 to 40 percent of participants are able to quit smoking and stay off cigarettes for at least one year. Combining interventions such as doctor advice and follow-up with nicotine gum and behavior modification may increase success rates. Smoking-cessation programs seem especially helpful for people who smoke more than 25 cigarettes a day.

What will it take for you to quit smoking? It's different for every person. Mary used a combination of the following ways and successfully quit smoking within one year. Here are some guidelines each smoker can follow.

1. Commit to your personal reasons to quit. Write them down. Share them with family and friends. This may help you stay focused on your goal.

2. Make a plan. Pick the best possible time to quit. Don't quit when you know you'll be under a lot of stress or in places where you usually smoke. Ask your family and friends to keep you active and away from cigarettes during the early days.

3. Choose a method. The more things you use to help you quit, the better your chances of success.

4. Avoid your "triggers." Triggers are the activities, places and times of day that make you long for a cigarette. Stay away from your triggers for awhile. Replace them with a healthy hobby.

5. Take care of yourself. You'll not only want to keep busy, you'll also want to take special care of yourself. Knowing that you will have withdrawal symptoms, getting exercise, drinking lots of water, and eating right will help you feel better.


Methods of Quitting

From going "cold turkey" to taking prescription drugs, there are many ways to kick the habit. Experts say you should discuss your options with your doctor. Your doctor can recommend one or more tools to help you and can offer tips on how to quit. Here are some of the most popular methods.

  • Cold turkey. If you haven't been smoking for very long, or if you don't smoke a lot, quitting cold turkey might work for you. Most heavy smokers find that quitting with no outside help is extremely hard.
  • Nicotine replacement. These products replace the nicotine you used to get in cigarettes. The dose is lower though, and you won't face the harmful chemicals found in cigarettes. They ease tenseness, irritability, drowsiness, and lack of concentration. Nicotine-replacement products include patches, gum, inhalers, and nasal sprays. Patches and gum are available over the counter; inhalers and nasal sprays require a prescription.
  • Prescription medications. The drug bupropion is available by prescription. It works without delivering nicotine to the body. Check with your doctor to see if any medications containing bupropion are covered by your insurance.
  • Stop-smoking programs. These are also called behavior-change programs, and they give you support while you are trying to quit. Following a pattern increase your chance of success. Online smoking-cessation programs are becoming increasingly popular and are aiding in attempts to quit smoking on a daily basis. The American Lung Association® has recently upgraded its program to help reach out to even more smokers hoping to quit this year.

Keep the Pressure on Yourself!

If you've tried to quit before without success, don't worry. The average smoker makes two to four attempts before he or she is able to stay smoke-free. The next time you have a slip, figure out what caused you to start smoking again and plan for it.

Smoking tobacco is one of the hardest addictions to kick. Are you aware that there are online support tools to help you quit smoking as part of completing a Health Assessment?

Looking for more information?

Here are some national organizations that can help you get started:

American Cancer Society
1-800-ACS-2345 or 1-800-227-2345
www.cancer.org

American Heart Association
1-800-AHA-USA1 or 1-800-242-8721
www.americanheart.org

American Lung Association
1-800-LUNG-USA or 1-800-586-4872
www.lungusa.org

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1-800-QUIT-NOW or 1-800-784-8669
www.cdc.gov/tobacco

National Cancer Institute
1-800-4-CANCER or 1-800-422-6237
www.cancer.gov

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
1-301-592-8573
www.nhlbi.nih.gov

Why You Should Quit Now

The Surgeon General's Report includes these findings:

  • After one year off cigarettes, the excess risk of heart disease caused by smoking is reduced by half. After 15 years of abstinence, the risk is similar to that for people who've never smoked.
  • In 5 to 15 years, the risk of stroke for ex-smokers returns to the level of those who've never smoked.
  • Male smokers who quit between ages 35 and 39 add an average of five years to their lives. Female quitters in this age group add three years. Men and women who quit at ages 65 to 69 increase their life expectancy by one year.

Sources: American Heart Association; American Lung Association; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; PR Newswire Association LLC, 2005


The Dangers of Secondhand Smoke

  • Secondhand smoke is the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers and the smoke that comes from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar or pipe. The smoke from the burning end of a cigarette has many harmful chemicals.
  • Secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 deaths each year from lung cancer in people who don't smoke.
  • Children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma and other lung diseases.
  • Secondhand smoke causes irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat and can also irritate the lungs, leading to coughing, excessive phlegm, and chest discomfort.
  • Secondhand smoke has been estimated to cause about 35,000 deaths per year from heart disease in nonsmokers.
  • There are an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 cases every year of infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia in infants and children under 18 months of age who breathe secondhand smoke. These result in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations!

Source: American Heart Association; American Lung Association


How To Discourage Your Teenager from Smoking

  • Set a good example by not using tobacco and give clear, consistent messages about the dangers of tobacco to your children.
  • Provide your children with a tobacco-free environment at home.
  • Support coordinated school health programs and insist that they include tobacco-use prevention education.
  • If your children already use tobacco:
    – Help them set realistic goals for stopping.
    – Give them positive reinforcement and encouragement.
    – Help them understand the underlying reasons they're using tobacco (to deal with stress, to feel accepted, to show their independence, etc.).
    – Help them substitute positive alternatives such as physical activity or stress management.

Source: www.committedquitters.com


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