The single healthiest thing a smoker can do for their own health is stop smoking. People that are smokers are bright – 90% of smokers want to stop – and lets face it if smoking ever was sexy it certainly is not now. If you are over 30 and are still smoking you are heading for a time when you cannot take your health for granted and you are asking for trouble. Indeed if you are under 30 there is some evidence that being a smoker may out your life at risk from the H1N1 virus – so if you are going to keep smoking you better get vaccinated! If you are going to be pregnant at some point, please do not be a pregnant smoker. If you are not entirely hooked maybe an occasional social smoker then now is the best time to stop . If you are hooked then ask for some help.
There are now a couple of different medications that can do the trick for 50% of the people that use them and even though half of those in trials relapse within a year that’s considerably more than smokers are able on their own – only about 7% of those that try to stop on their own succeed. There are also patches and gum- though I have had a couple of patients who ended up addicted to the nicotine in them, taking these smoking substitutes definitely helps those that get withdrawal symptoms and don’t want to take medication.
Remember the easiest way to stop smoking is not to start. It must be easier not to start these days, not only for health reasons but because of the lack of any glamour attached to the habit.
How to stop smoking
Being unsuccessful once actually helps the next time. If you have tried successfully for a few days or weeks or months before you are much more likely to succeed completely the next time. So it is always worth having another go.
The best way is to set a stop date about two weeks away. Tell everybody and especially your fellow smokers that you are doing it and your stop date. Ask them not to tempt you after your stop date or offer you any cigarettes but to help you in your goals.
Reduce your smoking by smoking less cigarettes by starting later in the day, and avoiding those places that you like to smoke. If you smoke and drink then the new law banning smoking in public places is really going to help. If you drink at home then I would suggest stopping alcohol too for a few weeks, or at least thinking hard about how to break the klink between having a drink and smoking.
Tell especially your children and your parents and anybody else that loves you. Make sure that all cigarettes are out if the house, car and work. Do not leave an emergency pack anywhere. If you get an urge to smoke try to wait at least 10 minutes – it will usually leave.
Good luck. You will need it because stopping smoking is hard. On the other hand the reward is considerable. The estimate is an additional 5 to 10 years of good quality life. Most of us try running, vitamins, diets, annual doctor visits and a whole bunch of other stuff and we probably only gain an extra year or two. The only other way to gain a similar amount of time is if men could be made into a women as women live 5 years longer then men on average. It could be said that women smokers experience one of the huge disadvantages and insights of being a man: our early mortality 