STOPPING SMOKING

Why stop smoking?

The biggest single contribution you can make to your future health is to stop smoking. As soon as you stop, your risk of getting cancer, or having a stroke or heart attack, starts going down. You will also breathe better, have fewer coughs and your clothes will smell fresher. Research has shown that smoking can make your skin more wrinkly and make you look older, so stopping will help your appearance.

Facts and figures

Smoking-related illnesses kill 100,000 people a year - that is five times as many as road accidents. The good news is that ten million people in the UK have stopped smoking in the last 15 years. Also about 150 large trees are cut down to make one acre of tobacco. The average smoker gets through one tree every two weeks. So if you stop you will also be helping to save the environment.

Hints on stopping

• 0People who stop smoking at once are most likely to stay stopped. Set a 'quit date' and stop completely on that date. Keeping a diary for a week before stopping smoking, listing every cigarette smoked and why, may help you realise that you do not really need to smoke.
• Tell family and friends and get their support. Giving up smoking is also much easier if couples and friends try together. Create no-smoking areas at home and work. Remove all ashtrays from the immediate environment.
• Where possible, avoid situations where you might be tempted to smoke.
• Take up exercise or a hobby to replace smoking.
• Take one day at a time.
• If stopping at once does not work, try cutting down slowly. You can do this in several ways, for example:
  Smoking only a part of the cigarette;
  Cutting cigarettes in half;
  Smoking herbal cigarettes;
  Buying smaller packets;
  Stopping for one day a week and gradually increasing the smoke-free period.
• Collect the money otherwise spent on cigarettes in a glass jar. Keep the jar on a shelf within easy view.
• Some people carry an unopened packet with them so that they do not panic when they 'give in'. This works to relieve their anxiety - the person often finds they never open the packet.
• Withdrawal effects are rarely severe and usually pass in a month or so. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) can help withdrawal effects and craving. NRT is available as chewing gum, patches, nasal spray and an inhalator - all from your local chemist. The patches and gum are made in different strengths. Ask your pharmacist for advice on the dose you should start on. NRT can be expensive but a day's supply costs less than a packet of cigarettes.
• Alternative remedies can also help you give up smoking. Acupuncture and hypnosis are particularly helpful. Many smokers who stop find that learning relaxation techniques or meditation can help relieve a lot of the anxiety and stress which can occur when stopping.

Other sources of help

Ring a helpline. The free Quitline on 0800 002200 gives support and advice.
Read a book -for example, Stop Smoking For Good by Robert Brynin, £4.99, published by Hodder and Stoughton.
Ask at your practice if there is a local quit smoking group.