"I've smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for 40 years - what's
the use of quitting now?"
If you quit smoking, you are likely to add years to your life,
breathe more easily, and have more energy. You will have extra
money for spending or saving, and food will taste better. When
you quit smoking, you join over a million people who break the
habit each year. Whether you are young or old, you will also
have:
- less chance of cancer, heart attack, and lung disease,
- better blood circulation,
- healthier family members, particularly children and grandchildren,
- a healthy lifestyle example for children and grandchildren,
- no odor of smoke in your clothes and hair, and
- a more sensitive sense of smell.
What Smoking Does
Cigarette smoke damages your lungs and airways. Air passages
swell and, over time, become filled with mucus. This can cause
a cough that won't go away. Sometimes this leads to a lung disease
called chronic bronchitis. If you keep smoking, normal breathing
may become harder and harder as emphysema develops. In emphysema,
airways become blocked as the tissue of your lungs undergoes
changes that make getting enough oxygen difficult. Smoking can
shorten your life. It brings an early death to more than 400,000
people in the United States each year. Lifelong smokers have
a 1 in 2 chance of dying from a smoking-related disease. Smoking
doesn't just cut a few months off the end of your life. It reduces
the life of the average smoker by 12 years. Smoking makes millions
of Americans sick by causing:
- Heart Disease. If you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol (a fatty substance in the blood) and also smoke, you increase your chance of having a heart attack.
- Cancer. Smoking causes cancer of the lungs, mouth, larynx (voice box), and esophagus. It plays a role in cancer of the pancreas, kidney, bladder, and maybe the cervix in women. The chance of getting cancer grows as you smoke more cigarettes, smoke more years, or inhale deeply.
- Respiratory Problems. If you smoke, you are more likely than a nonsmoker to get the flu (influenza), pneumonia, or other infections that can interfere with your breathing (such as colds). Flu and pneumonia are very dangerous for older people.
- Osteoporosis. If you are an older woman who smokes, your chance of
developing osteoporosis is greater. Women who are past menopause
tend to lose bone strength and sometimes develop this bone-weakening
disorder. Bones weakened by osteoporosis fracture more easily.
Also, women smokers sometimes begin menopause sooner than the
average woman does.
Good News About Quitting
As soon as you stop smoking, your heart and circulatory system
(the arteries and veins that blood flows through) start getting
better. Your chance of heart attack, stroke, and other circulatory
diseases begins to drop. The flow of blood to your hands and
feet gets stronger. Your breathing may be more difficult in
the first few weeks, but should become easier a few months
after your last cigarette. Quitting smoking can't undo permanent
lung damage. It may, however, help slow further damage to
the lungs. Your chance of getting cancer from smoking also
begins to shrink. Within 10 to 15 years after quitting, the
risk of cancer and heart disease is almost as low as that
of a nonsmoker.
Nicotine Is A Drug
In cigarette smoke there are
thousands of chemicals, including 60 substances that are known
to cause cancer. Another, nicotine, is a very addictive drug.
At first, when you smoke, nicotine makes you feel good and you
want to smoke more. Soon, your body starts to need more nicotine
in order to feel good. Then you smoke even more to keep getting
that pleasurable feeling.
The first few weeks after quitting are the hardest. Some people
who give up smoking have withdrawal symptoms. You may become
grumpy, hungry, or tired. You may have headaches, feel depressed,
or have problems sleeping or concentrating. Some people have
no withdrawal symptoms at all. You may be worried about gaining
weight if you stop smoking. Many people who stop smoking gain
little or no weight. Those who do gain usually add less than
10 pounds. But, even if you add a few pounds, you will be healthier
than if you continued smoking.
Breaking the Habit
Smoking is a strong addiction for
both your body and mind. That is why it is so hard to stop.
But, people do succeed. Since 1965 over 30 million Americans
have quit. There is help. You can:
- read self-help literature,
- take a quit-smoking class,
- use individual or group counseling,
- join a support group,
- get a friend to quit with you,
- take medicine to help with nicotine withdrawal, or
- use nicotine replacement therapy.
Each person is different. Find what works best for you. Sometimes
combining several methods is the answer. Many people can stop
on their own. Others need help from doctors, clinics, or organized
groups. The first step is to make a firm decision to quit. Then,
choose a date to stop smoking, and pick one or more methods
for quitting. Before you stop, try changing your smoking habits.
For example, if you smoke a cigarette after each meal, wait
a while at first. Perhaps you smoke while reading the newspaper.
Try to not smoke and instead chew gum. Then, when you do stop
smoking, habits such as these may be easier to break.
When you quit, you may need special help to cope with your body's
desire for nicotine. Nicotine replacement therapy can help control
withdrawal symptoms, but it's not for everyone. Check with your
doctor first. He or she might recommend one of the four forms.
- Nicotine chewing gum is available without a doctor's prescription.
- The nicotine patch is also available over the counter.
- Nicotine nasal spray requires a doctor's prescription.
- Your doctor might also prescribe a nicotine inhaler.
These provide nicotine to the body without the harmful substances
found in tobacco smoke. They reduce withdrawal symptoms. This
makes it easier for you to learn to fight the physical habit
and mental addiction of smoking. Also, this dose of nicotine
is less than that from a cigarette and is tapered off during
the treatment period. It is dangerous to smoke while on nicotine
replacement therapy.
There is a drug to help handle your cravings. Known as bupropion
hydrochloride, it does not contain nicotine and must be prescribed
by your doctor. The most common side effects are dry mouth and
problems getting to sleep.
Cigars, Chewing Tobacco, and Snuff Are Not Safer
Some people think smokeless tobacco (chewing tobacco and snuff),
pipes, and cigars are safer than cigarettes. They are not. Using
smokeless tobacco can cause cancer of the mouth, a pre-cancerous
lesion known as oral leukoplakia, nicotine addiction, and possibly
cancer of the larynx and esophagus, as well as tooth and heart
problems. Pipe and cigar smokers may develop cancer of the mouth,
lip, larynx, pharynx, and esophagus. Those who inhale have the
same chance of lung cancer as cigarette smokers have.
If You Are Around Someone Who Smokes
Passive smoking happens when a nonsmoker breathes smoke from
someone else's cigarette, pipe, or cigar. It is also called
secondhand smoke. We now know that such secondhand smoke is
unsafe. People who don't smoke but live or work with smokers
are more likely to develop lung cancer than other nonsmokers.
In fact, each year an estimated 3,000 people who don't smoke
die of lung cancer because of secondhand smoke. It has also
been linked to heart disease in nonsmokers.
Passive smoking is very dangerous for someone with asthma, other
lung conditions, or heart disease. It may cause bronchitis,
pneumonia, an asthma attack, or inner ear infections in babies
and young children. It may be associated with SIDS (sudden infant
death syndrome). These problems are just some good reasons for
a parent or grandparent to think about quitting smoking. Everyone
should try not to smoke around young children or infants.
Where To Get Help
Organizations, doctors, and clinics offering stop-smoking programs
are listed in telephone books under headings such as "Smokers'
Treatment and Information Centers."
Further information can be obtained from organizations such
as the following. These three organizations have many local
chapters which can be found in a local telephone directory.
American Heart Association
National Center
7272 Greenville Avenue
Dallas, TX 75231
800-AHA-USA1
Internet website:
www.americanheart.org
American Lung Association
61 Broadway, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10006
800-LUNG-USA
Internet website:
www.lungusa.org
Several government agencies also have information on the
dangers of smoking.
Office on Smoking and Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Mail Stop K-50
4770 Buford Highway, NE
Atlanta, GA 30341-3724
800-CDC-1311
Internet website:
www.cdc.gov/tobacco
National Cancer Institute
Bethesda, MD 20892
Cancer Information Service
800-4-CANCER
Internet website:
www.cancer.gov
Smoking Quitline
1-877-44U-QUIT
www.smokefree.gov
For more information on health and aging, contact:
National Institute on Aging
Information Center
P.O. Box 8057
Gaithersburg, MD 20898-8057
1-800-222-2225
1-800-224-4225 TTY
www.nia.nih.gov
U. S. Department of Health and Human Services
Public Health Service
National Institutes of Health
2003
From the
National Institute on Aging
Age Page
2003
http://www.niapublications.org/engagepages/smoking.asp
Also see
develop a plan to quit smoking
diabetes and smoking: why take the risk?
quitting smoking
you can quit smoking
Tobacco Cessation Guideline
from the
Office of the Surgeon General,
U.S. Public Health Service
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