Tag Archives: quit smoking
Helpline Celebrates 20 Years of Helping Smokers Quit
On October 30, Shu-Hong Zhu, PhD, main specialist for the California Smokers’ Helpline celebrated the Helpline’s 20th anniversary. In 1992, the Helpline, as well well-known as 1-800-N0-BUTTS, started to be the first in the USA to provide free, telephone-based services for smokers looking for to smoking cessation programs. The Helpline has functioned as a example for identical services that are today offered in all 50 states.
“In the course of two decades, the California Smokers’ Helpline has made it possible for smokers across California to take charge of their health and quit smoking,” said Zhu. “It has been a long way in lowering the number of smoking people in the state. California has the second-lowest rate in the USA, but there is more work to do. This is a verified service that increases people’s possibilities of successfully giving up smoking, and the service wants to ensure people know about it.”
At the moment, there are around 3.6 million smoking people in the state. The estimated cost of smoking in California is almost $16 billion yearly, more than $3,000 per smoker per year.
Since its launch in August 1992, the California Smokers’ Helpline has offered ree, personalized and confidential assistance to more than 600,000 Californians from various towns in California. Smoking cessation services are offered in English (800-NO-BUTTS), Korean (800-556-5564), Mandarin and Cantonese (800-838-8917), Spanish (800-45-NO-FUME), Vietnamese (800-778-8440).
“The fact that so many smokers have telephoned for assistance demonstrates how badly people want to give up smoking,” said Christopher Anderson, program director for the Helpline. “It seems that if people who are still smokers, in spite of all the data about harmful health effects, they do not want to stop smoking. However, usually, they just do not know how to start it or don’t feel assured in their ability to quit smoking. The service helps them made a plan and keep to it.”
A free tip list for smokers, Top 10 Tips to Help Smokers Quit, is offered in Helpline consultants who offer their top 10 tips for giving up smoking successfully. “Smoking cessation can feel like a difficult task,” said Dr. Gary Tedeschi, clinical director of the Helpline. “If you fall it apart into smaller steps it starts to appear more achievable.” The tip list is offered in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese.
Media materials are as well presented, including: Twenty Years of Calls to the California Smokers’ Helpline, California Smokers’ Helpline Success Stories, and Quotes from California Smokers’ Helpline Counselors.
The Helpline is financed by the California Department of Public Health and by First 5 California.
Rising Cigarette Prices May Be Incentive to Quit
The current rise in the Illinois cigarette tax is a model of how cigarette price increases can make smoking people to quit.
For example, smokers in Chicago may spend $300 a month, which is twofold more expensive than a monthly prescription of medicaments that can help a person in smoking cessation.
Dr. Phillip McAndrew, an internal medicine physician and occupational health expert at Loyola University Health System, said that even if the high prices of tobacco products convince smokers to give up smoking, it can be hard to kick the habit.
“Nicotine really can cause addictive. It’s a hard to quit smoking, but increasing the price of cigarettes by means of taxes leds individual smokers to the break point where the pain of smoking overdoes the delight of nicotine and they stop smoking,” McAndrew explained. “The break point could be a health experience that may change a person’s life, but often it’s the influence on the purse that obliges people really consider smoking cessation,” he noted.
McAndrew said that in order to give up smoking people need time and teamwork approach, but team is not people who will cheer you on, but your physician.
“Sometimes people can not manage with nicotine addiction alone. Those who want to quit need that team to help keep them on way when they want to take up smoking again,” he advised.
McAndrew suggested the following tips to help people stop smoking:
- Gather a support team that includes your family, doctor, friends and co-workers.
- Establish a particular date to give up smoking, but two or four weeks away in order to have time to prepare. When quit day comes, make sure to celebrate it.
- Make preparations to block the temptation of smoking while you try to give up. Ask advise at your doctor about medicaments and other ways that can help you kick the habit; when the wish to smoke appears you can chew a gum, carrot sticks or other snacks to keep your mouth busy; remove all cigarettes, matches, lighters and ashtrays from locations where you can smoke – your home, office, car; clean your clothes, home and car so they don’t smell like smoke; use “quit lines” programs.
- Find methods to manage stress and boredom, which can cause a return to smoking.
- Get used to do enjoyable things that are not associated with smoking, walk with friends, exercise. Such actions will help you break the mental connection between these activities and smoking.
Singapore moves forward on smoking ban
It appears that afternoon smoking break outside to puff away on cigarettes may be a thing of the past in Singapore, if the government enacts legislation on smoking ban. On Monday the ministry of environment declared that it was promoting a commitment of the smoking ban and expected it would be a reason for many people to give up the addictive habit.
Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, said to Parliament on Monday that the ministry of environment is “intensively controlling and performing initiatives” to discourage non-smokers and help smokers to quit smoking.
A smoker will face a $1,000 fine for smoking in a prohibited area in Singapore.
The general long-term aim of the ministry is to eliminate smoking in all public places. The specially designed smoking zones are not touched upon by this measure.
Surprisingly, a majority of population in Singapore consider that the measure will have positive affects for the residents. Even smokers think so.
Graphic designer Chang Hu said that he took up a smoking habit since he was a teenager and I really want to quit. He considers that such strict measure that makes smoking illegal and expensive smoke in public is a good and effective move. He told that not smoking enables him to spend more time doing important things and being with his friends and family who don’t smoke.
The minister pointed out that those aged between 18 and 39 are an important part in the increase of smoking people.
Basing on a current study led by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) in 2010, the ministry said that 14.3 % of the Singaporeans are smokers, a rise of less than 1 % in comparison with the results of the study in 2007.
This year, the ministry intends to extend the number the areas, where smoking ban is applied, to common grounds in residential buildings, sheltered walkways, linkways, overhead bridges, outdoor compounds of hospitals and a five meter buffer zone around bus shelters.
If a person is caught smoking in a prohibited area, he will be fined of $1,000.
Chang said that it is the right measure for the city.
He added that population of Singapore wants a clean and pollution free city, so if there are smokers like he who lights up everywhere, the change wouldn’t happen.
Temporary Smoking Locations Designated
The University has designated 14 temporary zones for tobacco use, which will be in effect between January and August 2012 on main campus as part of the tobacco-free policy that will be implemented next semester.
Director of Communications and a member of the communications division of the task force David Payne, explained in an email to the Wheel that the transitional period is intended to allow smokers additional time to work towards smoking cessation.
Woman sitting at the sofa and lighting up a cigarette
The added benefit, he said, is that the policy can eliminate tobacco’s effects on nonsmokers.
“It is hoped that a timely transition phase and the temporary transition zones will better prepare all on the campus for a tobacco-free environment,” Payne wrote. “The transition zones were created as a means to remove tobacco use from building entrances and public areas when the campuses move to tobacco free status.”
Though the tobacco ban will apply to all University and Healthcare properties, only the main campus and Emory University Hospital Midtown and the Briarcliff campuses will be implementing temporary smoking areas, while other University campuses, such as the Oxford campus, will not introduce any such temporary locations.
The newly designated areas include the existing smoking area outside of Emory University Hospital near Clifton Road as well as areas outside the Woodruff Library, Dobbs University Center (DUC), the Math and Science Walkway, Tarbutton Hall, the Woodruff Residential Center, Clairmont Tower and the Student Health Services Building at 1525 Clifton Road.
“Administrators at Oxford decided they want to go directly into the pol- icy with no temporary zones,” Payne explained.
The Tobacco-Free Task Force committee — appointed by University President James W. Wagner in 2010 and led by associate vice president of the Office of Planning, Design and Construction Steven Thweatt — deliberated for seven months before electing the zones to ensure that the most appropriate locations were cho- sen, Payne wrote.
According to a Nov. 14 article in the Emory Report, the task force looked for areas that were located about five minutes away from workspaces — which would be far enough away from entrances but close enough to buildings to avoid extended smoke breaks — while also trying to avoid areas susceptible to fires.
Thweatt mentioned in the Emory Report article that the committee also examined how other institutions, such as Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have been affected by similarly imposed policies, as well as how such policies have impacted neighboring property owners.
Popular existing smoking areas, such as those outside of Emory University Hospital and the Woodruff Library, were taken into consideration as well.
A comprehensive list of temporary tobacco-free locations can be found on the the University’s Tobacco-Free Emory webpage.
Designated smoking areas will be clearly marked with signage designed by the Campus Services graphics group.
More than 3 million Americans quit smoking every year
The United States is winning the war against smoking. More than 3 million Americans quit smoking every year and fewer are adopting the unhealthy and expensive habit.
“The good news is that smoking rates in the US are declining,” said Dr. Carlos Reynes, integrative medicine, Loyola University Health System’s Gottlieb Memorial Hospital. “From 1965 to 2006, smoking rates fell by half, falling from 42 percent to 20.8 percent of adults and we will continue to do even better through education and incentives.”
Smoking cessation
The Great American Smoke Out, a day sponsored by the American Cancer Society to end smoking, is Thursday, Nov. 17 and thousands of smokers are expected to take a 24-hour break from cigarettes.
“Twenty minutes after quitting, your heart rate and blood pressure drop. Twelve hours after quitting the carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal,” said Dr. Reynes. “One year after quitting the excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a continuing smoker’s.”
And you will save money. “At $7 to $9 each, a pack-a-day habit sets you back between $2,500 and $3,300 each year, ” says Dr. Reynes. “And improved health also will save you trips to the doctor.”
Dr. Reynes is board-certified in internal medicine and also integrative medicine. “Hypnosis and acupuncture as well as nicotine patches and chewing gums are just a few of the successful tools out there to help smokers kick the habit,” he said. “The important step is to make the effort to quit and if you are unsuccessful, to keep trying different techniques.”
An estimated 46 million adults in the United States currently smoke, and approximately half will die prematurely from smoking.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for men and women and more than 80 percent of lung cancers are thought to result from smoking.
Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the US, yet more than 46 million Americans still smoke. However, more than half of these smokers have attempted to quit for at least one day in the past year.
Dr. Reynes will be sharing medical advice during a free lecture on how to give up smoking from 7 – 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17 at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, a suburb of Chicago. He will be joined by a certified hypnotherapist and also a licensed acupuncturist who will share how these practices work to help decrease the urge to smoke.
Stopping Smoking Cigarettes
Smoking cigarettes used to be a lot more widespread than it is these days. Now most smokers are searching for ways of quitting smoking. This is because smokers and the general public at large are more aware of the risks of smoking cigarettes nowadays.
Simply look at films made in the Sixties and before, everyone is smoking. It proves how de rigeur smoking was compared with today. This would not be permissible now as you may not smoke in public places, on public transport, in restaurants or in pubs any more in most Western countries and elsewhere too.
Cigarettes fixed in the sand in the form of the word STOP symbolize smoking cessation
The problem with smoking is that not merely the smoker suffers, so does everybody in the environs of the smoker. This is known as passive smoking and it has an effect on those working or living with smokers – a barmaid or a spouse for instance. So, all these individuals are endangering their health so that tobacco firms may become richer.
No matter how long somebody has been smoking, it is possible to stop the habit. Anyone who has stopped smoking will tell you that quitting smoking cigarettes has all to do with the mind. You really have to desire to give up smoking or you will not do it successfully.
People have different ways of ceasing smoking cigarettes. Some say that nicotine patches or nicotine gum helps, because you can wean yourself off nicotine slowly without having to inhale the poisonous smoke of cigarettes.
Nicotine is extremely addictive and most of the chemical withdrawal symptoms have to do with the shortage of nicotine in the body.
Most individuals find that the single most effective manner of quitting smoking cigarettes is to give up smoking dead – in one go. It is very hard to cut down or to switch to a weaker brand. You are still inhaling toxic smoke and it is still no help to you or anyone around you.
Cutting down or changing brands does not help, because you will still smoke other smokers’ cigarettes and you will still be in a smokers’ environment. You will also find yourself smoking tomorrow’s five cigarettes today, swearing not to smoke any the next day. That never works. You have to stop smoking dead.
There are a number of situations that can provide the motivation to quit smoking cigarettes. Illness is usually high on the list. A couple of years ago two friends of mine who smoked heavily gave up smoking cigarettes within weeks of each other.
One was in his sixties and had smoked for almost sixty years: he was advised that his lungs were starting to go, but that if he stopped smoking, the shock may kill him. He give up smoking one morning and is still alive, but what a dilemma!
The other was in his fifties and drove a great amount as a travelling salesman. The physician told him that he would almost certainly have to have a leg amputated next year, if he did not give up smoking and that the other might go a year or so after that. He stopped smoking immediately and still has both legs.
So it seems that the secret to quitting smoking cigarettes successfully is to discover your motivation (do you hope to live long enough to see the grandkids get married?) and hold that image in front of you at all times.
Take nicotine substitutes if you have to and stay away from environments where individuals smoke more, like pubs. Join a sports club instead, something like golf, table tennis, swimming or even chess.
The Benefits of Stop Smoking Aids
It’s no secret that cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health. You can even see it on cigarette packs and boxes. Why do people still smoke despite the warnings? The answer is simple; nicotine is a highly addictive substance. It explains why people who start smoking can’t seem to kick the habit out the window easily. The good news is there are many stop smoking aids available on the market.
Quitting smoking is a real tough job. Fortunately, a number of alternatives have been introduced to the world and have helped thousands of people. Nicotine gums, nicotine patches and nicotine sprays are often used to replace the nicotine you get from cigarettes. They were designed to control your nicotine cravings and suppress the urge to light up a cigar at every chance you get. Keep in mind that you cannot smoke while you are on nicotine replacement therapy as it can result to nicotine overdose.
STOP SMOKING AIDS
The stop smoking aids can be really helpful but you cannot rely solely on them. You still have to work hard for it. You need to resist the urge to smoke. It may be difficult but your efforts will surely pay off in the end.
The possibility of catching chronic diseases such as bronchitis, pneumonia and lung cancer will also be decreased. It’s a win-win situation for you. Quitting smoking has indeed several advantages and they should be enough to motivate you to kick the habit out the window.
Stop smoking aids include the disposal of cigarettes, lighters and ashtrays. Be sure to clean your house and your work place as it is much easier to quit if you can’t see tempting things lying around. Also, make it a point to stay away from places where you will be prompted to light up a cigarette. It’s also best to stay away from people who smoke while you are still in the process of breaking the habit so that you won’t be tempted.
THE BENEFITS OF STOP SMOKING
Fill your pockets with gums and candies. Whenever you feel like smoking, pop in a candy or chew a gum instead. This should do the trick. You will eventually forget the remnants of tobacco smell.
Quitting smoking is not easy but it can be done. You just have to be patient. Soon, you will see that your efforts have paid off thanks to the stop smoking aids. Live a clean life, live a healthy life.
Quit Smoking Using Your Smartphone
Quit With Me is a free social application for iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) and Android mobile devices released by DoNoHarm Apps on 9/21/2011. This is the third healthcare/medical app from DoNoHarm Apps, which has previously garnered impressive reviews for its “Pocket” series apps for medical professionals, which include Pocket Derm (a dermatology image database and diagnosis tool) and Pocket Rads (a similar tool for radiology images).
Quit With Me is the first social app to help smokers quit, and is also the first DoNoHarm Apps release available on both major mobile platforms.
Medical app
It’s no secret that smoking is harmful. You hear it all the time from friends, family, your doctors. Every day you see Surgeon General’s warnings and anti-smoking commercials. You read news stories about the latest studies implicating tobacco in emphysema, asthma, heart disease, cancer. These are things you already know – you don’t need to hear them again. You don’t need to be scolded, “Why can’t you just quit?” You don’t need to be yelled at, lectured, hypnotized or brainwashed. You need support – not from people who run anti-smoking campaigns, and not from people who don’t smoke. To really quit, you need support from people who have successfully quit smoking or are trying to quit just like you. We believe Quit With Me can deliver that support.
Quit With Me is the first social app to help smokers quit. By inviting buddies to quit with you, you can build a network of support as you chart your own progress towards being smoke-free. Log your daily cigarette use, and then check in on your buddies’ progress. Your friend cut back by 3 cigarettes yesterday? Congratulate them with a free gift! And then try to match their success – hey, a little healthy competition never hurt, especially when it comes to quitting! We believe what goes around comes around. Day by day, the encouragement and support you give your friends will come back to you, and your success will inspire your friends. And in the end, these are the things that matter the most.
Exercise Spurs Teenage Boys to Stop Smoking
It showed that teenage boys who took part in a smoking cessation program and combined it with exercise were several times less likely to continue smoking than those who received only traditional anti-smoking advice. Exercise did not have a comparable effect on teenage girls; researchers aren’t sure why. But the research is among the first to show that an exercise plan for teenage smokers can help them kick two bad habits at once, smoking and inactivity, which often go hand in hand.
Man is pressed out
For young smokers, breaking the habit before adulthood can be particularly crucial. Studies show that starting as a teenager makes it much more difficult to quit later on. About 80 percent of adult smokers began their habit before turning 18. Yet every day, 3,500 teenagers light their first cigarette.
The researchers recruited 233 smokers ages 14 to 19 at West Virginia high schools, and randomly assigned each to one of three groups. Some students received a single smoking-cessation session. A second group went through a 10-week anti-smoking program called Not on Tobacco, or NOT. And those in the third group went through the NOT program and were given pedometers and counseling on starting an exercise plan, which they could then schedule on their own time.
After three months, the study found that only 5 percent of the students who got the single anti-smoking session had quit smoking. But almost twice as many who went through the 10-week program had quit. When exercise was added to the mix, the effect on boys was remarkable: 24 percent of male students in the exercise group quit smoking, while only about 8 percent in the 10-week program that did not encourage exercise had stopped. They were also more likely to have stayed away from cigarettes after six months as well. The teenage girls in the exercise group, though, were no more likely to have quit smoking than those who received only counseling on quitting smoking.
Counseling may not help pregnant smokers kick habit
Published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the analysis included eight clinical trials of nearly 3,300 pregnant women. Researchers looked at whether counseling helped pregnant women quit smoking after six months.
Four of eight trials showed no difference between groups of pregnant women who got smoking-cessation counseling and those who didn’t, while the remaining four studies showed just a slightly lower quit rate in women who didn’t receive the counseling.
Pregnant woman smoking a cigarette
In the study with the highest success rate, for instance, just 24 percent of women who got counseling were able to quit, compared to twenty-one percent who didn’t get counseling.
In other words, three out of four moms-to-be in that study continued to smoke whether they had counseling or not, lead author Dr. Kristian Filion noted in an email.
“We were a little surprised by the small number of women that remained abstinent and by the small effect of counseling,” he told Reuters Health.
Filion doesn’t recommend abandoning counseling as an intervention, but he does see a need to study more effective approaches.
“Evidence regarding the safety and effectiveness of nicotine replacement therapies in pregnant women is limited,” he said. “More research in this area is needed so that we can better understand the risk-benefit ratio of nicotine replacement therapies in pregnant women.”
Dr. Nancy A. Rigotti, who directs the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and who was not involved in the study, also agrees that medication should be considered to help pregnant smokers quit.
“There’s a concern using any medication in pregnant women,” Rigotti told Reuters Health. “But if a woman continues to smoke, exposing the fetus to nicotine and carbon dioxide, I would argue that it would be safer for her to take the small risk of taking a medication.”
U.S. Public Health Service guidelines recommend nicotine replacement therapies and drugs such as Wellbutrin and Chantix to help people stop smoking, notes Rigotti. But she wouldn’t suggest that pregnant women try Chantix, she added.
In 2009, the FDA required the drug’s maker Pfizer to add a so-called black box warning on the label listing side effects such as depression, suicidal thoughts and, just recently, the drug’s link to an increased risk of heart problems.
“It’s a relatively new medication,” Rigotti said. “There really is a lack of animal data to address any questions, and until we know more, we should be careful to use it in pregnant women. It probably wouldn’t be my first choice.”
Despite public awareness of the dangers of smoking, more than 13 percent of pregnant American women smoked in 2005, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Using counseling, nicotine replacement and other therapies that might help in a quit attempt before getting pregnant is a woman’s best bet, said Filion.
“When women think about getting pregnant, it’s probably the best time to intervene,” he explained. “It’s when they can use these drugs and increase the likelihood of quitting.”
