About half of all smokers die from
smoking-related diseases. If you are a long-term smoker, on average, your life
expectancy is about 10 years less than a non-smoker. Stopping smoking can make
a big difference to your health. It is never too late to stop smoking to
benefit your health.
The process your body goes through after
stopping smoking - in the 20 minutes to 15 years after your last cigarette and
6 ways to quit smoking has been revealed by Dr. Madhu Y.C, Senior Consultant
Surgical Oncologist, BGS Global Cancer
Institute, BGS Global Hospitals, Kengeri.
Benefits
of Quitting Smoking
20-30 minutes after smoking cessation blood
pressure and pulse have already started to drop, and the carbon monoxide in the
blood will begin to drop after just eight hours.
In two days, sense of smell and taste
should start to improve
After 1 to 9 months of quitting, coughing
and shortness of breath decrease, your lungs start to regain normal function.
After 1 year of quitting, your excess risk
of coronary heart disease is half that of an active smoker
After 2 to 5 years, your risk of Cervical
cancer and stroke can fall to that of non-smoker, risk of cancer of the mouth,
throat, esophagus and bladder are cut in half.
After 15 years of not smoking, your risk of
death will have almost returned to that of a non-smoker. It takes this long for
your risk of lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and heart disease to reduce to that
of a non-smoker.
6
ways to quit smoking
Stress
less
Too much work in the office, deadlines to
meet, unhappy personal life? Is any one of this your reason to smoke? If so,
think like a responsible adult. You need to look inwards and discuss with
others in the family to address the problem at hand. Picking up a cigarette is
not going to end your blues. In fact it will escalate your problems manifold. Dr.
Madhu Y.C, Senior Consultant, Surgical Oncologist, BGS Global Hospitals,
Bengaluru, confirm stress is a major factor in keeping some people smoking.
Exercise
enough
Experts say ten minutes of cycling or
jogging can significantly help people quit smoking. The researchers from the
University of Exeter have shown that changes in brain activity, triggered by
physical exercise, may help reduce cigarette cravings. Although it is still
unclear, researchers believe that completing exercise raises mood (possibly
through increases in dopamine) which reduces the salience or importance of
wanting a cigarette.
Another possibility is that exercise causes
a shift in blood flow to areas of the brain less involved in anticipation of reward
and pleasure generated by smoking images.
A ten or fifteen minute walk, jog or cycle
when times get tough could help a smoker kick the habit. There are of course
many other benefits from a more active lifestyle including better fitness,
weight loss and improved mood.
Tablets
and patches
Smokers wishing to kick the butt can double
their success rates by using nicotine patch.
People who use the patch before quitting
are likely to spontaneously reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke because
the patch satisfies their need for nicotine and makes the act of smoking less
enjoyable.
Nicotine patch also decreases withdrawal
symptoms.
Bupron XL 300mg is a doctor-recommended
medicine which is meant to eaten daily for 60 days. By the eighth day, you will
feel the urge has perceptibly gone down. But don't be overconfident as it is
also the time when you may go back to smoking your normal, read huge, quota.
Says from Global Hospitals, a chemist in Kengeri, "This medicine is so
much in demand that we keep running short of it. The biggest plus is that it
comes with no side-effects."
Chew
the urge
There's a new cure on the block and that's
a chewing gum. These are not ordinary ones, but nicotine-based chewing gums by
which smokers can be wooed to desist from picking up a cigarette.
Also, the National Botanical Research
Institute (NBRI), Lucknow, has developed herbal chewable tablets. These herbal
tablets will not only help those who want to quit smoking, but are also useful
for all those who want to give up other tobacco products like pan-masala and
ghutka.
The chewable tablets are poly herbal
formulations and nicotine free, said the scientists. The basic ingredients are
cloves, ginger, cardamoms, cinnamon and tulsi. They have already been
scientifically validated and standardised. Toxicity studies have revealed that
the formulation is safe to use, officials have said.
Opt
for counselling
Nimhans has a Tobacco Association Clinic
that comes to the rescue of those who want to quit smoking or any other form of
tobacco. Experts feel users of such deadly commodities should seek medical
counselling as it's not easy to give it up. However, a combination of group or
individual counselling, Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) and medication is
necessary in most cases.
Group counselling on the telephone or on
the Internet by creating de-addiction and support groups may offer
encouragement more so when the morale is low.
Hypnosis
will work
This technique helps by giving suggestions
of reminders to relax during times of craving, or unconscious commands, which
create a negative impression in the brain. There are many hypnotists in your
city, do consult with one and give up the habit.
Think, feel, quit...
Get ready for
plain packaging:
Plain packaging of tobacco products is an important demand reduction measure.
It reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products, restricts use of tobacco
packaging as a form of advertising, limits misleading packaging and labelling,
and increases the effectiveness of health warnings. For World No Tobacco Day,
31 May 2016, WHO and the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control are calling on countries to get ready for plain (standardized)
packaging of tobacco products.
On World No Tobacco Day BGS Global Cancer
Institute doctors have recommended to support and implement the WHO Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control.
Dr. Madhu Y.C, Senior Consultant Surgical
Oncologist at BGS Global Cancer Institute, said, “Our recommendation is that
the warnings should be 80 percent, not the debated 40-45 per cent, and they
should be as dramatic as possible. It must be understood that nicotine
addiction is a medical problem like any other drug addiction and not just a
habit as the tobacco lobby would like us to believe.” He said it needs
preventive measures and it also has its own treatment, both medical and based
on behavioural therapy.
Doctors at BGS Global Cancer Institute said
tobacco use initiation is coming at a much younger age – at less than 10 years.
“At a younger age, tobacco acts like a gateway drug meaning young tobacco users
start using more drugs as they grow older,” Dr Madhu said.
Dr. Madhu further added that it can also
helps India to relieve economic burden of tobacco related disease. As the
estimated economic cost of Tobacco was USD 22.4 billion and it was 1.16% of our
GDP. This was 12% more than the combined state and central govt expenditure on
health in 2011-12. The total central government revenue from tobacco production
in the year 2011-12 accounted to only 17% of estimated economic cost of
tobacco.