Say YES to Life, Quit Smoking

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.

Source: WHO