Monday, June 30, 2008

Stop Smoking Medicines

Several Stop Smoking Medicines Help Smokers Quit

Many smokers have struggled trying to give up cigarettes. Unfortunately, smoking cigarettes is both a habit and an addiction. Both are hard to deal with for the average person. The nicotine in cigarettes is highly addictive, and some experts compare this addiction to that of heroin. The habit of smoking is also difficult to eliminate from daily life. There are now several stop smoking medicines on the market that aim to help smokers overcome the addiction and kick the habit. Zyban is a drug that is supplied by Glaxo-Wellcome through physicians. Those smokers who use Zyban must use this in consultation with their doctor.

Zyban is a medicine that works in the brain to reduce the craving for nicotine. This is different from some of the smoking cessation aids that replace the nicotine in the system. Zyban is a medicine to stop smoking that contains bupropion which was originally put on the market under the name Wellbutrin. This stop smoking medicine is an anti-depressant. Doctors usually recommend that their patients who are determined to quit smoking should use this drug for seven to twelve weeks. The patient does not immediately quit with this medicine to stop smoking, but many people have quit after seven weeks.

A New Stop Smoking Medicine Is Now Available

A new drug called Chantix has recently been approved for the market in the United States. Smokers should get a prescription from their doctor to use this medicine, and they should use it with guidance from their physician. This drug affects the areas of the brain that enjoy the effects of smoking. The pleasurable feelings of smoking are removed and the smokers quit because they feel no benefit. There are some side effects with this medicine, and it is so new there is not much information on the success of this drug when used by the general public.

The research that has been done shows positive results in the studies that have been completed. Withdrawal symptoms discourage many smokers from breaking their habit and addiction. Chantix is a stop smoking medicine that provides relief from withdrawal symptoms. These results show better results than Zyban. There are some other drugs that are administered by injection that have some success. These injections are a combination of atropine and scopolamine. The stop smoking medicines available have shown some success. Smokers should investigate these medicines to quit the awful habit and addiction that could ruin their life and eventually kill them.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Stop Smoking Laser Therapy

Stop Smoking With Laser Therapy

For anyone wanting to quit smoking, there are a number of new technologies and therapies available to try in order to make the decision to quit a little easier. But because smoking is both a mental and a physical addiction, like any support aid, laser therapy will only be able to help you on the physical side, not the mental. If you’ve been a chain smoker for years, using laser therapy to stop smoking will only be able to take you so far. It will help you reduce your cravings, however the rest will come back to hard work from you.

How Does It Work?

Laser therapy uses the application of a “cold” pure laser light to body parts in order to promote healing and tissue repair (similar to acupuncture). It is a non-invasive, medication-free and painless therapy that has been tried and tested for over 20 years in Canada, Europe, England and America. It is believed that laser therapy can help boost endorphin production and hence relieve the cravings and withdrawal symptoms normally associated with smoking. This endorphin production is believed to also help keep mood levels even, hindering any bouts of anxiousness or “crabbiness”.

The Benefits Of Using Laser Therapy

Laser therapy sessions are fairly quick - around 30 minutes in length – and have found to be a safe technology with minimal side-effects. One of the main benefits of using laser therapy to stop smoking is that it is believed that weight gain may possibly be avoided by using the technology. In the same way that using laser therapy to stop smoking is done by applying laser light to certain points on the body to help promote healing and promote endorphins, it also allows helps to speed the body’s metabolism and at the same time, reduce the craving for food, resulting in minimal, if any weight gain following the procedure.

Ensuring Success

Like any support aid, using laser therapy to stop smoking is not a sure thing, as smoking is also a mental addiction that many people find difficult to over-come – more so than the cravings themselves, particularly if the smoker has been an addict for a long time. The best thing to do to ensure that you stay smoke-free is to be prepared – get support from family and friends, find new ways to incorporate new and healthy habits to replace your old ones, and keep a diary to log your progress. Your addiction didn’t form over-night, so be prepared to deal with your withdrawal – metnal and physical - for some time to come. There are many aids to support you such as laser therapy to stop smoking, however it the choice will always inevitably come back to you.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Smoking Facts

Smoking Facts And Hazards

The major health risk smoking facts are well known. Smoking is not just bad for your health, it can kill. There is plenty of information out there about the main risks and if you didn't know that lung cancer and heart disease are associated with a higher risk in smokers, you must have been living under a rock for the past 20 years.

However, there are other facts about smoking that are less well known. Some of these may be essential motivators for you or those close to you who want to quit smoking.

Maybe lung cancer seems like something that would never happen to you, or not for so long into the future that it is hard to care. When we are young, we may feel this way. Life holds so many uncertainties, it may be hard to get motivated about something so far away. But some of the other hazards of smoking may be right around the corner, or even affecting you right now - even if you are young.

The first thing to know is that cancer can hit younger people too. Smoking-related cancers are more likely than some others to affect people in their 40s, for example. That is an age when many people still have kids at home who are dependent on them. It's not a great time to die.

As well as lung cancer, smoking is associated with higher risk of cancer in the mouth, throat and esophagus (the passage that leads to the lungs) - and also the colon, stomach, kidneys and many other parts of the body.

It is not just about smoke clogging up the lungs. There are a huge number of possible problems that can result from nicotine and other chemicals getting into the bloodstream. A commercially produced cigarette contains thousands of different chemicals, hundreds of which are toxic - i.e. poisonous. They can do untold damage when they build up in the body over a few months or years.

Other problems are caused by the organs being deprived of the oxygen that they need to function correctly. One example of this is the skin. The skin is fed by the bloodstream just like any other organ. When the blood does not contain enough oxygen to nourish it properly, it becomes wrinkled and unhealthy looking, causing a premature aging effect.

Smoking also affects the sexual organs. In women this can reduce fertility and make it harder to get pregnant. Of course it also affects the growing fetus if the woman does get pregnant and continues to smoke. So the best thing that you can do if you want a baby, is to stop smoking.

Male fertility may also be affected and in addition, smoking often contributes to impotence. Men in their 30s and 40s who smoke have a 50% higher chance of erectile dysfunction (impotence) than non-smokers of the same age.

Children are very sensitive to smoke and if you smoke in the house, your kids are likely to get more respiratory infections than the children of non-smokers. These infections are also likely to be more serious than for other kids. Their immune systems are lowered and they have a hard time recovering from disease.

Smoking can also have a bad effect on your career. For example, most people know that smokers take more time off work sick than non-smokers, plus they see smokers spending time in the parking lot taking a break while non-smokers are working. This creates a bad impression on the boss and resentment among colleagues.

Many companies prefer not to hire smokers even if they never take a cigarette break in working hours, just because of the sickness rates. In other companies, workers miss out on promotion or bonuses because they do not have the good health record of their non-smoking colleagues.

So the financial cost of smoking is not limited to the cost of cigarettes - which you already know is very high. When you quit, you will have a lot more money in your wallet or purse right away. You will also notice improvements in your health almost immediately.

Bookmark this page to come back and remind yourself of these smoking facts from time to time to keep your motivation to quit sky high!

Friday, June 27, 2008

The Benefits of Quitting Smoking

We hear so much about the dangers of smoking, but instead, here we are going to take a look on the positive side and consider the benefits of quitting smoking. These apply to a person who is in good health apart from being a smoker.

There are many benefits to stopping smoking, and the good news is that a lot of them start right away.

Almost as soon as you put out a cigarette, the nicotine levels in your body and in your bloodstream start to decrease. When you are a smoker, after a few minutes or hours the levels will drop lower than you like and you will start to think about lighting another. But when you quit, the nicotine in your body keeps on slowly reducing until soon it is completely gone and the addiction is broken.

One of the health benefits that kicks in almost right away is an improvement in blood pressure and pulse rates. The blood becomes cleaner and the circulation is more effective. The heart can work more efficiently, getting more oxygen around the body with less work.

At the same time, your lungs begin to clean out. This process takes a few weeks. During this time you may cough more than you did when you smoked, but do not use that as an excuse to start again. Any prolonged cough should be checked by a doctor, but generally this is a healthy sign that your body taking the chance to get clean again after all those years.

The lungs never clear out completely because we live in a world where there are other types of pollution, but they will soon become much cleaner than a smoker's lungs. Provided you did not already start to develop one of the serious diseases that smokers often get, you have a good chance of living out your natural lifespan as a non-smoker now.

You will notice that you can take exercise more easily. Your heart rate stays slower while you exercise. Your lung capacity will begin to improve, so you do not get out of breath so easily. If you had any minor respiratory problems like frequent colds and coughs or sinus infection, you may find that these do not bother you so often.

The risk of developing major smoking-related diseases begins to reduce within a few months of quitting. These diseases include cancer of the lungs, mouth, throat, esophagus and many other types of cancer. The risk of developing coronary heart disease also decreases.

There are other advantages to quitting smoking in addition to the health benefits for the person who quits. First, there are benefits for your family and anyone that you spend a lot of time with, in not having smoke in the air that they must breathe.

Second, it becomes much easier to get along with non-smoking strangers. Most people in the Western world these days are non-smokers and a lot of them dislike the smell of smoke. They will know if you smoke, even if you do not light a cigarette in their presence. If you are dating or trying to make new friends, or if you work in any situation where you need to influence people such as sales, you will get along much better as a non-smoker.

Third, you have more time and money. A lot of money is wasted on smoking, but people often do not think about the time that is wasted too. You will begin to notice how great it is to be able to do something for several hours without even thinking about going outside for a cigarette.

Bookmark this page and come back often while you are stopping, to remind yourself of some of the benefits of quitting smoking.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Stop Smoking Aids

Stop Smoking Aids: Do they Work?

These days there are many kinds of stop smoking aids available. This article considers nicotine replacement aids and whether they help in the drive to quit smoking.

Smoking is an addiction and it is often said that the nicotine in cigarettes and cigars is as addictive as heroin, or even more. This is a real physical addiction, not just a habit. If you woke up tomorrow with total amnesia so that you could not remember anything about your life until now and even had no clue what a cigarette was, you would still feel the effects of nicotine addiction.

Some ways of quitting smoking involve supplying nicotine to the body in other ways to reduce these physical effects. For example, you can get nicotine gum, patches and inhalers. The idea is that by gradually reducing the nicotine intake, you reduce the body's dependency until it reaches zero.

At the same time, you quit the habit of smoking (holding a lit cigarette, inhaling, always smoking with a coffee, etc) on day one, so that is dealt with separately from the physical addiction.

These aids have a good success rate - around twice as many people are successful at quitting than those who go 'cold turkey'. It is hard to say exactly why, but if you think of other comparable situations, you can start to understand.

For example, using the idea of reducing dependency, you would think that a good way to quit would be to slowly reduce the number of cigarettes that you smoke each day until after 20 days or whatever you reach zero, and then you have quit. No problem, right? Wrong. You probably know this because you tried it already. Most everyone did, because it seems like it should be such a great method. In fact, it sucks.

Why? Because at some point, you must actually stop smoking. At that time you need a big boost of motivation. You have the motivation now - but will you still have it 20 days from now? Probably not. Somewhere along the way you are likely to start thinking that in fact, you would be happy if you just halved your intake. So you decide to do that instead, and then pretty soon it starts to creep up again.

Nicotine patches and gum are a lot better than the 'cutting down' method because they do require you to quit smoking the cigarettes right away.

Another big advantage that nicotine replacement has, is that it reduces the withdrawal symptoms. This is very important for some people and probably is the main reason why these aids really do help many people to quit.

Two things that bother people about giving up smoking are the tendency to put on weight, and increased irritability. Many people, even those who genuinely want to stop, would prefer to keep on smoking than to quit and gain weight. Others are afraid that stopping will make them so irritable that they may lose a relationship or a job.

Often they have had past experiences of trying to quit, with these consequences. For other people these fears are unconscious, but they are there all the same and they are a big motivation killer. Patches or gum can help with both of these.

So quitting aids can help people to quit in some circumstances, but you do still need motivation. The aids are not going to work by themselves. Combining them with other methods is the best way.

Nicotine is a dangerous substance. The sale of these products may be restricted in some jurisdictions. Always read the instructions on any medication and consult your doctor for advice before using stop smoking aids.

Monday, June 9, 2008

New Stop Smoking Drug

A New Stop Smoking Drug Promises Help for Addiction to Nicotine

Many smokers have tried to kick their smoking habit and break their addiction to nicotine. Medical professionals know how dangerous smoking cigarettes is for the general public. These scientists have conducted research to come up with aids to help smokers as they try to quit smoking. So far, they have come up with several aids that have provided varying degrees of help. Some smokers have used these aids and have been successful. Others have failed after numerous attempts to quit. Some smokers have been successful by quitting “cold turkey”.

Researchers and companies have come up with patches that replaced the nicotine in the system of the smoker, and other researchers and companies have come up with lozenges or gum to replace the nicotine in the system of the smoker. Some smokers have been successful using the patches by following the instructions provided by the manufacturers. Others have quit using the nicotine replacement gum. Other researchers have developed drug therapy called Zyban that should assist the smoker trying to quit smoking. Some smokers have been successful by taking this drug therapy under the guidance of a physician. The smokers who have not been successful should not be discouraged because there is a new stop smoking drug available that shows great promise.

The New Stop Smoking Drug Provides More Effective Help for Smokers

The Pfizer Company has recently developed and tested a new stop smoking drug that they call Chantix. This drug promises great hope for smokers based on the tests done by the company. The company advertises the success of this drug in the trials, and the literature says that this drug is more effective than Zyban. Smokers can only get the drug by prescription from their physician. This new stop smoking drug should be taken for twelve weeks. The company notes that forty-four percent of the smokers using Chantix quit in the trials as compared with thirty percent of the smokers who tried Zyban.

According to the experts, the new stop smoking drug, Chantix, will not be a cure but only an aid to smokers. The company provides detailed information to help smokers quit with the use of this new stop smoking drug. This new stop smoking drug does not contain any nicotine like the patches or lozenges, but it acts appropriately in the brain to make smokers quit their habit and addiction.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Laser Treatment To Stop Smoking

Laser Treatment To Stop Smoking – Using The Latest Technology

Are you aware that there is a treatment available for you called laser treatment to stop smoking? Do not worry if you have not heard about it, yet. Many people have not as well. This article is aimed to throw some basic light on the laser treatment to stop smoking so you can use it, if you find it suitable to you and quit smoking at the earliest possible date.

The Ban On Smoking Is On


The whole world unanimously agreed that smoking (also chewing) tobacco is highly injurious to health and has banned smoking in almost all the public places available. This is because not only the smoker suffers from this habit, but also those who inhale the exhaled smoke, i.e. the passive smokers, as they are commonly known. Hence, a smoker injures himself/herself and all those who find themselves around.

Answering to the aggressive stop-smoking and anti-smoking awareness campaigns, a good number of people decide to quit smoking every day. However, the habit is hard to kick off and requires a lot of commitment from the smoker, good backup both psychological and physical, and a very strong will to succeed. Depending upon their use, you will achieve success and/or failure. You can use the laser treatment to stop smoking as a last resort, when everything else in your arsenal of tools against this habit fails.

What Does The Laser Treatment To Stop Smoking Involve?

You must have heard about acupuncture and acupressure treatments, which use certain pressure points in the body to disconnect the body’s dependency on the high created by the nicotine inhaled through cigarette smoking. The laser treatment to stop smoking works on the same lines. It stimulates the same points in the body, which are stimulated through acupressure/acupuncture – the only difference is that the former uses pressure/needles and the latter uses laser as a tool for stimulation of these points.

The greatest plus point in the laser treatment to stop smoking that it takes just one session to “cure” you from the habit. You will know about the results immediately after your session. Though the stimulation of the nerves does facilitate the possibility to stop smoking for good, the real power comes from within. Without a strong will to quit, no treatment, including the laser treatment to stop smoking can really make a difference.

On the downside, the laser treatment to stop smoking is very costly and hence, it is better to keep it as the last resort. Use first the multitude of products launched in the market for this very purpose, and only if you find that everything else fails, go for the laser treatment.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Laser Surgery To Stop Smoking

Laser Surgery: An Option To Stop Smoking Therapies

Smoking has become a worldwide epidemic with estimates of current smokers near 25 million. The exposure of tobacco companies’ attempts at hiding the harmful effects of tobacco use has resulted in a change in the way the public views smoking. Advertising campaigns have been launched that target the negative health effects of long term tobacco usage. Raising the public’s awareness of the results of a lifetime of smoking has helped to strip away the glamour and sophistication of smoking and has led to more and more smokers seeking ways to kick the nicotine habit.


Tradition Methods To Stop Smoking


A popular method to quit is going “cold turkey” where a smoker simply decides to stop smoking suddenly and does not rely on any stop smoking aids. While this method may work for some, the failure rate is higher than those who choose to seek help in their quest to become a nonsmoker.

Nicotine replacement therapies likes patches, gums and lozenges are available without a prescription and are preferred by many smokers as they gradually decrease the amount of nicotine in the body over time instead of an abrupt withdrawal.

Prescription medications are available that target the levels of certain hormones in the brain, much the same way as medications aimed at relieving depression symptoms. The course of treatment usually lasts seven to twelve weeks and a physician can determine which medication is the most appropriate choice.

Non-Traditional Methods To Stop Smoking

Some other non-tradition therapies have become popular like acupuncture, hypnosis and laser therapy to help stop smoking. These alternate methods are not widely accepted by the mainstream population and a smoker should seek evaluation by a physician to be cleared medically before any non-traditional therapies are attempted.

The newest treatment in America’s quest to stop smoking is laser therapy. This is performed using a cold laser and works in the same manner as modern acupuncture only without the needles. Although it does not work for everyone, some clinics offering this procedure are reporting a success rate of 64%. The goal of the therapy is to release endorphins into the bloodstream by targeting pressure points in the body with the cold laser therapy and helping to make stopping smoking an attainable goal for the patient.

Using laser therapy to stop smoking has not received FDA approval and can seem like a quick fix to some smokers and a more traditional approach may feel like a better choice. Submitting to an unusual treatment like laser therapy to help stop smoking can cause fear and anxiety in patients seeking relief from nicotine cravings.

Whatever method is used, any attempt at quitting is to be applauded. It has been estimated that every single cigarette takes five minutes off a smoker’s life so every cigarette counts.

Joining a support group and getting information on the harmful effects of smoking along with finding out from ex-smokers what helped and what didn’t can also greatly increase a smoker’s chances of successfully quitting. If traditional treatments have failed to bring a release from nicotine addiction, it may be time to research some of the non-traditional therapies available.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Laser Stop Smoking

Laser Stop Smoking Aids: What They are all About

There are many different methods that are considered as being helpful in regards to the stopping of smoking, however one that is not as well known is that of the laser stop smoking aid; the laser stop smoking method is one uses a soft laser on acupuncture points, and it is the same type of laser that surveyors use and which is used on compact discs that is used for this laser stop smoking method.

More About the Laser Stop Smoking Method

Laser beams have been used for a number of years now, and this is often described as biostimulation of energy meridian points associated with the desire to smoke, and it is considered as being similar to that of acupuncture meridian points, but with the soft laser there is no pain or heat involved, and it is instead entirely painless.

As well, with the laser stop smoking method, there are certain things that you are going to have to keep in mind. For instance, before you quit smoking using this method, you want to: select a date to stop smoking and stick to it; tell everyone that you are going to quit smoking; do not carry cigarettes with you, make them inconvenient to get to; deep clean your house and car; make friends with an ex-smoker; eat more fruits and vegetables; get more exercise; sit in non-smoking areas; and make a list of all the reasons why you want to quit smoking.

All of these pointers will help you immensely, and even if you start off by only doing one or two of these things, you will still be able to immediately notice the difference in regards to how easy or hard quitting smoking is on you.

This is one of the lesser known methods of quitting smoking, however it is extremely successful, and so if you are one of the many people out there right now that are trying to quit smoking, then you should absolutely look more into this option and see if it is something that you are interested in.

Remember to speak to your doctor about this first however, just to make sure that you are a good candidate and so that you thus will not be putting yourself at risk for harm or injury. This will only take a single appointment and will obviously be well worth it in the end.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Easy Way To Stop Smoking

Looking For An Easy Way To Stop Smoking

Some people say there is no easy way to stop smoking. Yet people who have successfully quit will often tell you that it was easy, when they look back. Often, they tried many times before and failed - they went back to smoking after a few days, weeks, or months. But that one time, they stopped without much trouble, and never started again. So what made it easy that time?

Most smokers want to stop and if there was a magic method or supplement that worked for everybody, there would probably only be a couple of smokers left in the world. So it's pretty clear that whatever methods may be suggested, they do not work for all of the people who try them, every time.

Finding the easy way is often just a matter of doing it at the right time. This means that instead of deciding you will quit tomorrow, or next week, or on January 1st, you should act any time when you feel a strong desire to quit.

This moment may come when you are sick, when your kid says something to you that makes you feel ashamed, or just one day for no apparent reason. It might be right now. It will not just be a vague wish that you didn't smoke, but something stronger, a real emotional motive.

For most people that is what makes it easy one time when it never was before: they simply did it at the right moment. You have probably had these times in the past and ignored them. This time, do not push this moment away and try to forget it, but act on it. When it comes, stop right now.

Your motivation may still go up and down but you can be sure that you can make it through. You need to keep on thinking positively. Remind yourself how great it is to be a non-smoker. After a few days, you will find it is easier to sit through a long movie or plane journey without getting anxious and wishing for the end so that you could smoke. Be aware of how much more enjoyable your life is getting, and remind yourself of it often.

People who use aids like nicotine replacement, hypnosis, or any kind of therapy or support group usually do better than those who do not. It may be that their willingness to spend money on these things is a sign of higher commitment. These things can help you to keep your motivation high.

Most people have activities that remind them of smoking. Go ahead and avoid these activities for a couple of weeks if it helps. It is a good idea to give up alcohol temporarily, not only because you probably associate it with smoking, but because your motivation will be much lower when you have had a couple of drinks. You may also need to avoid certain places or even certain friends.

At the same time, you should not stay home alone with nothing to do. Quitting smoking can be a little like losing a friend: you will grieve, and you need to try to occupy your mind, your hands and your time. Take up a hobby that involves using your hands, such as woodworking or quilting, or make a list of things that need fixing around the house and do them one by one.

Drinking a small glass of water every time you have a craving is a great way to avoid overeating. Or simply notice how quickly a craving disappears. You may be surprised. Even if you do nothing to satisfy it, the strongest craving will vanish within 90 seconds. Sure it comes back, but 90 seconds is not long to hold out each time.

If you have a lot of anger coming out and you are taking it out on your friends and family, do not use that as an excuse to give up your resolve. Your irritability is only temporary. It may seem that your friends would be better off if you started smoking again, but that is not true. They are way better off without you blowing smoke into the air that they breathe.

In the end, the easy way to stop smoking is any way that works for you - when you do it at the right time.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Stop Smoking Guides

Stop Smoking Guides Provide Important Advice

Smoking is an awful habit and a harmful addiction. Most people realize the dangers, but the addiction is such a strong one that people have trouble when they try to quit smoking. There are some stop smoking guides available with important advice to help those that want to quit. One of the first things most of the stop smoking guides emphasize is the difficulty of quitting. The stop smoking guides usually warn people of the difficulties and encourage people to try in spite of the difficulties. The stop smoking guides are usually prepared by medical professionals based on research and experience gathered from those who have successfully quit and those who have failed.

Some of the guides to stop smoking are actually prepared and presented by the tobacco companies that sell cigarettes. These companies have been criticized for their advertising campaigns to attract smokers, and some of these companies have been sued by smokers or their families. The tobacco companies have presented information on websites and through other literature in stop smoking guides. These websites and publications usually instruct people about the difficulties in this undertaking. The information offers specific strategies for smokers who are trying to quit.

Stop Smoking Guides Offer Specific Strategies

The guides for smokers trying to quit usually give specific steps for smokers. Some of the guides explain that research has shown that quitting “cold turkey” is an effective way to accomplish their goal of becoming a former smoker. This means that the smoker just stops after a cigarette and never picks up another cigarette again. The guides explain the challenges and side effects from this method. This information lets the smoker know the problems that they face. In alternative methods working toward smoking cessation, the guides explain that smokers should set a date in the future to stop smoking.

Once the smoker has set a date for cessation of smoking, the stop smoking guides provide specific information that will help the smoker quit. Most of the guides offer similar information because the researchers have accumulated much helpful advice for smokers determined to quit. The guides also show the aids that are available for smoking cessation. The guides usually provide information on the success of each of the aids available. The guides also provide information on the help available for smokers trying to quit. There are help lines manned by trained professionals and support groups to assist smokers.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Stop Smoking

What you Need to Know if you Want to Stop Smoking

There are various important factors that you are going to need to take into consideration if you are planning to stop smoking, and so if you are one of the many people out there who wants to stop smoking, then you will absolutely want to take all of these factors quite seriously into your own consideration, so that you can determine the best way for you to stop smoking, so that you will have the best odds of stopping smoking for good.

Methods That can be Used to Stop Smoking

There are a number of different methods that can be used in order to stop smoking, and one of the most recommended methods would be that of cold turkey. Basically using the cold turkey method, you simply decide one day that you are going to stop smoking, and then on the particular day that you choose, you simply stop altogether all at once, without any other types of help.

Although this can often times be the hardest method, especially for the first couple of days that you go without cigarettes, it is also considered as being one of the best ways, because it has the least relapse percentage; thus, although it might be harder to begin with, in the end of it all this would be one of the best choices that you have because you are much more likely to stop smoking once and for all, rather than starting again soon after.

Another option that you have then is to use aids in order to quit smoking, and one of the most well known and popular option in this case would be the stop smoking gum, of which there are several different kinds, all relatively the same. This gum is supposed to basically replace the cigarette, and it has some nicotine in it which helps with the cravings, and as well, the gum is thought to also distract you somewhat from thinking about holding and smoking an actual cigarette.

Regardless of what method you decide to use in order to quit smoking, the most important thing to remember is that you are doing something good and positive for yourself, and so it really doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you quit smoking. As well, you have to remember to have motivation and determination, because without either of these qualities, no matter what aids you use, or methods you go with, you will most likely not be successful.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

The Effects Of Smoking

The Effects Of Smoking
The effects of smoking are wider than many people realize. Everybody knows about how smoking contributes to many cases of lung cancer, but there are many other effects too. Some of these start as soon as a person begins to smoke.

Immediate Effects


- The blood pressure and heart rate go up immediately, with the first inhalations on a cigarette.

- Smoking begins to have effects on the lungs immediately too. Even someone who only smokes occasionally or has only smoked for a short time will find that they are more likely to develop coughs and sinus infections when they have a cold. They will probably also stay sick longer.

- The effect on the blood vessels means that you are more likely to suffer headaches if you smoke.

- Smoking also has effects on the teeth. The cocktail of chemicals in cigarettes attacks the teeth, discoloring them and causing cavities.

- Smoking makes you smell bad to a non-smoker - which is most people these days. Your breath, hair and clothes will smell the worst. You will not be pleasant for a non-smoker to kiss.

- Most people do not like having smoke in the air that they breathe, so many people may avoid your company when you are smoking.

- For both of the above reasons, you will be a less popular date than you would be if you didn't smoke.


Longer Term Health Risks And Other Effects


Smoking contributes to many diseases that involve years of pain and suffering, or repeated bouts of falling sick over many years. These are some of the problems that can occur:

- lung cancer and many other cancers

- emphysema

- chronic bronchitis

- cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and strokes

- erectile dysfunction in men

- fertility problems

- less healthy babies

- bloodshot eyes, cataracts, and macular degeneration of the eyes leading to blindness

- wrinkles

Keep in mind that these diseases can start sooner in some people than in others. It is true that a few people live to be 90 and still smoke, but they are unusual. Maybe they still would have lived another 10 years, if they had not smoked. The average person who smokes will be sick more often and have a greater risk of developing any of these diseases than if they did not smoke.

The average life expectancy of a smoker is around 8 years less than a non-smoker. However, it does not work out this way in practice. This figure does not mean that an individual smoker will die 8 years sooner than if he did not smoke.

The truth behind the numbers is that some people are more affected by the toxins in cigarettes and other tobacco products than others. So while you hear of some smokers living to a good old age, the people who do develop serious smoking-related diseases die much younger, often in their 40s and 50s. These diseases can cut 30 or 40 years from a person's life.

Therefore, it is clear that the effects of smoking can be very serious indeed.