Quitting Tobacco: Help for the First Hard Days
We talk to a few smokers, healthcare experts and chemists to know if it’s true and the latest products available off-the-shelf that stave off smoking.
In your department there would be at least two smokers, minimum of seven on your floor and in your office ... far too many to even count. And what about your neighbourhood? And if at home there is someone who smokes, your life is surely up in smoke!
However, there is hope as a single thread runs through all these people and that is all of them know smoking is terrible for one’s health, and at some point in their life, they have even tried to give up smoking completely. While few may have been successful, the others are still grappling to end the bad habit and are on the lookout for effective measures to kick the butt.
Go public
The recent research involving 1424 Australians, two thirds said talking to others about quitting was beneficial. The survey led by research firm Stollznow revealed that confiding in others could help stave off the temptation to smoke. Being public about the quit attempt, particularly with those closest to you like family and friends, can help address this issue.
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. Professor Matthew Peters, who is chairman of Action on Smoking and Health Australia, 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.
Go for e-Cigarettes
Yes, it’s true there are electronic cigarettes available easily! They feel and look like regular cigarettes but they aren’t bad for your health. It’s a battery powered, cigarette shaped device that releases a small dose of nicotine with each puff. As the nicotine goes into the bloodstream, the smoker feels the same high but the (bad) effect is substantially less. The cigarettes are sold as a ‘quit pack’ consisting of 45 cartridges costing Rs 4 per cigarette. Available at select Archies outlets in Delhi and Gurgaon.
Tablets and patches
Smokers wishing to kick the butt can double their success rates by using nicotine patch. Available at select pharmacy shops but do check the label. The current labelling comes as a result of concerns that using a patch while smoking could lead to nicotine overdose, but a literature review found concurrent use of a nicotine patch and cigarette smoking appears to be safe.
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 Rajesh from medicine.com, a chemist in Greater Kailash-II, “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.”
Help on your phone
There’s help from your phone as well! The new iPhone has a free application which provides a live quitline coach and uses live text to advice on how to kick the butt. It connects the user to the National Cancer Institute’s quitline service where they speak to a live quitline coach or use live text to get advice on quitting.
Developed by The George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) and the National Tobacco Cessation Collaborative (NTCC), “My QuitLine” app is a wonder cure for those keen on kicking the butt.
While the Apple app store has other applications to help people quit smoking, no others use products or services recommended as effective by the 2008 Public Health Service Guideline Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence.
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.
Natural anti-anxiety medication, and St John’s Wort, an anti-depressant, have been used as natural substitutes for other drugs. But do check with your doctor beforehand.
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
You only live once. So take out time to think and feel for your loved ones, the environment and the passive smokers around you. Use of tobacco leads to deforestation as eight kg wood is needed to create a kg of tobacco; tobacco dirties the teeth and forms pigments in palms, fingers and nails; it leads to hair loss and skin wrinkles; tobacco users are two to three times more likely to develop heart disease and paralysis, apart from diabetes; men may become impotent and women may have fertility problems. If these don’t put you off, wonder what will...
Don’t give up
Even if you have tried several times to give up the habit but failed, do continue trying. The number of times you’ve gone back to it is not important, but maybe the fifth or sixth time, you will actually be successful in kicking the habit. Visit places which have a ‘do not smoke’ policy and test yourself as to how long you can control your desire to smoke. Meet friends who do not smoke and most importantly, love yourself and the rest of your family and bless them all good health and a long life.
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