Black Lungs

Archive for the ‘Stop Smoking’ Category

If you truly want to quit smoking for life, there are many stop smoking programs from which you can choose. The success rates of these programs can reach up to nearly 50% smoke free after one year, a very high rate in this field. This is because stop smoking programs are designed to give you emotional, mental, and physical support to help you quit and stay off cigarettes for the rest of your life. Studies show that quitters who have a large network of support with not only family or friends, but also health care professionals and other quitters are more likely to stay from cigarettes than those people who quit on their own. In fact, only 5% of solitary quitters are still smoke free after their first year.

When you are looking for a stop smoking program, you should find one that is suited to your lifestyle. Today, you have the choice of phone support, online support, or face to face support. Some people may find a combination of any or all of the three the most effective. A phone support system is a good choice, especially for someone who is shy about asking for help. It gives you the warmth of talking to a real human being, but with the anonymity of a phone call. It can bridge the gap between face to face and online groups. There are many quitters’ hotlines; some are private groups that might be linked to a hospital, others are government funded, usually state by state. All hotlines come with a local or toll-free number for you to dial. You can receive tips, encouragement, or track your progress with counselors.

If you think that you might do better in a face to face stop smoking program, you should consider looking up your local branch of Nicotine Anonymous. This group is founded on the proven twelve step program that was pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous. You meet once or twice a week with your support group and discuss your individual trials and triumphs as you accept you have a smoking problem and then work your way out of that problem. Many people enjoy the supportive atmosphere of these Anonymous groups so much that they keep coming for years, eventually offering inspiration and support to newer members.

Busy people might say that they simply don’t have time to quit. However, online stop smoking programs eliminate that excuse. You can choice any number of chat forums to get advice and encouragement from other people who are also going through the quitting process. Sometimes these rooms are moderated by a smoking counselor. You might be directed to web sites that offer in depth information about quitting or sell stop smoking products.

No matter which stop smoking programs you choose, there is sure to be the perfect one out there to help you quit.

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It is time for you to make your Freedom of Smoking Declaration. Imagine for a moment that you have gained freedom from smoking. How would your life be different from today? How would your health be different? Go ahead and imagine how great it would feel to breathe easier, feel better, have extra money. Feels pretty good doesn’t it?

It is entirely possible for you to gain independence from smoking. You do not have to be bound by the chains of cigarette addiction, every puff you take adding another link to the chain, every pack you buy adding another lock until you are weighed down by your own addiction believing that there is no way out.

There is a way out, a way that is so powerful and so effective that if you use it you will have a 92% chance of being smoke-free for the rest of your life. Did you read that correctly? Yes you did. Modern psychological medicine has created a smoking cessation technique that removes all of the struggle and will power from quitting smoking it. This revolutionary technique makes kicking the smoking habit easier than you could ever imagine.

This technique is called NLP, or Neuro Linguistic Programming and it has given thousands of smokers the smoke-free life that they so long desired but could not attain. NLP is so effective because it targets the very thing that causes so many smokers to be unsuccessful at breaking their habit; cravings.

So many smokers try to quit using methods that focus on the addiction to nicotine. But this addiction actually passes within a week of quitting smoking. But the cravings to smoke, the deep psychological desire that has built up over hundreds and thousands of cigarettes being smoked over years and years still burns deep within the smokers mind.

But NLP is like a powerful eraser that totally removes these deep seated cravings to smoke giving you complete freedom from smoking. NLP is a powerful form of hypnotherapy that targets the areas of the mind where the habit and cravings to smoke reside and removes them effectively and permanently.

And through the wonder of modern technology you can have the cravings to smoke removed by simply listening to a powerful NLP audio recording. You can gain freedom from the bonds of smoking just by listening to an NLP based smoking cessation recording.

In a recent test 5,000 smokers listened to an NLP based smoking cessation recording. Six months later 97.2% of them remained smoke-free. You simply cannot find a more effective way to gain the freedom of smoking that you so badly want and deserve.

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Do you live with a smoker? Effects of second hand smoke are much deadlier. You are not protected from every harmful consequence at all. It may be unfair but that is how it is.

First, what is second hand smoke? It is the mainstream smoke coming from the smoker’s mouth every time he puffs on the cigarette and exhales. It is also the side stream smoke that comes from the burning tip of the cigarette.

So, what are the dangers second hand smoke brings?

Your heart suffers tremendously each time you inhale cigarette smoke.

Your heart’s arteries age much faster.

Your heart has to work harder by pumping more blood due to lack of oxygen and the presence of carbon monoxide.

Your blood pressure goes up. A raise in your blood pressure is one of the dangers your heart faces. It burdens your heart and blood vessels and increases your chance of getting a heart attack or a stroke.
Your lungs take a beating because they inhale poisonous carbon monoxide instead of fresh oxygen.

Your lungs are now more susceptible to a lot of lung diseases such as the simple cough, the life-threatening asthma attacks, and the complicated chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. Lung diseases are negative effects of second hand smoke.

The airways of your lungs become narrow leading to production of mucus. Too much mucus becomes a danger as it serves as breeding ground for different types of viruses and bacteria.

These bacteria and viruses can cause lung infections such as tuberculosis, bronchitis and pneumonia.

Cigarette smoke causes scarring of your lung tissues.
Your Immune system is ravaged as you consistently inhale cigarette smoke.

Your immune cells become unhealthy and your immune system produces weak antibodies. These poor quality immune cells and antibodies are unable to effectively control invading viruses and bacteria.

The cigarette smoke you inhale causes your immune cells to attack the tissues of your lungs scarred by cigarette smoke, thinking they are fighting foreign bodies.

Second hand smoke kills healthy lymphocytes further causing the immune system not to function as fully as it should.

It leads to chronic inflammation inside your body, which is the root of all diseases.
Your digestive system is not spared, either.

Cigarette smoke hinders your pancreas from producing sodium bicarbonate which neutralizes the acids in your stomach. Then it increases the amount of acid that your stomach secretes, and it strengthens H. Pylori bacteria that might already be present in the stomach. All these can lead to peptic ulcers.

What’s worse is when you seek treatment for your ulcer and you still smoke, the healing takes longer.

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If you are having trouble conceiving and you are worried that you could be the problem, one of the best things you can do for not only your reproductive health but also for your general health, is give up smoking. Smoking affects male fertility in a few different ways:

1. Smoking causes damage to the sperm themselves, researchers think this may be due to the damage done by tobacco to the seminal plasma, a nutrient-rich liquid which is found in semen. And, it is not only the smokers themselves who are at risk but a male whose mother or father was a smoker has a reduced likelihood of becoming a father himself. It is also thought that a smoker who becomes a parent can pass on genetic mutations to his offspring. This sperm damage is accumulative, the longer a man has been a smoker the damage that is done to the sperm increases.

2. Smoking actually lowers the sperm count. One of the reasons for a lowered sperm count is insufficient levels of vitamin B12, vitamin E and zinc, all essential for healthy reproduction. It is a known fact that smoking inhibits the absorption of these vitamins and minerals and it can also disrupt the balance of hormones. The sperm count of male smokers can be as much as 15% below those who do not smoke. The average number of sperm per sample of ejaculate can be anywhere between 50 million and 150 million per millilitre and this reduction could mean the number of sperm could be as low as 20 million per millilitre. The average sperm count around the world has lowered over the recent decades and the main reason for these lowered figures has been named as smoking.

3. Smoking affects sperm mobility. Sperm mobility is defined as the ability of the sperm to make its way through the vagina and cervix in order to reach the egg and achieve fertilisation. The sperm have to be moving not only at a suitable speed but also in the right direction in order for them to reach the egg. An average measure of sperm mobility is when 50% of the sperm are moving correctly, smoking affects this figure meaning less sperm are actually capable of reaching the egg.

4. Smoking can affect the ability to maintain an erection. An erection is achieved by the blood in the penis which creates pressure in the muscles and makes it expand. Anything that can interfere with that flow of blood has the potential to cause impotence. It is a well known fact that smoking can lead to the break down of the tiny blood vessels that carry blood to the penis. If the blood cannot flow freely into the penis an erection cannot be achieved and maintained. It is therefore absolutely essential that these tiny blood vessels are in a very healthy condition. Smoking makes the arteries that lead to the penis close up and this in turn reduces the blood pressure, and obviously if an erection cannot be achieved it is impossible for conception to occur.

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Could the world have something to learn or follow? Finland a European country of just above 5 million people is doing the unthinkable amongst smokers – total smoking ban country wide. The UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO) does not mince its words when it comes to tobacco use. WHO has stated categorically that tobacco usage is irreconcilably against public health. Therefore there is no way tobacco should ever be tolerated from a public health perspective.

The dangers of smoking are well known. Partial smoking bans are not new and they have mostly been spurred by the well known effects of second hand smoking on the general public. Apart from health concerns smoking tobacco has been heavily criticised for the unbearable levels of what has become to be known as the cost of smoking. The cost of smoking is usually presented in monetary terms which is the cost to society as a result of tobacco smoking. One of the greatest cost is the ballooning public health care bill which results in more taxpayer resources going towards health care.

Secondly, labour experts continue to loose sleep over the cost of tobacco related absenteeism at workplaces. Research has long concluded that smokers have a higher absenteeism rate than non-smokers. In total the hours lost to smoking related illnesses or inconveniences resulting in missed work attendances run into millions on men hours worth billions of dollars annually.

The cost of smoking further affects the environment as smokers cast used cigarette butts to the ground and trees are cut to make paper to wrap cigarettes. In the developing world where most of the tobacco crop is now being grown due to stringent rules in the west, more land is being cleared to cash in on the lucrative tobacco crop at the behest of big tobacco. This is a great cost to bear in poor communities who exchange their food crop farming land for tobacco.

Finland appears to be well aware of these off spin effects of tobacco. The depth of the tobacco plague is so deep and deadly than many people will ever know or care to find out. The chain is long the price to be paid very high. Finland plans to get rid of tobacco “once and for all” according to its policy makers and top government officials. Much of Europe has bans on tobacco usage but nothing comes near what Finland is mooting. It is unprecedented and bound to reap a windfall of benefits to the general public when implemented. In the rest of Europe partial bans exist prohibiting smoking in bars, restaurants, hotels and other indoor places.

The following is what the Finish government is getting ready to do;

ban tobacco product display
ban smoking in cars carrying smoking minors
ban vending machines
Since 1976 Finland has been active in the smoking ban arena mostly jolted to action by the raising cardiovascular diseases related to smoking. This prompted cigarette bans and was followed by indoor smoking bans in public areas and workplaces about 1995 then followed by restaurants in 2007. As expected big tobacco never take these moves laying down. Philip Morris one amongst top three USA tobacco companies issued a complaint claiming that smoking was an individuals responsibility.
It is however disappointing that Finland actually held negotiations with the tobacco industry over this matter to take into consideration their concerns despite the fact that WHO has declared war on big tobacco because of its deceitful and dishonesty in working with governments and policy makers. In fact WHO advocates for governments to refuse the involvement of the tobacco industry in any work to do with tobacco policing and control.

The step Finland has taken altogether is plausible and is one step in the right direction towards totally eradicating tobacco usage off the face of the planet in the coming few decades.

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What are the harmful effects of smoking? Smoking is common among adults as well as adolescents. Most adolescents, adults and elderly adults continue smoking because of the following reasons:

1. The active chemical ingredient in cigarettes which is nicotine can produce biological or psychological dependency. Smoking cigarettes produces pleasant emotional states that most smokers seek to maintain.
2. Some adolescents who smoke take up the habits from parents and peers who smoke.
3. Smoking in some cultures is seen as an adolescent ‘rite of passage’ – a sign of growing up.
4. To stop smoking, according to Myers (1990) is very difficult. This is because the same social pressures that help initiate the habit also help to maintain it. Smoking has become a part of every day behaviour in most cultures.
5. Maintenance of smoking behaviours is the result of both positive of negative reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement is when smokers tend to associate smoking with pleasant things such as good food, friend, sex and even the high that nicotine given them.

Negative reinforcement, according to Schacher (1991) is when smokers are deprived of their cigarettes for a few hours and they start to go through extremely unpleasant physical withdrawal. When they are finally able to smoke the nicotine reduces the symptoms.

The harmful effects of smoking can be best explained by considering the three harmful ingredients found in tobacco that are injurious to health.

1. Nicotine – This is the chemical ingredient that is regarded as addictive component that denies smokers their right to quit smoking nicotine is even stronger than herein according to some research reports.

2. Carbon Monoxide (CO): This competes with oxygen on the binding sites for oxygen in red blood cells, forming Carboxyhemoglobin. The brain which is now deficient in oxygen becomes dull and less efficient. The muscles also wear out very fast because of insufficient supply of oxygen to vital organs.

3. Tar: This is likened to the thick black soot from car exhausts. It promotes all forms of cancer, high blood pressure and heart diseases in smokers.

Smokers are ten times more at risk to die from cancers (mouth, throat, windpipe, very often lungs, bladder, service etc.) than non-smokers and the symptoms vary in accordance with the pathology and its location.

Other harmful effects are below:

(1) Stroke can be tobacco related
(2) Low birth weight of children born to mothers who smoke is caused mostly from the effects of nicotine.
(3) Non-smokers who inhale second hand smoke (from fully burnt cigarettes) over a longtime may even be more at risk to contract cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and other ailment.
(4) Smoking impairs with the ability of the brain to function efficiently as so people are involved in criminal acts because of this. This may result in death and rape which is one of the ways STD and the more dangerous HIV can be contracted.

It is recommended that any treatment or intervention to help smokers quit the habit should combat both the positive and negative reinforcements mentioned above. Smokers should also be made to understand the harmful effects of smoking and its effects on their well being and health. Some may be convinced enough to quit the habit.

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Smoking and teens is a subject that has become part of the norm. Whenever you drive past your local high school or college, you will always find youngsters smoking. Walk down the local park and it’s the same, young people who have not reached their 20’s puffing away on a cigarette or a cannabis joint. As a parent or guardian if you are happy with your teenager smoking and think they should be independent to do what they choose as young adults then fine. But for most of us this is not the case. We realize the harmful effects of smoking in later life and want to give our children the best possible start which includes staying healthy.

I want to give you some of the best possible tips to get your teenager to stop smoking. It starts with communicating and treating them as a young adult, because that is what they most crave at their age. They want to be heard, listened to and want to enforce their points of view.

Tip 1

Try enrolling them in a fitness gym. At the moment the gym culture is very popular amongst teenagers and adults. It is just a way of getting them to realize their health potential, get advice from fitness experts and also hang out with people who are looking to become healthier in life. It’s never necessary to join a gym but it gets your teenager interact with people who want to look and feel healthier.

Tip 2

Spend more time with your teenager. Go out shopping, camping, theater, surfing, bike riding, swimming, you name just get them to do things that get them out of boredom. Hanging out with friends and nothing much to do usually leads to smoking, drinking and taking drugs.

Tip 3

Don’t give up communicating with your teen. At most times you will probably be talking to a brick wall, but think about it you were once their age also. Try giving them options of what life can be like as a smoker. What limitations they may face. Young people and to a certain extent adults are obsessed with their looks and appeal. Use this to your advantage and explain what a smoker looks like in 5-10 years time. How their sexual health is later affected in life. How their skin becomes aged fast. How they are never able to put quality muscle and get an excellent physique. And of course more importantly how they can very easily develop chronic health disease and pass on defects to their children. All this does happen, isn’t it worth just discussing about?

Smoking in my opinion is a habit and not an addiction. It can easily be stopped especially if you have not been smoking for too long. The key thing is never to give up on your teens, one day they will come round.

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Smoking is one of the most difficult habits to break. There are many different methods to help a person stop smoking available, but not everyone has had the same success rate with every product.

Many people try quitting smoking cold turkey only to find themselves going back to smoking as much or more within only a few days.

Some also try a variety of gums, lozenges, or medications but still are unable to quit. However, a more successful to way of quitting has been to quit smoking by hypnosis. Quit smoking hypnosis has a high success rate of helping people stop their smoking habit for good.

Hypnosis may very well be the best way to quit smoking. The benefits of using hypnosis to quit smoking are that it does not involve any medications, it is more easily affordable that some other methods of smoking cessation, and it can be done in the quiet convenience of your own home.

This is an all natural way to quit smoking and start living healthy again. The great thing about quit smoking hypnosis is that you see results quickly and with only a few sessions you will find yourself completely void of the desire to smoke.

You may wonder how hypnosis can actually be the best way to quit for good. To understand this, you must first become educated on how a person can be hypnotized. A professional hypnotherapist helps the patient to be come completely relaxed.

Then they are able to reprogram the person’s subconscious. By speaking to the person while they are in the subconscious state of relaxation it is possible to convince the person that they are a nonsmoker and have never had the desire to smoke.

While quitting smoking by hypnosis does not work for everyone, it is one of the most highly rated methods of smoking cessation. The success rate has almost double the percent of that of patches, gums, or lozenges.

It has also been reported to be a great stress reliever which sometimes triggers people to smoke more. Many people have even seen complete results with only one hypnosis session.

One of the best things about quit smoking hypnosis is that it does not require a person to take any type of
medication. There are medications that are available now that supposedly help in quitting smoking, but they can be extremely expensive and may cause harmful side effects.

Hypnosis is completely natural and there are never any harsh chemicals to be taken into the body.

Most smokers are well aware of just how expensive the cost of supporting their habit really is. For a person who smokes 2 packs a day, it normally costs around $250 a month. For this price, a person could have an average of 3-4 hypnosis sessions and stop smoking for good.

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There is one essential key in the battle to quit smoking for good. Most of us know what it is. We just don’t consistently put into practice what we know we should.

If quitting smoking is your goal, then there is one step you absolutely have to take if you want to be successful. And that is to remove or avoid all the triggers that make you want to smoke a cigarette. Sounds simple, right?

It is simple… in theory. But, as with anything worth doing, the difficulty and complexity arrive during the practical application of the theory. That means you need awareness and vigilance, an assiduously applied plan, and even the help of a proven stop-smoking program.

The first thing to keep in mind is that we are not the logical creatures we like to think we are. We operate most of the time on emotions and sensuous associations. Generally, it’s only after the fact–after we make a decision or embark on a course of action–that we come up with a rational explanation for why we did what we did. We first act, most of the time, because of an environmental, emotional, or associational trigger. And so it is with smoking.

Think about it. When do you crave a cigarette the most? It’s usually after a big meal, when you’re stressed, with your favorite beverage, during the poker game, when you’re bored, when the in-laws arrive.

These are the things you must take pains to avoid.

Here’s how it worked for me. About a year before I quit smoking for good, we moved to a rural area. The house sits beside a small lake and has a huge deck on the side facing the lake. I formed the habit of sitting in my favorite deck chair for hours in the evening, watching the lake and the wildlife, sipping my favorite drink and smoking. It wasn’t long until every time I went out on the deck I wanted a cigarette. That was the strongest smoking trigger for me.

So when I gave up smoking, I also had to give up sitting on the deck. I tried it a couple of times, but the craving for a cigarette was too powerful. As much as I missed it, I had to give up my quiet time on the deck. And I still don’t go out there much now. It’s not safe for me.

Just as I discovered that deck-sitting was out for me, you’ve got to figure exactly what your smoking triggers are. Then you need to write them down and draw up a plan. Your plan might include rescheduling meal times, avoiding certain places and situations, finding new methods for dealing with stress, and so on. If you go into the battle armed with this awareness and a plan, your odds of victory will be that much greater.

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Everyone knows that smoking is extremely harmful for one’s health and the government has done a lot to create awareness of the various problems that smoking can cause. The issue is not with creating awareness about the negative effects of smoking but actually quitting. January is an excellent time to see how this is true because there are thousands of smokers who resolve to quit smoking on the 1st of the month only to find that they are itching to hold a cigarette in their hands after a few hours of the resolution. To quit you need a plan, otherwise a nicotine test will sniff you out!

If you try and ask advice of smokers who have successfully quit smoking for good, you shall find that there are as many suggestions as smokers. While you can review each one of these methods, you will have to check out the one that works best for you. Make sure that you continuously use tobacco testing at home so that you can be aware of the presence of nicotine in your body. Awareness of the pervasiveness of nicotine in your body with these nicotine tests may actually shake you out of your inertia and push you toward making a healthier choice.

Such testing can be done at home very easily. All that you need is a small sample of urine. The tobacco test checks out the level of cotinine in the urine. This is a by-product of nicotine that is processed in your body and excreted through the urine. This is why the nicotine test is also called the cotinine test at times. And the fact is, it’s actually cheaper than a pack of cigarettes.

Other methods that you can adopt to quit smoking have been listed below. These can be used as standalone options or in combination to ensure that you are able to successfully quit the habit. While you work with these methods, use the tobacco test as well – that’s method number one.

- Just quit – Some people believe that a slow reduction in the number of cigarettes is not an option but that a cold turkey method should be adopted.

- Reduction over time – This is a method that can help if you have specific times when you reach out for a cigarette and want to slowly eliminate those rituals as days pass. Use a nicotine test when you finally have not smoked for a few days. This can be a great motivator because you can see how your body is actually getting cleansed – you will see after 2 to 4 days that you actually test negative for nicotine!

- Quit with a friend – This is another method that works because it creates a sense of competition and/or cooperation.

There are other methods like nicotine patches, nicotine chewing gums, nicotine lozenges and nicotine inhalers that you can use. Whichever choice you make, everyone wishes you the best of luck in quitting smoking! And remember the fifth plan: don’t start smoking in the first place!

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