Tag Archives: quit smoking

It’s never too early to quit smoking

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Courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

By Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)


Quitting smoking can be challenging, but you can find support for your quit journey where and when you need it, to raise your chances of quitting for good.


“I’m sick of this addiction.” Clay A. left that comment on the CDC Tobacco Free Facebook page. “I quit for a year and four months and came back,” he went on to say. “Quitting is not easy.”


CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) knows that it may take a number of tries before you’re able to quit for good, but we also know that it can be done. In fact, so many people have quit that there are now more former smokers than current smokers in the United States. Quitting can be challenging, but you can find support for your quit journey where and when you need it, to raise your chances of quitting for good. This year, make a New Year’s resolution to quit smoking for good.


“At this time of year, we know that many smokers make a resolution to quit and start off on a healthier course,” says Corinne Graffunder, DrPH, MPH, director of OSH. “If now is your time to quit tobacco, there are many tools available to help you find and follow a quit strategy that works for you.”


Whether you’ve never tried to quit or have tried many times, a new year means another chance to create your successful quit plan.

Never too early to quit

No matter how long you’ve smoked, there are health benefits to quitting. James, a participant in the Tips From Former Smokers® campaign and a smoker for 30 years, started having some trouble doing everyday tasks. He also learned he had diabetes. So James decided he needed a healthier lifestyle. He put down cigarettes and started exercising. Quitting smoking gave him the energy to bike, run, and swim—things he couldn’t imagine doing before.


James said he wanted to send a message to people who think smoking won’t harm them because they haven’t had a major smoking-related illness. “I want to help people like me quit smoking,” he said.  “Maybe nothing really bad has happened to you yet. Maybe you’re lucky, but you’re probably not going to stay lucky.”Still a Leading Cause of Death


Even though adult smoking rates are at an all-time low, cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the country, with 480,000 people dying every year.


Smoking is linked to many dangerous diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, emphysema, and cancer. Smoking around others hurts their health, too. Breathing secondhand smoke can cause many of the same illnesses as smoking does. It can make children get sick more often, and smoking while pregnant raises the risk of a baby dying suddenly in the first year of life. No amount of secondhand smoke is risk-free.Find What Works for You


Every smoker’s quit journey is different. It may take some time to find the strategies that help you stay quit. It helps to create a personalized quit planexternal icon. Some of the steps in an effective quit plan include:

  • Picking a quit date. Choose a date only a week or two away and highlight that day in your calendar or phone.
  • Telling loved ones and friends that you’re quitting. Let them know how they can help you quit.
  • Listing reasons to quit.
  • Getting rid of cigarettes and anything that reminds you of smoking.
  • Picking out feelings, places, and situations that make you want to smoke. It’s easier to avoid them if you’ve identified them!
  • Having healthy strategies to fight cravings.

Build your strategies

Smokers crave cigarettes because they contain a drug called nicotine, and smoking makes your body dependent on nicotine. Stopping smoking causes nicotine withdrawal, which can be uncomfortable, especially in the first weeks. There are ways to get through withdrawal—these can include support from family or a counselor, as well as medication that helps ease cravings.

Courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

It may take many tries to quit. The important thing is not to give up. Health care providers, such as doctors and nurses, can be good supporters in your quit journey. Your doctor may recommend some of the medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help people quit smoking. These may include nicotine replacement therapy medicines, which are patches, gums, or lozenges that give the body a small amount of nicotine to ease cravings without the other harmful effects of smoking cigarettes. Pharmacists can let you know about the effects of any medicine your doctor prescribes.It’s Not Too Late


Whether you smoked for decades, like James, or only just started, whether you have a smoking-related illness or haven’t felt the damage from smoking yet, quitting right now can put you on the road to better health.


Says former smoker Dean G.: “Can’t wait to see my health continue to improve. Quitting is the best decision I ever made.”

Help is out there: Use it!

There are many free resources to help you quit—no matter where you are in your quit journey.


Websites. Tips From Former Smokers® and Smokefree.gov.external icon


Quitlines. 1-800-QUIT-NOWexternal icon(1-800-784-8669) and 1-855-DÉJELO-YAexternal icon (1-855-335-3569) (for Spanish speakers) both offer resources like coaching, help with making a quit plan, and information about smoking and can even refer you to more resources in your area. There are also Asian-language quitlines:external icon 1-800-838-8917(Chinese), 1-800-556-5564 (Korean), and 1-800-778-844 (Vietnamese).


Text Support. Smokefree TXTexternal icon is a free, 24/7 program that sends coaching and encouragement by text messages to help you keep your commitment to staying smoke-free.


Smartphone App. The smoke-free app for your phone called quitSTARTexternal icon helps you understand your smoking patterns and build skills so you don’t give in to cravings.




‘Smoking isn’t worth it’

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By Sarah Anderson, Spectrum Health Beat

 

Photos by Taylor Ballek

 

She had been living with breathlessness for years. She even worked as a hospice nurse caring for patients who had stage 4 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

 

And still, Michelle Pekel found herself taken aback earlier this year when a doctor diagnosed her with COPD.

 

“Hearing the letters ‘COPD’ is a wakeup call—a call that I continually ignored for 35 years,” said Pekel, 50, of Fremont, Michigan.

 

An umbrella term for a group of lung diseases, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema, COPD is a progressive disease in which the blocked airways make it increasingly difficult to breathe.

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 15 million people have COPD, although this number may be as high as 25 million because another 10 million people don’t know they have it.

 

Pekel found herself in that latter category of Americans.

 

“I’ve smoked a pack a day for 35 years and the symptoms didn’t seem like symptoms to me, as this was my everyday life,” Pekel said. “I always had a shortness of breath, chest tightness and constant coughing. … Although abnormal for a non-smoker, (it) was something that I came to terms with and became my norm.”

 

Not everyone who has these symptoms has COPD, and not everyone who has COPD has these symptoms, said Sally Wagoner, RN, a tobacco treatment specialist with Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial.

 

Over time, the symptoms can add up and get in the way of simple tasks. They can make everyday activities like cooking, climbing stairs or carrying a suitcase seem like a challenge.

 

Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat

As a hospice nurse who knows what stage 4 COPD looks like, Pekel wanted to avoid this fate.

 

“I have two children and I knew that I needed to quit for me to be in their lives,” she said. “My father died at the age of 59 from a massive heart attack and my mother died at 64 with cancer—and both were smokers.”

 

By her own account, Pekel had been a committed smoker, burning through a pack of cigarettes a day.

 

She smoked in the mornings, in the evenings, in the hours in between and even throughout her two pregnancies.

 

“I can’t imagine what I was polluting my children with,” Pekel said. “My daughter begged me to quit, but I didn’t hear her. Now all I can say is, don’t wait until it’s too late, until you get cancer, a stroke or a heart attack. So many diseases, all because of cigarettes.”

Wake-up call

Not until her own COPD diagnosis—and a little nudge from her pulmonologist at Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial—did Pekel decide she needed to take control.

 

She registered for the smoking cessation program that Wagoner leads.

 

“Quitting tobacco is the single most important thing you can do for your health,” Wagoner said. “The Quit for Good program at Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial encompasses all the tools and knowledge you need to be successful in one-on-one, group sessions or family quit programs.”

 

The program includes weekly meetings that can be adjusted to fit a person’s schedule.

 

“The weekly meetings are really needed to see higher success,” Wagoner said. “And we recommend eight sessions, which ensures accountability and continued success.”

 

Pekel said she has smoked her last cigarette.

 

And while she’s taking her newfound smoke-free lifestyle one day at a time, she credits the special program at Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial for giving her the resources and strength to kick cigarettes for good.

 

“Without the class, I don’t think that I would have been successful,” she said. “The plan was a huge piece of the puzzle, and my quitting this time was successful—and it wasn’t before.

 

“I’ve never gone this long before without a cigarette, after 35 years of smoking, never,” she said. “I am amazed at my progress and can see and feel the change. My daughter is 14 and used to complain how her clothes smelled of smoke, and second-hand smoke is real. Now my house smells better, my car, my clothes. It’s a nice bonus to have.”

 

The journey didn’t come easy.

 

Registering for the class turned out to be the easy part.

 

“I had to mentally prepare myself to go to the first session,” Pekel said. “I was very anxious for my first class. I have tried to quit countless times over the years and I would make it two weeks and would be back to smoking again. Nothing seemed to work for me.”

 

Wagoner helped Pekel begin her journey as a non-smoker by first explaining the effects of smoking and describing the 4,000 chemicals that reside in cigarette smoke—dangerous toxins like ammonia, carbon monoxide, arsenic and formaldehyde.

 

“You see the commercials and you hear about this all the time, but this was an eye-opener for me,” Pekel said. “I didn’t realize I was smoking such harsh chemicals and toxins and for so long. I couldn’t believe what I was willingly doing to my body. Then it made me also realize the effects that I was having on others around me.”

 

Pekel said she still had doubts she could quit after that first session in January.

 

Wagoner was encouraging and enthusiastic, but Pekel doubted she could win the mental war with herself.

 

Among all U.S. adults who smoked in 2015, about 7 in 10 reported they wanted to quit completely, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Wagoner’s early suggestion—taper off gradually to quit cigarettes—proved more difficult than expected because she couldn’t smoke just two cigarettes a day, Pekel said.

 

She eventually chose a nicotine replacement. Wagoner worked with physicians to find a replacement method that would work for Pekel.

 

“I was 15 years old when I first started smoking, and like a lot of smokers I’m anxious about what life would be like without cigarettes,” Pekel said. “Sally didn’t push me, but she did show me how you can live life without cigarettes, how to make a plan for quitting, what to do when I crave a cigarette.”

Easy does it

When the craving for cigarettes sneaks up on her, Pekel said she gets busy.

 

Photo by Taylor Ballek

She does something with her hands and focuses on an activity such as cleaning the cabinets, cupboards and closets. Her house is now constantly clean and much better-smelling without the cigarette smoke, she said.

 

“When someone is trying to quit tobacco, old routines and triggers can derail any progress,” Wagoner said. “So what we did was analyze Michelle’s routines, so we could break those up to avoid downfalls.

 

“For her, mornings were the worst times,” Wagoner said. “And she couldn’t give up her coffee, so we had her have her morning coffee at the kitchen table instead of in front of the TV or computer.”

 

Pekel said changing the routine meant cigarettes were no longer associated with those old habits.

 

“After meals was another huge trigger for me,” Pekel said. “And I’m happy to say that after 36 days, that trigger was no longer there. If I can do it after 35 years, anyone can do it.”

 

Another positive activity Pekel incorporated into her life was exercise.

 

Before she walked into Wagoner’s quit tobacco program, Pekel had never stepped foot inside Tamarac, the wellness facility west of downtown Fremont that houses an outpatient rehabilitation center, a skincare center and spa, a pool, a café and support programs like tobacco cessation and diabetes education.

 

There’s also a 12,500-square-foot gym with personal trainers and fitness trainers, as well as more than three dozen fitness classes.

 

“Now I’m working out at least three times a week,” Pekel said with a laugh. “Tamarac has so many resources, opportunities and support for people like me who want to turn over a new leaf and take our health back. Pound and Zumba are my go-to programs, and I go there three times a week.

 

“The first class after I quit smoking, I was short of breath within seconds,” she said. “And now after 30 days, I’ve noticed an improvement in my breathing and stamina in the class.”

Time and money

Getting healthy wasn’t the only benefit.

 

Pekel also saw a financial dividend from quitting cigarettes. Because she no longer smoked, she wasn’t spending $6 per pack, per day. That added up to $42 a week, or almost $170 a month.

 

The extra money was nice, Pekel said, although nothing beats waking up in the morning and being able to breathe deeply without any shortness of breath.

 

It’s a miraculous feeling to go through the day with more energy.

 

“It feels so good to have more energy and a better quality of life,” Pekel said. “The exercise is really helping me stay active and busy. I can enjoy my kids and my pets keep me active.

 

Photo by Taylor Ballek

Said Pekel: “Being diagnosed with COPD was a real wake-up call that made me think about the consequences if I continued down this path. What would happen to my children and my pets if I would die? It’s a reality that you need to come to terms with. Who would take care of my children? Provide for them? Love them as I do? Smoking isn’t worth it.”

 

Despite the progress she’s made, Pekel is also a realist.

 

She knows that after smoking for 35 years, she’ll never regain full function of her lungs.

 

“I’m 50 years old, but I know that by quitting I can slow the progression of COPD,” she said. “Don’t wait until you get sick. Stop polluting your lungs, pick up the phone and register for a tobacco quit class.

 

“Don’t get into the mindset that you have smoked too long, that you can’t quit,” she said. “You can and you will—and I’m proof of that.”

The sooner you quit smoking, the better

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Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat

 By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay

 

Despite the well-known dangers of smoking, the sizable benefits of quitting may be overlooked, a new study suggests.

 

“These findings underscore the benefits of quitting smoking within five years, which is a 38 percent lower risk of a heart attack, stroke or other forms of cardiovascular disease,” said study author Meredith Duncan, from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

 

“The bottom line is if you smoke, now is a very good time to quit,” Duncan said in an American Heart Association news release.

 

Her team also found that it takes more than 15 years from the time you quit until your cardiovascular disease risk returns to the level of those who never smoked—so the sooner you quit, the better.

 

Cigarette smoking in America is declining and leaving a growing population of former smokers. Earlier studies have hinted that the risk for heart disease lessens within a few years after quitting, but these studies haven’t looked closely at smoking history, including changes in smoking habits.

 

In this study, Duncan and her colleagues analyzed data on the lifetime smoking histories of nearly 8,700 people who took part in the Framingham Heart Study.

 

At the beginning of the study, none of the participants suffered from cardiovascular disease. Over 27 years, researchers compared the risk for heart disease among people who never smoked with those who quit.

 

They found that more than 70 percent of heart disease occurred in current or former smokers who smoked at least 20 pack-years—smoking one pack a day for 20 years.

 

But smokers who quit within the last five years cut their risk for cardiovascular disease by 38 percent, compared with people who continued to smoke. Moreover, it took 16 years after quitting for the risk of cardiovascular disease to return to the level of never smokers, the researchers found.

 

The findings were presented at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting, in Chicago. Such research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

 

Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.

The Great American Smokeout can help you Kick the Habit

Community Health, Education, How-To's, Upcoming Events,

Quit-Smoking-CigarettesIt’s not easy to quit smoking. Studies show that cigarettes are more addictive than heroin, and the first three weeks after you quit can be the most difficult. If you stumble along the way to giving up smoking, don’t punish yourself. Just try again.

Now is a great time to kick the habit and celebrate more birthdays with the American Cancer Society during this year’s Great American Smokeout on Thursday, Nov. 19. If you or someone you love needs help quitting this year, here are 10 tips on how to break free from a smoking addiction.

  1. Don’t keep it a secret. Include your friends and family in your quitting process; they can offer much-needed support.
  2. You’re not alone. More and more people are trying to break free from cigarettes and there are lots of support options available. Many communities, employers, and health care organizations have free or low-cost counseling and support available to help you quit. Call your American Cancer Society at 1.800.227.2345 to find out what’s available in your area.
  3. Consider using medication to help you quit. There are prescriptions and over-the-counter medications that can help you deal with withdrawal symptoms or even help to reduce the urge to smoke. You’ll want to talk to your doctor first, but some medicine could help.quit-smoking-aisle52DOTcom
  4. Dump the memories. Clear the places where you usually smoke of anything that reminds you of cigarettes – like lighters, ashtrays, or matches. Also ask other smokers not to smoke around you, and clean your house and car thoroughly to remove the smell of cigarettes.
  5. Avoid places where smokers gather. Go to the movies or other places where smoking is not allowed.
  6. Stay calm and stay busy. You may feel some nervous energy but it can be countered by physical and mental activities. Take long strolls and deep breaths of fresh air, and find things to keep your hands busy, like crossword puzzles or yard work. There are a lot of leaves on the ground at this time of year.
  7. Talk to your doctor. Before you begin any plan for quitting smoking you should check with your doctor to see what might be the best approach for you. Remember, quitting smoking is very personal and there isn’t one perfect method.
  8. When the urge to smoke strikes, do something else. If you feel a craving for a cigarette coming on, take a deep breath, count to 10 and then do something else. Call a supportive friend. Do brief exercises such as push-ups, walking up a flight of stairs, or touching your toes. Anything that will take your mind off your cravings.
  9. One will hurt. Many people fall into the trap of thinking that if they only have one cigarette it’s okay. But even that one smoke can get you back in the habit of smoking full time. Keeping a supply of oral substitutes like carrots, apples, raisins, or gum handy can help.
  10. Water, water everywhere. Drink lots of fluids to help curb cravings. Water is the best for this, and you’ll want to pass up on coffee and alcohol if they trigger your desire to smoke.

Cigarette smoking is the major single cause of cancer mortality in the United States, and tobacco use is responsible for nearly 1 in 5 deaths each year in the U.S. Because cigarette smoking and tobacco use are acquired behaviors, smoking is the most preventable cause of death in our society.

Contact the American Cancer Society 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1.800.227.2345, or visit their website here.