Stop Smoking Today! Blog

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Stop Smoking ToDay part 2
From: DrCarolFrancis.com

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In order to stop smoking cigarettes, non-medical natural stop smoking methods are widely available. A person does not have to use drugs or nicotine replacement therapy if desired, or they can be used in combination with them. Acupuncture, along with the drugs, Zyban or Chantix, or even with the nicotine gums, are excellent combinations that can be used if needed. Drinking many natural juices will not only curb the dry mouth that will develop, but is very healthy for the body to strengthen it.

By using either the natural stop smoking methods alone or the medical methods and aids, the outlook of its success will depend entirely on our will power, sheer determination, and desire to quit smoking. It is pretty simple – if you do not want to quit, then you will not – no matter which smoking aids you use.

We need the support of our friends and family members now, more than ever, to help us from the beginning when we begin to stop smoking. It is at this time when our pain and withdrawal symptoms will at their worst. We need to remove all our ashtrays and cigarette lighters in our home, vehicles, and office – any reminder of smoking that may tempt us to sway “just a little bit.” These are reminders of our smoking days, and have been known to induce smokers to start smoking again.

Another good move will be to stop visiting clubs, bars, casinos, certain dining establishments, or hotels where the rooms are filled with cigarette smoke. Even in our office and in some cases – our home, we must ban people from smoking in our presence. We should consider beginning a new hobby that may keep us busy for hours. For instance, we could buy some of the new computer games, such as the new Sony Playstation2 or the newer version coming out in November. There are games online which are less expensive, where we can play for hours to kill the urge to smoke. They are an addiction to themselves, so we are replacing one bad addiction with one not quite as hazardous to our health. The object is to stay busy, and not think of the cigarette we want to smoke.

A stop date is obviously needed in order to motivate us to quit smoking. We could even make a poster, listing all the reasons why we need to give up smoking. Some of the prominent reasons may list the hazardous health concerns we could develop, or we could list our family members due to second-hand smoke inhalation. Our clothes and fabrics tend to develop a nicotine smoke smell within our home, which we as smokers usually cannot smell. Dirty ashtrays fill our tables for others to view, along with nicotine stained teeth and fingers. Walls and ceilings become yellow due to the smoke from the cigarettes.

All of these can be listed on the poster, why can be hung in prominent view for us to see on a daily basis as a motivator.Group activity, especially involving non-smokers, is another useful way of staying away from cigarettes, as they will support any weak moments you may develop. You do not feel the urge if you do not see any of your friends smoking. You will find that you come out a fitter and tougher person once you win the battle against smoking naturally.

Quitting smoking is not a easy thing to do. In fact, it can be very difficult. The psychological and physical addiction to nicotine makes it very difficult to just quit. But this can be done, and it was dome by millions of people who regained their health as a result.

There are no easy solutions to quitting the smoking habit. The withdrawal symptoms as well as the psychological need will be there and make it hard for you to quit. But there are quite a few ways to make it easier to go through those first few weeks of being smoke free. If you make if past the first month, your chances of quitting for good are much higher.

Let’s take a look at a few of the most valuable tips we can offer:

Go cold turkey - Don’t reduce the amount of cigarettes you smoke each day. Just stop totally. This seems counter-intuitive, but it’s much better to quit all at once that to reduce the amount. Reducing the amount of cigarettes will not help you quit, it will only make it harder, and claim a heavier price from your health.

Replace your smoking with another habit - this is a useful way of coping with the habit itself. You can replace smoking with eating carrots, for example. Another way is to replace it with physical activity, or drinking water. The important thing is to create new and useful habits instead of the smoking habit.

Quit with a friend - If you have a friend that wants to quit smoking, you can quit together. This will force you to watch each other’s backs, and make sure none of you gets back to smoking. Work out a support system that includes meetings once a day, phone calls etc. so that you keep supporting and encouraging each other.

Use nicotine replacement - There are plenty of products out there that make quitting smoking much easier, as they replace the nicotine fix smokers are used to getting. Taking a nicotine chewing gum, pills or patches makes it easier to deal with the withdrawal symptoms. When the physical side of the quitting process is handled, it’s easier to cope with the psychological side of the addiction.

Use breathing exercises - Learning to breath correctly and to the full capacity of the lungs makes it easier to cope with the withdrawal symptoms and the dizziness and nausea you might feel. Yoga breathing techniques will do fine for that purpose and you can learn that from every book that deals with the subject.

Quitting smoking is not easy, but the price you might pay with your health is a lot more difficult to handle. Start planning your smoking quitting today, and set a date to do it. In 10 years time, you will greet yourself for doing so.

In 2004 the UK alone had 153, 397 deaths caused by cancer alone. Every year around 38,000 cases of lung cancer are diagnosed in the UK alone.The total population in the UK around that time was estimated at 60.2 million people. A closer look will reveal the true extent of the disease that is slowly being tackled by research. Cancer cases are increasing by 1% per year. Cancer mainly effects people in later life, but is also seen to develop in children and adolescents. More than 75% of deaths from cancer occur in the elderly from the age of 65 and above. With such a high rate of deaths occuring in the elderly, cancer is responsible for 1 in 4 or 25% of all deaths across all age groups throughout the world. This figure is highest in adults under 65 years old, where 1 in every 3, or 33%, of all deaths are caused by cancer.

There are more than 200 different types of cancer but only four of these types were responsible for 48% of all cancer related deaths. Lung cancer was the single biggest type of cancer diagnosed which accounts for 22% of all cancer deaths in 2004. Bowel, breast and prostate cancer were responsible for between 11% and 8% of other cancer deaths. Why is the rate of lung cancer sufferers so high? Simply because of the number of people who smoke cigarettes. Around 80% of all lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking.

Cutting down on smoking or stopping all together would greatly reduce the number of cancer deaths. World-wide, over 1.3 million cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year. Prolonged smoking is responsible for the greatest number of lung related cancer deaths, with it striking most commonly among those aged 65 years and over. It is very seldomly diagnosed in those under 40. Scotland has the highest rate of lung cancer sufferers in the UK. Scotland has a history of high smoking and Scottish men and women have among the highest rates of cancer in the world. Why are the rates so high in Scotland? Exposure to industrial carcinogens and poor diet are believed to contribute to the high rate of sufferers. Asbestos exposure is responsible for around 6% of male lung cancer cases diagnosed. If we look at the whole world, the highest rates of lung cancer in the world are found to be in men in eastern Europe as well as men in North America. The pattern is similair for women with the highest number of sufferers occuring in Denmark, Hungary and Iceland.

In the US, incedences of lung cancer are higher in the black population for men and women while contrastingly, Hispanics and Asians have lower number of cases than the white population.

Children are not immune to smoking with nearly 1 in 4 smoking by the age of 15. How life-time smoking habits are developed occurs in adolescent years, and by 19 they are firmly addicted to smoking. There is evidence that points to the fact that how early on in life someone begins smoking has more of an impact on the likelihood of them going on to develop lung cancer. So the young the habit is formed, the greater the risk of lung cancer. This factor is more prominent than the quantity or length a person smokes from then on after developing the habit or becoming addicted to nicotine.

Some factors that cause children to smoke are having a parent that is a smoker or siblings or friends. Being exposed to cigarrette advertising is also a factor that leads children to smoke. Passive smoking by someone, also puts them at risk of developing lung cancer. It can also lead to respiratory disease in children. Children growing up with parents that smoke are also at risk of asthma, middle-ear infections and cot deaths.

The level of risk in the UK becomes more alarming when you take into account the fact that one in every three children grow up in a household with at least one parent that smokes. Smokers that consume up to 14 cigarrettes a day are eight times more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers. Alarmingly, smokers consuming 25 or more a day are 25 times more likely to develop lung cancer.

For the sake of your children, if not for your health, give up smoking and you will have more appreciation for life in your later years, with improved personal health and children free from the risk of respiratory diseases that may bring to an early end a wonderful life. If not for yourself, for the sake of your children.

I often hear smokers say they will stop smoking when the time is right…..If you are still reading this article, then perhaps your right itme to stop is now!

When I get a call about smoking cessation therapy, I’m usually asked, “how much will it cost to stop smoking”? I respond, “A lot less than it will cost to keep smoking, and I don’t just mean the money”.

Do you really want to stop???

If you truly want to stop smoking, then maybe your first port of call should be your doctor’s practice. They will have trained nurses to help you with counselling, patches, gum and advice. This approach might work for you, but for the people who turn to their Hypnotherapist for help, this approach obviously hasn’t helped (and I see lots of them). If this is you, read on………

First of all, please remember that any well trained and qualified Hypnotherapist, really wants you to stop-smoking, they know what smoking does to people, and to their loved ones when they become ill and perhaps die. One in every two individuals who smoke will die of a smoking related disease, perhaps as young as 65 years, the average age of death for a smoker. In fact, a person dies in the UK of smoking related diseases ever five minutes….just think about that….More deaths than accidents, AIDS, drug abuse & alcohol all rolled up together….and if that isn’t enough, there are those countless numbers who need to have amputations, and those who struggle on with breathing difficulties and wheezing and coughing for a long time before the habit finally finishes them off.

Did you know that it was in the 60’s that tobacco and cancer where first linked together….no not the 1960’s….the 1760’s….yep, you heard correctly, the 1760’s. In 1761 a London Doctor called John Hill found that tobacco in the form of snuff caused pollypusses (small tumours) in the respiratory tract of many who used it.

Now just take a look at what you breath in when you take a nice long drag on your cigarette….

Information on Constituents of Tobacco Smoke

Nicotine is the most widely known chemical in tobacco smoke, but many people are amazed to discover that there are well over 4000 other chemicals produces when tobacco burns. Most of these have incomprehensible names and really only known to scientists and chemical analysts. Lister below, though, are some of the more well known ones.

CADMIUM

CARBON MONOXIDE

CARBON DIOXIDE

AMMONIA

PROPANE

METHANE

METHANOL

NICKEL COMPOUNDS

BENZENE

ISOPRENE

HYDROGEN SULPHIDE

ACREOLIN

ACETONE

HYDROCYANIC ACID

HYDROGEN CYANIDE

CREOSOL

METHYL NITRATE

NITROGEN OXIDE

DDT

PYRIDINE

TAR

FORMALDEHYDE

BUTADIONE

NICOTINE

In addition to these chemicals - given of purely as a result of the tobacco leaf burning - there are various additional unwholesome substances that may be present as a result of the plantation environment and the conditions in which the harvested leaf is stored and shipped.

Ok, That’s the bad news…but if you do stop….here are the benefits….

After 20 minutes, your blood pressure drops to normal and temerature of hands and feet return to normal.

After 8 hours Carbon monoxide levels in the blood drop to normal and oxygen levels in the blood return to normal.

24 Hours Chance of heart attacks begin to decrease.

48 Hours Nerve endings start to re-grow and smell and taste improve.

2 weeks – Circulation improves, Exercise including walking becomes easier. Lung function can increase by up to one third.

And there’s a lot more good news for you if you really want to stop. If you have the desire, why not contact your local hypnotherapist but make sure they are qualified, insured and experienced in smoking cessation therapy. I suggest you look for membership of at least one of the main UK Institutes and Associations which include:

British Institute of Hypnotherapy

Genaral Hypnotherapy Register (Registering arm of the Hypnotherapy Standards Council)

National Council for Hypnotherapy

Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy

Hypnotherapy Association

Ensure that your therapist has a good knowledge of the health risks to smoking as well as the relevant skills and experience to offer you a first class stop-smoking session. If you know anyone who gave up with Hypnotherapy, ask them for the details of their therapist.

Good luck with kicking your habit…If you would like to speak to me about stopping, please call me on 020 8658 4290, or email alancrisp@yourtruth.co.uk. I will always be pleased to hear from you and I’d love to help you stop-smoking.

Alan Crisp DHP

Clinical Hypnotherapist in Beckenham

Anyone in recovery desires several things. You want to remain free of the drug you had been using and you want to alleviate the negative physical and emotional conditions that were created by that addiction. Hopefully, you also want to lead a healthier life in general. In order to move along a new path in life in which you are becoming and staying healthier, you must not only stay free of your previous substance abuse, but you should live in a more wholesome manner, one that is not just, not unhealthy, but one that actively promotes good health. One important way to do this is to detoxify your body and keep it free of all harmful, toxic substances. To do this, you ought to eliminate certain habits to avoid these other substances, in addition to remaining free of the drug you were abusing. For this reason, knowledge of the effects of various foods and chemicals is essential to being able to find and stay on the path that leads you to better and better health.

Sometimes sociological conditions and peer influences can distort ones view of the real situation. A good example of this was cigarette smoking. Older movies are a good indication of the social norms at the time. Not only did most people start smoking in social situations, but the person who did not smoke was considered not really as much a part of the social group. Of course, now most people are fully aware that not only is nicotine very addicting, but the intake of the toxic smoke is extremely harmful and unwise, and it is morally wrong to make those around you inhale toxic second hand smoke. Today, things are different and it is the person who wants to smoke, who is a bit of an outsider, and who often finds themselves literally outside, when they have to smoke in another location, like outside a restaurant or even outside an apartment where they are a visitor.

Today, caffeine is an accepted drug, just like nicotine was many years ago. In fact, caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world. Some may feel that it is probably not as harmful as the toxic smoke that went along with nicotine addiction and cigarette smoking. Nevertheless, there is no doubt, that caffeine is very harmful to the health of a person. In the Western world, 8 out of 10 adults consume caffeine in some form. Presently many Americans are hooked on caffeine. Ninety percent consume it in one form or another every single day. Over half of them consume more than 300 milligrams of caffeine every day. It is in coffee, tea, soda, chocolate, and a variety of other things, and is our nation’s most popular drug.

Caffeine occurs naturally in many plants, including coffee beans, tea leaves, and cocoa nuts. Caffeine is really a biological poison used by plants as a defense against being harmed and injured by the other forms of life in their environment. The caffeine gives seeds and leaves a bitter taste, which discourages their consumption by insects and animals. If predators continue to eat a caffeine-containing plant, the caffeine can cause central nervous system disruptions and even lethal side effects. Most of them learn to leave the plant alone.
Though it is widely known that caffeine is an addictive and unhealthy drug, it is widely consumed and as much a part of American contemporary life as smoking was years ago. With the spread of and popularity of coffee bars, coffee, one of the main sources of caffeine in people’s diet, is more popular than ever. (Tea and hot chocolate, also consumed at these coffee bars contain significant caffeine, but not as much.) Around one third of all coffee drinkers say they can’t do without it and are clearly addicted. Tolerance for caffeine for anyone drinking coffee can develop rapidly and lead to the desire to increase ones consumption. Someone used to drinking six or seven cups of strong coffee a day will begin to experience withdrawal symptoms on waking and then every two to three hours after the last coffee drink. If you are seeking optimum health, however, you should severely curtail your coffee consumption, and eventually stop consuming it at all. It is a drug and the last thing any of us needs is another addiction.

When most people think of caffeine they immediately think of coffee, and yet much of the caffeine that is ingested does not come from coffee at all. In fact, people who do not drink coffee may be ingesting quite a great deal of caffeine regularly. The fact is, caffeine is an addictive additive in most commercial sodas.
Caffeine has many effects on the body and brain. For example, as your body becomes fatigued, adenosine is made in the brain, and binds to adenosine receptors. This causes drowsiness by slowing nerve cell activity. The result is that you will want to stop and rest. You will want to go to sleep. This is healthy, for you need the rest. The adenosine also causes blood vessels to dilate in the brain, so more oxygen can reach the brain during sleep.

When caffeine is ingested and goes into the stomach, it quickly travels to the brain. Once there it binds to the adenosine nerve receptors. But instead of cellular activity slowing, this results in it speeding up. The cell can no longer bind with adenosine, because the caffeine is linked up with all of its available receptors. The usual effect of adenosine is blocked in this way and the cell begins accelerating its activity. In addition to this, because adenosine is shut out, the brain’s blood vessels begin to constrict. The increased neuron firing in the brain stimulates the pituitary gland. The pituitary signals the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline (epinephrine), the “fight or flight” hormone.Unfortunately, when the adrenaline wears off, you feel fatigued and that drives you to get more caffeine. As you go through this cycle many times through the day, you will find yourself becoming more and more irritable.

Caffeine raises the blood pressure and increases the levels of various stress hormones, and for those very sensitive to it or consuming large quantities, it can cause heart palpitations and nervousness. If sustained by regular coffee drinking over a lifetime, these increases in blood pressure and heart rate will elevate the risk of stroke and heart disease. Heavy coffee drinkers, those having five or more cups per day, were two to three times more likely to have coronary heart disease than were nondrinkers.

Caffeine at a high level can eventually lead to exhaustion of the adrenal glands. Caffeine is a chemical stimulant that increases blood levels of the hormones produced by the adrenal glands. The adrenal hormones regulate stress response, blood pressure, blood sugar, mineral levels, immune activity, inflammation, and cell growth and repair. Long term caffeine consumption contributes to adrenal insufficiency, in which over 150 hormones produced by the adrenals or metabolized from adrenal hormones no longer function adequately.
Caffeine causes the body to produce greater amounts of cortisol, the body’s stress hormone. These elevated levels can last for hours having a negative effect on serotonin and dopamine production. Anxiety will increase and even depression can result from these changes.

People sometimes feel sharper after their cup of coffee, however the increased cortisol will lead to restricted blood to the brain and eventually causes poorer mental performance.

People who chronically stimulate their adrenal glands to overproduce cortisol alter their daily pattern of cortisol concentrations so that cortisol is low in the morning when they wake up instead of high. So they reach for a cup of coffee to artificially spike their cortisol levels up again. These same people experience huge cortisol surges at meals causing them to overeat. They have higher body fat, lower muscle mass, and reduced metabolism, so they burn fewer calories. They don’t sleep well at night because elevated cortisol levels keep them from entering the deep, rebuild and repair stage of sleep the body needs for recuperation. High levels of cortisol will also compromise your immune system and interfere with your body’s ability to fight off pathogens.

Be aware that if you frequently drink coffee or have other sources of caffeine, including ,especially, the many popular caffeinated sodas ,and find that at end of the day you are regularly stressed out and exhausted, even depressed and worried, it could very well be the result of the caffeine generating large amounts of cortisol in your body.

In the end, those seeking the healthiest life should avoid the caffeine to be found in many popular beverages. You should avoid caffeinated coffee, and even Decaf, which is not totally caffeine free, and get in the habit of reading the ingredients on the labels of all sodas and drinks, and choose only the ones which are free of caffeine. Fortunately, for those in successful recovery from alcohol, which had caused hangovers and interfered with the important REM sleep, the powerful need for caffeine in the form of coffee in the morning no longer exists.