Quitting Smoking

By smoking, you can cause health problems not only for yourself but also for those around you.

• Hurting Yourself
  Smoking is an addiction. Tobacco contains nicotine, a drug that is addictive. The nicotine, therefore, makes it very difficult (although not impossible) to quit.Smoking greatly increases the risk of getting lung cancer, heart attack, chronic lung disease, stroke, and many other cancers (like cancer of the bladder). Moreover, smoking is perhaps the most preventable cause of breathing (respiratory) diseases - Lung cancer, Emphysema, Bronchitis, Pneumonia within the USA.
• Hurting Others
  Smoking harms not just the smoker, but also family members, coworkers, and others who breathe the smoker's cigarette smoke, called secondhand smoke or passive smoke. In addition, secondhand smoke from a parent's cigarette increases a child's chances for middle ear problems, causes coughing and wheezing, worsens asthma, and increases an infant’s risk of dying from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Exposure to passive smoke can also cause cancer.Secondhand smoke also increases the risk of stroke and heart disease. If both parents smoke, a teenager is more than twice as likely to smoke as a teenager whose parents are both nonsmokers. Even in households where only one parent smokes, young people are more likely to start smoking.
  

Symptoms

• Shortness of breath,
• Chest pain may signal angina pectoris
• Persistent cough
• Coughing up blood
• Frequent colds and upper respiratory illness
• Persistent hoarseness
• Difficulty or pain on swallowing
• Change in exercise capacity
• Sudden weakness on one side of the face or body, or difficulty speaking
• Leg pain while walking that goes away when you rest
• Unexplained weight loss
• Persistent abdominal pain
• Painless bloody urination may mean bladder cancer
  

More about Quitting Smoking

What are the signs of cigarette addiction?

The signs of addiction to cigarettes include:

• Smoking more than seven cigarettes per day
• Inhaling deeply and frequently
• Smoking cigarettes containing nicotine levels more than 0.9mg
• Smoking within 30 minutes of awakening in the morning
• Finding it difficult to eliminate the first cigarette in the morning
• Smoking frequently during the morning
• Finding it difficult to avoid smoking in smoking-restricted areas
• Needing to smoke even if sick and in bed

What methods can help a person quit smoking?

Several methods are available to assist those who decide to quit smoking.

• Changing the behavior that is associated with smoking
• Self-help literature
• Nicotine replacement therapy.
• Combinations of drug treatment
  

Pregnancy
Women who stop smoking before pregnancy, or during the first 3 or 4 months of pregnancy, reduce their risk of having a low birthweight baby to that of women who never smoked.
Drugs

Quitting Smoking Medications

• Zyban