There is no ‘them’ and ‘us’ when it comes to smoking. It affects all of us.

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As an ex-smoker I truly understand the ease in which smoking can change from a casual fling to a full blown addiction. And I know how very, very difficult it is to give it up.

But as a health professional, I have seen the damage that smoking can do.

Therefore, I’d like to recommend that everyone have a read of this free e-book Toward a Tobacco Free World, written by by Kaiser Permanente psychiatrist and UCLA researcher Dr. Michael Rabinoff.  It not only highlights the societal costs worldwide that stem from tobacco use but also outlines actions that can be taken immediately to help save lives worldwide.

Download it.

Read it.

And pass it on.

Let’s all work Toward a Tobacco Free World.

Bad for your health and bad for the environment.

But for some reason that doesn’t seem to deter the one billion or so people around the world who smoke.

Governments have tried to encourage smoker’s to stop with ‘quit smoking’ programs. Many countries and cities have banned smoking from inside public buildings. But unfortunately that has resulted in increased cigarette litter outside the same buildings that ban smoking.

So what to do? The World Health Organization has designated today World No Tobacco Day and are focusing on health warnings on tobacco product packaging as a way of encouraging smokers to quit.

But does it work? Or do dedicated smokers wear blinders that give them tunnel vision and stop them from seeing the graphic and often disturbing pictures that now are strategically placed on the front and sides of cigarette packs ?

Smokers, what do you think?

Are these graphic photos effective or a waste of money?

Today is the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, an annual event that has been held for the last three decades. with the aim of encouraging smokers to quit by providing information, support, and resources.

An ex-smoker myself, I know how very, very difficult it is to give it up. But I also know the up side of giving up the smokes and I’d encourage anyone who has been thinking about giving up cigarrettes to stop thinking and act.  You’ll thank yourself in the end.

Healthbolt already has a fairly active support system going on at the comment section of a post - What Happens to Your body if you stop smoking Right now? - that was written by the Wade Meredith, the original Healthbolter. 

Here’s the highlights of that post…

• In 20 minutes your blood pressure will drop back down to normal.
• In 8 hours the carbon monoxide (a toxic gas) levels in your blood stream will drop by half, and oxygen levels will return to normal.
• In 48 hours your chance of having a heart attack will have decreased. All nicotine will have left your body. Your sense of taste and smell will return to a normal level.
• In 72 hours your bronchial tubes will relax, and your energy levels will increase.
• In 2 weeks your circulation will increase, and it will continue to improve for the next 10 weeks.
• In three to nine months coughs, wheezing and breathing problems will dissipate as your lung capacity improves by 10%.
• In 1 year your risk of having a heart attack will have dropped by half.
• In 5 years your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a non-smoker.
• In 10 years your risk of lung cancer will have returned to that of a non-smoker.
• In 15 years your risk of heart attack will have returned to that of a non-smoker.

Click here for a high-quality Graphic representation of this chart.

Does it help you make the decision to stop any easier ?

I sure hope so.  

If it does, head over to the Great American Smokeout for support and advice and have a look at.  And check out these 5 Smoking Gadgets That Might Help You Quit Smoking.

Good Luck…

That’s what the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research, wanted to find out. So they did a systematic review of 17 relevant studies that had taken place in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

These studies had used mostly monetary incentives to help encourage participants to quit smoking.

Incentives such as …

- being rewarded with one lottery ticket per day if they tossed their cigarettes down the toilet.
- being offered cash incentives of $10 per month and participation in a monthly worksite lottery.
- being offered cash prizes ranging from $100 to $250, along with certificates of recognition.

Did it work?

Not according review co-auhor Kate Cahill at the Univeristy of Oxford…

“In my view, none of them was effective. One of our main conclusions was that if incentives work at all, they only work while they’re in place; if you revisit those quitters 12 or 24 months down the line, they [smokers offered incentives] were generally no more successful than counterparts not offered incentives.”

I wonder if that’s what the Scottish Health Board is also finding? Last month, they announced a three month quit smoking incentive plan in Dundee. Smokers who signed up and passed a weekly carbon monoxide breath test proving they had not been smoking would be given around $24 a week in the form of a grocery credit.

It will be interesting to see what sort of success rate they have…

(source)

In a study set to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, researchers have found that quitting smoking is more often a group decision, rather than individual. What kind of group, you ask? A social group.

That’s right, according to the study, smokers tend to quit more in groups, or clusters, rather than on their own.

From 1971 to 2003, Dr. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler from the University of California, San Diego, followed thousands of smokers and nonsmokers, concentrating on studying participants as part of a “network” of relatives, co-workers, neighbors, friends and friends of friends.

During this time, adult smokers in the US fell from 45 percent to 21 percent, and that drop was due largely to the ripple effect quitters had on their networks. As time went by, entire “clusters” of smokers had quit and prompted other clusters - some only loosely related to their own - to quit as well. And as these clusters disappeared, those that remained smokers grew more isolated, had fewer friends, and kept fewer social connections. Suddenly smokers were no longer the life of the party as they once were - now they were the minority, driving home the idea that not only is smoking bad for your physical health, it can be bad for your relationships as well.

Perhaps the biggest take-away point from this study, however, is how to address smoking cessation going forth. Right now, plans are mainly aimed at individuals. But perhaps the medical industry should be targeting groups? Pair the traditional support of both medicine and behavior-modification with social goals, and see what transpires? It’s a thought.

Here at Healthbolt, we already have a humming social network for quitters which has morphed into a welcoming and supportive group. For that, we’re thankful. But what about in your face-to-face social network, smokers? Would you benefit from quitting in a group-type setting? Would establishing group goals make you hold up your end of the deal better? If all your friends suddenly quit smoking while at work or out for drinks, would you as well?

Drop us a comment to let us know your thoughts on this matter. We’d love to hear from you.

Source and further reading: New York Times