Every year, tobacco kills 3.5 million people around the world or about 10,000 every day. And the World Health Organization estimates a million deaths occur in developing countries. Although a large numbers of smokers want to quit and some attempt to quit each year, only a handful succeed.
Cigarettes kill more people than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide and illegal drugs combined. Smoking is a major cause of cancers. These include the lung, larynx (voice box), pharynx (throat) and oesophagus.
Cigarettes are also a contributing cause in the development of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, liver, stomach, colon and rectum. Such cancers account for only about half of the deaths related to smoking. Smoking is also a major cause of heart disease, bronchitis, strokes and inevitably death.
Interestingly, lung cancer was a very rare disease before the invention of cigarettes in 1900. By the 1970s, lung cancer evolved from one of the rarest form of cncers to the number one killer cancer in the western world.
Cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco consist of dried tobacco leaves, as well as other flavor-enhancing ingredients. More than 4,000 individual compounds have been identified in tobacco and tobacco smoke. From this mix, these are more than 60 composite that are known carcinogens (cancer-causing agents).
Nicotine is the most common ingredient found in cigarettes and is more addictive than heroine, alcohol and cocaine. A single cigarette puff will cause a nicotine trigger in the brain of a smoker. This reaction then causes the brain to be more proficient in the processing information.
Because nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction, tolerance to the nicotine drug generally develops in the long run. It is at this point where there is an urge to increase cigarette doses to achieve the ususal feeling that could have been achieved from puffing a few sticks.
The entire theory that it is too late to quit smoking as the damage is already done is not true. In fact, people who stop smoking at younger ages experince the greatest health benefits from quitting. Those who quit by age 35 avoid 90% of the risk due to tobacco use. In fact, even smokers who quit after age 50 substancially reduce their risk of dying early.
Although a large number of smokers want to quit and some attempt to quit each year, only a handful succeed. The low rate of successful quitting and the high rate of relapse are due to the dependency that the mind and the body has over nicotine.
Most relapses occur within the first three months after quitting. Don’t be discouraged if you start smoking again. Remember, most people try several times before they finally quit.
Gradually reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke is a common method used by many. Methods include smoking only half the cigarette or waiting an hour longer each a day before lighting up the next stick. This method steadily helps decrease nicotine addiction. The key factor here is self-discipline.
- Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT)
Also known as the most commonly used method worldwide to stop nicotine withdrawal symptoms and to avoid nicotine addiction, NRT is used to wean you off nicotine by replacing the very high concentrations of nicotine you get from smoking with much lower doses delivered at a slower rate.
NRT is a method of delivering nicotine without the harmful tar gasses and other harmful substances. There are several forms of nicotine replacement available – patches, gum, lozenge, nasal spray, inhalator and lollipops.
- Residential retreat programs
Such programs offer an excellent means of quitting smoking with a chance to surround yourself with the supporr of others who share your goals and may include:
- Several days away from family and work in a retreat-like setting
- Physicians to help you manage withdrawal symptoms.
You're digging your own grave
