The benefits of quitting smoking start within 20 minutes of your last cigarette
as your blood pressure and heart rate begin to recover. Within 24 hours,
your chance of having a heart attack decreases. Within 48 hours, your
nerve endings start to regrow. Within weeks, your circulation and lung
function can improve. Within one year, your risk of coronary heart disease
can decrease by 50 percent, and after 10 years of quitting, your risk
of lung cancer can drop by 50 percent.
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been smoking, how old you
are, how bad your health is—quitting smoking has major and immediate
benefits for everybody.
“Smoking can lead to lung cancer and other cancers,
COPD and
emphysema, not to mention you’re also exposing loved ones around you to second-hand
smoke, which puts them at risk for the same issues,” says Dina Smith,
RN, BSN, a lung nurse navigator at
Covenant Health’s
Joe Arrington Cancer Center. “It can get to the point where someone is struggling to breathe
and they’re pretty much suffocating. It’s horrible to watch
someone go through that kind of pain, but it’s preventable—people
just need to quit smoking, and we want to offer them the resources to
do that and lead a healthy life.”
If you’re like many smokers, you’ve tried to quit over and
over again—whether it was by going “cold turkey” or
using nicotine gum or patches—but failed. Nicotine is highly addictive,
and it’s no wonder it’s so hard to quit. But don’t let
yourself get discouraged—today is the perfect time to try again
since the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared May 31 as
World No Tobacco Day.
Making a plan to quit smoking takes three steps, says Smith, who runs the smoking cessation program at the Joe Arrington
Cancer Center:
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Recognize your triggers. This includes identifying your risk situations and developing strategies
to cope. “The hardest part for people trying to quit is that smoking
is often used as a stress reliever, and it’s a learned habit,”
says Smith. “You have to replace your bad habit with other stress
relievers, such as exercising or picking up a new hobby that you enjoy.”
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Build your support group. A key component to successfully kicking the habit is having a strong support
system in place, both at home and in the community, says Smith. “You’ve
got to have a lot of support to not start smoking again. Friends, family
and your physician can help you stick to your quit goal,” she says.
“And if there’s someone else smoking in the same house, it’s
almost impossible to quit. Everyone has to be willing to try to stop.”
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Start the plan. This includes four smaller steps: First, see your physician, who can
evaluate your health and discuss options for medications that may help
you quit. Then, sign up for a cessation support plan. Next, keep your
goals top-of-mind, and, finally, track your progress. “Your goal
may be to see certain health improvements, to save money from not buying
cigarettes or to increase your activity level,” says Smith. “Whatever
your motivation is, keep it at the forefront of your mind, track it and
be inspired by your progress to continue.”
Cessation Support Plans Work
St. Joseph Health offers various resources to get you smoke-free and turn
your health around, including cessation programs at both the Joe Arrington
Cancer Center as well as at
Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Northern California. These programs are free and open to anyone in
the community. Participants are offered either one-on-one or group support
sessions where you’ll learn to control triggers and overcome withdrawal
symptoms. This will be done in synch with any medications your physician
has recommended to help quit smoking, whether that’s a nicotine
patch, gum, nasal spray, or other options. Statistics have proven that
people who participate in a cessation program are much more likely to
kick the habit after one year than those who try to quit alone.
According to the American Cancer Society, those who meet
all of the following criteria may be candidates for this lung cancer screening:
- 55 to 77 years old
- Have at least a 30-pack per year smoking history
- Are either still smoking or have quit smoking within the last 15 years
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In fairly good health. For example, no current symptoms of lung cancer,
able to have surgery and other treatments if cancer is found, and
other factors.
Let Covenant Health help you quit smoking today and turn your health around.
To learn more about the Freshstart Smoking Cessation Classes at the Joe
Arrington Cancer Center, call (806) 725-8159.
Read more about the health dangers of smoking and information on quitting:
Sources:
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/QuitSmoking/QuittingSmoking/Smoke-free-Living-Benefits-Milestones_UCM_322711_Article.jsp#.WQIo5PnyuM9
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/lung-cancer/prevention-and-early-detection/early-detection.html