Routes to a healthy heart:
Smoking – it's time to kick the habit
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Nine simple ways to reduce your risk of another heart attack: |
Cigarette smoking is bad for you – just check the warnings on the packets. Smoking is particularly bad for your heart. It accelerates the processes that cause narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries. This is one reason why people who smoke cigarettes are much more likely to have a heart attack than people who do not. People who smoke cigars or pipes seem to be at less risk than people who smoke cigarettes but they are still at greater risk of a heart attack than non-smokers. Passive or secondary smoking (exposure to other people's cigarette smoke) can also increase the risk of heart disease, even in those who do not smoke. Whichever way you look at it, smoking is a bad idea for you and your heart. Now's the time to stop for good.
Strategies to help you stop smoking:
Stopping smoking is notoriously difficult, but there are a number of strategies that can help:
- Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT; e.g. nicotine patches, chewing gum, nasal spray, tablets or lozenges).* 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 more slowly. It is a means of delivering nicotine without the harmful tar, gases and other elements of smoking.
- Non-nicotine therapy.* Non-nicotine therapy works by breaking the addiction to nicotine and differs from NRT in that it does not substitute one source of nicotine with another. One example of this is the drug Bupropion which has been shown to double your chance of successfully quitting smoking. This drug is likely to be available only on prescription, so talk to your physician to see whether it could be of help to you.
- Hypnotherapy
- Acupuncture
- Team up with a friend who also wants to stop smoking or join a self-help group, locally or on the internet.
- Start by cutting down, but choose a date for stopping completely and stick to it.
Remember: make sure you take your prescribed medication as directed by your physician.
*Be sure to check with your physician whether the product you plan to use is safe for you.
Stop smoking
Ten steps to help you stop smoking:
- Choose a date to stop completely and stick to it. Draw up a plan of action. Throw away all your ashtrays, lighters and tobacco.
- Use nicotine replacement therapy or a non-nicotine therapy as an aid to reduce the impact of nicotine withdrawal.
- Drink plenty of (non-alcoholic) fluids – Keep a glass of water or juice handy and sip it steadily. Try different flavours.
- Take more exercise (though check with your physician first) – Walk instead of using the bus or car. Use the stairs instead of the lift. Exercise helps you relax and can boost your morale.
- Think positively – Withdrawal can be unpleasant, but it is a sign your body is recovering from the effects of tobacco. Irritability, urges to smoke and poor concentration are common – don't worry, they usually disappear after a few weeks.
- Change your routine – Try to avoid the shop where you usually buy cigarettes and places where a lot of people smoke. Do something totally different.
- Don’t make excuses – Don't use a crisis or even good news as an excuse to “light up”. There is no such thing as "just one cigarette".
- Treat yourself – This is important. If you can, use the money you are saving by not smoking to buy yourself something special – big or small – that you usually would not have.
- Be careful what you eat – Try not to snack on fatty foods. If you do need to snack, try fruit, raw vegetables or sugar-free gum or sweets.
- Add up the benefits – How much does smoking cost you? Fill in the table below and you might be surprised at how much you are spending on cigarettes. We have given an example of 1-year's savings. Each day without a cigarette is good news for your health, your family and your pocket.
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Time quit |
I will have saved |
I could treat myself by |
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1 week |
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2 weeks |
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1 month |
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3 months |
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1 year |
20 a day at 3.2 Euros a packet x 365 days = >1000 Euros |
A holiday |
