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Quit
while you’re ahead
Set your start
date, throw out all your cigarettes, lighters and ash trays.
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Patches,
a healthier alternative.
Photos by Cpl Belinda Mepham and Cpl Alisha Carr, 1JPAU(P)
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A 20-a-day smoker inhales a full cup of tar in one year.
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Smoking
kills – smoking causes diseases which kill 20,000 Australians
every year. This means 55 people die every day from the effects
of smoking.
Smoke is loaded with poison – cigarette smoke contains over
4000 chemicals such as nicotine, carbon monoxide, tar, ammonia (found
in floor cleaner), arsenic (ant poison) and cadmium (batteries).
Some nasty facts about nicotine – tobacco companies have progressively
raised the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. This is to get you
hooked, then keep you hooked.
Nicotine is addictive, it raises your blood pressure and heart rate
as you smoke. Add carbon monoxide and your already strained heart
is headed towards a heart attack.
Carbon monoxide is the gas that kills you if you breathe in car
exhaust fumes. Carbon monoxide replaces oxygen in your blood, thus
robbing your muscles, brain and other organs of vital oxygen.
Tar clogs your lungs like thick treacle, and a 20-a-day smoker inhales
a full cup of tar in a year. Tar causes lung cancer.
Smoking-related
diseases
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Emphysema destroys the lungs – over time your lungs begin
to rot. Holes in the lungs occur as the alveoli air sacs break
down. This damage is irreversible but stopping smoking prevents
further damage. Dying from emphysema is horrible. Like drowning
slowly in mucus and tar, gasping for every breath.
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Lung cancer is caused by tar and nicotine. Smoking also causes
cancers of the lip, mouth, throat, larynx and bladder, and is
implicated in cancers of the pancreas, stomach, cervix and kidney.
Smokers are 10 times more likely to die from lung cancer than
non-smokers.
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Cardiovascular disease affects the heart and blood vessels. Nicotine
and carbon monoxide causes narrowing, constriction and clotting
of the heart and brain’s blood vessels.
The heart, already overworked because of less oxygen, has to work
even harder to pump blood through the narrowed blocked vessels.
This can cause a crippling fatal heart attack or stroke. Smokers
are up to four times more likely to die this way than non-smokers.
Fitness
is lost by up to 50 per cent if you are a smoker. Smoking reduces
the amount of oestrogen in the body, so female smokers are less
fertile than non-smokers and are more likely to have a miscarriage.
If you smoke and take the contraceptive pill, the risk of heart
attack and stroke is increased by 10 per cent. Your risk of
getting cancer of the cervix is increased if you smoke. After
an earlier than normal, smoking-related menopause, the risk
of brittle bones and hip fractures, due to osteoporosis, is
greater.
Males who smoke can suffer from impotence because of damage
to the blood vessels in the penis.
Your stained teeth and the greyish pallor of your skin, immediately
mark you as a smoker – to say nothing of the smell.
| So
how do you quit? |
Withdrawal
symptoms |
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Work out why you smoke:
- Is
it habit?
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Is it to cope with stress?
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Is it for pleasure?
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Is it because of social pressure?
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Is it because you are a nicotine addict?
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Deal with stress in other ways:
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When do you feel under pressure – at work, at home,
with friends?
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Plan your day with time out to relax.
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Get help from friends and family:
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Ask friends who smoke not to offer you cigarettes.
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Ask them not to smoke when they are with you.
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Ask them to keep encouraging you.
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- Withdrawal
symptoms show that your body is flushing out chemicals from
the tobacco. Most are gone after two or three weeks.
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Craving for a cigarette lessens with time.
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Headaches can be relieved by paracetamol, deep breathing
or light exercise.
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Sore throats last only a few days.
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Sleeping patterns may change, usually for the better.
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You will be inclined to eat more but this is only in the
short-term. Don’t be put off by this, eat sensibly
and exercise regularly. Remember, as your sense of smell
and taste returns to normal, you will enjoy your food more.
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Coughing means the cilia lining in your lungs are working
again and are sweeping out the tar and mucus. This may take
three weeks to clear all the rubbish.
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Irritability, depression and anxiousness show you are adjusting
to life without cigarettes. This gets better from one to
three weeks.
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| To
stay a non-smoker |
- Exercise
daily.
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Get plenty of sleep.
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Eat a balanced diet.
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Drink lots of water.
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Remind yourself of why you stopped.
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Don’t give up! If you relapse, stop again – it
sometimes takes practice.
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Be proud of your achievement
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- Count
your extra money in your pocket – a 25-a-day habit
becomes $2300 a year in your bank account. In real terms,
you would need to earn around $4000 to gain $2300 after
tax. Put the money you would have spent on cigarettes away
on a daily basis and watch it grow.
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Reward yourself with treats.
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Set goals.
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Don’t look upon it as ‘giving up’ because
you aren’t giving up anything – you are ‘stopping’
a filthy, life threatening habit.
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Enjoy the clarity of thought and increased productivity
that goes with being a non-smoker.
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For further information, phone the QUIT hotline – 131
848
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- By
Dr Dorothy Coote and
Sqn-Ldr Kathleen Pyn
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