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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Stopping the habit can be a challenge, but your health and lifestyle will reap the rewards. For starters:
- Just 20 minutes after quitting smoking, your heart rate and blood pressure both drop.
- Within two to three months, your heart attack risk begins to drop and your lung function starts to improve.
- Within nine months, you’ll be coughing less and experience less shortness of breath.
- Five to 15 years after quitting, your stroke risk will be the same as a nonsmoker’s.
As any doctor will tell you, there’s not a right or wrong way to quit. Select a meaningful date to quit, like your birthday, and decide on a plan that will work for you. The key to success will be finding a strategy you can stick with.
For some, quitting cold turkey is the best way. For others, nicotine patches and gum will help manage their cravings. Medications like Chantix can also help with stemming the desire to smoke.
When you are ready to quit:
- Let everyone know. It’s important to surround yourself with supportive people, so inform your family, friends and co-workers that you are giving up the habit. Ask fellow smokers to quit with you, including your significant other if he or she smokes. Couples who quit together have a great success rate.
- Start to smoke less. If you need to start slowly, begin by smoking only half the cigarette or extending the time between smoke breaks.
- Keep temptation away. Throw away any remaining packs, lighters and ashtrays. Avoid activities that will entice you to smoke such as drinking alcohol and hanging out with friends who are smokers.
- Learn from your mistakes. If you’ve attempted to stop smoking before, think about what went wrong and what you could do differently this time.
- Be patient with yourself. Focus on your progress. Each day without smoking brings you closer to your goal.
- Choose a healthy distraction. When a craving hits, chew sugarless gum or snack on carrot sticks or air-popped popcorn. Call a friend or take a walk. Cravings usually pass within a few minutes.
- If needed, rely on medications or nicotine replacement therapy. In collaboration with your doctor, use whichever method works best for you.
- Find a support group. Ask your doctor for a referral to a local smoking cessation program or use a telephone-based program. Toll-free tobacco quit lines are available in every state. See resources below.
- Remind yourself of the benefits of not smoking. It can be easy to forget while you’re quitting, but you will be healthier, happier and have extra money in your pocket once cigarettes are out of your life.
- Reward yourself. Go to the movies, get a massage or splurge on something with the money you’ve saved from not buying cigarettes.
If you need assistance, consider using these resources for additional support:
- A primary care physician. If you don’t have one, call the Rush Physician Referral Service at 888-352-RUSH (7874)
- Smokefree.gov at www.smokefree.gov
- Centers for Disease Control at cdc.gov/tobacco
- American Lung Association at www.lung.org/stop-smoking
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