Bulan: Agustus 2007

We know it’s not good for us; we know it might get us sick or dead; we know we smell because we use it; we know it’s a bad habit; we know most people don’t like us to do it next to them…

But then again – We still do it! Why?!

People start smoking because they are curious. They want to know the effect on other people, why they use it, and can’t stop when they want to.

Does it really make us feel better or calmer? Will it really make us a part of the group if we use it?

We know the answers. When we are kids we think we should do what the other friends are doing and we smoke to be a part of the gang.

When are older, we think it might help us with the stress we experience in our lives.

Then it becomes a bad habit we can’t get rid of.

Sure the tobacco is addictive, but isn’t that another lame excuse?

When you want to stop something you do it. When you feel pain you stop doing what ever it is you do even if you like doing it because you don’t want to get hurt.

So why is it so hard for us to stop smoking?!

In order to stop, but really stop we need to decide we really want to do it. Not because our spouse asked us, Not because we just want to see if we can stop, Not just for a few month.

We need to decide we do not want this habit!

After we did that we can get to the next stage which is to stop.

If you are a heavy smoker try to reduce the amount of cigarettes first, until you completely stop.
You can also use some methods to help you when you feel like you must take a cigarette.

• Put mustard seeds on the lungs and tape them with plaster, also rub the spot.

• Every time you have the urge to smoke, put some salt of the tip of your tongue. Repeat for 1-2 month.

• Try nicotine products, such as: gum, drops, tapes and more.

Be healthy and smell better!!!

Here’s a great show in an air-conditioned hall. The admission is free. You have to pay at the exit gate only! Your smoking is somewhat like that. You got your first cigarette probably free from your friend. Now you are spending a lot, moving heaven and earth, to quit smoking. You don’t have an account how many thousands of dollars you spent on cigarettes, how much money you paid on stop smoking drugs medication!

Nicotine is no ordinary addiction. It has destroyed millions of individuals and millions of homes. You made many resolutions in front of your friends and relatives but not one of them fructified.

Asthma can be controlled, but COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) which is the direct gift of smoking, is difficult to control or cure. Damage to the airways in COPD is permanent. The obstruction can not be removed. Here, the airways are only narrowed.

A test called spirometry is conducted to decide whether you have COPD. To confirm the diagnosis, bronchodilators are added. These are the drugs that cause the airway to dilate.

The treatment of COPD is peculiar. In the sense, you need to stop smoking first, before the commencement of the treatment. You can’t continue to smoke and expect the anti-smoking drugs to produce miracles. Highest co-operation from you is needed. Don’t depend upon the drugs as such. Take their co-operation. For treating COPD, short acting bronchodialator inhalers, steroid inhalers, long acting bronchodilators are used.

You have done enough of drama rehearsals. Time has arrived for your final show, or call it showdown with nicotine. It won’t give up easily. It is out to confront you ably assisted by around 4000 poisonous elements that it commands, 40 of them cancer-causing. No doubt, your will power to quit smoking is supreme, but let some drugs medication help
you stop smoking.

Some do cold turkey, with benefit. The triggers in environment are bound to make it psychologically difficult to lighting up. The main obstacle is behavior patterns. You will experience physical withdrawal symptoms. But if you are determined, this strategy will work.

Since nicotine is your enemy, tools or drugs that confront nicotine, and help in reducing its effect are most welcome. Nicotine patch is one of them. Though they are costly, and the insurance companies will not admit your claim for expenses on this account, this step is worth pursuing. Nicotine gum is another such product. You are not actually expected to chew the gum, just lodge it between your gum and cheek.

Herbal remedies also play a positive role in the area of stop smoking drugs medication. You may say, and strictly speaking you are right, that tobacco is also a herb. But “to remove the thorn, sometimes, you need to use a thorn.” Some other herb must confront the tobacco herb. Ginger cigarettes, herbal teas and things alike help to remove the toxins from your body.

Zyban is another drug, that finds favor in the stop smoking tools. It is a prescription medicine, and you need to take it under your doctor’s advice.

Simply wanting to stop smoking is a large part of the battle to succeeding. Often knowing that cigarettes are destroying your health is not enough incentive. You don’t want to think about all the health problems that smoking can cause.

After all, between the physical addiction to nicotine and the psychological addiction, the whole person, mind and body, is craving the next cigarette. With that strong pull encouraging you to the next smoke, the thought of getting cancer, having a heart attack, or hurting your unborn baby might not be enough to make you decide to stop smoking.

That your health doesn’t deteriorate with the first cigarette encourages you to believe that smoking is not dangerous. Tobacco takes twenty to fifty years to damage your body with cancer or heart disease.

For a young person who is encouraged to start smoking at fifteen or seventeen that seems like a lifetime away. The sad thing is, by the time the damage is done it can be too late to quit smoking. They can end up dead of a heart attack at forty-five or dying of lung cancer at fifty.

How does one succeed in stopping the mind and body from continuing this addiction? You must deal with the body and the mind separately but at the same time. In other words, deal with the physical addiction with one technique and the psychological addiction with another technique all at the same time.

It’s actually easier to deal with the physical addiction. There are patches, pills, and gums that you can use if you need them. Your doctor will be able to help you in this area by recommending products that can help your body lose the desire for a cigarette.

The psychological addiction is more complicated to overcome. Everyone would rather experience pleasure than pain, and trying to stop smoking will produce pain. To the smoker, cigarettes produce pleasure.

Some smoke to have something to do, or because they believe it will calm their nerves. They might associate smoking with a pleasurable experience, such as smoking with friends at the bar or while they play poker. They aren’t smoking because they feel the need for the nicotine, but because they associate smoking with a good time.

So how does one overcome the psychological addiction? Some professionals suggest filling up the time you would normally be smoking with some other activity. The activity needs to be a positive one or it won’t work.

Have the activities planned out. Know exactly what you are going to do in place of smoking and be prepared for it.

Include times of regular exercise, meditation and breathing exercises. Believe you can stop smoking and surround yourself with people who will encourage you to succeed.

Most importantly, get rid of the idea that life isn’t worth living without cigarettes. That thought must not be allowed. Change that thought to “life is worth living without cigarettes.” Instead of thinking that cigarettes are good, replace the thought with something like “cigarettes are killing me.”

By changing your thoughts about cigarettes from positive to negative you will change your beliefs about them. When your beliefs change, then you lose the psychological craving for them and it’s easier to stop smoking.

Your resolution to quit smoking is just a pill away– that’s how some of the pill manufacturers advertise their products. The main enemy for the quit smoking researchers is nicotine. How to tame this greatest killer of humanity year after year is a matter of concern for all researchers.

In the recent past, they have developed many wonder drugs, claiming that they have almost made it, but soon many unanswered questions cropped up. Is it really possible to stop smoking by taking recourse to pills? If so, for how long the pill diet has to continue? Nicotine’s chemical reaction on the body is their main target. Having known this, will they succeed to mimic or block nicotine’s destructive powers? Researchers have also found out that certain pills have within them the in-built double-benefit scheme! They help you stop smoking and drop weight! Is it good or bad?

They say that the best friend is the worst enemy. Cigarettes were your best friend. Now suddenly you want to quit smoking. Naturally the worst experiences, call them sufferings, will meet you on the way. But it’s time you cross each hurdle, without losing confidence and without giving up the race. All should be well, in the end!

Now, there is no doubt that enemy number one is nicotine. Strike this enemy so hard that there is no need to strike again. There is perfect agreement amongst the researchers on the subject. A revolutionary medicine is being developed, which when hits the market on a commercial scale, could be in the form of potion or pill. It is called Methoxsalen. This drug is also developed on the scientifically accepted fact that cigarette smoking is an addiction developed by human body’s earnest desire, obsession for nicotine.

Curb the desire, say the scientists who developed this drug; elimination of this craving is possible, the researchers fervently believe! They have great hopes on this new discovery, which they hope, will produce precedent-shattering results!

Are they right this time? Logically speaking, it seems that they are moving on the correct track! It is just like removing thorn by thorn! They are out to develop ways and means to prevent nicotine to reach up to the brain. It is the brain that does the duty of producing happy and enjoyable sensations when you smoke. When the brain stops giving such signals, what will the poor addict do? He is now not interested in lighting another cigarette at all, and at the end of the day he finds that the packet is almost in tact.

He now knows that he has found a way out from the nicotine-influencing zone. Hopefully the final exit will be soon!

Feeling out of breath lately? It might be from that habit you’ve been trying to quit for years: Smoking. Smoking doesn’t just leave us out of breath at the end of the day, it also can make ones breath smell badly; creating unsavory odors on clothing, and worst of all lead to cancer. Smoking is becoming something of the past, and cities are reacting to this trend. In most major cities smoking is either banned, or limited to a few select places. On university campuses across America smoking is also banned. So it should become apparent to anyone that smokes that it is time to stop smoking today.

In order to stop smoking one must put their entire energy, and mind into the task. Making sure it is really a commitment you want to keep can be a task in itself. Many of those that have quit smoking needed several warm up rounds, and trial and error phases before actually kicking the habit completely. This is because to stop smoking completely for most individuals is not an easy thing to do, and can often result in relapses. One shouldn’t be discouraged if the first attempt to stop smoking fails, as most people will go through this. The key is to keep going with the program, and look at it as just one step in the right direction. Keeping a positive attitude that you can do it, and if you falter, try again.

For those wishing to stop smoking, it is imperative to locate a program that will help you in the process. What works for some, might not work for others, and this is why it is important to go with a product or program that has a reputation for success, and is part of a user reviewed community that people have rated worthy of trying.

One great site is QuitSmokingRightNow, which offers a complete solution to quit smoking. This powerful website and e-book will be a one stop shop for those who want to quit smoking, and something that can fuel your motivation to truly stay quit. QuitSmokingRightNow is a site that offers its visitors helpful tips, and tricks to quick smoking, along with a full blown course kit to help users stop smoking all together.

Another quality site is SmokingChallenge. This website is full of helpful stop smoking information, along with a comprehensive course for sale that promises to help you stop smoking once and for all. This is the type of site that offers a course that shows one how to stop smoking, and makes it easy enough for those who want to give it a true shot to go for it and actually quit.

Whatever product you choose to go with, make sure you have a site that shows you customer reviews of the product, like the site Review Place. Review Place will show you what the real customers of sites like the ones listed above think about the programs, if they worked, how much they cost, and any other information that is important. This is good for those serious about trying to stop smoking.

Quitting smoking is something that is absolutely necessary in our society today. Doctors are now more than ever before proving that smoking is literally a massive killer, and it is not something that should be taken lightly. For those serious about trying to stop smoking, getting the right product may surely do the trick, and if the research is done right, you can be sure that now is the time that you will stop smoking for good.

Just as all stimulants seem to affect IBS sufferers harder than those without IBS, tobacco is one of the most extreme. Whether you smoke or chew, tobacco is a powerful gastro-intestinal stimulant, irritant and carcinogen. Because people with IBS have extremely sensitive intestinal tracts anyway, tobacco should be avoided at all costs. But even if you don’t have IBS, the effect tobacco has on your GI tract is severe.

Tobacco has shown to be harmful to the entire digestive system. Two of the most common ailments caused by smoking is heartburn and acid reflux, which are conditions that people with IBS are already more likely to suffer from. Tobacco weakens the sphincter in the oesophagus, therefore allowing stomach acid to flow upward into the oesophagus. Tobacco has also been known to double your chance of developing a peptic ulcer and chemicals in tobacco also hinder the healing of ulcers and make sufferers more likely to develop additional ulcers later in life. The exact increase is unknown but it’s thought to be as high as 10 times as likely. Doctors also believe that there is a link between the development of Crohn’s disease and the possible development of gallstones in tobacco users.

The addictive and poisonous part of tobacco, nicotine, can cause many health problems on its own. Additional weakening of the sphincter of the oesophagus, increased acid production in the stomach and a decrease in the pancreas making sodium bicarbonate, which neutralizes stomach acid. But nicotine isn’t the only problem with tobacco. There are over 400 toxins and at least 43 known carcinogens in tobacco, all of which will hit someone with IBS harder than they would hit a healthy person. A seldom considered side effect of smoking is increased air consumption, which can lead to bloating and flatulence.

And of course, the most common result in long-term cigarette smoking or tobacco chewing is the development of cancer, including cancer of the digestive tract, such as colon, bladder, pancreas, kidney and stomach cancer. It’s not known if IBS sufferers are at a higher risk to develop cancer of the digestive tract, but the additional irritation and stimuli to the body tends to not be favourable for IBS patients.

Tobacco irritates the lining of the intestines, which can cause diarrhoea, intestinal cramping, pain, bloating and gas in IBS patients. Nicotine has been reported to highly increase the frequency of stomach cramps in IBS sufferers. Tobacco use also decreases the efficiency of food digestion and it can also dramatically slow down the metabolism of those with IBS. This can alter bowel movements, which are already a huge problem for those with IBS, and cause bloating. Withdrawal from nicotine can cause both constipation and diarrhoea, again, already a big problem for those with IBS.

So for those people with IBS, sometimes just a small amount of stimuli to the digestive tract can be too much. The effects of tobacco use are universally negative for an average person and can be dramatic for those with IBS. There is no known cure for IBS and treatment options are not widely agreed upon, even by experts. But one treatment everyone can agree on is to reduce or eliminate tobacco use, even if you don’t have IBS!

Many people began smoking cigarettes because they thought it made them look sophisticated and ‘cool’ or because they succumbed to peer pressure. However, smoking can lead to very poor health and may also increase your chances of getting a terrible disease like breast cancer.

There are a number of myths about smoking. For example, it is generally thought that young men become addicted to smoking faster than young women, but this is not the case. Research has shown that young women tend to adopt the bad habit of cigarette smoking much more quickly than their male counterparts. Studies have also suggested that just being around people who smoke cigarettes brings a higher risk of developing cancer; so-called ‘passive smokers’ even have a higher risk of getting the disease than chain smokers, in fact.

The World Health Organization has associated smoking with over 25 types of cancer, including uterine cancer, kidney, cervical, and pancreatic cancers, and the list grows by the day. Women and nonsmokers have been found to be more prone to breast cancer than any other form. The WHO report indicates that smoking cigarettes is not only damaging to the smoker, but also to the health of people just standing nearby. For women, smoking is synonymous with death because it increases the chance of heart attack and stroke as well as cancer. Their risk increases ten-fold if they are also using birth control medications and smoking.

If you were to list all of the bad effects of smoking you would be involved in a never-ending task. Smokers use cigarettes, happily thinking that this will relax them by easing their stress and tension. However, the unhealthy effects of the smoking are easy to see on the faces of smokers. They have bad breath, yellow teeth, wrinkled skin, and complain of tongue and stomach ulcers.

Children are at greatest risk of picking up the smoking habit. Parents who smoke are providing a terrible example to their children, who often want to follow in the footsteps of their mothers and fathers. Children of smokers can’t tell the difference between what’s good or bad because, from their earliest years, they have been exposed to a bad example.

Smoking cigarettes can also hamper a person’s ability to think clearly. It creates an addiction that is difficult to overcome, and people who smoke always think they need a cigarette to get through any period of tension in their lives.

Even though it is hard to quit smoking because of its additive nature it can be done. Many people do it every day. Researchers say every time you smoke you are inhaling more than 4000 different chemicals. One of the extremely addictive ones is nicotine. It is such a powerful poison that a drop, the size of a pinhead of this toxin, in the blood stream, would kill you instantly.

Nicotine stimulates the central nervous system creating a pleasurable and euphoric sensation that makes the smokers feel so relax. In the meantime, it is paralyzing your nervous system. So to get that same euphoric feeling again, you have to in-crease the amount you smoke. This cycle play over and over again until most likely you are addicted.

Once you become addicted, your body will crave nicotine. Trying to quit smoking causes withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms may include nausea, irritability, depression, headache, insomnia, fatigue, and cravings for a cigarette. Withdrawal symptoms should be expected when you are trying to quit smoking. But remember it is only temporary.

In addition to nicotine cigarette smoke also contains the dangerous gas carbon monoxide. Studies show that carbon monoxide has a stronger attraction for red blood cells than oxygen does. Since red blood cells carry oxygen throughout your system, this means that a smoker’s body is being depleted placing additional strain on the heart.

Nicotine coupled with carbon monoxide release fatty acids in the blood stream. This plaque contributes to hardening of the arteries, which may lead to a heart attack, stroke, and other circulatory diseases.

It is not unusual to feel depressed while quitting smoking, but proper nutrients can help you cope with the withdrawal symptoms. Unfortunately, smoking became a habit instead of a choice. It became a part of your lifestyle. Your activities and smoking are so intertwine that you do not even realize you are doing it. As you drink your coffee, read the newspaper, talk on the phone, take a break at work, and socialize you have a cigarette in your hand.

There are so many health problems associated with smoking including: Cancer, Heart Attacks, Cataracts, High Blood Pressure, Impotence, and Ulcers.

Let’s not forget secondhand smoke. Evidence shows that secondhand smoke may be more dangerous than the smoke the smoker inhales. Recent air sampling show that pollutants are more concentrated inside our house than outdoors. Indoor toxicity runs two to five times higher than outside. The effects of constantly breathing impure air in a room that’s polluted with cigarette smoke, even though you are a nonsmoker can lead to lung cancer. Also, if you smoke and your home has high radon levels, your risk of lung cancer is even higher.

Most smokers wish they had never started smoking, but is so hard to quit smoking because they are addicted. In fact some researchers say tobacco is more addictive than heroin and cocaine. Smoking contributes to at least 21% of all heart disease. Quitting now will reduce your risk of heart problems up to 70% in the next four through five years.

In fact you can reap the benefits of not smoking in just 24-hours after your last cigarette. In 1 day your pulse should calm and your blood pressure should return to normal.

There are so many health advantages when you quit smoking.The secret to your success if finding which way is right for you.

Quit Smoking Tips

It is estimated that cravings for a cigarette usually last only 3 to 5 minutes. When the nicotine demon strike try focusing on something else for that small length of time. As you resist, it will become easier as time goes on.

Cut back on junk food, processed, refined, salt, white sugar, white flour, and saturated fat. Get rid of alcohol, coffee, and teas. Only herbal tea is allowed.

Incorporate more vegetables and fruits into your diet. Drinking fruit and vegetable juices have been known to curb cravings.

Drink plenty of pure water that’s free from toxins. This will helps cleanse the system.

When the craving of tobacco comes over you, try reaching for some carrots or celery sticks.

Don’t miss meals eat regularly. This will stabilize your blood sugar until your body is accustomed to being without nicotine.

Get rid of all cigarettes, try to freshen everything that smell of smoke, and make your place smell “smoke free.”

As much as possible stay away from smokers and a smoking atmosphere.

Take long walks in the open air and breathe deeply. This will help strengthen and clear your lungs.

Be determined to quit! Even if you slip don’t throw in the towel.

If smoking, blood pressure, stress and headache were the candidates for Presidential Elections in the US who will win? Make a guess.

Jokes apart…All will lose deposits. No one likes them, for the simple reason that millions are affected by them and suffer on the account of them. They are all most unwanted. You wish to get rid of them but may not actually know it.

High blood pressure which is also known as hypertension in medical terms has affected millions in the US. The estimated figure is 80 million! Many of these, and their number also runs into millions, do not know that they have blood pressure.

The identifiable symptoms of blood pressure are constant headache, difficulty in breathing and feeling dizziness. Smoking is definitely harmful in the state of high or low blood pressure. It is an accepted fact that smoking increases the possibilities of heart attack. The reason is simple enough to understand. Nicotine in cigarette and other tobacco products constrict one’s blood vessels and the heart thus beats faster which is not good for the high blood pressure patients. Further, smoking creates complications in the lungs and in the vascular system.

In fact the thread bare analysis- whether smoking, alcohol, coffee, tea, are good or bad in the condition of blood pressure is meaningless. They are all equally bad. The loyal agents of the dreaded nicotine therefore deserve nothing but condemnation. Any soft attitude towards the products of such classification is not going to help the cause of your health.

And if you are the jack of all trades and are indulged in activities such as drinking coffee, drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, you are a certain candidate for blood pressure. You also become a possible candidate for future heart attacks and other lung problems!

Stress and headaches are the natural outcome of blood pressure. These three are so closely interrelated that it is difficult to pinpoint which is the direct cause of which disease or imbalance.

Now the question arises how to treat this smoking habit, blood pressure, stress and headache all together? Seemingly they look different, but all of them belong to the same root. So, “positive lifestyle changes” is the only answer!

Your one negative trait may be the cause of several diseases. Similarly one positive trait may be the cure for several diseases. Believe me just one positive lifestyle change may initiate a series of changes in your health. That too all naturally, and for the better!

Nicotine is a highly addictive drug. Once the smoker gets addicted to it, the addiction is difficult to break. Despite the serious health consequences, smokers find it extremely tough to quit smoking.

When you smoke a cigarette, the nicotine level in your body spikes and your body receives an immediate rush of nicotine. As the nicotine level slowly dissipates and then drops below a certain point, your body craves another spike or “hit”, obviously through another cigarette, in order to relieve this craving. For this reason any attempts to quit smoking can be so difficult.

Going cold turkey or relying on willpower to quit smoking most often ends in failure. However, there are medical aids that may make the task a little more bearable, with the most popular ones being those that supply and regulate nicotine in the bloodstream.

The nicotine patch is one of the more popular medical aids for quitting smoking. This nicotine patch is placed on your skin, which then releases a slow and steady stream of nicotine into the bloodstream. Instead of cutting out nicotine instantly from your system, the patch supposedly helps your body adjust slowly to not having spikes in the nicotine level and wean your body gradually off nicotine. As your body adjusts to lower levels of nicotine, the dosage of the patch can be further reduced, until eventually the nicotine level is almost minimal and your body is finally nicotine free.

The patch is also a very strong deterrent against smoking, because if you smoke while on the patch, you could suffer from a potentially lethal nicotine overdose. However, one common problem with the nicotine patch is that because the patch supplies a steady amount of nicotine into your bloodstream, there is no spike or hit, so that some smokers still crave cigarettes for the hit that cigarette provides.

Like the nicotine patch, the nicotine gum works on the same idea. It can be quite effective as it can replicate the nicotine spikes in your bloodstream without you having to smoke cigarettes. You generally hold the nicotine gum in your mouth without chewing, and only chew a couple of times when you desire a hit of nicotine.

Another aid, Zyban, is also a very effective aid in your battle to quit smoking. It does not work by supplying nicotine to the bloodstream, but works by altering the brain chemistry to reduce the desire for smoking. Zyban is usually taken a few weeks before you plan to stop smoking as it takes time for any effect to take place.

Zyban is a prescription drug, so you need to consult with a doctor to be prescribed Zyban. It cannot be taken in combination with other drugs, and may have some side effects such as dizziness, insomnia, dry mouth or even seizures.

To quit smoking takes serious effort, but too many smokers try to quit by relying on sheer willpower, which is extremely hard to do. By using these aids such as the nicotine patch and Zyban, you are making it easier for your body to quit smoking and thus improving your chances of success.