Your First Smoke-Free Holiday Season
As you work your way through your first smoke free holiday season, you may face a number of triggers to smoke that are associated with this time of year specifically. Simple things like holiday baking and trimming the tree might leave you feeling edgy the first time you do them smoke free.
Take heart — recovery from nicotine addiction is a process of gradual release over time. The work it takes to navigate the season smoke free is a necessary step in clearing old associations out and making way for the new.
Keep your perspective in line with your intentions, and by the time the holidays roll around next year, smoking won’t even register as a concern.
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Take The Quit Smoking Monday Pledge
Healthy Monday encourages us to think of for ourselves. If you’re still smoking, put your cigarettes down and get started on your quit program today.
We all have the ability to quit smoking successfully, and we all deserve a life that is free of addiction. Honor your life by choosing Monday as the day to start and reinforce your quit program.
You can quit smoking … and we’re here to help you, one simple Monday at a time.
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Quit Smoking Monday Messages originally appeared on About.com Smoking Cessation on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 06:00:36.
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November 23, 2009 Comments Off
You can abstain from smoking for years, but if you don’t change the relationship you have with cigarettes, the chains of nicotine addiction will continue to hold you tight. Change the way you think and you can free yourself in an instant. You’ll still have to do the work to undo the years of habit of course, but once you free your mind, you’re on your way.
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7 Tips to Help You Quit Smoking Successfully originally appeared on About.com Smoking Cessation on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 22:12:50.
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November 16, 2009 Comments Off
Get Inspired to Quit Smoking!
One of the best teachers is experience, and here at About.com Smoking Cessation, we have a library full of personal accounts from those people who have quit smoking successfully. Settle in with a cup of hot tea or chocolate and do a little reading. You’ll come away motivated to make smoking a thing of the past….your past.
Freedom After 40 Years
“I started smoking at the tender age of 15. That would have been about 1968, and people smoked everywhere at that time. There were cigarette ads on TV, in magazines, and on billboards. Characters smoked on TV and in the movies. People smoked in restaurants, stores, offices, and in their homes. Anyone, any age, could buy cigarettes from a machine for about 50 cents a pack.”
Dar’s Miracle Quit Story
“Please rejoice with me, because I am one of the lucky ones. I quit smoking and have been given a second chance. I smoked for 50 years. Here is my story — why I quit and why I think I will make it this time. I want more than anything for my story to inspire all of you, your friends and your families.”
Mary’s Quit Story
“I grew up around smokers. It seemed natural, almost expected of me. My parents smoked. My maternal grandparents smoked. All my aunts and uncles smoked (and I come from a big Italian family, so we’re talking about a lot of smokers!). My adult cousins smoked. My paternal grandfather smoked cigars. Our neighbors, friends and even our family doctor smoked. What chance did I have?”
November 14, 2009 Comments Off
Imagine being able to get a vaccine that would immunize you against nicotine addiction. After receiving a series of shots that encourage your body to build antibodies to nicotine, the vaccine would render the drug non-addictive. Imagine that.
While it may seem far fetched, such a vaccine is under current development by researchers at NABI Biopharmaceuticals. The goal of the nicotine vaccine, called NicVAX® (Nicotine Conjugate Vaccine) is twofold: it will help smokers quit using tobacco and will eliminate the threat of a relapse by helping the body produce antibodies to nicotine.
Thanks to a $10-million grant just awarded them by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes on Health, NABI is now able to send NicVAX into its first phase III trial, an important step toward the final approval it needs from the Food and Drug Administration.
How The Nicotine Vaccine Works
Nicotine molecules are tiny and move easily through the blood/brain barrier, where they bind with nicotine receptors that activate the same reward pathways in the brain that other drugs of abuse such as cocaine or amphetamines do, although to a lesser degree. Research has shown that nicotine increases the level of dopamine in the brain, a neurotransmitter that is responsible for feelings of pleasure and well-being…and dependence.
When NicVAX enters the bloodstream via a shot in the arm, it helps the body’s immune system generate antibodies to nicotine. Once this happens, these antibodies “capture” nicotine molecules by binding with them. And because the antibodies are too large to breach the blood/brain barrier, nicotine is unable to travel on to the brain where it can cause addiction.
“Nicotine addiction causes nearly a half million deaths annually in the United States alone. Finding effective treatments that can help people stay off cigarettes has been a real challenge,” said NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins. “This Phase III trial of a nicotine vaccine offers tremendous hope towards solving this immense public health problem.”
Federal Stimulus Grant Supports Crucial Study of Anti-Nicotine Vaccine — NIH News
The nicotine vaccine, once approved, will be a valuable addition to the variety of quit aids available today. With a human life being lost to tobacco-related disease every 8 seconds somewhere on the planet, smokers need as many choices as possible to help them beat nicotine addiction before it beats them.
Quit Help:
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Nicotine Vaccine Set to Enter Phase III Trial originally appeared on About.com Smoking Cessation on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 21:28:35.
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November 8, 2009 Comments Off
Whether you agree with the approach or not, the new rap style video about women and lung cancer produced by the Lung Cancer Alliance is bound to get your attention. Meant to educate younger viewers, this video teaches us that lung cancer is the number one cancer killer of women in the U.S. today.
And speaking of attention, readers at the About.com Lung Cancer site are sharing their opinions about the video, good and bad, but rarely indifferent. Take a look at what they have to say and add your comments too, if you’re so inclined.
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Dr. Lung Love on Lung Cancer originally appeared on About.com Smoking Cessation on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 10:16:28.
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November 8, 2009 Comments Off
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is enforcing the flavored cigarette ban provision of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) by issuing several warning letters to companies continuing to sell illegal flavored cigarettes to consumers in the United States through their Web sites.
FDA Warns Companies Against Marketing Illegal Flavored Cigarettes – FDA.gov
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November 2, 2009 Comments Off
ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2009) — Even one cigarette has serious adverse effects on young adults, according to research presented by Dr. Stella Daskalopoulou at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. Her study found that smoking one cigarette increases the stiffness of the arteries in 18 to 30 year olds by a whopping 25 per cent.
Just One Cigarette Has Harmful effect on Arteries of Young Healthy Adults — ScienceDaily
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Just One Cigarette Can Harm Arteries of Young Healthy Adults originally appeared on About.com Smoking Cessation on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 21:52:19.
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November 2, 2009 Comments Off
Most of us think about the positive health effects we’ll benefit from when we quit smoking. Better breathing; less risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer; improved circulation.
The list of physical benefits is long, but there is an equally important list of psychological gains we’ll enjoy as well…things like improved self-esteem and less tension in our lives.
What Do You Like Best About Not Smoking? – Readers Respond
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The Benefits! originally appeared on About.com Smoking Cessation on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 21:21:08.
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November 2, 2009 Comments Off
As smokers, we don’t think about the chemicals in cigarettes. We think about how cigarettes help us cope with the stress of daily life, how they calm us down when we’re angry, help us relax at the end of a long day, comfort us when we’re sad or lonely. Harmful chemicals in cigarettes? No, we don’t think much about that.
The truth of the matter is that smoking does the opposite of just about everything we give it credit for. When the chemicals in cigarettes are inhaled, they put our bodies into a state of physical stress by sending literally thousands of poisons, toxic metals and carcinogens coursing through our bloodstream with every puff we take. And those chemicals affect everything from blood pressure and pulse rate to the health of our organs and immune system.
Harmful Chemicals in Cigarettes:
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The Chemicals in Cigarettes originally appeared on About.com Smoking Cessation on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 21:11:42.
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