March 10th, 2010

When most people think of mouth cancer, they picture chewing tobacco as the likely culprit. However, smokers are 6 times more likely to develop mouth cancer than nonsmokers are. If you add alcohol use on top of smoking, the risk jumps up to 15 times greater likelihood. While smokeless tobacco (chewing tobacco and snuff) are 50 times more likely to develop mouth cancer, quitting smoking today can reduce the chance of developing mouth cancer, throat cancer, cancer of the voice box and cancer of the esophagus (as well as a host of other frightening diseases).

Smoking is a terrible habit; it threatens not only your own life, but also the lives of those you love and even strangers around you. Chances are you take at least a small interest in your health. Perhaps you eat more than the required number of vegetables each day. Perhaps you have a great exercise routine that helps you shed those pounds and increase your health (in theory). Maybe you routinely ensure you are getting the best vitamin intake possible. However, if you continue smoking, all that effort is for naught. Quitting smoking is the only way you can ensure you enjoy the benefits from everything else you do. Smoking is such a terrible habit that it negates all the health benefits you thought you were getting.

Mouth cancer from smoking is horrible. Not only does it disfigure your smile, ruin your teeth and gums, but it shortens your life by an incredible amount. Smokers live 15 years less than nonsmokers, even without cancer in the picture. However, mouth cancer can shorten that lifespan even more. Tongue cancer, gum cancer, cancer of the floor of the mouth and esophageal cancer are frightening and lead to many things. Imagine never being able to smile because your gums are blackened, bleeding and oozing. Imagine no longer being able to speak because of tongue cancer. Consider the ramifications of breathing through a tracheal tube, because your habit leads to esophageal cancer. It’s not a pretty picture, is it?

Quitting smoking right now can help you beat these horrors. Scientific studies show that those who quit smoking can develop the cancer resistance of a nonsmoker within years, helping you extend your lifespan and feel better throughout your life. Quitting smoking is the only way to help ensure you do not suffer the horror, the social ostracizing and disfigurement of mouth cancer.

March 10th, 2010

Try to make a perfect plan for quitting smoking cigarettes and choose a quitting date. Do consult to your doctor before making one such plan, most doctors recommend you to take an antidepressants medicine for two weeks before quitting. Share your plan to everyone you know and try to tell them that you are going to quit and on what day. This action will make your will power stronger and also encourage you to keep your word. Therefore, it is recommended that, try to gather as much support as you can. Try to convince your spouse or partner or a friend to quit with you, by joining a support group online or find someone in your area.
Nobody smokes because they think it’s good for them. Starting this is not a decision made at a rational level. It’s a decision made at an emotional level. However, maintaining a habit is more often than not a subconscious process. For this very reason quitting smoking is a process which is most easily achieved by using hypnosis a method that accesses the subconscious directly. Like many hypnotists I’ve been helping people quit this for years. Personally I smoked 30 a day until I quit, so I know exactly what it’s about. I also know a few other things.
Many smokers realize the need to quit smoking. However, they often stop at one question. How to do it? There are many right ways, which help to stop from this. It needs proper planning and right attitude on the part of smoker, who wishes to stop this. You should keep in mind some basic things before they start this treatment. The treatment may take very long time if smokers do not implement right strategies. The key challenges include making a firm decision about quitting this habit, setting a fixed date, following a plan, dealing with withdrawal symptoms, and staying smoke free.
Firstly, it’s pointless replacing cigarette smoking with a gum, patch or other source of nicotine. An addiction is an addiction, regardless of the source. If you are going to deal with the addiction you have to take it with courage and deal with it head on. While some addictions are best handled with a weaning process, cigarettes are not in this category.
Secondly, ending this habit is more likely to be successful when you put everything possible in place to succeed. This means a high protein diet, a full breakfast and an exercise regime that is simple, with achievable goals that can be maintained for at least two weeks after smoking ceases. If it happens to be maintained longer, even better.
Visualizing yourself living tobacco free, seeing yourself without that first cigarette of the day, and seeing yourself enjoying a quiet drink on your deck, free of any tobacco products, is a positive and affirming process. Establishing an expectation of success, and establishing control over all possible conditions that can help achieve your goal bring you closer.
Finally, hypnosis to assure a motivated approach to end this habit, and remove the original triggers of this habit. This is key, as stopping yourself restarting’ smoking is the final challenge, and the one most people struggle most with.

March 9th, 2010

The health risks after quitting are the things an ex-smoker has to be aware of once they are off the habit of smoking. The use of tobacco has put them at risk for diseases like cancer even if they have quit. If you have health care providers, you should let them know of your history of tobacco use so that they will know what preventive measures to offer you to ensure you stay healthy as much as possible. They can set aside a part of your health care which will cater to tobacco use related illnesses.

One way of having preventive maintenance measures is by regular check-ups with your doctor or dentist. Whenever you visit them, make sure they include checking your mouth, tongue and throat as changes on these areas may indicate certain diseases or even cancer. By taking note of the changes at these areas earlier, it can make treatment of tobacco related-illnesses still possible or find cancer at an earlier stage where it can still be treated.

The most common cancer to hit smokers and ex-smokers is lung cancer. Unfortunately, most people who acquire it do not feel any symptoms until the cancer has affected all other vital organs. At this stage it might be too late for treatment. It helps to remember some signs of lung cancer so that you can immediately inform your doctor about them and proper therapy can be administered as early as possible:

· Coughing of blood

· A new cough

· Chest pains

· Loss of appetite

· Trouble in breathing

· Feeling tired most of the time

· Sudden loss of weight

· Frequent headaches

· Bronchial and lung infections that never heal

Tobacco users usually have higher risk of lung cancer and other cancers as well. It is best that you equip yourself with information regarding these possible illnesses so that you’ll know how to deal with them if ever they happen to you. Knowing the extra risks brought about by your history of tobacco use can make you well-prepared to battle any of them.

The risks after quitting smoking are all serious matters that an ex-smoker should face. Because of being once addicted to nicotine, you might pay the price of your once foolish habit. If ever you have concerns related to tobacco use, see your health care provider immediately. Always remember that the best way to stay healthy and to live longer is by completely halting your smoking habit. Don’t ever make the mistake of going back to it as you’ll only end up putting into waste everything that you have worked hard for to overcome your addiction.

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March 9th, 2010

For most smokers, the best thing they can do in order to improve the quality of their life and those of their loved ones is to take the big step of quitting smoking. It isn’t easy though, but it isn’t impossible to achieve either. All you have to do is get your facts straight. It help to know what you’re going to be against if you decide to stop the habit and knowing what to do and where to get help is very vital in your fight against smoking.

What makes it so hard to quit smoking? Why is it that when smokers try to stop smoking, they end up going back to the habit even if they have only stopped doing it for a few days? The answer to all these queries is found inside the cigarette, an ingredient called nicotine. Unfortunately, nicotine is a natural component of tobacco and as tobacco is in cigarettes, you really can’t escape it every time you smoke. Another fact worth note taking is that nicotine is highly addictive- as addictive as cocaine or heroin.

This is why a person has to deal with the physical and mental dependence on nicotine once they smoke. This highly addictive element gets into the body when the smoke coming from the cigarette is inhaled into the lungs. From there, it gets absorbed in the bloodstream and goes into the different parts of the body like the blood vessels and even in the heart. Your hormones, metabolism, and your brain then gets affected which could bring changes in your body. Even at pregnancy stage, nicotine can penetrate the mucus in a female’s cervix and can then be freely found in umbilical cords of newborn infants!

This is the very reason why quitting smoking for most smokers is very hard as nicotine brings about pleasant sensations in the brain and in the body that a person smoking would want to smoke again and again. When the nervous system starts to adapt with the nicotine in the system, people who smoke usually increase the amount of cigarettes they consume. In turn, this results to increasing the levels of nicotine in the bloodstream which after a while may make a person develop a tolerance for it. This means that it would now take a lot more nicotine to get the effect that smokers used to get from just small amounts. Naturally, this would mean an increase in smoking until a certain level of nicotine is reached and this level is now what the smoker has to maintain in his system.

If you want to Quit Smoking, find out which is the best

For most smokers, the best thing they can do in order to improve the quality of their life and those of their loved ones is to take the big step of quitting smoking. It isn’t easy though, but it isn’t impossible to achieve either. All you have to do is get your facts straight. It help to know what you’re going to be against if you decide to stop the habit and knowing what to do and where to get help is very vital in your fight against smoking.

What makes it so hard to quit smoking? Why is it that when smokers try to stop smoking, they end up going back to the habit even if they have only stopped doing it for a few days? The answer to all these queries is found inside the cigarette, an ingredient called nicotine. Unfortunately, nicotine is a natural component of tobacco and as tobacco is in cigarettes, you really can’t escape it every time you smoke. Another fact worth note taking is that nicotine is highly addictive- as addictive as cocaine or heroin.

This is why a person has to deal with the physical and mental dependence on nicotine once they smoke. This highly addictive element gets into the body when the smoke coming from the cigarette is inhaled into the lungs. From there, it gets absorbed in the bloodstream and goes into the different parts of the body like the blood vessels and even in the heart. Your hormones, metabolism, and your brain then gets affected which could bring changes in your body. Even at pregnancy stage, nicotine can penetrate the mucus in a female’s cervix and can then be freely found in umbilical cords of newborn infants!

This is the very reason why quitting smoking for most smokers is very hard as nicotine brings about pleasant sensations in the brain and in the body that a person smoking would want to smoke again and again. When the nervous system starts to adapt with the nicotine in the system, people who smoke usually increase the amount of cigarettes they consume. In turn, this results to increasing the levels of nicotine in the bloodstream which after a while may make a person develop a tolerance for it. This means that it would now take a lot more nicotine to get the effect that smokers used to get from just small amounts. Naturally, this would mean an increase in smoking until a certain level of nicotine is reached and this level is now what the smoker has to maintain in his system.

If you want to Quit Smoking, find out which is the best Quit Smoking Products

March 8th, 2010

Are you trying to quit smoking and finding it difficult? Do you find it increasingly hard to resist the temptation to smoke? Do you have a history of quitting and relapsing right back into the habit? If you said yes to the questions above, I hope this article will help you.

Quitting smoking is difficult. Rooting out this deep-seated habit can be a long, drawn out struggle. Some people can succeed in quitting in a few weeks, but many of us struggle for years, and often get caught in the cycle of quitting and smoking. If you are a smoker, you are only too familiar with the urge to smoke. This urge can be triggered by many things, such as your frame of mind, your physical environment or your daily routine. If you have tried to quit but have not succeeded, in all likelihood it was due to some such circumstance. The time it will take you to quit smoking – and I mean really quit it – can vary, but the important thing is to come up with a strategy to win over this strong urge, so that the next time you find yourself in a situation that is conducive to smoking and triggers your urge, you know what to do.

Tip #1. Think about your smoking patterns. Figure out the times in a day when you typically smoke. Is it always after a meal or a shower? Or before you go to bed? It is important to be armed with this self-awareness; the first step to fighting the urge to smoke is to know when to expect it.

Tip #2: Formulate a diversion strategy. By this I mean, stay occupied, mentally and physically, during the times when you usually feel the strongest urges. Smoking urges are usually strongest during times when our minds and hands are idle. So if you always smoke after your morning jog, then add a new routine to your workout, such as using a stress ball for your fingers. If you always smoke after a meal, chew hard candy instead.

Tip #3: Stay clear of temptations. This can be as simple as taking a detour to avoid a group of strangers smoking in the street. Tobacco smoke can be a great temptation for smokers, and so can smoking zones, tobacco stores or even billboards. So if you are around a lot of smokers and tobacco smoke on a daily basis, your battle will be that much harder.

Tip #4: Get rid of all your smoking instruments. Smokers have a lot of paraphernalia – lighters, matches, ashtrays, old empty packs. Clean your house and working area of all such products. Use a scented room freshener and eject the smell of tobacco from your environment. This will also go a long way in making you feel better about not smoking.

Tip#5: Take control of your physical environment. Figure out if there are specific areas in your house where you like to smoke. You can outsmart your smoking urges with simple counteractive moves such as rearranging the furniture in such a place or even just moving your favorite smoking chair away from the window.

Tip#6: Don’t lose sight of your goal. Write it down, even if you’re doing really well. This will help you to not only remember but believe in how important this is to you. The written word is stronger than the spoken word and much more so than the unspoken thought – so make your goal real and important by putting it down on paper and holding yourself accountable to it.

Tip#7: Believe in your ability to quit smoking. A lot of smokers relapse because they just don’t think it can be done. It’s too hard, they say, I’ll never be able to do it. Even if you know others who have tried unsuccessfully to quit, remember that the urge to smoke is only an aggregate of environmental, mental or physical triggers, and can be combated successfully with the right approach. Thousands of people quit smoking every year – what sets the successful quitters apart is that they know it can be done, and that they can do it. With dedication and strategy, so can you.

March 8th, 2010

Quit Smoking this year

Time after time we have tried to quit smoking, we have tried just about every stop smoking product out there and it just doesn’t work for you. I was like the many people out there that just can’t quit smoking to save my own life. Sure friends and family would offer words of encouragement but to no avail. It wasn’t until I was at a bar that it changed my outlook on trying to quit smoking.

Let me give you a little background on why I think I can’t quit smoking. For me smoking is a social event. I enjoy going out on my break from work and lighting up to hear the new gossip from the co-workers, or being at a party and talking to friends while smoking. It causes me a calming feeling while being around people. To tell you the truth, I’m not much of a people person unless I’m smoking with a group of people, talking about whatever. I also like that nicotine feeling; you know that feeling after you want to kill someone if you don’t get a cigarette soon!! I also think it’s that feeling I have between my fingers and I’m doing something to kill the time as well.

Every time I try to quit smoking, I fail because of my will power. It seems as though I quit and soon as its break time from work, I see my co-workers smoking and I need one. It always seems like when I start to try and quit smoking, it gets harder than last time. I’ve tried the nicotine gum and even the patch. I can tell you that the gum is nasty, if anything the gum just makes me want to quit the gum!! The patch makes me sick and I started to get hives while wearing it. I’ve even tried the psychological approach of cutting cigarettes for every cigarette you smoked and cut back on buying. That didn’t work at all, it just caused me to mooch off others for cigarettes!! Now let me get back to what is working for me.

It started while I was at a restaurant with my wife and I noticed a guy smoking a funny looking cigarette. There was no smoke blowing from it and it looked like vapors. It was enough to get my curiosity to go up to him and ask what it is. He told me it’s an electric cigarette with no tobacco in it. I was wondering how it’s a cigarette without any tobacco, and he said it still has enough nicotine in it but you’re not blowing any smoke, so you can just about smoke them anywhere. So I had to try one of these e-cigarettes and see what the fuss is all about. To my amaze these things are just what I’m looking for to help me quit smoking.

So what are these electric cigarettes?

Electric cigarettes are a new tobacco-free device designed to provide smokers with a nicotine fix without the hassle of second-hand smoke or carcinogens. They are also known as e-smokes, e-cigarettes, and e-cigs. Basically they are Tobacco free and there are many brands and all act the same. They are powered by a battery inside the cigarette that lasts about 2 hours.

How do they work?

Electric cigarettes are shaped like regular cigarettes, but inside hold a small, rechargeable battery, an atomization chamber and replaceable cartridges that contain a mixture of water, propylene glycol (a compound commonly found in cosmetics, food and medicines) and nicotine. As the battery powers up the chamber, moisture goes through and creates a steam effect, much like a smoke machine. When you puff on the device, a red LED light on the tip will light up, in simulation of a real cigarette, but all you exhale is water vapors.

The advantages of Electric cigarettes!!

Well it will give you that Nicotine effect that most of us crave without the harmful tar and carcinogens you get from regular cigarettes. Also, there is no second hand smoke from these so you can smoke them just about anywhere. One of the many Benefits from the Electric cigarettes is the fact that you don’t smell like an ash tray!! I did notice that my clothes have a better smell to them than before. I also noticed that I’m slowly coming off smoking. My love ones have commented that I’ve got color in my face and even asked if I quit smoking.

I really enjoy my electric cigarette, I always get people coming up to me and asking where they could get one too. You will have to check out my signature to head where I get mine but for the cost of traditional cigarettes to these are no comparisons, besides I’m not breathing in anymore of those toxic carcinogens and tar anymore. I also don’t smell like an ash tray and having to go outside to smoke. When you buy an electric cigarette, I suggest you get a starter kit first. It gives you everything you need and they have just about every flavor you can think of, they even have menthol flavor. What are the cigarettes you ask? Well it’s a cartridge and every cartridge comes with about 15 cigarettes. If you get the starter kit they give you something like 4-6 cartridges.

If your thinking about quitting smoking but you can’t just give it up, try this alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes. I think it’s working for me; I don’t give up on going outside and talking to my co-workers or being social with friends at a party. If anything I become the talk of the party or the gossip at work with my electric cigarette. I can breathe easy knowing that I’m not taking in any tar or blowing any second hand smoke at anyone. If you would like some more information on the Electric Cigarette, you should click here. This will take you to my webpage that explains it a little more and shows you where to go try one.

March 8th, 2010

Well folks, the revolutionary electronic cigarette is still on sale, despite many attempts to ban or limit the device. Like everything in life, the electronic cigarette is sure to have its pros and cons, its supporters and it’s knockers but there seems to be no doubt now, that when they hear about its potential, people want to give it a try.

Smoking kills. We have known that for years and years but ideas and methods of quitting smoking (apart from good old will power) have been pretty slow to become a reality, with many ideas being quickly abandoned as hopeless by smokers the world over. However, it’s probably fair to say that the majority of smokers would indeed love to quit the smoking habit, but nothing has come close to really helping with the addiction side of things. At least, nothing that smokers have formed a concensus on.

When the electronic cigarette burst onto the scene just a few short years ago, many people laughed and mocked, thinking it to be just another pointless gimmick. Another marketing oppurtunity to make a quick buck. The e cig is still here though, and more and more people are hearing about other smokers who have tried it and love it, as they eliminate their tobacco intake completely. Prices are becoming more competitive and the issues surrounding the saftey of the e cigarette are mostly unfounded and seem to be being largely ignored.

An electric cigarette, according to manufacturers and distributors contains no tobacco at all and none of the harmful toxins associated with tobacco. Nicotine is present but this can be reduced as quickly or as gradually as the smoker wishes, thanks to a removable and replaceable cartridge system. The smoke that comes from the realistic looking cigarette device is not actually smoke at all but an odourless vapour, so no more clothes stinking of smoke!

Smokers who have turned to the electronic cigarette in the hope of being able to quit regular cigarettes are widely delighted with the product and many have smoked their last ever tobacco cigarette. There are other advantages of trading in the old regular cigarette for the e cigarette such as being able to smoke in public places, such as pubs, offices and even on aeroplanes! Because of course, there is no actual smoke coming from them, they are not included in the same public ban as tobacco cigarettes.

March 6th, 2010

During our quitting process many of us will find many obstacles along the way. One of the biggest hurdles during the cessation of smoking is trying to block our minds from the physical conditioning of lighting up a cigarette.

If you are one of these smokers that during the initial quitting stages are struggling because you feel the need to physically do something with your hands, then you should substitute the urge with something more positive.

Everytime you feel that you need to light a cigarette because you miss doing something with your hands, you miss the actual physical process of inhaling/exhaling and whenever you feel stressed, then substitute those feelings with the following:

1) Grab a bottle of water

2) Eat healthy snacks

3) Substitute a pen for a cigarette

4) Take a breath of fresh air

5) Meditate on the positives of quitting

6) Remember that you are in control

These are just some examples of how you can overcome the physical urges of smoking during your quitting process. You can think of many ways to overcome the physical conditioning that will best suit you and always remember never give up and keep smiling.

March 5th, 2010

Everyone Knows just how harmful smoking and other tobacco products can be. They can all be credited with cancer and many other health problems. What you probably don’t know though is that some of the drugs on the market aimed at helping the smoker quit can be just as dangerous! Yes it’s true. Some of you might already be aware of this.

The FDA has issued a public health advisory to both the health care professionals and consumers of these products. A new prescription product called chantix is the main target of this alert. They are now linking this “helpful” drug to serious problems such as neuropsychiatric symptoms! They are now rushing to get proper warnings out about this drug with disclaimers on the pamphlet and the bottle itself. That’s just so helpful isn’t it? The FDA finds serious risks and chooses not to take it off the market and cut profits, but rather just put a little warning on the label.

Some of the other popular ways of quitting are nicotine replacement such as the path or nicotine gum. These all are stimulants just like the nicotine you would smoke or chew. They are designed to help you slowly lose the need for nicotine. Does anybody see a possible addiction there? You have been smoking for a long time now, and just switching the form of nicotine that enters your body. Are you going to be ok with putting down the cigarettes? Maybe so, but what about the patch or the gum?

I’m not trying to discourage any of you out there to quit smoking! Obviously it’s a great thing to do anyway you can. I just want you all to be educated before you choose how you wish to kick the habit. There are safer ways than what are common and are actually much easier even. To find out more about the dangers and for 100 percent safe and more effective ways to quit visit the link in my “about the author” section. I wish you all the best of health and lots of ease in becoming more healthy!

March 4th, 2010

As an unwilling smoker who wants to quit smoking you commit a basic mistake. You are in search for methods to quit smoking. What you need is a method to quit smoking. If you contemplate more than one method, perhaps you are not going to follow any one of them with determination. And without determination, you will not be able to quit smoking.

Of these methods, now you have to decide which one is most suitable for you. There is nothing like easy method and the hard method. The first month of your decision is going to be tough. If you sail through this tough stormy sea, calm waters may greet you ahead.

Now, you have a well devised plan and you are brimming with motivation. In the beginning you need to take the assistance of quit-smoking aids. These may give you some psychological edge, but in reality it will not help. In the first month, you will count each day and perhaps each hour of the day.

You are stressed, beyond the limit?and yet, you need to tolerate. Diet-planning can wait, but in the meantime make a time table for physical exercises, and for breathing exercises. Have fixed hours of sleep. One good point about you, the smoker is that you don’t smoke, while asleep, except in dreams.

Advertise a lot in your family, with your friends, in your office, that you are no more a smoker. Earnestly solicit the support of your well-wishers and family members in your effort to quit smoking.

When the urge becomes difficult to resist, that is the time to resist! Take a book on horror- fiction, sit on the computer, take a bath, go to the kitchen and start cooking your favorite dish.

All the tobacco products need to be out of bound for you. Destroy the existing stock. Never think of gifting them to your still smoking friends. That which is not beneficial for your health, how can it help their cause?

With your solid determination in tact, no harm is there in your taking recourse to smoking aids. Zyban, which is a prescription medicine, reduces your craving for nicotine. You can also try some herbal equivalents of Zyban and they do not require prescription, and they will do you some good. You can also take recourse to laser treatment.

But keep your will power in tact. Nothing to beat it. Will power is like the constitutional guarantee to an individual. You await a glorious time, full of inner freedom, totally devoid of smoke coils.

Good for you, better for people around you and the best happening, all things considered!