SMOKING

GIVE UP SMOKING AFTER THE BAN.

PLEASE GO TO BOTTOM OF PAGE FOR COMMENT ON PASSIVE SMOKING

Smoking in enclosed public places is now banned in England.
The ban covers virtually all enclosed public places including offices, factories, pubs and bars, but not outdoors or in private homes.
It follows similar bans in the Irish Republic, Scotland and Wales.

THEREFORE THIS AN IDEAL OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE UP!  5 million will try to.

SEE HOME PAGE FOR NEW DRUG.

If you have COPD, it is totally important that you give up smoking.

30-40% or more of the population, some now say a majority do not smoke.

COPD patients who do still smoke, in John's opinion, are barking mad!!! Patients with medium to severe COPD will probably have half the predicted lifespan of those patients at the same stage who gave up smoking, if we assume that COPD is the only major thing wrong with them. Of course if you have heart disease, related or not, diabetes, kidney disease or are  obese or suffer from something other chronic diseases, smoking will worsen your outlook again. We repeat - giving up smoking is simply the only and best way of slowing the progression of COPD.

GIVE UP NOW FOR 2008-9 - GO TO http://www.gosmokefree.co.uk

John said "I gave up smoking in early 2000. I began to cough everytime I lit up and suddenly smoking ceased to be pleasurable. He had tried to give up smoking before by just stopping smoking (they call that "going cold turkey" but had always failed. The cough, as well being unpleasant, scared and prompted me to take action. I knew what was available in the chemist and bought a 24 hour nicotine patch course and some nicotine chewing gum. You can acquire these on prescription from the GP today. Of course I wouldn’t advise you to use both. But I found when I still got a strong craving in the first two weeks, the gum worked to keep me on course. By the end of two weeks I crossed off the 14^th day on the calendar and treated myself to a present from all the money I'd saved - so in today's money over £112. I didn't need the gum any more so continued with the patches for a further 3 months reducing the dose every month. I'd lost all the cravings and the cough and felt a sense of victory over an addiction that had held me in its grip for almost 34 years. It sounds difficult but it wasn't especially - the patches did work for me, although the first two weeks were the worse. I didn't meet up with any people or go to a pub or something during this time. It was a full-time job and if you're still working, those two weeks might be your vacation on the other hand you could be a workaholic for two weeks and stay in no smoking areas as long as you can!"                 

John said  "I have probably saved at least £15,000 as well as adding a few years to my life. GIVE IT UP TODAY. "

On June 30 2007 The TIMES newspaper produced a table showing what a 20 a day smoker could save over 10 years -

£21,800 under the mattress, £23,830 cash isa, £26,536 in an Equity ISA & this would be enough to buy a Mercedes-Benz C230 - if you like that kind of guzzler.

John continued :

  "Cold turkey means stopping without any kind of aid. Although physical symptoms can be more extreme in the early few days, they fade away within the first month. Most people give up smoking at least once, usually at New Year, using this method but I wouldn't recommend it myself. It also has a very high failure rate and at least 90% or so are back on the fags within a year.

 Nicotine patches are easy to use and are hidden from view and release a steady dose of nicotine into the blood stream. They are available on prescription either to be worn during the day or 24 hour patches. I had the latter placed on my hairless upper arm because I'm a light sleeper and often had a cigarette in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning. They usually are prescribed for 2 or 3 months and the idea is that every month or two weeks you reduce the nicotine strength of the patch. 

Nicotine gum allows you to control your nicotine dose. The idea is to chew it until you taste the flavour and then leave it between your teeth and gum. I used these occasionally during the first two weeks because I was a heavy smoker but you must discuss this with your GP first.

Nasal Spray is the strongest form of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) and is contained in a small bottle of nicotine solution. You spray this into your nose and it is absorbed faster than the gum or patches. It wasn’t available to me in 2000 but it is especially helpful for heavier smokers and you might consider it with your GP if you’ve tried the gum and patches and failed to stop smoking.

There is a non-replacement nicotine therapy and the most common type is BUPROPION. It is taken 1-2 weeks before you give up smoking and then it is taken 8 weeks after that. It is very effective and doubles the percentage of patients with COPD who successfully quit smoking.  

There are two schools of thought about giving up smoking. One suggests you pick a stop date in advance and then start your nicotine replacement therapy, as above. The other school suggests you get the patches or gum or whatever in advance of quitting and then when you feel the urge give it up immediately. I did that and it worked !!).                   

It is important to get in touch with people who can support you if you feel unable to do it on your own. Also keep a record of your progress and reward yourself with something you like whenever you like with the money you've said - but not on food! Otherwise you will put on too much weight!

 NHS Smoking Helpline -The NHS Smoking Helpline is an excellent source of practical advice and support on smoking and giving up.Friendly helpline advisers can also provide details of your local NHS Stop Smoking Service, and information  packs. Lines are open daily from 7am - 11pm, with specialist advisers available from 10am - 11pm. Call 0800 169 0 169 (for deaf and hard of hearing people, please use textphone 0800 169 0 171).

Support is also available from a charity, QUIT. Freephone 0800 00 22 00.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT IF YOU HAVE COPD/EMPHYSEMA AT ANY STAGE STOPPING SMOKING WILL MEAN THAT YOU WILL HAVE A LONGER LIFE. IT IS THE ONLY REAL AND EFFECTIVE WAY OF SLOWING DOWN THE  PROGRESS OF COPD THAT IS DESTROYING YOUR LUNGS.

 If you have any questions on this do not hesitate to CONTACT us.

Meanwhile here is a an inspirational article by Ann Lornie of Efforts (USA Emphysema Web site).

"Have you recently stopped smoking, only to have a stressful happening in your life that causes you to start again?   What a damn shame you fell for the tobacco companies' con-trick again.  It is exactly that - a giant con-trick to make people believe that they can't live without them, especially during a crisis.  A similar thing happened to me in 2001 - I stopped smoking for 3 weeks, felt great, and then got hit by a careless driver, reversing her car at speed, as I was walking across a parking lot.  Out of action for 9 weeks, broken arm, cracked ribs, unable to drive  throughout Christmas and beyond, I definitely had a case of 'poor little Ann,  let's reward her with letting her smoke again.'  I carried on smoking for another 18 months, doing further damage to my lungs. 

The tobacco companies have d-e-l-i-b-e-r-a-t-e-l-y ensured that the hundreds of chemical additives in cigarettes create nervousness, stress and total addiction.  Instead, our anxiety while we are still addicted, convinces us that the next cigarette will calm us down.   That next cigarette tops up the addiction and insidiously poisons us  further.  I truly believed I could not live without cigarettes but I was  about to find out that I could not continue to live with them.  I was rushed to hospital barely breathing and had the golden opportunity of a few days unable to move, on supplementary 02, and finally focussing on what role  cigarettes had played in my life. 

 I ceased smoking in May 2003 - life is wonderful without the habit."

We think that Ann did well to stop smoking, because so many don't and shorten their lives. Looking at her patient story, note that she was diagnosed with COPD in 1999 but only stopped in 2003. It often takes a number of exacerbations to finally convince people to give up. If you have just been diagnosed with COPD and still smoke, give up immediately to slow down your decline in lung functioning.

PASSIVE SMOKING

  We are beginning to hear of cases where patients who have never smoked themselves, but who are believed to have contracted COPD through exposure to tobacco fumes generated by others. For example, workers in public house bars or other confined spaces.   

The new laws restricting or banning smoking in public places will clearly reduce the magnitude of this problem, but there may be many who have contracted COPD from exposure prior to the new laws.

In the event that compensation may be sought we suggest that :

a)  It would be necessary to produce strong evidence that the claimant was a non-smoker and had never smoked during the period of exposure or at any time before or after. This may prove difficult, but even in cases where conclusive proof is not available, a reduced award might be possible.

b)  It would also be necessary to establish that no prior written warning was given to the employee of the health hazards involved in the job that required such exposure.

c)  Medical evidence may be needed to show that the patient does not have the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin syndrome. 

We know of one case where a member of the UK armed forces was placed in this position during service activities and has developped COPD. The person is seeeking an increased pension to help meet the higher living costs involved and for loss of quality of life. We expect to publish the result of the impendingTribunal as it is a  landmark case.   

7th February  Input from our good friend Ann Lornie

Second-hand smoking is not only harmful, but it sets a bad example for children. If that isn’t warning enough, a Montreal study shows second-hand smoke can lead to nicotine addiction in children.  “Increased exposure to second-hand smoke, both in homes and in cars, was linked with an increased likelihood of children reporting nicotine addiction – even though, these kids had never actually smoked a cigarette,” said senior study author, Jennifer O’Loughlin, M Sc, PhD, an epidemiologist at Universite de Montreal.

The study, published in the September issue of the journal Addictive Behaviors, involved nine Canadian institutions and elaborates on earlier research that found second-hand smoke (SHS) in non-smokers and withdrawal symptoms which include anxiety, depression and trouble concentrating.  Five percent of 1,488 children who had never smoked, but were exposed to SHS reported symptoms of nicotine addiction.

The stigma and blame associated with this deadly disease and the small number of people that survive the fight, have made lung cancer the least funded of all major cancers.  It has been previously documented that children who are exposed to second-hand smoke pick up a cigarette earlier than other children, said O’Loughlin, who in an earlier study, outlined the stepping stones to tobacco addiction, showing it can take just one puff of a cigarette to turn a teenager into a smoker.

Mathieu Belanger, lead investigator and and director of the Centre de Formation Medicale du Nouveau Brunswick was shocked to find evidence of nicotine dependence in children as young as 10, even though they had never smoked.   But he was not surprised to find it was related to second-hand smoke.  >>>>

Here is anothher input from Ann Lornie :

Scientists found that non-smokers who were exposed to high  levels of
cigarette smoke were more likely to suffer the early memory problems  that could
be a sign of the neurological condition.  Previous studies have  suggested
that there is a link between smoking and the development of  dementia.  But the
new study is the first to show that adults could be at  risk by taking in the
smoke of others.
 
Researchers believe that the connection could be heart disease, a known risk 
factor for dementia and which can be triggered by smoking. The new study
tested  the saliva of almost 5,000 non-smokers, all over the age of 50, for a
chemical  called cotinine, a by-product of nicotine which can stay in the body for
almost  two days after inhaling second-hand smoke. The volunteers were then
asked to sit  a series of tests designed to assess their level of recall and
other skills. 
The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, show that those with 
a high level of the chemical in their bodies were 44 per cent more likely to 
develop early memory problems, which can be a warning sign for dementia, than
 those with low levels.  Dr David Llewellyn, from the University of 
Cambridge, who led the research, said: "Our results suggest that inhaling other 
people's smoke may damage the brain, impair cognitive functions such as memory, 
and make dementia more likely.  Given that passive smoking is also linked  to
other serious health problems such as heart disease and stroke, smokers  should
avoid lighting up near non-smokers.  Our findings also support calls  to ban
smoking in public places."
More than 700,000 people in Britain have dementia, of which more than 400,000
 suffer from Alzheimer's, the most common form.  Experts estimate that the 
number of sufferers will mushroom sharply in coming decades, mainly because of 
an increasingly ageing population. 

The above article appeared in today's UK Daily Telegraph.13th February 
Ann in England - UKAnnJ@aol.com

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