TODAY IS NO SMOKING DAY.

QUIT TOBACCO FOE LIFE.

No Smoking Day

No Smoking Day, 12th March 2016

No Smoking Day is one of the key times when smokers consider giving up. Every year around a million smokers use No Smoking Day to try to quit smoking. No Smoking Day is a good day to try because you will not be alone. Thousands of other smokers are trying to stop and there are lots of events taking place to give support.

Other times that might motivate you to give up are:

• New Year: Making a resolution at this time is one of the most common. Break down your goal into small steps and reward yourself when you achieve one of these. Tell your friends you are stopping, focus on he benefits – financial and physical – and keep a diary of your progress.
• Pregnancy: Every cigarette harms your baby with the potential of miscarriage, early labour, low birth weight and birth defects. Use the change in routine to break the link with nicotine.
• Getting Fit: If you decide to take up a sport you will find you have less endurance than non smokers. You can use the exercise to help you quit as it improves your mood and damps down your cravings.
• Becoming a Grandparent: Children who breathe in second hand smoke are more prone to cot death, allergies and asthma. By telling yourself you are giving up to help your grandchildren you will stay more motivated.
• Becoming ill: Diagnosis with a long term condition can be the life changing event needed to help break your addiction. You may think the damage is already done but your health will begin to improve within 20 minutes of you giving up.
• Going in to Hospital: As smoking is banned in hospital, this is a good time to try to quit. There is the added incentive that if you stop before you go in you will recover quicker and there will be less chance of complications.

Why Is Smoking So Bad For You?

There are 4000 chemicals in a cigarette, of which 60 cause cancer. They cause major health problems with half of all long term smokers dying prematurely due to the affects. One in every five deaths in adults over 35 in the UK are directly attributable to smoking.

That is why No Smoking Day is such an important toold to helping you improve your health. If you give up smoking the health benefits will start within 20 minutes. Your skin will look clearer and brighter within a month. After 3 to 9 months your breathing will improve and after one year your risk of heart disease will be half that of a smoker.

What Other Damage Does Smoking Do?

Smoking damages your pocket. If you assume that a packet of 20 cigarettes costs £7.34 (many are quite a bit more) and you smoke 20 cigarettes a day, then by giving up smoking you will have saved yourself £2679.10 in a year. And that is every year! Think of the holidays you and your family could go on or the nights out you could enjoy. Visualise what you could spend the money on and use that as an extra incentive to give up on No Smoking Day.

The reason so many people struggle to give up smoking is because of the nicotine that is in each cigarette. Nicotine is very addictive but causes far less health problems than the rest of the ingredients. So using products like lozenges, patches, tablets, inhalators and eCigarettes that contain nicotine, all available from the pharmacy, can help you stop the cravings you may get.

Your GP can also prescribe tablets that can help. You are four times more likely to be successful in your attempt if you do it through the NHS. Talk to our pharmacist for advice on ways to give up and who can help.

Finally, even if you don’t succeed don’t stop trying. On average it takes 7 attempts to stop before you will succeed, and the NHS will keep helping you until you manage to quit.

8 Health Benefits Of Stopping Smoking: A Timeline

Quiz

1. What percentage of the population in the UK smoke?
2. What fraction of deaths in adults over 35 are down to smoking?
3. How many long term smokers will die early?
4. How much more likely are you to give up if you do it through the NHS?
5. How quickly after smoking will your skin improve?
6. How quickly will your skin improve?
7. How quickly will your breathing improve?
8. Name four events that motivate smokers to quit
9. How many chemicals are there in a cigarette?
10. How many of these are cancer forming?
11. How much money over a year could you save if you smoked 20 a day and gave up?
12. http://www.newlinepharmacy.com/