Kick the smoking habit (From Bournemouth Echo)

Kick the smoking habit

2:19pm Friday 15th January 2010 in

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AT THE New Year many of us make resolutions and frequently these are undertakings to improve our lifestyle and our health.

Stopping smoking must be a common one.

There are so many good reasons to give up cigarettes, and I can’t think of a single good reason for continuing. It is one of the most important causes of preventable deaths world wide and represents a huge burden on NHS resources and our local health care.

At the Royal Bournemouth Hospital around 43% of patients on medical wards admitted with COPD (smoking related lung damage) are current smokers (all COPD patients admitted are either current or ex-smokers).

13% of all hospital inpatients (including respiratory, maternity, cardiology and orthopaedic) are current smokers and 92% of patients with lung cancer are, or have been, smokers.

If you smoke you can expect to be advised to stop by any healthcare professional you meet. If you would like to stop you are twice as likely to achieve this if you get help to do so. I recommend that you speak to your GP or contact your local smoke stop service. This is a service provided by local primary care trusts and is support is available either 1:1 or in groups (contact details are below!).

Cigarette smoking affects so many systems in the body. It is easy to argue “my Uncle Ernie smoked 30 a day for 40 years, and he didn’t get lung cancer.” We know that smoking does directly, greatly increase the risk of lung cancer and other cancers too, such as bladder or mouth cancers. Respiratory diseases are right at the top of the problems and although many smokers may not get lung cancer, most will eventually develop chronic bronchitis and emphysema with gradually deteriorating lung function. Becoming increasingly breathless greatly reduces quality of life. Smoking also substantially increases the risk of many vascular diseases. Nicotine directly increases blood pressure and hardening of the arteries and smokers have more heart attacks, strokes and increasing difficulty in walking due to circulatory failure in their legs.

It is hard to imagine these problems when you are young and fit; yet there are many other reasons for never starting. It makes me just as sad to see young girls and young men smoking as the heartbreaking patients with end stage respiratory and heart disease in our hospital beds and clinics.

In a study some years ago in the British Medical Journal, a group of doctors were shown a series of photographs of faces and asked to say whether the individuals smoked or had never smoked. When a patient comes into my clinic, I do not ask “do you smoke?” I ask “How many do you smoke?” It is easy to tell from the facial appearance.

Nicotine damages the elasticity and structure of the skin. You can all recognise the stained fingers of the heavy smoker, but those changes are evident in the skin, hair and eyes of the smoker. For a woman, these changes subtly take away the bloom of youth. It isn’t cool or beautiful to smoke, or to smell like the proverbial old ashtray.

Smoking can reduce fertility in men and for pregnant ladies it impairs the baby’s growth and development. It increases the risk of bone thinning and fractures, and the risk of macular degeneration and loss of eyesight.

It is tough to give up, and there are many avenues of support. But, the single most important factor is that the individual really, really wants and is determined to kick the habit; so start now!

Contact

Bournemouth and Poole Smoke Stop Services:

01202 541541 or quitwithus.nhs.uk

Dorset Smoke Stop Service:

0800 00 76653 or dorsetsmokestop.nhs.uk