How smoking damages your heart

The smoke you inhale contains carbon monoxide. This gas dramatically reduces the oxygen that your blood can carry, so smoking forces your heart to work harder while it is starved of oxygen. Tobacco smoke also contains nicotine which is an addictive poison. Nicotine makes your heart beat faster, causing a rapid increase of your blood pressure. Nicotine also increases the risk of blood clots. These poisonous effects cause your heart to be put under strain while being starved of oxygen, resulting in damage and disease. 40% of smokers that smoke 20 cigarettes or more a day, die before retirement. 15% of non-smokers die before retirement.

You are at greater risk from smoking if you are a woman

Is it worth giving up?

Your risk will reduce very quickly in the first year that you give up.

This reduction will continue until in time your risk is nearly as low as it would have been if you had never smoked.

You will become healthier and you will enjoy life. Food will taste better. You will feel fitter, and smell better.

Can you cut down?

Nicotine is a very addictive drug and the simple answer is that many people try but inevitably fail.

The only way is to stop. This is a painful process but is well worth doing.

How do you stop?

Choose a day and stop on that day.

• Announce to everybody that you are stopping. Many people will encourage you.
• Throw away all your smoking equipment pipe/cigarettes/lighter etc.
• Take one day at a time. As the days pass it will eventually become easier.
• Identify times or occasions when you are particularly tempted and avoid them by creating a distraction for yourself.
• Plan a way to spend the money that you would have wasted on smoking.
• Think of yourself as a non-smoker, not as a smoker that has given up.
• Don't allow smokers to tempt you to smoke.
• Say "I don't smoke." when offered a cigarette (and smile about it).

If you fail, try again, and again until you win the battle.

Help!

Nicotine chewing gum and skin patches, hypnosis, acupuncture, aversion therapy, relaxation classes are all possibilities. Encouragement from others that have given up.

For a stop smoking pack contact

Link to commercial site