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Quitting Tobacco Use
How is smoking harmful?
Cigarette
smoking is the single most preventable cause of death and disability in the United States. Tobacco use, especially smoking,
contributes to more than 430,000 deaths each year. Smoking can harm not only the smoker but also the smoker's family members
and coworkers.
Tobacco use greatly increases a person's risk for many serious health problems, such as heart attack
and stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, peripheral arterial disease, and many cancers (including those of the mouth,
throat, esophagus, and lung). Smoking tobacco worsens asthma symptoms and causes shortness of breath. It also causes impotence
and infertility.
A person who smokes increases his or her family members' and coworkers' risk of lung cancer and heart
disease because of secondhand smoke. The risk of his or her children dying from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) or having
asthma, frequent ear infections, and respiratory infections is also increased. If the children already have asthma or allergies,
a parent's smoking may cause these conditions to get worse.
If you smoke, your children are more likely to start smoking.
Those
who successfully quit using tobacco usually use a combination of strategies that may include:
*Professional counseling,
either by telephone or in person.
* The use of medications, to help overcome the addiction to nicotine.
*
Participation in a proven smoking cessation program.
* Having a support group of peers who are also quitting or
who do not smoke.
* The use of more than one of these strategies greatly increases your chances of successfully
quitting.
Will medications help me stop using tobacco?
Most people find it hard to stop using tobacco because
nicotine is addicting. If you smoke fewer than 10 cigarettes a day, you may be able to quit without using medication. If you
smoke more than this, medication such as nicotine replacement therapy may be helpful.
Use of nicotine replacement therapy
(NRT) or bupropion (Zyban) nearly doubles your chances of quitting tobacco use over trying to quit without NRT.
If
you need help quitting smoking, please call Cloney's Pharmacy at (707) 443-7086.
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