Medical College Clinic Turns Smokers into Quitters

People who quit smoking are likely to live longer, healthier lives, to have healthier children, to have more energy and breathe easier, and to have a lower risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer. The economic benefits are also clear: smoking one pack of cigarettes per day at $3 per pack costs about $1,100 each year.

Approximately 70% of smokers report that they want to quit, and the Smoking Cessation Clinic at the Medical College of Wisconsin provides evidence-based, low-cost, individualized services tailored to help them.

“Developing effective strategies to stop and maintain abstinence from smoking is the primary goal of this clinic,” says Jo M. Weis, PhD, Clinical Director of the Smoking Cessation Clinic and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical College. Carlyle H. Chan, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical College, is the clinic’s Medical Director.

“The Medical College program,” Dr. Weis says, “strives to meet the needs of each individual by offering specialized therapy techniques that may be combined with medications to ease withdrawal. These services address both physical and psychological effects of addiction and represent the ‘gold standard’ of treatment suggested in the Public Health Service’s Clinical Practice Guidelines.”

Cessation Services

The Medical College of Wisconsin program includes:

• Clinic services open to all ages
  
• Free initial consultation
  
• 6-8 individual cognitive behavioral therapy sessions to learn new ways of coping.
  
• Group and individual long-term relapse prevention
  
• Low fee/ability to pay based on financial needs
  
• Free start-up medications
  
• Free medication management for the first three months
  
• Session fees waived for research participants
  
• Optional self-hypnosis training
  

The clinic, located at the Curative Care Network at 1000 N. 92nd St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is staffed by Medical College behavioral health psychologists and psychiatrists. The clinic also supports the efforts of primary care physicians and other health care providers to help their patients quit smoking. Health care providers should consistently identify, document and treat every tobacco user they see. Even brief tobacco dependence intervention can be effective.

Five Keys for Quitting

According to the Clinical Practice Guidelines of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, the five keys for quitting are:

1. Get ready
   
   • Set a quit date and stick to it – don't indulge in even a single puff.
     
• Get rid of all cigarettes and ashtrays in your home, car or workplace.
  
• Think about past quit attempts. What worked and what didn’t?
  
2. Get support and encouragement.
   
   • Tell your family, friends and coworkers you are quitting.
     
   • Talk to your doctor or other health care provider.
     
   • Get group, individual or telephone counseling.
     
   • Stay in non-smoking areas.
     
3. Learn new skills and behaviors.
   
   • When you first try to quit, change your routine.
     
   • Reduce stress.
     
   • Distract yourself from urges to smoke.
     
   • Plan something enjoyable to do every day.
     
   • Drink a lot of water and other fluids.
     
   • Breathe in deeply when you feel the urge to smoke.
     
   • Reward yourself often.
     
4. Get medication and use it correctly.
   
• Talk with your health care provider about which medication will work best for you: Bupropion SR (available by prescription); nicotine gum (available over-the-counter); nicotine inhaler (available by prescription); nicotine nasal spray (available by prescription); or nicotine patch (available over-the-counter).
  
5. Be prepared for relapse or difficult situations.
   
   • Avoid alcohol.
     
• Be careful around other smokers.
  
• Improve your mood in ways other than smoking.
  
• Eat a healthy diet and stay physically active.
  
• Keep busy.

Stop Smoking: Cigarette

You may feel like you are on a rollercoaster during the first couple of weeks after you stopped smoking that cigarette. You will have good days and you will have bad days.

Whether you use a quit aid of some sort or go cold turkey, you are going to feel a certain amount of withdrawal from nicotine.

Some people have more trouble with the first week, and others with the second, but the good news is that for most quitters, the worst of physical withdrawal from nicotine is over within the first two weeks of smoking cessation.

Physically, your body will be reacting to the absence of not only nicotine, but all of the other chemicals in cigarette smoke that you've been inhaling 20 or more times a day for years. When the supply gets cut off, you can expect to feel the effects of that. Flu-like symptoms are common.

The amount of discomfort you'll experience depends in part on how well you take care of yourself during this phase. Follow the tips below to help you minimize the discomforts you'll feel as a result of physical and mental withdrawal from nicotine.
Quit smoking tips for the first two weeks.

Find some support

Having others who are interested in your success is very important. Sign in as a guest to browse and read posts from other quitters, or register to post messages of your own. Add some support to your quit smoking program.

Eat a well-balanced diet

Treats are fine, but be careful not to go overboard with the wrong kinds of food right now. Your body is working hard to expel toxins during the withdrawal process, and that takes energy. Choose foods that will provide you with the high quality fuel you need. Avoid the empty calories of junk food.

Take multi-vitamins

Smoking depletes our bodies of nutrients. Give yourself a boost with the help of a multi-vitamin. This, combined with good diet will help you minimize the fatigue that can often occur during nicotine withdrawal.

Stock the fridge with healthy snacks

Have small bags of bite size fresh veggies within easy reach. Celery and carrots sticks with low fat ranch dressing for dipping makes a good snack. Fresh fruit, such as pineapple chunks, berries, melon or other fruits in season will satisfy your sweet tooth if they're clean and ready to eat when you're looking for a snack. Good freezer treats include low fat fudgesicles and frozen grapes.

Get out for a walk

A short walk every day, as little as 15 minutes even, can work wonders for you as you withdraw from nicotine. Walking reduces edginess and improves circulation. It also releases endorphins, the "feel good" hormone.

So, when the urge to smoke strikes, head out for a walk around the block. You’ll come back refreshed and relaxed.

Get more sleep

Early cessation is tiring. Your body is stressed and so is your mind. Allow more time to sleep if you need it. Don’t worry, the weariness won't last. Your energy will return soon.

Drink water

Water helps you flush residual toxins from smoking out of your body more quickly. It also works well as a craving buster. Drink water before you snack and you will eat less.

Water is an important part of your diet! Keep yourself well-hydrated, and you'll feel better in general. That will in turn help you manage withdrawal symptoms more easily.

Natural Ways to Stop Smoking with Stop Smoking Aids

Quitting smoking is often one of the top New Years resolutions for people far and wide. Yet many more thousands seem to pick up the habit every year despite increasing health warnings, skyrocketing tobacco prices and increased awareness and more advanced stop smoking aids being offered to the public.

Nicotine is one of the most highly addictive controlled substances on the market today. And the price of cigarettes has multiplied exponentially over the past decade, making smoking an even less attractive habit than it already is to many people.

Unfortunately, cigarette smoking has not yet fallen out of favor with the younger crowd as an acceptable, and even "cool" social habit.

Little do these youngsters know, they are greatly jeopardizing their overall mental and physical health just to look cool, fit in, or participate in an accepted socialization tool.

You see, smoking not only gives you bad breath, accelerates the aging process and damages skin, and is bad for your heart and lungs, but it has been proven habitual smokers are more likely to succumb to depression and be subjected to higher levels of anxiety.

After quitting smoking, most people report a renewed sense of vitality, an ability to think more clearly, better health, easier breathing, dramatically reduced incidence of cold and flu and a much more positive outlook on life, including a greater sense of inner peace and tranquility.

The funny thing is, most smokers do want to quit primarily because they view the act of smoking a cigarette as soothing and a great stress reducer when in fact, the act of smoking has been proven to actually increase and perpetuate overall stress levels and anxiety.

While that cigarette may seem to be a "quick fix" for anxiety, it is actually the very thing that is causing more severe anxiety to begin with.

Gaining weight from stopping smoking is another common fear of smokers. Many stop smoking aids that are good will help to prevent this from happening by helping to replace the component of nicotine which suppresses the appetite with natural, unharmful and non-addictive natural botanicals. In other words, natural stop smoking aids actually have a natural ingredient which helps stave off hunger so you do not even have to notice your body is without nicotine.

What can you expect if you quit smoking?

1. A fatter wallet. At five bucks or more for a pack of cigarettes, expect to have much more expendable cash in your pocket.
2. A huge increase in mental clarity and focus. This happens right away if you use a natural stop smoking aid, since it relieves the common symptoms of nicotine withdrawal immediately, so you enjoy the benefits of being a non smoker immediately.
3. Decreased depression and anxiety - especially once your body had adjusted and gotten rid of all the built up toxins caused by the cigarette smoking. Natural smoking aids will also help clear the toxins out super fast by giving your body an extra shot of antioxidant power, and cleaning you whole system from the inside out.
4. Healthy lungs. The lungs repair themselves pretty quickly.
5. Expect to breathe easier, and cough less.
6. Get sick less often. Reason enough to quit.
7. Look younger and have better, brighter skin almost immediately.
8. Whiter teeth and a fresher mouth.
9. Sleep better, longer and more deeply.
10. Have more energy and lung capacity to be able to walk up those steps that used to make you huff and puff.

Stop Smoking Facts

Smoking is a habit that is very hard to stop.

The more you smoke, the lower your vital capacity. Vital capacity is determined by measuring the amount of air you take in with each breath. In the test you take a deep breath and then blow it out into a device that tells your doctor the volume of air dispelled.

If you do not stop smoking, this limits your activity when your lungs no longer expand enough to take in sufficient vital oxygen from the air that has only about 19% to begin with.

Cigarette smokers double their risk of heart attack. They are at even more risk from sudden cardiac death. Stroke kills more young smokers than nonsmokers.

The American Cancer Society said some years ago that when you stop smoking in:

15 minutes: Blood pressure, pulse rate, and body temperature of hands and feet return to normal.

8 hours: Carbon monoxide level drop to normal and oxygen level increase to normal. Take note that carbon monoxide is a deadly poison.

24 hours: Heart attack risk decreases. Isn’t that good to know?
Within 48 hours: Nerve endings start regrowing and your ability to smell and taste increases. Did you know that cigarette smoking stops nerve growth?

2 weeks to 3 months: Circulation improves, walking is easier and lung function increases up to 30%. Now, that is a great benefit, isn't it?

1 to 9 months: Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath decrease. Cilia regrow in the lungs with increased ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce infection.
It will take a while if you have not stopped smoking a long time, but the relief must be wonderful.

1 year: Excess risk of heart disease is half that of a smoker.

5 years: Lung cancer death rate of a former one-pack-a-day smoker decreases almost one-half. Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, and esophagus is half that of smokers. I've had Some communities have stopped chewing tobacco companies from giving chewing tobacco away at rodeos where it easily can get into the hands of children. Can you think of anything worse than mouth cancer?

10 years: The lung cancer death rate is the same as nonsmokers. Precancerous cells are replaced. Risk of death from cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decrease.

15 years: Risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker. So now you are back to normal.

Think about it.

If you put $600 dollars each year into a stock mutual fund, annuity, or other financial instrument that generates 5% annually, you will have over twenty grand after 20 years.
That is if you add it in one chunk each year. The $600 figure assumes that you are spending $50 each month on cigarettes.
There are those who are spending a lot more. You will have more if you invest $50 monthly rather than saving until you get $600 at the end of the year.

And all this because you stopped smoking.

Do not be taken in by television ads that tell you to go to their site to learn how to stop smoking. Television ads are used for two purposes. They either sale the product or they enhance brand name recognition.

If you want to stop smoking, stop watching television altogether

How Laser Treatment to Stop Smoking works?

To have a successful feat on your smoking habit, try to undergo a laser treatment.

Smoking is certainly not a natural or pleasant thing to do. Our bodies try to tell us that it objects to smoke by hacking and coughing. Smokers unconsciously spit much more than non-smokers because it obviously tastes so horrible.

If you or anyone you know has tried to stop smoking you know how difficult it is. In fact some of them cheated with their battle against smoking. Only few of them succeeded with things like the patch, gum or pills because they are still getting nicotine.

The laser treatment to stop smoking program is over three days. On day one you will receive your first one-hour session of relaxing treatment. The second session is 2 days later, more relaxing treatment plus time to review your progress. The third session is 1-week later, more relaxing treatment plus time to review your progress. Back up support is always available during and after treatment if required.

This laser treatment to stop smoking helps to promote the release of endorphin in the body. Endorphin is the body's natural chemical for helping to keep the body calm and relaxed making it much easier to deal with the addiction, withdrawal symptoms and cravings that may come when giving up nicotine.

During the laser treatment energy points on your hands, face, and ears are treated. If a client feels the sensation from the low-level laser, they may feel a warm, pulsating and sometimes-tingling feeling. Some clients may only feel a calming sensation from the laser.

A research study was conducted in Middlesex University regarding laser treatment to stop smoking. They studied 340 smokers who either received this laser treatments four, three or did not have treatment.

Those who had four treatments successfully stopped smoking and about half of those who had three treatments also stopped smoking. Many if those who receive treatment did not completely quit smoking but at least cut down their consumption. But most of the participants did not change.

Researchers also reported that patients who returned to smoke during the three months following the study conducted was because of particular moments of stress experienced. Patients also reported feeling and sleeping better after the laser treatment.

Results also show not a single patient gained weight, and some even lost weight.
The treatment has been used in Canada and Europe for more than 15 years. It has not yet been FDA approved in the United States and is instead offered as a research protocol.

First week after quitting cigarettes is idealistic - you breathe easier, your hands don't smell bad anymore and, since you're so determined, you think you can break any records.

You will have more energy and your sleep will be improved. The stink of stale cigarette smoke will soon be gone from everything you own. Your breath will be dramatically improved as well as your relationships. People will like and respect you more for making the choice to be smoke free.

Keep in mind that the most important thing of all is your health, your immune system improves, and you get colds and the flu less often. Your chances of being another cancer victim goes down and your self-esteem go will likely go up.

German Crusade to Stop Smoking

Did you know how cigarettes trigger you to smoke? Here's a related explanation by Ivan Pavlov, a physiologist who studied changes in behavior in the early 1900s. One of his observations was that dogs normally salivate just as they are given food. In one of his experiments, he rang a bell just before he fed his dogs. Subsequently, the dogs began to associate and link the sound of the bell with food. Soon, they salivated even if he rang the bell without giving them any food. The dogs had learned “The bell rings means I’m going to be fed!” Pavlov describes this phenomenon as "a conditioned response".

The same "conditioned response" or association, the term we prefer to use, occurs with you and smoking. After smoking many, many cigarettes, your daily routine and acts become associated with smoking and triggers the urge to smoke. For example, if you smoke every time you drive, just getting into the car can activate associations to smoke, as if your brain tells you, “I’m in the car now so its time to smoke!”

Similarly, if you smoke immediately after you wake up each morning, you mind associates smoking with waking up from sleep. Even long after you’ve quit smoking, you may still get triggers to smoke when you wake up. Understanding and dealing with these powerful associations is one of the most important parts of quitting smoking.

There are striking parallels between the Nazi 'war on cancer' and the New Labour crusade against smoking (1). In Nazi Germany, every individual had 'a duty to be healthy'; furthermore, to ensure that individuals fulfilled this duty, the government insisted on 'the primacy of the public good over individual liberties'. Tony Blair acknowledges that smokers - and non-smokers - have rights. More importantly, however, 'both have responsibilities - to themselves, to each other, to their families, and to the wider community'.

To ensure that smokers meet these responsibilities, the government is planning further bans and proscriptions on their activities. In Germany in the 1930s, the medical profession played a leading role in the state campaign to restrict smoking. In Britain today, doctors again provide medical legitimacy and moral authority for state regulation of individual behavior.

There are of course also striking differences between the Nazi and New Labour anti-smoking campaigns. The anti-Semitic and eugenic themes of the 1930s are absent today; many of Germany's leading anti-tobacco activists were also war criminals.

Another difference is in the consequences of an authoritarian public health policy for science. Whereas in Nazi Germany pioneering scientific research took place into the health effects of tobacco, we find today in Britain that epidemiology has been degraded in the service of political expediency.

There has been a marked reluctance among British medical authorities to acknowledge German achievements in research into the health effects of smoking. Yet according to Robert Proctor's authoritative account, The Nazi War on Cancer, up to the Second World War, 'German tobacco epidemiology was the most advanced in the world'. In 1929 Franz Lickint, a physician from Chemnitz, published the first statistical evidence - a 'case series' study - suggesting a link between cigarettes and lung cancer. He went on to become a leading campaigner against smoking in the Nazi era.

Campaigns like these have been launched by the Germans to stop smoking. These are the efforts done way back in the Nazi era just to let the people know the risks of getting lung cancer. However, to the present day, there are still numerous campaigns out there to stop smoking. The best way for them to work is by getting yourself involved as they can give you almost all of the help you need to quit.

Free Stop Smoking Advices

Where can smokers find some free stop smoking advices that will be effective?

It is obviously killing you slowly. But of course you already know this.

Chances are that you have been wanting to stop for quite some time now. Maybe you have tried before but failed miserably. And you know that if you do not quit soon your health may be in serious trouble.

In fact there are those people who have tried out every possible ways just to kick the habit. With the online industry came the possibility to try and search free stop smoking medications.

Not only that. You may also have concerned family and friends that are constantly reminding you to stop smoking.

The common situation would be, you tried and tried to stop again and again, always with the same results. Very familiar, isn’t it?

Tobacco dependence is a chronic illness that often requires repeated interventions. Research evidence demonstrates that tobacco dependence interventions are both clinically effective and cost-effective.

The more time a smoker spends with a health care professional receiving treatment for tobacco dependence, the more likely the smoker is to quit smoking. “

Nicotine is a powerful addiction. Quitting is hard and many people try two or three times before they quit for good. Each time you try to quit, the more likely you will be to succeed.
After searching the Internet for quite some time, it will occur to you why you could not quit smoking.

You see, you always thought that quitting was strictly an exercise in willpower. You believed that you just needed to be strong enough in order to overcome those nicotine withdrawal systems.
Some people are strong willed and seem to have the ability to quit cold turkey without any outside help. Unfortunately I am not one of them. Maybe you can relate.

Learning how to stop

There are ways and techniques a person can use to help themselves stop. There are also many very helpful products around to help you stop puffing away.

In order to succeed many have found that they have to learn how to quit. Once you made up your mind about this, quitting smoking was a lot easier!

After experiencing the life changing effects of being a non-smoker for well over a year. Some persons may decide to share their thoughts on how they succeeded, as well as the methods they used to finally rid myself of that life sucking cancer causing cigarette.

Hopefully someone, maybe you, can take advantage of what they have learned.

You too can learn how to quit

There are already many books and guides that are even available absolutely free. Based on my research and experience. People knew exactly what the guide needed to make it a wonderful tool to help you quit.

What is in the guide is what people can do order to quit smoking. But just a word of caution, the guide must be read cover to cover. It's an education process and you really cannot afford to skip anything if you are serious about quitting.

Try visiting some of the many sites that are catering to helping and guiding people to stop smoking. No need to pay for the information you will be receiving because many of them are for free too.

You just have to take the time to surf the Internet and take advantage of the free stop smoking advices being offered online.

Acupuncture: Additional Method in Order to Stop Smoking

The effectiveness of acupuncture for drug withdrawal, including smoking cessation, has been proclaimed by acupuncturists in the U.S. since the early 1980’s.

Much of the work in this area was stimulated by the reports of Michael Smith, who developed an acupuncture protocol for “drug detox” in the late 1970’s.

His work focused especially on the use of ear acupuncture, following the work of surgeon-acupuncturist Paul Nogier in France. Smith has also pursued the question of the nature of addiction and the setting required to help patients overcome addiction.

Though Smith’s work was mainly involved with difficult inner-city drug problems like heroin addiction, the principles and methods have been applied to nicotine addiction in daily smokers.
Explanations for the role of acupuncture in drug withdrawal, such as inducing enkephalins and endorphins to reduce the anxiety and stress as the blood levels of the drug decline, were proposed. The results of testing for these substances have been somewhat contradictory.

Several state and city governments have indicated their support by providing funds for acupuncture centers focusing on drug withdrawal for illegal drugs or illegal use of drugs Such support continues in several cities and an organization to promote this methodology, the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA), was formed in 1988. It has a current membership of nearly half of all American acupuncturists.

There is now great social reinforcement for stopping smoking. The medical profession, to the extent it is represented by the largest member organization, the American Medical Association, has taken up a campaign to encourage all smokers to quit, regardless of their current health status.

Public health messages about the harm associated with smoking have dramatically increased in numbers. As a result, personal support for continued restraint is easily obtained. Nonetheless, the long-term quit rate for tobacco smoking appears to be holding fairly constant, with slightly more than half of all people who take up the habit giving it up at some time in their life.

The currently accepted stop-smoking methods usually involve counseling plus application of nicotine in doses that reduce craving for the drug while being diminished gradually.

Nicotine patches and nicotine gum are examples of delivery systems that separate the nicotine from the act of smoking. The effectiveness of these methods can be determined with some accuracy because it is possible to provide placebo alternatives and observe the difference in smoking cessation rates.

Acupuncture to stop smoking research involves daily treatment of volunteer patients. Those who took up smoking late and who desire to stop smoking should attain a high level of short-term effect, and the long-term effect should be reasonably good, but not necessarily better than other methods that take volunteer patients of similar characteristics.

Research about acupuncture effects on smoking cessation have mostly been conducted without a control group.

This means that all of the non-specific effects of a stop-smoking program, such as the decision to stop smoking, the regular visits to a stop-smoking assistant and the cessation of smoking at least for a day or two during the program as occur for those who do not quit the program.

All of this can contribute to a positive outcome that could also be attained by a placebo treatment. Therefore, it is difficult to know the full contribution, if any, of acupuncture to the success rate of those who want to stop smoking.