[ad_1]
BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. (WDTV) – Quitting smoking is not easy. It takes time and a plan. You must not quit smoking in a day; However, start with the first day. Elizabeth H. Hess, MD, MD and UHC Family Medicine Professor, joins us tonight.
Question: Why is the Great American Smokeout so important?
Answer: Unfortunately, smoking remains the leading cause of death and preventable disease in the world.
The cigarette is responsible for 480,000 deaths a year in the United States. Each year this represents about one in five deaths or 1,300 deaths in the United States resulting from smoking. Second-hand smoke is responsible for more than 40,000 deaths.
West Virginia has the highest smoking rate in the country – 24.8% of adults and 10% of teens smoke according to 2016 CDC data.
And WV also has the highest rate of pregnant women who smoke in the nation.
For more than 40 years, the American Cancer Society has organized the Great American Smokeout on the third Thursday of November. The Great American Smokeout is an opportunity for smokers to engage in a healthy, smoke-free life.
Great American Smokeout challenges people to quit smoking and helps them to better know the many tools that they can use to help them quit smoking and stay smoke free. Asking for help to quit can double or triple your success in quitting. The American Smokeout event challenges people to stop smoking and helps them learn about the many tools they can use to help them quit smoking and continue to smoke.
Question: A few minutes after smoking your last cigarette, how does your body start to recover?
Answer: There are immediate and long-term benefits when you quit smoking.
• In about 15 minutes, your heart rate and blood pressure will go down.
• It takes about 12 hours for carbon monoxide to come out of your blood.
• Over the next few months, your eyelashes in your lungs will recover and you are able to better remove mucus and debris and reduce your risk of infection.
• Halve your risk of heart disease after one year.
• In 10 years, your risk of lung cancer is reduced by 50% compared to the one you continued to smoke.
• Between 15 and 20 years without smoke, your risk of heart disease and lung cancer can become a non-smoker again.
The life expectancy of smokers is at least 10 years shorter than that of nonsmokers.
Quitting smoking before the age of 40 reduces by about 90% the risk of dying from a smoking-related illness.
Question: What advice would you give to a smoker?
Answer: It is not too late and you can quit.
I think a lot of people think they've done irreversible damage to their bodies and it's too late to improve their health, but as we just said, that's not the case.
Smokers may also be discouraged by previous unsuccessful attempts to quit and by fear of failing again.
Studies show that it may take several attempts before quitting for good. Looking for support and withdrawal treatment dramatically improves the success rate of quitting smoking.
Resources such as 1-800-QUIT-NOW and Smokefree.gov as well as meetings with your personal physician can dramatically increase your success in stopping smoking.
Hopefully, current smokers will be able to use the Great American Smokeout as an appointment to change things and find support to break a harmful habit.
WEB EXCLUUVE
Question: Why do e-cigarettes, especially JUULs, attract youth and what risk does JUUL present for youth?
Answer: JUUL are designed to look like USB sticks. They have a high-tech appearance and appearance, and the product itself and its marketing make it very cool. Compared to some other electronic cigarettes, JUULs are harder to detect. They are small and can be hidden in the palm of the hand and emit few visible aerosols. Children are known to use them in school toilets and even in classrooms. They come in the flavors advertised as a blend of fruits, fresh mint and crème brûlée.
Studies have shown that most children are unaware of the potential risks they face using electronic cigarettes, including JUUL. JUULs provide a higher nicotine concentration than some other types of electronic cigarettes. Some children do not even know that JUUL contains nicotine. They do not understand that they are exposed to an addictive drug that can also harm a young person's brain development, as outlined in the Surgeon General's 2016 report on electronic cigarettes and young people.
The brain continues to grow until the mid-twenties and beyond, so that health problems are not just for adolescents, but for university-age users. Some children would become physically addicted to nicotine and use JUUL not only for recreational purposes, but also compulsively to cope with what has become a drug problem.
[ad_2]
Source link
