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| Smoking | |
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If you are at all concerned about your health, then you will not be surprised to hear that smoking is bad news. There is no such thing as healthy smoking. Statistics abound about smoking, such as "each cigarette reduces your life by 3 minutes" (so 20 a day for 30 years loses you fifteen months of life). Smoking in pregnancy is known to cause increased risk to the baby at the time of birth, a higher risk of cot death, a higher risk of the child developing asthma and diabetes. The links between smoking and lung cancer were first described over 45 years ago, and now we also realise the risks of passive smoking - are your children smoking your cigarettes with you? But pipe smoking causes cancer of the lip and tongue, and cigar smokers who inhale the smoke are no better off than cigarette smokers. So the answer is, don't smoke. "Giving up smoking is easy - I've done it hundreds of times"! Giving up is NOT easy, because it is an addiction. The use of nicotine substitutes in the form of chewing gum, nasal sprays or patches can help, as can avoiding situations usually linked to smoking, such as sitting down with a coffee after a meal, or going to the pub. Wanting to stop is very important - there's not much point trying if you're not committed to it. Sources of help include your GP or Practice Nurse, or Health Visitor. Nicotine replacement products and tablets to help ease the craving are now available on prescription for patients who attend a supervised stop smoking clinic. This is available to patients at Brockwell, so why not make an appointment to see the Practice Nurse in the Smoking Cessation Clinic? For further help visit this site. |
