Firestyle Magazine Issue 2 - Winter 2015 | Page 34

HEALTH Private and Confidential CALLING SMOKERS … IT’S ABOUT TIME! “Nicotine patches are great. Stick one over each eye and you can’t find your cigarettes.” ~Author Unknown I have heard so much about Stoptober on TV and radio programmes. I anticipate there are a lot of smokers feeling a failure because they are no longer the majority in their non-smoking group of friends and family. “The cigarette does the smoking - you’re just the sucker”. ~Author Unknown So why do you smoke? And why not? You feel you are getting something out of smoking ... or at least you think you are. The most common reasons people tell me are:- “it relaxes me”, “I have time-out for myself when I smoke in the garden”, “I reward myself with a cigarette”, “smoking gives my confidence”, “I know I have finished my meal when I smoke”, “I smoke because I am bored”, “I want to be like my friends and the film stars”, “I have no willpower to stop”, etc. “One thousand Americans stop smoking every day - by dying.” ~Author Unknown 34 What are the most common motivations to Stop ... why now, what’s in it for you? • Health and Family issues • Wasting Money – it’s like asking for a £1K to £3K pay rise. Think what you can do with the money. • Maybe you have current health problems or fear for the future. • Perhaps you have recently discovered you are pregnant, just had a baby or wish to get pregnant and have a healthy baby. • To always be there for your children and spend quality time with them. • To take back control of your life and improve fitness. • To improve breathing and fitness and perhaps lose that unpleasant cough and bad taste in the mornings. • To travel freely as a non-smoker and not have to guiltily slide away for a smoke away from friends and family who hate it. What is happening inside you when you smoke? “Much smoking kills live men and cures dead swine.” ~George D. Prentice There are over 4000 chemicals introduced to your body, over 40 known cancer causing. This then puts your body into sheer terror, the flight or fight response happens, this is the sympathetic nervous system we all use when feel we are in danger. The adrenalin is released, heart rate and blood pressure increase, carbon monoxide blocks out the oxygen intake and so it is a lethargy feeling that is mistaken as a relaxation. How can the body relax when it the autonomic nervous system has to fight the dangerous chemicals! This puts an enormous strain on the endocrine system and so other illnesses just don’t get sufficient help to heal. But I don’t want you to think about that too much, right now.