When the Smoke Clears

Overcoming common excuses for kicking the habit.

Would you rather kick thehabit or kick the bucket? Blunt, we know. But half of all smokers will end up dying from smoking-related illness, accord-ing to the American Cancer Society.

Quitting smoking is one of the best health decisions you will ever make— but it's also one of the most difficult. The good news is, you can do it.

How Smoking Hurts Your Health
Memorial Hospital CEO Michael McAndrew says he started sneaking his parents' cigarettes when he was around 12 years old. "Back then, more than half the world smoked. It was part of the culture," he says.

As soon as he started working, he could afford to buy his own cigarettes, and there were no laws then to prevent minors from buying them. "By my 20s I was up to three packs a day. I had a cigarette in my mouth before I got out of bed and I put one out before I went to sleep," McAndrew says.

Working in a hospital changed nothing for him. "I saw people smoking and saw what it did, but I never thought it would happen to me," he says.

In the early 1970s, after a 12-or 13-year stint of smoking, he landed in the emergency room with a collapsed lung. "It scared me, but eight days in the hospital wasn't enough to cure me of smoking," he says. Two months later, however, he landed in the hospital again, and that frightened him into quitting.

Quitting smoking cuts your risk for many diseases. In McAndrew's case, he had a family history of diabetes, high blood pressure and pulmonary disease, all of which are exacerbated by smoking.

Smoking is linked to heart attack and stroke, weakens your bones and ups your risk for many cancers-including cancer of the lung, mouth, throat, bladder, kidney, stomach and pancreas.

Excuses, Excuses
Stress, a common stumbling block for smokers, got the best of McAndrew for a while. He quit smoking in 1973 and stayed smoke-free for several years, but then he started graduate school in 1979. "The stress got me smoking again," he says. "I was right back to two packs a day."

He finished graduate school and landed a management job in the early 1980s and started thinking about quitting again. He quit cold turkey in the Great American Smokeout of 1982 and has been smoke-free ever since.

Stress isn't the only thing that leads would-be quitters astray. Other common excuses include:

I'll quit later. McAndrew beat this hurdle by telling himself and others about his plans to quit for three months before his quit date. "I almost talked myself into it," he says.

I need a cigarette. Nicotine is very addicting, and cigarette makers apparently are not helping. A recent Harvard University study found the amount of nicotine that smokers inhale per cigarette rose 11 percent from 1998 to 2005.

Smoking helps me fit in. There can be tremendous social pressure to smoke, especially if smoking with your friends and family is part of your regular routine.

Kicking the Habit
While McAndrew quit with willpower alone, there are numerous over-the-counter and prescription aids such as nicotine-containing gums, patches, sprays, inhalers or lozenges that can help. These are commonly called nicotine replacement therapy, or NRT. In addition to enlisting your doctor's help with NRT, here are a few more ideas.

Shake things up. Switch brands every week. If you hate menthol, smoke only menthol. Make smoking less desirable.

Make a plan. Set a quit date, have a support system and be prepared for how you will handle difficult situations.

Exchange habits. Replace smoking with a healthier behavior such as exercise.

Enroll in a smoking cessation program. Try contacting the American Lung Association or American Cancer Society to find out if there are any classes nearby that can help you quit.

McAndrew looks back, remembering how he got tired of the smell of cigarettes and the taste in his mouth. "For years after I quit I would dream about smoking. Quitting is one of the harder things I've ever done," he says. "But now there's nothing good I can recall about smoking."

By Stephanie Thurrott

For a referral to a physician on the medical staff at Memorial Hospital who can help you with your efforts to quit smoking, call (903) 439-4062.