But there’s some good news. If you stop smoking, the benefits start almost straight away. After just 8 hours, your oxygen levels start to get better, and the harmful carbon monoxide in your blood stream goes down by half.
What is it and why is it important?
Smoking is one of the biggest reasons people die and get serious illnesses such as lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and vascular dementia.
Smoking can cause more than 50 serious health issues. In fact, because the people around you like your family, friends, and community breathe in the smoke (passive smoking), it can damage their health too.
Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable death in Southeast London – 9,251 hospital admissions and 4,200 preventable deaths each year. There are 165,000 smokers here – 1 in 2 are at risk of dying early.
Did you know that vaping can be a great way to help you stop smoking? Swapping to vapes (sometimes called e-cigarettes) is one of the most effective ways to quit or cut down on smoking. You can access free support and vapes from your local Stop Smoking Service.
What can I do about it?
Here are a few tips you can try to help you stop smoking:
- access stopping smoking support
- switch to vaping
- avoid trigger situations, for example if you associate cigarettes with drinking, don’t go to the pub
- write a list of all the reasons you want to quit smoking and look at it often
- pair up with someone else who’s trying to stop smoking so you can support each other
- get rid of ashtrays, lighters and any other reminders of smoking
- treat yourself when you reach ‘quitting milestones’
- get active to beat cravings, even a 5-minute walk could stop you from reaching for a cigarette
Did you know you’re 3 times more likely to quit if you access NHS quit-smoking support?
What support can I get?
There’s great support to help you quit smoking, including advice on vaping and other nicotine replacement products, available on the Stop Smoking London and the FRANK websites.
You can search for your local stop smoking service on the NHS website.
Stop smoking London also has these services:
- a telephone helpline which you can call on 0300 123 1044 if you’re struggling
- a series of apps, which you can find here.
You can also access support to stop on the NHS website, and download the NHS Quit Smoking app (from the App store or Google Play), which provides daily tips and encouragement straight to your mobile device.
The Targeted Lung Health Check programme is a national NHS pilot that is being trialled in Southwark and Greenwich. It’s being offered to people aged between 55 to 74-year-olds who have ever smoked. People in this group are at greater risk of developing lung cancer, so a lung health check helps us spot early signs of cancer when it’s more treatable. Click here to find out more about the programme.
Why is smoking bad and how can I stop?
- Smoking is the one of the biggest reasons people die and get serious illnesses such as lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and vascular dementia.
- It causes sexual health issues for men and women, and can also damage the circulation of your blood and make it much harder for you to recover from surgery.
- The worst effects of smoking are from breathing in cigarette smoke, containing more than 7,000 chemicals and tar which are very harmful to our bodies.
- Cigarettes have nicotine in them. Nicotine is addictive, but by itself does not cause cancers or smoking-linked diseases. Products that contain nicotine can be used safely to help people stop smoking. Those might be nicotine-containing products like patches or gum, or vapes (sometimes called e-cigarettes).
- They are considered much safer because they do not burn tobacco and do not produce smoke which contains harmful chemicals and tar.
- Local Stop Smoking Services, doctors, and pharmacies can give you nicotine replacement products and support you while you use them.
- If you stop smoking by switching to vapes, you should keep using them if it helps you stay off cigarettes.
- If you have never smoked, you shouldn’t start using a vape. Nicotine is extremely addictive, and breathing anything into your lungs which shouldn’t be there still presents risks to your health.
- The best way of stopping smoking is with a combination of specialist support and medication, nicotine replacement or vapes. Lots of people in the South-East London community have already found the quit-smoking support helpful.