Ciggyfree Blog & Gov Alert

We wish you a safe and happy holiday season. Please do not drink and drive. We will be back again in 2007!

No *butts* about it!

Cheers from ~Ciggyfree

There is inside of you all of the potential to be whatever you want to be, all of the energy to do whatever you want to do.

Imagine yourself as you would like to be,
doing what you want to do,
and each day, take one step
towards your dream.

And though at times it may seem too
difficult to continue,
hold on to your dream.

One morning you will awake to find
that you are the person you dreamed of,
doing what you wanted to do,
simply because you had the courage
to believe in your potential
and to hold on to your dream.

~ Donna Levine ~

Quitting smoking is just like that! Just go with the flow, relax, and find the calm within the storm that is *you*

Smokers risk damage to almost all major organs in their bodies, according to the latest report by the surgeon general (Health Consequences of Smoking, Surgeon General’s Report). The list of diseases caused by tobacco now includes cancers of the kidneys, stomach, cervix, and pancreas as well as leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia, and gum disease. These illnesses are in addition to diseases previously known to be caused by smoking— bladder, esophageal, laryngeal, lung, oral, and throat cancers, chronic lung diseases, coronary heart and cardiovascular diseases, and sudden infant death syndrome.

Smoking also reduces overall health, contributing to conditions such as hip fractures, complications from diabetes, increased wound infections following surgery, and various reproductive problems. Smoking cigarettes with lower machine–measured yields of tar and nicotine does not help. “There is no safe cigarette, whether it is called ‘light,’ ‘ultra–light,’ or any other name,” U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona commented. “The science is clear: the only way to avoid the health hazards of smoking is to quit completely or to never start smoking” (Health and Human Services, Press Release).

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Veterinary researchers have recently discovered the key factors linking the effects of second hand cigarette smoke to cats developing feline lymphoma, a deadly cancer of the lymphatic drainage system.

Published in the American Journal of Epidemiology on August 1st 2006, the study included 180 cats who were treated at Tufts Veterinary School’s Foster Hospital from the years 1993 and 2000. The results of this university study indicated clearly that cats exposed to second hand smoke were at a significantly higher risk of developing lymphoma cancer.

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The Chicago STOP Smoking Research Project is being conducted at the University of Chicago, in Hyde Park. The goal of the study is to help you quit smoking and stay quit. The study includes 6 counseling sessions, a one month’s supply of nicotine patches, and a 50% chance of receiving the study medication (naltrexone) or a placebo (sugar pill). Participants receive travel reimbursements and $230 in financial compensation for completing study interviews and measures.

We will enroll participants between June, 2006 and August, 2008. If you are interested in the study, please go to the following link for more information and to complete a brief, survey application:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=965032216171
http://stopsmoking.uchicago.edu

For more information visit their website:

http://stopsmoking.uchicago.edu

One of the things that I have found out this holiday season, is how much having a sweet tooth is to quitting smoking. I am an M&M away from an addiction almost as hard to break as cigarettes.

Chocolate is the culprit in this case. Compared to smoking, chocolate is much less intense a craving, but it’s only a matter of scale and variety.

When I smoked, I stuck with one brand for a real long time. I hardly ever smoked any other kinds, unless I had to bum the, which was not often. The intensity of the urges to smoke was overwhelming most of the time. Therefore, with cigarettes, I had very strong desires to stick with the same brand.

With chocolate, however, there are oh so many ways to enjoy yourself. Plain or peanut. Hot or cold. Milk or dark. It is downright insidious. In addition, when you throw in the fact that chocolate is easily a displacement behavior for quitting smoking, and you have a ton of trouble.

This time I have been able to stop smoking and stop eating chocolate. Until the holiday parties. Between Halloween, Thanksgiving, and now Christmas, it is like a food minefield. Those gals at work can really put on a good feed when it’s time for a carry-in. Moreover, of course chocolate rules supreme.

I am going to have to start my New Year’s resolution early this year. As opposed to not at all. I need to stop with the sweets right now. As for chocolate – one day at a time will work just as well as with quitting smoking.

Zzyzx

Second-hand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke or ETS, is clearly associated with cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular disease in humans. Several studies have shown that up to 20 different carcinogens contained in tobacco smoke can be inhaled by non-smoking bystanders.

Dr. Timothy Fan, veterinary oncologist at the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Urbana, explains that although associations between ETS and diseases in animals have not been as extensively researched, a handful of studies show a correlation between ETS and certain forms of cancer in pets.

A Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine study found a strong correlation between ETS and an oral cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, in cats. Cats living with smokers had higher incidence of this type of cancer. Cats living with more than one smoker and cats exposed to ETS for longer than five years have an even higher incidence of this cancer.

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There are 69 known cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco smoke. While nicotine itself isn’t thought to be carcinogenic, it’s the reason why smokers continue the habit. This highly addictive drug is toxic and potentially lethal in large doses. Apart from its use in tobacco products, nicotine is a scheduled poison under the State Poisons Act. When they get their dose of nicotine, smokers also inhale about 4,000 other chemicals. Most of these compounds are chemically active, and trigger profound and damaging changes in the body.

Tobacco smoke contains dangerous chemicals The most damaging compounds in tobacco smoke include:
• 1,3-butadiene - or BDE is an industrial chemical used in rubber manufacture. Some scientists believe that of all the chemicals in tobacco smoke, BDE may present the greatest overall cancer risk. It may not be as good at causing cancer as some of the other chemicals listed here, but it is found in large amounts in tobacco smoke.

• Ammonia - ammonia is a strong chemical, found in household cleaners and formaldehyde (used for preserving organs of dead people in morgues), which also damages the lungs.

• Arsenic - is one of the most dangerous chemicals in cigarettes. It can cause cancer as well as damaging the heart and its blood vessels. Small amounts of arsenic can accumulate in smokers’ bodies and build up to higher concentrations over months and years. As well as any direct effects, it can worsen the effect of other chemicals by interfering with our ability to repair our DNA.

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Winter is not here yet, but nobody told the weather. It acts like winter. Lots of snow and real cold here the last week. I wasn’t able….errrr…..didn’t want to go out and walk in the cold. If the temperature is less than ten degrees, I stay inside.

I didn’t used to think that ten degrees is cold. When I lived in South Dakota, we used to wear light jackets if the temperature goy above zero. Now I think its cold when it’s less than forty.

I did walk this morning, and found a couple of amusing things to be true. The first is that even though you wear the same clothes, the wind is colder when you face it than when you turn your back to it. That just seems odd. In addition, it is probably all just psychological. At least that’s what I tell my goose bumps when I face the wind.

Another odd thing is, my left hand does not get as cold as my right hand. I can walk around the block three times longer with my left hand out in the cold as with my right. I have to warm my right hand in my pocket if I don’t wear gloves.

Another thing is that a hood is worth its weight in nicotine patches when the wind blows.

I am hoping for warmer weather for a while now. However, I will keep walking whenever the temperature cooperates. It’s way too easy to get use to not exercising at all.

zzyzx

Dang, look at that. I made it through nine months. Wow. That’s three times longer than I ever quit before. I am impressed.

This just goes to show you the power of motivation. The reality of the situation is that smoking is no longer an option. So whenever I consider it, I reject it.

The habits I developed along the way are working pretty well by now. My way of thinking is different than nine months ago. I no longer dwell on what I think I used to like about smoking. I just don’t smoke anymore, and I get on with other stuff.

I am not deluded enough to think I am out of the woods yet, though. I have to stay focused and resist the urges I still get. It’s much easier now because the urges are weaker, and I am stronger.

I still go from day to day, one day at a time. That’s the only way to stay quit.

Zzyzx