You Gotta Quit Smoking!

I am 22 years old and have been smoking for 6 years. 3 weeks ago I decided to quit and am now kept up the entire night by incessant coughing. I cough all day and all night and it hurts my throat too. My chest feels a bit tight and sometimes I generally feel quite wheezy. It is definitely not a cold as there are no other symptoms. Are these normal symptoms of giving up smoking? And if so, what can I do to ease them?

Yes. It is your lungs clearing out all the crap left in there by the smoke. Some OTC cough medicine should help. When my father-in-law quit, he coughed for quite some time. (He was much older than you.)

It’s possible, however, that it is unrelated. It sounds almost like bronchitis. If it doesn’t clear up in a couple of days, I would see a doctor.

This is my 3rd time trying it and each time I take it I start getting VERY moody and out of sorts and very aggitated etc. To the extent you feel like smashing your head against the wall, or someone elses. Stopped taking it now, not worth it……..think I’d be dead before I’d have quit smoking!!!
@DP3: Thanks for the reply but I just read up on the stuff on wiki, makes for some very interesting reading…."On Thursday, May 22, 2008, The New York Times reported that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.) had announced the day before a ban on the use of Chantix (varenicline tartrate) for both pilots and air traffic controllers, due to concerns with possible adverse neuropsychiatric effects which could be detrimental to public safety" Ok. That stuff is dangerous.
Btw, you continue smoking when your taking Champix/Chantix. So, it aint withdrawl sysmptoms…..
I meant symptoms not Simpsons!

Yes I was completely ill without smoking.

You started smoking on a beautiful note. At that time you never imagined in your wildest dreams that to stop smoking would be such a deadly effort. You have tried several methods, rather many quit smoking methods have used you to make fun of you.

You are where you are and now the suggested method is stop smoking through injection.

Will this alternative really help you, so that you can live the rest of your life smoke-free? Half of your life is already wasted in searching and experimenting with the various methods to stop smoking.

Researches claim that this stop smoking injection makes you forget about smoking once and for all. It has a success rate of about 80%. Hope you are not among the remaining 20%. I am aware you have tried many other therapies such as acupuncture, herbal medications and nicotine replacement therapy, all in vain.

Nicotine and your brain are comrades in arms. The brain can never forget the obliging nicotine sensation and demands more and more of it. Therefore, you smoke more and more. Something has to be done to break this link. The stop smoking injection contains substances that confront the nicotine receptors in your brain. When the brain fails to establish contacts with nicotine, and refuses to recognize it, your desire for the nicotine-containing cigarette is decreased. Well, you no more need it at all!

Normally, one injection does the job. The second one would be necessary, in some cases. The treatment is given to you in ideal conditions in a clinic, under the supervision of your own doctor. He will make a careful note about your stop-smoking condition.

Why, then in some cases, you don’t get satisfactory results in the first instance? It is because many of the smokers do have other problems, apart from the nicotine addiction. Your doctor will therefore examine your total health, after you are injected with the first shot.

The injection therapy is very affordable. High from the normal standards, but low from the actual standards! Also calculate what an astronomical amount you will spend on your nicotine products- the cigarette packets! Another favorable point is that such treatment related expenses, including the injection charges are covered by health insurance policy.

So far, this stop smoking injection therapy does not lead to side effects, it is reported. This probably is the reason for its growing popularity. Second aspect of the popularity is the quickness with which you can have this treatment.

You are in a hurry. You started smoking in a hurry, and if now you have come across a method to give up smoking in a hurry, why not avail it?

Ashish Jain
http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/are-you-thinking-of-using-a-stop-smoking-injection-83730.html

Don;t be afraid to get medication for the side effects. nicotine is a powerful drug.

Just stopping helps your body recover! Look at this timeline:

20 minutes:
Blood pressure drops to normal; pulse rate drops to normal; increased circulation in hands

8 hours:
Oxygen level in your blood increases to normal; carbon monoxide level in your blood drops

24 hours:
Your chance for a heart attack has already gone down.

48 hours:
Your ability to smell and taste is already improved; walking is becoming easier.

2 weeks to 3 months:
Your circulation has improved. No more cold hands and cold feet. Your lung function has already increased up to 30%.

1 month to 9 months:
You’ll notice that coughing, sinus congestion and shortness of breath have decreased dramatically. Cilia have re-grown in your lungs increasing your ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs and reduce infection.

1 year:
Your risk of coronary heart disease is cut in half.

5 years:
Risk of stroke reduced to that of a nonsmoker. Risk of cancers of the mouth, throat and esophagus cut in half. Risk of lung cancer reduced in half compared to a smoker.

15 years:
Congratulations! Your risk for coronary heart disease and stroke is the same as for a lifelong nonsmoker.

Your decision to give up cigarettes at this advanced stage of cigarette smoking seems to be a desperate decision and there must be strong reasons for that. You have increased awareness within you. You are convinced that you need to give up smoking once and for all. Still, you agree that you can’t resist the sight and taste of the burning cylinder.

You have to reverse this cynical situation. The first and the foremost weapon in this difficult yet possible endeavor, is your will power. There is no other potent force that can be of more assistance to you in this critical juncture.

You need to take out the feeling from your mind that smoking is associated with pleasure. You as a smoker have a peculiar type of mood swing. The cravings for the smoke give rise to irritability, stress and headache.

Such a situation can be reversed only by going to the root cause of your smoking. What are those unconscious conflicts that stop you from stopping smoking? A dent has to be made through your conflicts and find the way to weaken them.

For this you need to attend special smoking cessation classes and your involvement with such efforts should be on day to day basis. It has also been found possible to break the die-hard habit of smoking with hypnosis. Well, some hypnotists have claimed to have helped smokers to quit smoking within 48 hours.

At this stage, nicotine is in total control of you. So if the smoking habit is given up abruptly, it could result in sudden weight gain. This is a proven fact. But you can try the available natural, non-addictive natural botanicals to help you quit smoking. These have no side effects. Nicotine normally suppresses hunger and this type of suppression might have prevented your weight-gain.

Think positively about the benefits of giving up smoking and let them get implanted in your mind firmly. Some of the obvious benefits are, you will save substantial amount of mental clarity and your focus will be better. Plus, your anxiety and depression levels will decrease.

Also develop the habit of eating fresh fruits and vegetables with lots of fiber contents in them. Make juice of fruits a permanent part of your diet. The accumulated toxins within your body will soon decrease and with that your will to fight against smoking will increase.

The day is not far when you will join the non-smoker’s alley.

Ashish Jain
http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/stop-smoking-tips-for-advanced-smokers-67747.html

I have quit smoking for two weeks .seem like i am breaking out all over with hives is this normal

it,s your nerves. it,s called withdrawl symptons.

There is a belief in some areas that good oral hygiene can offset the destructive effects of spit tobacco. That belief could not be farther from the truth. According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, a government agency dealing with oral health, “there is no evidence that brushing and flossing will undo the harm that dip and chew are doing to your teeth and gums.”

Spit tobacco can be many different forms. It may be in powder form such as snuff. It could be “chew” tobacco in a leaf form, loose or twisted, dry or moist. But whatever the name, it is still tobacco.

The tobacco industry prefers to call it smokeless tobacco. The name gives lulls you into the feeling that this type of tobacco consumption is not as bad as cigarettes or other types of tobacco smoking materials. Do not be fooled. This type of tobacco can be devastating to not only your dental hygiene, but also your health in general.

Consider some of the things that spit tobacco can cause.

Cancer of the mouth tops the list as the most dangerous of the effects. It is no respecter of age. This self-induced disease attacks the young as well as the old.

The U.S. Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, M.D., in 1986 declared that “smokeless tobacco represents a significant health risk. It is not a safe substitute for smoking cigarettes. It can cause cancer…”

Since those that chew or dip leave the tobacco in their mouth for extended periods of time, usually in the same place, this can cause the gums to pull away from the tooth in that area. When the gums pull away from the tooth, sensitive tooth roots are exposed providing an access to the root for any number of problems; sensitivity, decay and infection just to name a few.

Another of those problems is the side effect of the sugar contained in spit tobacco. The longer sugar remains in the mouth the more damage it will do. The extended periods that spit tobacco remains in the mouth provide a perfect opportunity for the sugars to work on the tooth root, causing massive tooth decay.

Many sports figures, as positive influences to youth, are speaking out against spit tobacco. Torii Hunter, Minnesota Twins American League winner of the Gold Glove award, six years in a row has come out strong against spit tobacco. Olympic gold medal winners, Picabo Street (alpine skiing) and Dominique Dawes (gymnastics) have lent the weight of their names to the campaign against spit tobacco along with the mega-star Jackie Chan.

Spit tobacco does cause harm, sometimes deadly, to whoever may use it. No matter how much we brush or floss; the effects cannot be overcome unless the habit is stopped.

If you are currently using spit tobacco and want to quit, there are some excellent guidelines given by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Check out their website for a step-by-step guide: http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/HealthInformation/DiseasesAndConditions/SpitTobacco/QuittingGuide

Follow the guidelines, quit or help someone quit and let me know so that I can celebrate with you. This is a dental problem that we have the power to end.

Don Robertson
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-help-articles/effects-of-smokeless-tobacco-on-your-dental-health-138579.html

This law supersedes all local laws everywhere in the United States, and the state’s Department of Health will be monitoring compliance. This law even applies to truck drivers driving through the states! So where can you smoke, if you so choose?

You can no longer smoke in public buildings, and you cannot smoke in the adjacent areas to the entrances and exits where people might have to walk through the smoke. Although the law doesn’t specify a distance, the Department of Health is recommending a 20-foot space between the two. In many buildings in Ohio, this means smokers will have to be on the other side of the street or well out into the parking areas. So the smokers are thrown out into the cold during the winter months to smoke – this doesn’t seem fair!

There are a couple of exceptions that the Department of Health will have to remember during their monitoring. Nursing homes may establish a smoking room for their residents but not the visitors, and hotels can allocate up to 20% of their rooms as smoking rooms for those who want to smoke. But, then if I’m a smoker planning a vacation around a peak season, I might not even be able to find a room in the inn to stay because all of the non-smokers have taken up the space! Retail tobacco stores are also exempt, as long as 80% of their income comes from tobacco sales.

Businesses will accrue fines for breaking this new smoking ban law. All fine money will be put into a “Clean Air Ohio” fund and the proceeds will be used to reduce the effects of smoking on public health. One of the goals of the anti-smoking industry propaganda is to scare the smokers, and make us believe that we are a small portion of the overall population. This is not the necessarily the truth. Actually, smokers make up one of the biggest over-the-age-of-18 constituencies ever!

We have lost so many of our freedoms already – but how can they make a law telling smokers where I must spend my personal time to have a personal smoke break? Thomas Paine once said that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.

Luckily, after a ban goes into effect, some bars will actually violate the bans, and the smart ones will find ways to skirt the smoking bans, other establishments will file for and get granted exemptions from the Department of Health. Although, bans are not immediately enforced by public officials all the time, some establishments will choose to raise their menu or other services prices to offset the loss of business they expect due to the fact that smokers who can’t smoke will not frequent their places of business. For some smokers, this is actually a time when trying to quit smoking just so they can continue to frequent the same places seems to make sense.

Some try the argument that smoking will not negatively decrease sales in public bars and clubs. The argument is that since the population is made up of more non-smokers than smokers (and remember this is not necessarily true (this varies region by region) more people will frequent a business now that smoking is banned, therefore, sales will go up and a continual exponential effect will take place. It’s not hard to tell that public places will be no more busy than normal after tomorrow’s ban – smokers or no smokers.

Kevin Dark
http://www.articlesbase.com/law-articles/smoking-ban-in-usa-legal-or-not-86138.html

You’ve heard of laser vision treatment; you’ve heard of laser unwanted hair removal treatment; you’ve even heard of laser hair re-growth treatment. But have you heard of laser stop smoking treatment?

Maybe not. But if you’ve heard of acupuncture being used to help people quit smoking, you will have an idea of what a laser stop smoking treatment is. Acupuncture is an ancient medicinal art and has been used to assist those trying to kick their nicotine addictions for nearly thirty years; laser stop smoking treatment first appeared in 1989.

Acupuncturists pinpoint the lower earlobe as the pressure point which curbs the craving to smoke, and low level, or “cool”, laser stop smoking treatment also targets the lower ear lobe with a laser pulse. The theory behind both treatments is that they stimulate the release of endorphins, the body’s natural pain killers, leaving the patient in a state of deeply relaxed well-being.

Advantages Of The Laser Stop Smoking Treatment

One advantage of the laser stop smoking treatment is that, for those who are needle-shy, sharp instruments are nowhere to be seen. Laser stop smoking treatment rarely has side effects, although a few users have reported warmth or tingling in their earlobes.
Because the power of the laser stop smoking treatment is the equivalent of that generated by a 60-watt light bulb, there is no chance of the patient’s being burned.

For those who are uncomfortable with the disrobing involved in acupuncture smoking cessation therapy, low level laser stop smoking treatment offers a comfortable alternative. The laser, however, must be used by a trained technician.

Some providers of the laser stop smoking treatment claim that it not only stimulates the body to release craving-eliminating endorphins; it also enhances the body’s detoxification, hastening the removal of nicotine from the blood and tissues, and speeding the withdrawal process. For more info see http://www.stopsmokingaidsguide.com/Stop_Smoking_Programs/ on Stop Smoking Programs.

Precautions About The Treatment

Because the treatment is not a recognized medical treatment, health insurance will not cover its cost. And the laser stop smoking treatment isn’t cheap; the best-known of the companies offering it charge $349 for a smoking cessation “program” including a half-hour treatment, some vitamins, and a stop-smoking video.

While the centers providing laser stop smoking treatment have claimed a success rate in excess of 85%, those figures are under scrutiny by the Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. They have petitioned the FDA to stop the companies from promoting their lasers as tools for smoking cessation treatment, because they have not been given FDA approval for such a use.

In other words, the effectiveness of the laser stop smoking treatment has not been officially established, so there is no guarantee it will work for you. But if you don’t mind spending the money, and have tried everything else to quit, you can always take the chance that you will be one of the lucky ones for whom it really works.

Wade Robins
http://www.articlesbase.com/quit-smoking-articles/is-the-laser-stop-smoking-treatment-right-for-you-188163.html