Quitting smoking

If you smoke, it is definitely damaging your health and may ultimately kill you. After all, smoking kills over 7,000 Irish people every year. Smoking-related illnesses are responsible for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide. Here are a few reasons why giving up is the best idea you are ever likely to have:

- Smokers will lose on average between 10-15 years of their potential life span.

- Smoking is a principal cause of both lung cancer and heart disease, two of Ireland's biggest killers, and two of the most difficult diseases in terms of quality of life.

- Smoking causes ulcers, which bleed in your stomach and can make eating painful, as well as being potentially life-threatening.

- It also causes bronchitis and emphysema, which can make breathing extremely difficult.

- And cancer of the throat, the mouth, the oesophagus or the urinary bladder.

- And vascular disease, which in severe cases will lead to leg amputation.

- If you smoke while pregnant, your child smokes too. You are more likely to miscarry, or have a stillborn baby. The child, if it survives, may have a lower birth weight than if you had not smoked and will be more likely to contract illnesses.

- Smoking costs a fortune and brings you no benefits in return for your money. Do the sums. If you smoke 20 cigarettes a day, multiply the cost of a pack by 365 and calculate what you might save.

- Smokers affect everyone else's health too. Everyone you live with is a third more likely to contract lung cancer or heart disease.

-Your taste buds are deadened.

- Your sense of smell is deadened.

- There are over 4,000 chemicals in tobacco. At least 43 of them are known to cause cancer in humans.

How can I give up smoking?

Some people simply make the decision not to smoke again and quit. The 'cold turkey' approach is not for everyone, but strong willpower is essential to make sure that you don't go back to the old habit.

Firstly you should think about your reasons for quitting. There are certainly plenty to choose from! However, you have to have your own reasons and they have to be good enough to see you through cravings. Perhaps you want to be healthy so that you can enjoy playing with your kids. Maybe you'd like to take up a sport. You might be fed up with coughing all the time, or would like to keep the money you'll save on tobacco to spend on something else.

When you've made your decision to quit, set a date for stopping and prepare to quit. Think about where and when you usually have a cigarette. These are the times that you are likely to have cravings after you stop smoking. You may have to change your routine and find things to do with your hands. The important thing is to break the habit – not just the smoking habit, but any habits that lead you to smoke. Decide how you will cope being around other smokers. Know how to refuse if you are offered a cigarette. Don't be tempted to take even one drag of a cigarette.

Remember that everyone will help. Your GP can give you advice on how to alter your habitual behaviour, and can encourage you by monitoring the improvement in your health as you stay off the cigs. There are also many aids to help you give up - from support groups, to nicotine replacement gum to prescribed medications. People also find some alternative therapies such as acupuncture and hypnotherapy etc. helpful. There are also many books and courses to help smokers quit.

Take it one day at a time. Every day you do not smoke improves your health, just as every cigarette damages it. You may fail and find yourself smoking again. Most smokers who quit have to try more than once before they are successful, so do not be downhearted. Give it another go.

Remember, it is never too late to stop smoking, and there are always benefits to be gained by quitting. Your risk of contracting heart disease starts falling immediately, and after a few years of not smoking your chances of getting lung cancer will have fallen.