All About Quitting Smoking
(modified from American Diabetes Association Toolkit No. 7, www.diabetes.org.)
Diabetes and Smoking: Double Trouble
Diabetes raises your risk for a heart attack, a stroke, blood vessel disease, nerve damage, kidney disease, and other health problems. Smoking also ups your risk for health problems. Diabetes and smoking means double trouble, but you will earn double rewards when you quit.
Are you ready to quit smoking? You can find a way to do it. Once you’ve quit, you will feel healthier right away. And you will be healthier for the rest of your life. The benefits start within minutes after you have quit.
Benefits
- Lower your risk for a heart attack or a stroke
- Reduce your risk for some kinds of cancer
- Cut your risk for emphysema (a lung disease), chronic bronchitis, and cataracts
- Be able to breathe easier
- Increase your energy level
- Have fewer wrinkles
- Have better-smelling hair, breath, and clothes
- Stop exposing your family and friends to second hand smoke
- Save money
Tips
- Make a list of your own reasons for quitting. Put your list where you will see it every day.
- Choose a date to quit. Make sure it is a time when your life is calm and you are not under a lot of stress.
- Tell your family and friends about your plan to quit. Ask for their help and understanding.
- Ask a friend who smokes to think about quitting with you.
Ways to quit
- Quit all at once – or “going cold turkey.” Throw away your cigarettes, matches, lighters, and ashtrays.
- Taper off. Quit smoking by cutting back over several weeks.
- Use a nicotine patch, gum, inhaler, or nasal spray.
- Ask your health care provider for a prescription medicine to help you quit.
- Talk with your health care provider about whether counselling, acupuncture, or hypnosis would be helpful.
- Take a quit-smoking clinic appointment or join a support group.
