Smoking habits
among Indians – reasons, effects
Tobacco in any form is life threatening and is considered
health hazard. Smoking is a major method of consumption of tobacco.
Smoking has become a well
established lifestyle-related foible during the past few years, which accounts
for a majority of cancer cases and heart attacks in India . Cigarette smoking became a
fad as often smoking is extensively publicized indirectly in films and film
personalities are seen smoking in different styles that attracts and leaves a strong
influence on the youth.
Stopping smoking even in middle
age before having cancer or some other serious ailments avoids most of the
later excess risk of death from tobacco. The benefits of stopping at earlier
ages are even greater. Once smoking is given up, the risk of heart attacks are normalized
to that of a non-smoker in 3 years.
The increasing number of college goers and
women smokers in India
Young college-going youth is fond of smoking. Youth pick up
this habit to attract the attention of society. They release stress and feel
happy while smoking. Smoking
at a young age usually begins for psychosocial reasons such as: Parental
smoking, Curiosity, Peer pressure, Rebelliousness, Assertion of independence. One
major encouragement for smoking in among youth (including women) is group
conformity. Many factors lead to
increase in women smoking. Smoking dulls the appetite and is seen as an easy
and convenient way of following diet plan to help reduce weight. Once smoking becomes regular the
pharmacological properties of nicotine are a major influence on persistence of
the habit.
A shallow knowledge of the health risks is not enough to
convince youth to not smoke. Cigarette smokers have lower level of lung
function than those persons who have never smoked. Smoking reduces the rate of
lung growth. Smoking hurts young person’s physical fitness in terms of
performance, even amongst young people trained in competitive athletics. Young
smokers suffer from breathlessness almost produce phlegm more than two times as
often and three times as often as youth that do not smoke..
Smoking creates health problems among women, especially
reproductive health. Smoking not only affects health of eggs produced adversely;
it can compromise the health of a pregnant women and the foetus. This hold good
for passive smokers as well. Tobacco consumers are more vulnerable to disease
especially cancer and particularly lung cancer.
Measures to curb
smoking
Enforcing stringent measures to try and curb tobacco use by
the government. Many smokers in India
are ignorant of the health risks that smoking poses. Therefore, steps should be
taken to educate mostly the poor and uneducated Indians about the risks
associated with smoking. Ban smoking in public private work places.
Ways to kick
smoking – solutions.
SMOKING CESSATION
There are
different strategies to enable smoking cessation. Programmes that use several
modes of repeated counseling and interventions are the most efficient for the
initial and long term cessation.
Interventions include individualized
counseling telephone counseling and group therapy. Self help materials such as
pamphlets, cassettes, and videos work best as adjuvant to clinicians advice.
The use of pulmonary fn testing and carbon monoxide testing give feed back
regarding quitting rate.
Benefits
of smoking cessation
- Decreased risk of coronary
heart disease
- Reversal of increased
tendency towards clotting of blood.
- decreased risk of LBW baby in women
- Improved taste and appetite.
Long term benefits include decrease in
mortality and morbidity.
Social
interventions that can be instituted to help curb smoking.
- increased tobacco taxes
- mass media tobacco education
- counter advertising campaigns
- business and work place
indoor smoking bans
- Phone quit lines and internet
counseling resources and health care providers.
- www.quitnet .com www.surgeongeneral.govt/tobacco
Pharmacological
interventions for smoking cessation:
- Nicotine polarilux gums
- Nicotine lozenges
- Nicotine transdermal patch
- Nicotine inhaler
- Nicotine nasal spray
- Bupropion 150 mg OD (Zyban)
- Clonidine
- Nortriptylline
- Varenicline (Alpha 4)3 (Beta 2)2 receptor partial agonist
- Rimonaband (B1 receptor
antagonist)
- Nicotine vaccines and
antibodies to nicotine
Nicotine
replacement and other medications are given to help the patients quit smoking
but it is primarily the patients will to quit that is of foremost importance.
Smoking is one of the leading preventable causes of death in
our country.
A smoker can improve his/ her health and lengthen his/ her
life by quitting it along with other lifestyle changes like diet, exercise or
stress management?
Given the catastrophic health hazards caused due to smoking,
any smoker who has ever tried quitting knows it is easier said than done.
Taking help from various therapies can help smokers leave
the habit and avoid relapse of the addiction.
The therapies include
- Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)
- Hypnosis/ Alternative Therapies
- Counseling and Behavioural Therapy
- Support Therapy
- A Holistic Approach
- Yoga and meditation
- By Dr D.Raghotham Reddy, MD (Pulmonologist),Yashoda hospitals
