Get help NOW to stop smoking

Lung cancer is the UK’s biggest cancer killer. It kills more people each year than breast cancer, prostate cancer, bladder cancer and leukaemia combined. But it can be cured if it’s caught early enough.

Lung cancer accounts for one in 14 of all deaths in the UK and one in four of all cancer deaths, according to the UK Lung Cancer Coalition (UKLCC). This is a group of leading lung cancer experts, healthcare companies and charities with an interest in the disease, who have joined together to fight lung cancer.

Most cases of lung cancer are in smokers (or ex-smokers), but lung cancer can affect anyone at any age. Smoking is not the only cause, as one in eight people with lung cancer have never smoked a cigarette.

Who’s at risk of lung cancer?

Smoking is the main risk factor for lung cancer. Four out of 10 smokers who start smoking in their early teens and continue to smoke will not live to claim their pension.

There are other risk factors for lung cancer, including:

• passive smoking (second-hand smoking)
• exposure to radon gas
• exposure to asbestos and other chemicals
• a poor diet 
• a family history of lung cancer 

What can you do to prevent lung cancer?

Eight practical, quick and simple steps you can take straight away to quit smoking.

Talk to your GP

Many people don’t realise that their GP can help them quit smoking. But your doctor can do a lot, such as enrolling you in a ‘stop smoking’ clinic and prescribing nicotine replacement therapy such as patches and gum, or stop smoking medication such as Champix.

Find out more about how your GP can help you quit.

Join an NHS Stop Smoking Service

The NHS has stop smoking services staffed by trained stop smoking advisers all over the country in a range of venues at times to suit you. You can join a group where local smokers meet once a week or have one-to-one support if you prefer. You usually go for a few weeks and work towards a quit date.

Find your nearest NHS Stop Smoking Service in Coventry on our ‘Your Health – Local Suport Services – Quit Smoking’ section.

Get a free ‘Quit Kit’ 

The kit is packed with practical tools and advice to help you stop smoking, including a ‘tangle’ to keep hands busy, a wallchart to keep track of your progress, stress-busting MP3 downloads, information on medicines that can help you stop smoking and exercises to improve your willpower. Order your Quit Kit online

HAVE AN EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBER

Keep an emergency number, perhaps for your local NHS Stop Smoking Service. “We’re here from 7am to 11pm every day answering calls from people who are about to have a cigarette and want help not lighting up,” says Chris, one of the helpline advisers. “We can talk about why you want to smoke and how to deal with your cravings.”

CONSIDER USING NRT

Nicotine is addictive, and self-control alone might not be enough. Give yourself a better chance of success by using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). This is available either free or on prescription from your GP, depending on where you live, or from your local NHS Stop Smoking Service.

Find your nearest NHS Stop Smoking Service from the NHS Smokefree website, or call 0300 123 1014.

Or, you can buy nicotine patches, gum and so on over the counter from a pharmacy.

EMAIL AN EXPERT

Ask an NHS Smokefree expert for advice.

GET ONLINE HELP

Use our stop smoking tool to get daily tips for success.

Smoking’s bad for your health, but exactly how does quitting make life better? Here are 10 ways your health will improve when you stop smoking.

Quitting leads to better sex

Stopping smoking improves the body’s bloodflow, so improves sensitivity. Men who stop smoking may get better erections. Women may find that their orgasms improve and they become aroused more easily. It’s also been found that non-smokers are three times more appealling to prospective partners than smokers (one of the advantages, perhaps, of smelling fresh).

Find out more tips for having good sex.

Stopping smoking improves fertility

Non-smokers find it easier to get pregnant. Quitting smoking improves the lining of the womb and can make men’s sperm more potent. Becoming a non-smoker increases the possibility of conceiving through IVF and reduces the likelihood of having a miscarriage. Most importantly, it improves the chances of giving birth to a healthy baby.

Read more about how to protect your fertility.

Stop smoking for younger looking skin

Stopping smoking has been found to slow facial ageing and delay the appearance of wrinkles. The skin of a non-smoker gets more nutrients, including oxygen, and can reverse the sallow, lined complexion that smokers often have.

Watch this video to find out how Ex-smokers have whiter teeth

Stopping smoking lets you breathe easier

People breathe more easily and cough less when they give up smoking because their lung capacity improves by up to 10% within nine months. In your 20s and 30s, the effect of smoking on your lung capacity may not be noticeable until you go for a run, but lung capacity naturally diminishes with age. In later years, having maximum lung capacity can mean the difference between having an active, healthy old age and wheezing when going for a walk or climbing the stairs.

Quit smoking to live longer

Half of all long-term smokers die early from smoking-related diseases, including heart disease, lung cancer and chronic bronchitis. Men who quit smoking by 30 add 10 years to their life. People who kick the habit at 60 add three years to their life. In other words, it’s never too late to benefit from stopping. Quitting not only adds years to your life, but it also greatly improves the chance of a disease-free, mobile, happier old age.

Ditch the cigarettes and feel less stressed

Scientific studies show that people’s stress levels are lower after they stop smoking. Nicotine addiction makes smokers stressed from the ‘withdrawal’ between cigarettes. The pleasant feeling of satisfying that craving is only temporary and is not a real cure for stress. Also, the improved levels of oxygen in the body means that ex-smokers can concentrate better and have increased mental wellbeing.

Read our top 10 stress-busters.

Quitting smoking improves smell and taste

Kicking the smoking habit gives your senses of smell and taste a boost. The body is recovering from being dulled by the hundreds of toxic chemicals found in cigarettes.

Stop smoking for more energy

Within two to 12 weeks of stopping smoking, your circulation improves. This makes all physical activity, including walking and running, much easier.

Quitting also boosts your immune system, making it easier to fight off colds and flu. The increase in oxygen in the body makes ex-smokers less tired and less likely to have headaches.

Read these self-help tips to fight fatigue.

Smoke-free homes protect your loved ones

By stopping smoking you’ll be protecting the health of your non-smoking friends and family.

Passive smoking increases a non-smoker’s risk of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke. Second-hand smoke doubles the risk of children getting chest illnesses, including pneumonia, croup (swollen airways in the lungs) and bronchitis, plus more ear infections, wheezing and asthma. They also have three times the risk of getting lung cancer in later life compared with children who live with non-smokers.

Now, read about smoking treatments available on the NHS and find out how to get started on stopping smoking.

If you can control your cravings for a cigarette, you’ll boost your chances of quitting. The most effective ways to tackle cravings are a combination of stop-smoking medicines and behavioural changes.

Going cold turkey may be appealing, and works for some, but research suggests that willpower alone isn’t the best method to stop smoking.

In fact, only three in every hundred quitters manage to stop smoking permanently this way.

Using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and other stop-smoking medicines can double your chances of quitting successfully compared to willpower alone. This is because untreated cravings often result in lapses.

Read more about stop smoking treatments available on the NHS and privately.

According to clinical psychologist and stop-smoking adviser Gay Sutherland, “cravings are without doubt the most important withdrawal symptom to tackle and one of the best predictors of success in quitting smoking is craving control”.

Types of cravings

Cravings happen because your body misses its regular hits of nicotine. Sutherland explains that there are two types of craving:

• The steady and constant background craving for a cigarette. This type of craving decreases in intensity over several weeks after quitting.
• Sudden bursts of intense desire or urge to smoke. These cravings are often triggered by a cue such as having a few drinks, feeling very happy or sad, having an argument, feeling stressed or even having a cup of coffee. These urges to smoke tend to get less frequent over time, but their intensity can remain strong even after many months of quitting.

Tackling cravings

There are three tried and tested ways to tame cravings:

• nicotine replacement therapy
• prescription stop smoking medicines
• behaviour changes

NICOTINE REPLACEMENT THERAPY

Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) gives your body the nicotine it craves without the toxic chemicals that you get in cigarettes, so it doesn’t cause cancer. It helps you stop smoking without having unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. NRT won’t give you the same “hit” or pleasure you would expect from a cigarette, but it does help reduce cravings.

NRT is available as gum, patches, lozenges, microtabs, inhalator, nasal spray and mouth spray. It’s important to use the right NRT product for your lifestyle.

Some products, like the patch, release nicotine into your system slowly and steadily, so they’re ideal for relieving background cravings. Others, such as the nasal spray and mouth spray, release nicotine quickly in short bursts, so they’re better suited to sudden intense cravings.

“A good strategy is to use the nicotine patch for background craving relief, and carry with you a fast-working product to prevent or treat breakthrough cravings,” says Sutherland.

Discuss with your pharmacist the NRT products that are available over the counter, or talk to your local NHS stop-smoking adviser or your GP about receiving NRT on prescription.

Read more about nicotine replacement therapy.

STOP SMOKING MEDICINES

The prescription tablets Zyban (bupropion) and Champix (varenicline) are an alternative to NRT in helping you stop smoking. They don’t contain nicotine, but they work on your brain to dampen cravings.

As they take a few days to work fully, you need to start these medicines for a week or two before you stop smoking.

Ask your doctor or a local stop-smoking adviser whether prescription medicines may help you.

Read more about prescription stop-smoking medicines.

CHANGE YOUR BEHAVIOUR

NRT and stop-smoking medicines can really help curb cravings, but they can’t completely eradicate them. It’s also a good idea to follow these smoking cessation self-help techniques:

• Avoid the triggers: try sitting in a different chair to watch TV, and having a shower as soon as you get up, if these are times you usually smoke. If you’ve always had a cigarette with your cup of coffee, switch to tea or orange juice instead. You don’t have to give up coffee forever, just until you’ve broken the association with smoking.
  
  Use this tool to receive daily messages of support to your computer while you’re quitting.
• Stay strong: expect your cravings to be at their worst in the first few weeks after quitting. The good news is that they will pass. If you take a step back and start smoking again, don’t despair, as it can take a few attempts to quit for good.
  
  Use this tool to work out how much money you are saving by quitting smoking.
• Exercise: physical activity may help reduce your nicotine cravings and relieve some withdrawal symptoms. It may also help you reduce stress and keep your weight down. When you have the urge to smoke, do something active instead, like a fast walk, going to the gym or local swimming pool, or gardening.
  
  Find out how to do more exercise.
• Be prepared: for cravings at special events like holidays, funerals or weddings. You may have never experienced these before as a non-smoker so you’ll associate them strongly with smoking. Have some fast-acting NRT with you just in case.
  
  Look at more self-help tips to stop smoking.
• Delay: When an urge to smoke strikes, remember that although it may be intense, it will be short-lived, and it probably will pass within a few minutes. “Each time you resist a craving, you’re one step closer to stopping smoking,” says Sutherland.
  
  Now, read what to do if you relapse after quitting smoking.

You may be worried about gaining weight when you stop smoking, but there are steps you can take to manage this.

Why do you put on weight when you quit?

Try not to let the propect of putting on weight put you off quitting smoking. Not everyone puts on weight and, even if you do gain some pounds, certain strategies can help you control it. These include:

• doing more exercise
• using stop smoking treatments postponing dieting until you’ve successfully quit

According to Deborah Lycett, consultant dietitian and researcher at the University of Birmingham, people gain on average 5kg (11lbs) in the year after they stop smoking.

But she urges prospective quitters not to let the prospect of weight gain deter them in their goal. She points out that the benefits of stopping smoking more than make up for the negatives of putting on weight. Although you may have gained a few pounds, you’ve stopped smoking and taken a big step toward a healthier life.

“It’s natural to be worried about putting on weight, but the health risks from this weight gain are far less than if you were to continue smoking,” says Deborah. “The priority is to give up smoking rather than worrying about putting on weight. You can tackle the weight gain later.” There is very little evidence that weight gain leads to a relapse in people who have given up smoking, she adds.

Which smokers are more likely to gain weight?

Some people are more likely than others to put on weight when they stop smoking. You are more at risk of weight gain if you:

• are already very overweight
• are a heavy drinker (or you don’t drink any alcohol at all)
• are a heavy smoker

Deborah Lycett recommends these steps to avoid weight gain after quitting:

Exercise to beat weight gain after stopping smoking

Regular exercise may prevent about half the weight gain expected after a year of quitting smoking. It burns off calories and reduces cravings for cigarettes. Build up to at least 150 minutes (two-and-a-half hours) of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, such as fast walking, swimming or cycling, every week. Moderate-intensity activity means working hard enough to make you breathe more heavily than normal and feel slightly warmer than usual. The more exercise you do, the more calories you’ll burn.

Read more about how to do more exercise or try our Couch to 5K programme, which will get you running 5km in nine weeks even if you’re an absolute beginner.

Use stop smoking medicines to prevent weight gain

Stop smoking medicines such as nicotine-replacement therapy and the prescription tablets Zyban (bupropion) and Champix (varenicline) can double your chances of quitting successfully and also seem to help reduce weight gain in the first few months.

Don’t diet while stopping smoking

Studies suggest it’s better to tackle stopping smoking first before trying to lose any weight gained while quitting. If you’re really worried about putting on weight, ask your GP to refer you to a dietitian for a dietary plan tailored to your individual needs. This plan will guide you on how much to eat, based on your current weight, age, gender and activity level, and stop you gaining more weight.

Find a registered dietitian.

If you want to stop smoking, you can make small changes to your lifestyle that may help you resist the temptation to light up.

Think positive

You might have given up before, but tell yourself that you’re really going to do it this time.

Make a plan to quit smoking

Make a promise, set a date and stick to it. Don’t be put off by a wedding, party or other time when you’d normally smoke.

Change your diet

Is your after-dinner cigarette your favourite? A US study revealed that some foods, including meat, make cigarettes more satisfying. Others, including cheese, fruit and vegetables, make cigarettes taste terrible. So swap your usual steak or burger for a veggie pizza instead.  

Change your drink

The same study looked at drinks. Fizzy drinks, alcohol, cola, tea and coffee all make cigarettes taste better. So when you’re out, drink more water and juice. Some people find that simply changing their drink (for example, switching from wine to a vodka and tomato juice), affects their need to reach for a cigarette.

Identify when you crave cigarettes

A craving can last five minutes. Before you give up, make a list of five-minute strategies. For example, you could leave the party for a minute, dance or go to the bar. And think about this: the combination of smoking and drinking raises your risk of mouth cancer by 38 times. 

Get moving

A review of scientific studies has proved that exercise (even a five-minute walk or stretch) cuts cravings and may help your brain to produce anti-craving chemicals.

Make non-smoking friends

When you’re at a party, stick with the non-smokers.

“When you look at the smokers, don’t envy them,” says Louise, 52, an ex-smoker. “Think of what they’re doing as a bit strange – lighting a small white tube and breathing in smoke.”

Keep your hands and mouth busy

Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) can make you twice as likely to succeed. As well as patches, there are tiny tablets, lozenges, gum and a nasal spray. If you like holding a cigarette, use an inhalator. Try putting your drink in the hand that usually holds a cigarette, or drink from a straw to keep your mouth busy. 

Make a list of reasons to quit

Keep reminding yourself why you gave up. Make a list of the reasons and read it when you need support.

Ex-smoker Chris, 28, says:

“I used to take a picture of my baby daughter with me when I went out. If I was tempted, I’d look at that.”

Receive daily support on your iPhone or Android phone with this 30-day quit smoking app. Includes a motivational counter and calendar to keep you on track.

Go smokefree with your mobile phone

If you have an Android phone, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, you can download the free NHS Smokefree app. Created for those who want to stop smoking, the Smokefree app is a 4 week programme that puts practical support, encouragement and tailored advice in the palm of your hand.

• Provides daily support and success tips
• Keeps track of how much money you’re saving
• Shows how many days you’ve been smoke free
• Record a motivational picture, video or audio to remind you why you’re giving up
• Provides links to local NHS Smoking Services

GP Dr Michael Apple answers some of your queries about quitting and the health risks of smoking.

I smoke fewer than five a day. What’s the harm in that?

Almost a third of smokers smoke fewer than 10 a day and often don’t see the point of giving up. But most of the heart disease risk comes within the first few cigarettes of the day.

Next time you light up, feel your pulse. It will start rising within a minute. That’s extra work for your heart, which gets less blood supply because of nicotine. Your blood tends to clot more with each cigarette, and the amount of oxygen it can carry goes down. Instead of oxygen the blood cells carry carbon monoxide. All of these are risk factors for heart disease.

Smoking just one cigarette a day trebles your risk of lung cancer and raises the risk of chronic lung disease, as well as cancer of the mouth, throat, bladder, pancreas and many more. 

Many studies have shown that the risks increase the more you smoke, but all risks start with just one cigarette.

I get indigestion. Could it be because I smoke?

Yes. Smoking reduces the ability of the walls of the stomach to repair themselves. Therefore it increases the chances of acid indigestion and duodenal ulcer. If you stop smoking, food may become a lot more enjoyable. You’ll taste it better and it’s less likely to give you indigestion. Some people find that their irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) improves when they quit.

What is it about diabetes and heart disease that makes smoking so dangerous?

In these conditions, the blood flow to your heart, legs, kidneys, eyes and brain is already affected, which increases the risk of strokes and heart attacks. Other risks are slow-healing ulcers and diseased legs and toes that might require amputation. When you smoke, you double or treble those risks.

Heavy smokers with diabetes have roughly double the chance of death from heart disease or stroke compared with non-smoking diabetics.

People smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day have a 50% higher chance, while ex-smokers have a 10-30% increased chance, even 10 years after quitting.

I find it so hard to stop smoking. Am I weak?

No. Having trouble stopping smoking doesn’t make you weak; it makes you human. Cigarettes are so addictive that 70% of smokers say they would like to quit, yet they still smoke. Most ex-smokers try to stop a few times before they manage to quit for good.

It’s the nicotine in cigarettes that’s physically addictive. It reaches the blood stream within a few drags, and alters various brain chemicals that change mood and concentration, which smokers find enjoyable.

Stopping smoking can lead to intense feelings of anxiety, irritability and depression, which smokers crave cigarettes to get rid of. Using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) can help people break this physically addictive cycle.

Increasing social support while you quit by stopping with a partner or friend can also help, as can joining an NHS stop-smoking group.

Why is passive smoking such a health hazard?

Non-smokers who breathe in second-hand smoke (smoke from other people’s cigarettes known as passive smoking) inhale more than 4,000 chemicals, at least 50 of which are known to cause cancer. For non-smokers, breathing other people’s smoke means an increased risk of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.

For children, second-hand smoke means twice the risk of chest illnesses, including pneumonia, croup (swollen airways in the lungs) and bronchitis, plus more ear infections, wheezing and asthma. They also have three times the risk of getting lung cancer in later life compared with children who live with non-smokers.

Can’t I just cut down rather than give up?

You can try but it probably won’t work. Smoking is addictive, which is why some people find it so hard to stop completely. When you cut down you tend to take more and deeper puffs on each cigarette to get your nicotine hit. It’s only by stopping completely that you can beat the addiction.   

I’m worried I’ll put on weight when I stop.

Cigarettes do affect your appetite and your metabolism, and they dull your taste buds, so people often gain a few pounds when they give up. You can prevent that by doing more exercise and staying away from high calorie foods. But if you do gain a little weight, don’t worry: you can lose it again once you’ve quit the cigarettes.