Dear members,

The mails on smoking brought the memories of gloomier part of my
life. Made me a little emotional. There are hundreds of web-sites on
this topic.

Contrary to my normal practice, I am writing this post in first
person. I smoked for 23 years. Tried quitting at least 100 times! The
best achievement of my life is that I could quit finally. The
medicine which helped me was "love". The constant persuation by wife
and a friend ultimately did the trick, that too after eight years of
marriage. I am indebted to both.

Here come the thoughts and receipe...

How to quit smoking
Recommendations based on a personal experience

The cardiac problems in young generation are increasingly being noted
in last few years. One primary reason for this is smoking. Despite
small print warning on the cigarette packs, smokers are unable to
quit the habit. Many patients are unable to quit even after an attack
or coronary bypass surgery. They wish to quit but addiction is so
strong that attempts do not succeed.

Think seriously about quitting the cigarette. The long term benefits
may surprise you. The reason for quitting must be important for you.
You may wish to go by the advice of your health advisor, wife or
children, but your decision must be firm. Only the firm inner urge
will bring you success.

The benefits of quitting the smoking:
The correlation between smoking, lung cancer and other respiratory
diseases is well known; but smoking causes many other serious
problems:
· The heart diseases and strokes are mainly caused by smoking;
· 49,00,000 persons meet the death due to nicotine alone, as
per the estimates of World Health Organisation. They estimate that
upto 2030, the deaths will be maximum due to nicotine, nearly One
Crore per year globally.
· Smoking decreases the desirable HDL Cholesterol.
· The smoker is likely to cause the respiratory infections to
his children also.
· Your blood pressure increases even with one cigarette,
causing additional workload on heart. Even chances of clotting in the
blood and pulse rate increase. The blood vessels contract and harden
due to smoking.

Better future:
You may be smoking for a number of years; however quitting it reduces
your chances of heart disease. The chances of such a disease three
years after quitting become equal to those for a non-smoker. It is
very difficult to quit before you get a stroke. Even if you have
experienced one stroke, quitting smoking reduces the risk of second
attack.

Nicotine is a natural chemical in tobacco leaves, a chemical which
causes the addiction. It becomes as serious as Heroin or Coccaine
addiction. Even one puff of cigarette sends nicotine directly to the
brain. It causes secretion of chemicals which encourage to smoke
more.

Decide to quit in sufficient advance.

Keep a note of quitting date in Calendar or diary and inform about
your decision to your family, close friends. Develop physical and
mental ability and preparedness before quitting date. Few days before
and few days after the quitting date, ensure that mental tension is
not likely to develop. Instead of quitting suddenly, it is better to
quit gradually. About four weeks in advance, plan as follows:
- Reduce the quantity smoked by 25% every week;
- Choose a brand having lesser nicotine content or a brand
which you dislike;
- Reduce quantity and smoke lighter brand mixing the previous
approaches;
- On the day before the quitting date clean your environment
free of smoking thus:
o Throw away all cigarettes, lighters, ash-trays.
o Remove ash-tray from your car.
o Wash all clothes emitting nicotine smell
o Inform friends, family members and colleagues about your
decision so that they do not offer you a cigarette;
o Try to sleep peacefully previous night. Implement quitting
since next morning. Start the day with a little exercise and
nutritious breakfast. Assume yourself a healthy person from that day.
Congratulations!

Withdrawl symptoms:
If you start craving for a cigarette, remember the firm decision to
quit. Take a few deep breaths in outside fresh air. Mood changes,
miserable feelings, depression, lack of sleep, headache, indigestion,
gases, constipation are the usual experiences. For four to five days
your patience will be tested. However, the craving will reduce in
about two weeks. The addiction remains psychological rather than
physical. Psychological addiction, if smoking for five or more years,
never disappears. Your brain black mails you that it will not clear
bowels and make you miserable unless you offer it a cigarette. Hence
it is prudent to take some ayurvedic laxative a few days before you
quit. By adopting the usha pan chikitsa, exercise, morning walk,
nutritious food, healthy entertainment, the happiness will increase
and some weight gain may also be seen. To win over the depression, a
tea made of ginger powder, 11 Tulsi leaves and jaggery or crystal
sugar to taste can also be used.



For those residing in Maharashtra, India, ayurvedic medicines
equivalent to those mentioned in other mails are available. Every
cigarette will cause such a sensation that person will not like to
smoke anymore.

And for those who want to quit alcohol, a medicine which causes
immediate vomit of the alocohol after drink is also available at
Trimbakeshwar, Dist Nasik, Maharashtra, Inida. However, the desire to
quit is most important.

Dr Bhate

--- In ayurvedaonline@yahoogroups.com, curlymo <curlymo24@y...> wrote:
> I was noticing some e-mails about quitting smoking and
> I want to mention what I did that helped me quit after
> trying for soooo long and trying everything.