INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — For the estimated 50 million Americans who smoke cigarettes, the New Year brings a great opportunity to quit.
Some people try to go “cold turkey” and can set themselves up not only for failure, but for a miserable few weeks — both for themselves and for everyone around them.
Symptoms of nicotine withdrawal start right away, and depending on the extent and duration of the smoker’s use of cigarettes, can be severe. Medical studies tracking long-term success rates show that the best way to not become one of the 97 percent of people who stop smoking abruptly — without help — and quickly fail, is to have a plan which includes something to help with the physical addiction, combined with behavioral modification, emotional support and encouragement.
About two decades ago, Indian River Medical Center started hosting stop-smoking classes on its campus and elsewhere in the community. A new class begins on Jan. 11 and there are still spots open for those who want to join.
The course is funded through the Florida tobacco settlement money and includes instruction, course materials and free over-the-counter stop smoking aids, doled out one week at a time as long as the participant attends regularly.
Respiratory Therapist Rebecca Abbott facilitates the twice-per-year classes, along with fellow respiratory therapist Karen Bleakley. Abbott was hesitant about taking on the task because she’s never smoked herself, but she was passionate about helping people quit smoking because of the sad, chronic cases of pulmonary disease that she sees at the hospital every day.
“I want to catch people before they become one of my patients,” she said.
The class is not a quick-fix and Abbott said she does not recommend that students quit smoking the first week of class. She said it’s better to get comfortable with the idea of quitting and have realistic expectations about what it will be like and what resources will be there when the going gets tough. The third class is normally “quit night,” she said.
Nicotine is as addictive as heroin or cocaine, but even more insidious due to its legality and widespread availability. Addiction to nicotine, whether it’s an occasional social habit or a constant, two-pack per day obsession, usually doesn’t start overnight and can take weeks or several months to kick for good. But the health and economic benefits start right away — at today’s prices which average $4.25 per pack, a two-pack per day habit costs about $3,100 per year.
Abbott said the economics of smoking has been driving more and more people to her class.
“We get people who are out of work and just can’t afford their cigarettes anymore, these are people who have smoked two or three packs per day,” she said. “And some companies are now making employees who smoke pay more for their group health insurance.”
This can be motivating in one sense, but if the smoker doesn’t also want to quit for personal reasons, the resentment over having to quit can make the frustration and irritability even worse. Having the support of a group of other people struggling with kicking the smoking habit gives the class participants an outlet to vent these feelings, without making what may be an already stressful situation at home even worse.
For people who can still afford their cigarettes but are moved to quit smoking because of health, professional or social reasons, Abbott suggests they put away the money they would have spent on cigarettes for a big reward for themselves after one year of being smoke free.
“They can take a cruise or go on that dream vacation or buy something they’ve always wanted,” she said.
For the more practical person, that cash could be stashed in a retirement account or a college savings account for the kids or grandkids.
Kids and grandkids, by the way, are the impetus for many smokers who seek help in becoming non-smokers. Second-hand smoke has been shown to be harmful to people who breathe it, but especially to children. Plus, there’s the “role model” factor for people who don’t want their kids or grandkids picking up the habit of smoking because they’re emulating mom or dad or grandma. With 20 percent of high school students admitting to smoking cigarettes in the past 30 days, there must be someone out there who they think is “cool” who puffs away on cigarettes.
The daily routine, Abbott said, is part of the thing that makes quitting so hard.
“A lot of smokers wake up with having a cigarette being the first thing on their minds. They can’t have a cup of coffee without a cigarette,” she said. “Or some people only smoke when they drink and they can’t have that drink without the cigarette.”
Learning how to break those habitual connections can require time, patience and replacing the cigarette with something else, a new and hopefully healthier routine. Unfortunately, for many people trying to quit, they satisfy the oral fixation with food, leading to discouraging weight gain.
“Some people set a limit, they’ll say 10 pounds and if they gain more than 10 pounds, they’ll go back to smoking,” Abbott said. “I’m not saying that it’s good to gain weight, but from a health perspective, you would have to gain 100 pounds to do the same amount of damage as smoking.”
The good news is that once you’re over that “hump” of the first few days, withdrawal symptoms begin to ease and get slightly better every day. Quitting smoking can lower blood pressure in less than one hour. After 12 hours tobacco free, the carbon monoxide levels in the blood drop back to normal. After only two to three weeks, circulation and lung function increases. After just a few months, coughing and shortness of breath decrease and the lungs begin to regain normal function, provided that irreparable damage has not already been done.
For those who are truly ready to quit smoking, but need some help getting through the period of withdrawal, nicotine replacement products may not be enough. Acupuncture Therapist and Doctor of Chinese Medicine Angela King, owner of Indian River Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine in Vero Beach, treats patients with acupuncture for smoking and other addictions and she said the treatments help give quitters the edge they need to get through the toughest first month without cigarettes.
“I fully believe in the role that Western medicine has to play, but what we do is different, we look at all the things that a patient is experiencing and see them as being related,” she said. “Most people don’t get seen by someone who is looking at the whole picture.”
A lifelong resident of Vero Beach and valedictorian of her 1991 graduating class from Vero Beach High School, King returned to Vero Beach four years ago to establish her practice. Her training involves 3,000 hours of study and treating 350 patients for various maladies.
Another therapy that can help with smoking cessation, should the patient be open to trying it, is hypnosis.
Most people use a combination of tools to combat all the physical and emotional aspects of quitting in order to stay tobacco free for the rest of their lives, even during times of stress or turmoil, when it can be so easy to slip back into old habits.
