Quitting Smoking

• Quitting Smoking
• Stopping Smoking
• Smoking Cessation
• Kicking the Habit
  By Dr. Shafiq Qaadri, MD

Smoking is a universal evil. As doctors, we know that smoking helps to bring on, to trigger, to accelerate

• Heart disease
• Heart attacks
• Strokes
• Poor leg circulation, known as Peripheral Artery Disease
• Kidney damage
• Erection problems
• Lung damage like COPD
• Worsening Diabetes
• Asthma
• Lung Cancer

The most amazing scenario is the patient who is taking many different kinds of medication, for High Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, may even Diabetes, yet continues to Smoke. Medically, this is a slow and steady self-poisoning.

But we also know that Smoking is an

An Unrepentant Smoker

• ADDICTION
• A CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY

Other reasons to consider quitting include:

• I no longer enjoy smoking cigarettes
• Im scared of getting sick or dying (from things like lung cancer or emphysema)
• Smoking has already hurt my health
• Smoking is making me feel sick
• I cant catch my breath
• Im tired of smelling like smoke
• People close to me have suffered because of their smoking
• I dont want to expose my family and friends to secondhand smoke
• My friends and/or family want me to quit
• I feel like a social outcast
• I just got married
• Weve just had a baby
• Im spending too much money on cigarettes
• I want to take control of my health
• I dont want to have a Heart attack or Stroke

We also know that many people have tried to quit, but just cant, because their bodies are dependent, addicted to getting regular nicotine hits. Because thats what a cigarette is, an ingenious drug delivery system for the chemical toxin nicotine.

• Cravings and Withdrawal symptoms

Cravings and Withdrawal symptoms are those feelings that youve just got to have a cigarette or youll faint, or wont get through your day, or wont survive an argument, or cant handle the shakes and headaches and nervous edginess. Its the feeling or urge to smoke because of

• NICOTINE HUNGER
• NICOTINE DEPENDENCY

Help give yourself a fighting chance to quit smoking. Along with counselling and education, and specifically designed step-by-step QUIT SMOKING program, help yourself by learning about all the SMOKING CESSATION OPTIONS.

Remember, its never too late to quit smoking.

Fully Equipped

I wish you all success in taking control of your Health.

TAKE THIS MESSAGE TO HEART.

Dr. Shafiq Qaadri is a Toronto family physician and Continuing Medical Education lecturer. www.doctorQ.ca