DR FAITH B YISRAEL
Imani.Consulting.Tobago@gmail.com
Coincidentally, May 31, the day we celebrated Indian Arrival Day in Trinidad and Tobago, was also designated as World No Tobacco Day. The member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) came up with World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to 'draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes.' The theme for 2021 was: Commit to Quit.
Smoking and covid19
At the start of the campaign, WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, 'Smokers have up to a 50 per cent higher risk of developing severe disease and death from covid19, so quitting is (the) best thing smokers can do to lower their risk from this coronavirus, as well as the risk of developing cancers, heart disease and respiratory illnesses.'
Covid19 is an infectious disease that primarily attacks the lungs. Smoking can cause lung disease by damaging your airways and the small air sacs found in your lungs. This damage makes it harder for the body to fight off coronaviruses and other diseases. Tobacco is also a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes which put people with these conditions at higher risk for developing severe illness when affected by covid19.
Why is it hard to quit smoking?
According to the American Thoracic Society, 'Nicotine is a chemical that is present in all forms of tobacco. Nicotine is also found in electronic cigarettes and the liquid used in ends (electronic nicotine delivery systems).' Nicotine is highly addictive. When a person uses tobacco, either by smoking cigarettes, using chewing tobacco or by using another form of tobacco, nicotine enters the body and activates nicotine receptors in the brain.
The faster the delivery of nicotine to your body, the greater the addictive effect on the brain. Cigarettes have been designed to give high levels of nicotine to the brain very quickly. When you smoke a cigarette it only takes six to ten seconds for the nicotine to reach your brain. This makes smoking tobacco very addictive and difficult to stop.
Shortly after smoking their last cigarette, smokers start to feel a negative mood change. This 'withdrawal' from the chemical nicotine makes the smoker uncomfortable. Many smokers report feeling anxious, irritable and restless when they stop smoking. This is because they are not getting what the brain feels it needs to work well. Smokers usually experience relief from these unpleasant feelings as soon as they smoke again, use other tobacco products, or nicotine replacement medications.
Ways to quit
It is clear that quitting smoking is hard. As a result, I did some research about techniques that have a proven record of actually working. Allow me to describe the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) smoking cessation guidelines. Nice is an independent public body that provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care in England. Although th
