Time to Quit Smoking

As I noted in my profile I am a smoker. Have been now for about 25 years. I would say that I smoke between 15-25 per day – depends on what I am doing really, or how busy I get during the day. For example, I tend to smoke a lot when I am at the Casino! But the thing is, I do not even like smoking, it’s more a ‘habit’ I guess, I get cravings for a smoke.

I smoke full flavor cigs, Seneca 100’s if you must know, but have been seriously thinking about quitting. Both for health reasons and it is really a waste of money. Truth be told though, I am not the ‘cold turkey’ type and honestly do not think I could do that. So I was thinking of setting a date to stop (and more than likely follow the patch plan) but until then I was thinking of switching to a lighter brand to cut down on the nicotine…not a bad idea, right?

But I remember reading or heard on the news, can’t remember exactly, that low-tar or light cigarettes are just as harmful as full-flavor cigs. Is that true? How can that be? After all, I will be getting less tar which will be good and most importantly – less nicotine - which is what I am addicted to and why I keep puffing these things.

But according to the Federal Government's National Cancer Institute (NCI) light cigarettes provide no benefit to smokers' health.* According to report, the reason is that people are more than likely to who switch to light cigarettes from regular cigarettes are likely to inhale the same amount of hazardous chemicals, and they remain at high risk for developing smoking-related cancers and other diseases.

And now for some good and bad news – for me at least – the NCI go on to say that there is also no evidence that switching to light or ultra-light cigarettes actually helps smokers quit. In fact, a smoker of full’s will more than likely smoke more! Just to get the nicotine the body is used to. Hmmm. So maybe that is not such a good idea….but the good news is that if I can quit before I am 50 I will cut my risk of ‘dying’ from lung cancer and other smoking related chronic disease by one half! So maybe it is time to suck it up and just do it.

So I am going to try. Quit I mean. I am setting a date of June 26^th as THE DAY. I know, I know, why not just do it right now. Well I have already had a few this morning so today is shot and I have a brand new carton in the house. (Excuses….?) Truth be told I think I need to actually set myself deadline when I am going to stop and prepare myself with things like what to when a crave hits me...etc.

Wish me luck….

*National Cancer Institute. Risks Associated with Smoking Cigarettes with Low Machine-Measured Yields of Tar and Nicotine. Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph 13. Bethesda, MD: NCI 2001

Update: Well, the patches were not working. I mean they did sort of take away the cravings but I was still smoking along with it. Plus they gave me too vivid dreams! Not nightmares but weird dreams. And i guess the point of this is to rid myself of the 'nicotine' which using patches is not. Same thing - different form. So I started to look for different avenues - saw a commercial on CigArrest which is supposed to be natural. I also came across Nicocure which has good reviews, better than the CigArrest. Who knows I may try them all. I also am curious about the e-cigs that have become popular. Blu Cigs is about the only one I have found that does not have automatic monthly commitment.