On the 31st May this year, it was World Smokefree Day 2013. For one whole day, the entire world was focused on the idea of smoking cessation. Whether you took part in World Somkefree Day or not, it may be a really good opportunity for you to ask yourself some serious questions about your smoking habits. How would you feel, for example, about stopping smoking for one day? Does the very idea fill you with horror and anxiety? If so, you are deep in the grips of an addiction, and it may be time to get help.
With the right support, you can take this important step, which will probably be the single most useful thing you can do to benefit your wellbeing and restore the wellness of your lungs, to some extent.
The Asthma Foundation is urging all smokers to quit now, and give their lungs a chance to recover. In New Zealand alone, for example, it is thought that around 170,000 people live with respiratory health concerns that are directly related to their smoking. Respiratory disease represents a significant problem, both in health terms and in financial terms, as the effect on the health service is significant.
Using New Zealand as an example again, smoking causes 5,000 deaths every year, and also is associated with numerous unpleasant health concerns. Asthma is obviously an important one, with smokers who are asthmatics, or asthmatics who come into contact with smokers (in the home or workplace or socially) having a much higher risk of struggling to control their condition and needing increased levels of medication. Smoking is also associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and directly responsible for lung cancer. COPD comes in the form of emphysemia and chronic bronchitis, and it is suffered by 200,000 people in New Zealand, 80 percent of whom have it as a direct result of smoking.