Should I Vaccinate My Child? – We Can Help
Here in Bucks County, PA, and all over the world, childhood vaccinations have saved countless children from suffering and death due to severe childhood diseases. The cases of measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, polio, whooping cough, and other serious childhood infections have practically disappeared, thanks to these childhood vaccines and improved healthcare.
However, some people have come to the conclusion that since the diseases are now quite rare, the shots are no longer necessary. Because of this, the illnesses are making a resurgence in some areas. For instance, while measles was declared eradicated from the U.S. in the year 2000 by the W.H.O., since 2010, hundreds of cases a year have occurred, with more than 1200 in 2019.
Parents should talk to their children’s doctors about the necessity of childhood vaccinations. The most important childhood vaccines have been in service for decades, and throughout that time, medical teams have been continuously monitoring and improving them. These include:
- DTaP, which protects against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), and tetanus
- MMR, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella
- Hib, which protects against a type of bacterial influenza occurring mostly in infants and young children
- IPV, which protects against polio
The recommended childhood vaccine schedule is designed to provide immunization when the child’s immune system can best support the action of the vaccine. However, this can be adjusted as necessary, specific to your child’s needs, with the consultation of your doctor. For instance, if your child is ill during the time when a vaccine would normally be administered, the CDC recommends delaying the vaccine until your child’s immune system is again working robustly.
If your child is immunocompromised, talk to your doctor about the best steps to take for each of the vaccines. Your doctor may recommend a delay of one or another type of shot until your child is stronger.
Most childhood vaccines have few if any complications. Occasionally a vaccine may cause a sore arm, redness, crankiness, or a low-grade fever. Your doctor will inform you of what to expect and what symptoms may be of concern, necessitating a call to the doctor’s office.
The likelihood of a serious reaction to these long-standing and proven childhood vaccines is minute, while the complications from the diseases themselves are severe. Only just a few generations ago, most families experienced the sorrow of losing a child to one of these devastating diseases.
We at BCHIP are here to help you make an informed decision to protect your children and other children from these serious illnesses. If you do not have a doctor for your child, contact us to answer any questions and help direct you to an excellent doctor in your area.
When a Loved One Won’t Stop Smoking
If you have a loved one who can’t or won’t stop smoking, you’re both in a difficult position, but it’s not hopeless. Smoking is an addiction, not unlike alcohol or other substance abuse. The addiction makes it very difficult for the addicted person to realize he has a problem in the first place, want to quit, and successfully kick the habit.
Just as with other addictions, your loved one has to first admit he has a problem. Once he recognizes that his smoking is a problem, he needs a successful plan and a supportive team in order to successfully quit.
You may have very valid objections to his smoking: you may have a baby, a compromised immune system, or allergies, or you just think it’s a gross habit. But these are your objections. The smoker needs to find his own internal motivations to outweigh the pleasure or benefits he experiences from smoking.
For instance, some people smoke to help calm down and manage stress. Others may have started smoking as an act of rebellion or “growing up” or to fit in with a group, and although they may have outgrown those reasons, subconsciously the memories remain. But ultimately, they still smoke because their bodies are now addicted. It will take not only willpower but possibly some medical intervention to help your loved one quit, if and when he decides to quit.
Helping your loved one want to quit
The decision to quit smoking is highly personal. Don’t shame, preach, tease, or shun your loved one because of his choice. If you have children or your own health issues, you have the right to insist that your loved one not smoke in your presence or the children’s presence, but you cannot demand that he change his lifestyle.
Believe in your loved one and always bear in mind that people who cannot stop smoking have both a physical and emotional addiction to it. If, for instance, your husband started smoking at age 15 as a sign of rebellion against overly-strict parents, your nagging will reinforce that negative subconscious memory and make him dig his psychological heels in even deeper. So try to be sensitive to these issues.
Try to talk to him calmly about it. Ask him if he sees smoking as a problem. Ask him what he thinks about all the medical evidence showing that smoking is a major factor in heart disease, stroke, cancer, lung disease, and premature aging. Ask him why he still smokes. Seek first to understand.
If you start by understanding where he’s coming from, you will then be able to present your concerns and objections in a more loving and less offending matter. You can tell him that, even if he is not concerned about the medical issues for himself, you’re sure he wouldn’t want his children to get tar in their lungs from his cigarette smoke, and he certainly wouldn’t want them to pick up the habit and risk their own health, just because they see their dad smoking. Tell him what a great example he would set for them if they see their father stop doing something that he enjoys out of love for them.
Tell him you want to have him with you for many years to come, as a living human being and not just a photo on the mantelpiece. Tell him you know he is strong and can quit if he wants to, and you’re there to help him when he’s ready. If you are sincere, this will give him a boost of confidence, and it puts the ball in his court to decide when he’s ready.
Finally, you may want to enlist the help of his physician. Cold statistics are not as convincing as a doctor in a white coat standing in front of him telling him, “Here’s your health condition, and this is where you’re heading if you don’t quit smoking. It won’t be pretty, and it will be very painful, a lot more painful than the temporary discomfort of quitting.”
If your loved one admits he would like to quit but there are certain situations in which he enjoys a cigarette, for instance, with his morning coffee and when he relaxes after work, ask him if he’d be willing to reduce his smoking to just those two times. An incremental cessation, though more difficult for some people, might work for him. Many people have successfully resisted the urge to smoke during the day by saying, “I’ll hold out until my evening cigarette.” Decreasing gradually can make it easier to quit eventually.
At BCHIP, we have an excellent, free smoking cessation program that has helped countless people overcome the habit. When your loved one seems open to a calm conversation about it, you can look through our program together, promise him he has your support, and ask him to talk to one of our experts to help him take the first steps towards a smoke-free life.
Why Is It So Hard to Quit Smoking?
While many people have successfully quit smoking, they will tell you it wasn’t easy. Many other people – perhaps you – have tried to quit more than once but have not yet been successful. But don’t give up. There are reasons why it’s so hard, and when you address those reasons, you can quit. BCHIP has a free online Quit Smoking Program for residents of Bucks County that will help you address the issues and succeed the next time you try.
Biological reasons why quitting is hard
Most people know that smoking is addictive and that nicotine is the main culprit. Nicotine stimulates the parts of the brain that release chemicals that make you feel good. When you feed your brain nicotine frequently, the nicotine changes the way your brain works, and eventually your brain will need nicotine in order to release these feel-good chemicals. We call this requirement an addiction.
If you don’t have the nicotine when your brain thinks it needs it, you will feel irritable or jittery, anxious or low. You may have trouble concentrating or sleeping. These feelings are what we call withdrawal, which is one of the reasons why it’s so hard to quit. Naturally, in order to feel well again, you will be tempted to reach for a cigarette (or whatever nicotine product you use).
The good news is that, once your brain is starved of nicotine for a few weeks, it goes back to being able to operate just fine without it, and you won’t need a cigarette to feel well or to concentrate anymore.
Social and lifestyle reasons why quitting is hard
The other reason why it’s so hard to quit smoking is because, if you’ve been smoking for a while, you will associate many of your activities with smoking. This includes routine activities such as eating or drinking, work activities such as concentrating on a difficult project or staying late at the office, and relaxation activities, such as hanging out with friends or relaxing with a drink and a cigarette.
An even bigger challenge than saying “no” to your brain is saying “not anymore” to your lifestyle. You’ll have to start doing things differently, and you’ll want to enlist friends and family to help you. You’ll need to change your routines at least a little, so you can send a signal to your brain that “this is new; we’re doing things differently now” and you won’t automatically associate the activity with smoking anymore.
One of the things we teach you in the smoking cessation program is to brainstorm simple changes to your daily rituals. For instance, if you usually sit at the kitchen table in the morning and have a cigarette with your morning coffee, instead try tea or an energy smoothie that wouldn’t taste good with a cigarette. Still want your coffee in the morning? Then change your setting. Instead of the kitchen, sit on the patio. Eat pretzel sticks or baby carrots instead of smoking a cigarette.
The other benefit of our Quit Smoking Program is that we show you how to build support among your friends and family. If your friends are smokers, you’ll need to tell them you’re trying to quit and that you’ll need to back off for a while until you succeed, so you’re not around the smell of smoke. That will be hard, but good friends will support you in this. Your family will also want to help you improve your health by quitting smoking.
Motivation to quit
Another important part of quitting smoking is having a really good reason to do so. Is it because you’re tired of smelling like smoke and having discolored teeth? Is it because you feel like you’re always coughing or catching every illness going around, or because you get winded going up the steps? Or is it so you can be there for your children in 20 years? Pick your motivation and put reminders where you’ll see them.
In the BCHIP Quit Smoking Program, we’ll help you get on track to success, providing education, tools, and the support you need from others who are undertaking the same challenge.
Start today. Register here, or call 267-291-7882.
College Kids and Health Care Directives – What Parents Need to Know
When your child turns 18, he or she is considered a legal adult. If you do not put the right legal documents in place, you lose all rights to know about or get involved in his or her medical care. Even if your child uses your health insurance and even if you pay the bills, according to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) a parent must have an 18-year-old child’s permission to be informed about the child’s health or to make medical decisions if the child is unable to do so.
For residents in Bucks County, PA, we can help ensure that the right legal documents are in place in case you need to get involved in medical care decisions.
Imagine your child is a few states away, miles from home, and is lying unconscious in the hospital. The hospital has no authority or responsibility to contact you, and your child’s roommate, RA, or other school official calls. Unfortunately, it’s too late for your child to sign forms to put you in charge of his or her care.
This is a nightmare situation, which unfortunately happens frequently, even when a child is still in high school and living at home at age 18. But it can be very easily avoided by having your child complete an advanced medical care directive (also called a living will). BCHIP has sample forms to make it easy for you. For a young person, it does not have to be very elaborate.
Your child should complete a medical directive and medical power of attorney and include more than one person, for instance, Mom, Dad, maybe grandmother or grandfather in the event that the parents cannot be reached. The documents should also include HIPAA authorization. The documents need to be signed by your child and the other parties named and signed by witnesses who are not the parties named.
Make copies and supply them to your child’s doctors and school, and keep a copy for yourself. Your child should also have a copy if living away from home. You may wish to have scanned copies or photos on an online document source for easy access in case of emergency.
Hopefully, you will never need this document, but if you don’t have it and your child is incapacitated, you may have to go to court to receive authority over your child’s healthcare. Prevent that nightmare by signing a simple healthcare directive with your child.
How to Talk to Your Children about Your Estate Planning
If you have adult children, the time is now to talk to them about your estate plan, including your Advance Healthcare Directive. While you may expect it to be an awkward conversation, the awkwardness often dissipates once you begin talking things out.
An advance healthcare directive is much like a will, and thus, healthcare planning is much like estate planning. Just as you don’t want to leave the distribution of your remaining assets to chance or leave the kids fighting over who gets what, you don’t want to leave your kids arguing over what medical care you should receive when you are unable to speak for yourself. Therefore, if you are creating an estate plan for your worldly goods, create an Advance Healthcare Directive for your health.
Talking about your plans and wishes before you are unable to do so – such as due to serious illness or mental decline – will take away much of the stress and the guesswork to try to figure out “what Mom or Dad would want.”
Having the conversation
Try not to go into the conversation feeling awkward. Rather, point out at the start that the discussion should, in fact, settle fears, avoid future conflict, and limit strain on the family.
Based on your own particular family dynamics, you may choose to talk to the kids separately or together. However, speaking to them all together at least once – perhaps at the onset – will allow you to give them the big overall picture of your plans.
At this group meeting, discuss whom you have chosen to take on various responsibilities and why. You will need, at the very least, an executor of your will and someone who will hold medical power of attorney to make medical decisions based upon your wishes, as defined in your Advance Healthcare Directive, also known as a “living will.”
While you will want to discuss the division of your assets during this meeting, your healthcare directive will probably need a good deal more explaining. In your directive, you will have defined what life-sustaining care you want, what procedures you want and don’t want, and your moral, religious, and ethical considerations to guide your medical power of attorney on any specific matters that are not clearly defined in your advance directive.
This discussion will undoubtedly generate a lot of emotion. Answer questions honestly. Explain your reasoning and the research you have done. Be willing to hear their ideas and suggestions, and be willing to make minor adjustments, if you think they have good points. However, if you have taken the time to research and consider your healthcare directives, you probably should not change them too extensively. These are your express wishes, after all.
Finally, offer to talk to each person individually. They may feel more comfortable speaking to you one-on-one about these serious and emotional decisions. Just keep in mind that planning ahead will benefit your loved ones in the long run.
If you have not yet completed your Advance Directive, BCHIP provides an Advance Healthcare Directive form to help you think ahead about what care you would like to receive and what decisions you would like made on your behalf.
What Should Be Included in Your Advance Care Planning?
What is advance care planning and how can you complete it? Our team here in Bucks County is here to help you, your friends, and your loved ones put together these important documents so your wishes are clearly understood and legally stated should something happen to you.
Medical science has improved dramatically in recent years, to the point that we are able to save the lives of people who would surely have died only a few short decades ago. This has been a great blessing for many, but it has also led to situations in which unresponsive individuals who have no reasonable hope of recovery are kept alive for extended periods of time.
Often, at the end of our lives, we are unable to speak for ourselves to define what level of care we would like to receive. For this reason, BCHIP provides an Advance Healthcare Directive form to help people think ahead about what care they would like to receive and what decisions they would like made on their behalf, should they become incapacitated and unable to make these decisions for themselves.
The sections of the Advance Healthcare Directive that you will have to consider include:
- Whether or not you will want life-sustaining medical care, what kind, and under what situations
- Whether or not you want to donate your organs or tissues, if you are a candidate
- What you consider your acceptable quality of life
- What comfort care you would like provided
- Any other instructions you would like followed, regarding moral, religious, or ethical considerations
These issues are not easily or quickly answered. They require some thorough research on your part to understand the terms and what procedures are covered under each. You should then take time to deeply reflect on what would be the best decision for you and your family based on your ethics and beliefs. No one should push you to decide in any particular way, but make sure you are fully informed.
What does “life-sustaining” mean?
Life-sustaining treatment refers to treatment that sustains life and that without which, based on reasonable medical judgment, the patient would die. Since this definition is very broad, it can span many treatments that are considered standard care, such as insulin or dialysis. So you may want to make sure that such a broad definition is not used in your case. Many people live very full lives with life-sustaining procedures or treatments.
However, there are some treatments or interventions for a patient for whom death is fairly imminent—for instance, using mechanical means to sustain the heartbeat or breathing of a patient who no longer shows brainwaves. If this is your definition of life-sustaining and you do not want this type of intervention, you should clearly define this in your Advance Healthcare Directive.
Who will administer your wishes?
Once you have thought through these issues and have made some choices about your future healthcare, you will need to decide who will speak for you when you cannot speak for yourself and ensure that your wishes are followed.
Choose someone who shares your values about matters of life and death. You will want to choose more than one person since you will need an alternate agent in case your primary agent is unavailable. In fact, BCHIP recommends two alternate persons, if possible.
Many patients choose a spouse as the primary person and children or other close relatives as alternates. However, a close friend is also an excellent choice if you have shared values. Have a sincere conversation with these people, and explain your decisions and the research you did in order to inform yourself. Be open to their suggestions, as they may have additional information to help you in your decision process, but maintain your moral and ethical position, even if you see benefits in adjusting some of your original thoughts based on their input. These people love you and want the best for you.
Once you have completed your Advance Directive, make copies for each of your health care agents, keep a copy in your own home in a place that is easy to find (and tell your family where it is), provide one to your lawyer if you have one, and request that your primary physician make your Advance Directive a part of your permanent medical record.
You can update or adjust your Advance Directive at any time. Just make sure you provide updated copies to these individuals. It is wise to keep the older version with the newer one in your home, with the older version clearly marked VOID and the date of the newer version written on it
By taking these steps, you will be able to ensure that your healthcare preferences will be followed, should you be unable to speak for yourself.
National Influenza Vaccination Week Is December 5-9, 2022
Should I get a flu shot? Cold and flu season has just begun, so it’s not too late to get your flu shot to avoid a serious illness this year. Many people do not think ahead about getting the flu shot until they hear of people who come down with the flu.
If you get your shot early, you’ll have a high degree of confidence that you won’t be one of them.
What is the flu?
The flu is not just a “bad cold.” There are many forms of the influenza virus, but all produce more serious symptoms than those of the common cold.
A cold usually starts with a sore throat, followed by upper respiratory symptoms such as sneezing, coughing, and a runny nose. It comes on gradually and you may feel like you’re “coming down with something.” Cold symptoms make you feel under the weather, but rarely include aches and pains (besides a headache) and usually, there is no fever at all. Mild symptoms tend to be mostly gone within a week.
Influenza (flu), however, comes on suddenly, usually with little or no warning. You ache all over, have a splitting headache, high fever, upper respiratory symptoms, and exhaustion. You may also experience GI issues, such as diarrhea or vomiting. The flu is nasty.
Complications
What makes the flu particularly dangerous is the possibility of complications and secondary infections. In the 2018-2019 flu season, there were an estimated 29,000,000 symptomatic cases of flu, with 380,000 hospitalizations and 28,000 deaths due to influenza (per CDC).
The most common complications include bacterial pneumonia, dehydration, ear infections, and sinusitis. Other complications may include muscle inflammation, central nervous system issues, inflammation of the heart or the sac around the heart, and exacerbation of existing health conditions.
Who is most at risk of complications?
Those who are most at risk of complications from the flu are people 65 years or older, those in nursing homes, and both adults and children with chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease or lung disease, and those with compromised immune systems. In past flu seasons, 9 out of 10 adults hospitalized for flu had at least one underlying medical condition.
It’s never too late to get your flu vaccine, but the earlier you get it, the more confident you will be that you’ll make it through this season without catching the flu. Celebrate 2022’s National Influenza Vaccination Week by getting your flu shot and stay healthy this winter!
National Influenza Vaccination Week Is December 5-9, 2022
Should I get a flu shot? Cold and flu season has just begun, so it’s not too late to get your flu shot to avoid a serious illness this year. Many people do not think ahead about getting the flu shot until they hear of people who come down with the flu.
If you get your shot early, you’ll have a high degree of confidence that you won’t be one of them.
What is the flu?
The flu is not just a “bad cold.” There are many forms of the influenza virus, but all produce more serious symptoms than those of the common cold.
A cold usually starts with a sore throat, followed by upper respiratory symptoms such as sneezing, coughing, and a runny nose. It comes on gradually and you may feel like you’re “coming down with something.” Cold symptoms make you feel under the weather, but rarely include aches and pains (besides a headache) and usually, there is no fever at all. Mild symptoms tend to be mostly gone within a week.
Influenza (flu), however, comes on suddenly, usually with little or no warning. You ache all over, have a splitting headache, high fever, upper respiratory symptoms, and exhaustion. You may also experience GI issues, such as diarrhea or vomiting. The flu is nasty.
Complications
What makes the flu particularly dangerous is the possibility of complications and secondary infections. In the 2018-2019 flu season, there were an estimated 29,000,000 symptomatic cases of flu, with 380,000 hospitalizations and 28,000 deaths due to influenza (per CDC).
The most common complications include bacterial pneumonia, dehydration, ear infections, and sinusitis. Other complications may include muscle inflammation, central nervous system issues, inflammation of the heart or the sac around the heart, and exacerbation of existing health conditions.
Who is most at risk of complications?
Those who are most at risk of complications from the flu are people 65 years or older, those in nursing homes, and both adults and children with chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease or lung disease, and those with compromised immune systems. In past flu seasons, 9 out of 10 adults hospitalized for flu had at least one underlying medical condition.
It’s never too late to get your flu vaccine, but the earlier you get it, the more confident you will be that you’ll make it through this season without catching the flu. Celebrate 2022’s National Influenza Vaccination Week by getting your flu shot and stay healthy this winter!
How to Talk to Your Children about Your Estate Planning
If you have adult children, the time is now to talk to them about your Estate Plan, including your Advance Healthcare Directive. While you may expect it to be an awkward conversation, the awkwardness often dissipates once you begin talking things out.
An advance healthcare directive is much like a will, and thus, healthcare planning is much like estate planning. Just as you don’t want to leave the distribution of your remaining assets to chance or leave the kids fighting over who gets what, you don’t want to leave your kids arguing over what medical care you should receive when you are unable to speak for yourself. Therefore, if you are creating an Estate Plan for your worldly goods, create an Advance Healthcare Directive for your health.
Talking about your plans and wishes before you are unable to do so – such as due to serious illness or mental decline – will take away much of the stress and the guesswork to try to figure out “what Mom or Dad would want.”
Having the conversation
Try not to go into the conversation feeling awkward. Rather, point out at the start that the discussion should in fact settle fears, avoid future conflict, and limit strain on the family.
Based on your own particular family dynamics, you may choose to talk to the kids separately or together, however, speaking to them all together at least once – perhaps at the onset – will allow you to give them the big overall picture of your plans.
At this group meeting, discuss whom you have chosen to take on various responsibilities and why. You will need, at the very least, an executor of your will and someone who will hold medical power of attorney to make medical decisions based upon your wishes, as defined in your Advance Healthcare Directive, also known as a “living will.”
While you will want to discuss the division of your assets during this meeting, your healthcare directive will probably need a good deal more explaining. In your directive, you will have defined what life-sustaining care you want, what procedures you want and don’t want, and your moral, religious, and ethical considerations to guide your medical power of attorney on any specific matters that are not clearly defined in your advance directive.
This discussion will undoubtedly generate a lot of emotion. Answer questions honestly. Explain your reasoning and the research you have done. Be willing to hear their ideas and suggestions, and be willing to make minor adjustments, if you think they have good points. However, if you have taken the time to research and consider your healthcare directives, you probably should not change them too extensively. These are your express wishes, after all.
Finally, offer to talk to each person individually. They may feel more comfortable speaking to you one-on-one about these serious and emotional decisions. Just keep in mind that planning ahead will benefit your loved ones in the long run.
If you have not yet completed your Advance Directive, BCHIP provides an Advance Healthcare Directive form to help you think ahead about what care you would like to receive and what decisions you would like made on your behalf.
What to Expect When Your Child Is Vaccinated
Vaccines are an important part of fighting childhood diseases. Since the beginning of widespread vaccinations, many childhood diseases have become extremely rare, saving many children’s lives. But the germs are still out there. It’s important for children to continue to be vaccinated so that they do not contract these serious illnesses, such as measles, polio, and diphtheria.
Vaccines work by stimulating the body to create antibodies to a virus (or bacterium), thus giving the body a weapon to prevent infection with the disease. These antibodies are stimulated by introducing a dead or extremely weakened virus (or portion of a virus), which turns on your child’s immune system to fight off the invaders. Since the amount of the illness is very small, your child is very unlikely to become sick from the vaccine, but there could be some mild reactions to the virus. This is normal and should be expected.
Normal reactions to vaccines
Symptoms generally appear within 12-48 hours after being vaccinated. Common reactions to vaccines in children include:
- Swelling, redness, or pain around the area of the shot
- Fever
- Mild rash
- Sleepiness
- Fussiness
- Decreased appetite
These symptoms are normal and are generally considered a sign that the vaccine is working, because they show that your child’s immune system is trying to fight off the weakened or dead virus that has been introduced. However, these symptoms are still uncomfortable, and you may wish to ease your child’s discomfort.
Making your child more comfortable
We do not recommend painkillers or fever reducers for a fever under 102, because these medications may slow down your child’s immune response, thus lessening the effectiveness of the vaccine. However, you can make your child more comfortable:
- Gently and lightly massage the injection site three times a day or as needed to stimulate movement of the blood away from the area
- Apply a compress for about 10 minutes at a time – a warm compress increases blood flow, which could move the blood away from the area, but a cool (not cold) compress can be used if it makes your child more comfortable
- If the area of the shot is itchy or if the child develops a mild rash, apply a 1% hydrocortisone cream several times a day as needed
- Make sure your child remains well hydrated, especially infants, who may still be nursing. Children may enjoy ice pops or some other hydrating treat that is age-appropriate
- If your child’s fever is over 102 degrees, you may use acetaminophen to reduce the fever and ease discomfort
When you should seek help
Severe reactions are very rare, but you should watch your child for any of the following and call your doctor if he or she develops these symptoms:
- Redness becomes larger than two inches, becomes more painful after several days, or lasts more than a week
- Fever begins after two days or lasts more than three days
- Your child becomes worse rather than better or has extreme discomfort
- Your child is having any difficulty breathing
- Your child develops a rash that seems serious to you
- You are concerned and believe your child needs to be seen
As medical professionals, we respect parents’ instincts, so if you are concerned, call your doctor. However, be assured that serious reactions are very rare. The benefits of these childhood vaccinations have been demonstrated by the dramatic decrease in death and disability caused by these diseases since vaccines were introduced.
Great American Smokeout – November 17th
Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of illness worldwide, causing an estimated 1 in 5 preventable deaths worldwide. While the number of people smoking in the U.S. has decreased dramatically in recent decades, some communities have higher rates of smoking than others and consequently have disproportionately higher smoking-related cancers and other diseases. These communities include persons at lower socioeconomic levels, members of various ethnic communities, those in the military, and others.
It’s never too late to benefit from quitting smoking. No matter how long you’ve smoked, you will notice health improvements right away and will experience long-term benefits. but quitting smoking is hard. Not only is the smoker’s body addicted, but there is also a mental and social addiction that must be overcome.
In order to successfully overcome these powerful factors, it’s important to create a good plan and have the support to see it through. The Great American Smokeout on November 17, sponsored by the American Cancer Society, is a great day to put your plan into action and begin your new life without tobacco.
benefits of quitting smoking or tobacco use
According to the American Cancer Society, within minutes of quitting you begin to see health benefits, which continue to accumulate over time:
- Within 20 minutes after quitting your heart rate and blood pressure drop
- After a few days, carbon monoxide levels in your blood drop to normal
- Within two weeks to three months after quitting, your circulation improves and your lung function increases
- Within one to 12 months, depending on how much you smoked, coughing and shortness of breath decrease because the tiny cilia in your lungs that have the job of moving mucus out begin to regain their normal function and do their job of clearing your lungs
- Within one to two years of quitting, your risk of heart attack drops dramatically
- After five to ten years, your risk of mouth, throat, and larynx cancer is cut in half
- After 10-15 years, your risk of lung cancer is half that of someone who never quit, risks of other cancers decrease, and your risk of coronary disease is close to that of a non-smoker
Quitting also slows premature wrinkling of your skin and gum disease that can cause the loss of your teeth. Other benefits: your food tastes better, your sense of smell improves, teeth and nails are no longer yellow, and your clothes and breath smell better.
besides the physical benefits, quitting smoking saves a significant amount of money that could be put to some other use.
Trying to quit
The benefits listed above are very powerful reasons to quit smoking. You may have other personal reasons, such as not wanting to smoke around your children. Whatever your reason, you will look back a year from now, feeling so much healthier, and be glad you committed to quitting.
When you’re ready to quit, you should prepare ahead of time in order to increase your chances of success.
First, pick a date. The Great American Smokeout is a great day to start or pick your own. It may be a day significant to you – for instance, the date of your wedding anniversary would be meaningful if you’re doing it for your family. Or if a loved one died of lung cancer from smoking, you could pick that day as added motivation, and to honor your loved one who died.
Once you have a day, prepare by decreasing smoking as the day approaches. begin changing habits. For instance, if you started your day with coffee and a smoke, skip the smoke. Or if coffee triggers your desire for a smoke, switch to something that won’t taste good with a cigarette, like orange juice or a smoothie.
Tell your friends and family that you’re planning on quitting and that you need their help. If your family or friends smoke, ask them not to smoke around you. Ask them to help hold you accountable and help distract you when a craving comes along.
Remove all cigarettes, lighters, ashtrays, and any other tobacco-related items from your house, car, office area, etc. Stock up on oral substitutes, such as sugarless gum, carrot sticks, toothpicks, etc.
Talk to your doctor about your desire and see if he or she recommends any prescription help or nicotine replacements if you have been a heavy smoker.
Make a plan for how you will succeed. No one has to go it alone. Here at bCHIP, we have programs that provide support and information. We have a 5-week program to set you on the right path and no matter what turns your journey takes, we can help you stay on that path.
When the day comes, make a really big deal of it! Reward yourself with something that makes you happy to celebrate your decision.
Helping loved-ones quit
If you have any loved ones whom you want to quit smoking, share with them this information and some of the other resources we have here at bCHIP or at the American Cancer Society website.
Remember, your loved ones will only be successful if they want to change. but you could remind them of the day, let them know how important they are to you, and then provide a bit of literature about our programs to help them stop smoking.
Don’t start fighting with them. being adversarial, condescending, or shaming them in any way will not help your cause. If they choose to quit, be the helpful support that you would want if you were trying to overcome a bad habit. Don’t offer advice, nag, or tease. build up their confidence and celebrate each day and each week that they stick to the plan.
And remember, whether it is you or a loved one trying to quit, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! Many people need to try to quit more than once in order to succeed. Whatever caused you to give in, consider it a learning opportunity, make a plan to avoid that trigger next time, and start again. The benefits are well worth the effort.
