Smoking increases the chance of getting dementia, as well as lung and heart diseases. Ahead of No Smoking Day on 8 March 2023, Thames Valley Cancer Alliance (TVCA) is encouraging smokers to pledge to quit and take back your health.
If you’re a smoker, now is the perfect time to give quitting a go and feel the benefits – from better lung, heart, and brain health, to saving money. Around 5.4 million adults in England still smoke, and it remains the leading preventable cause of premature death.
There are so many reasons to quit – even if you’ve smoked for many years. Not everybody manages to quit first time, but each time you try is a stepping stone to success. It’s never too late to quit.
Your lungs, heart, and brain
John Park, Consultant Respiratory Physician at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and TVCA Lung Cancer Lead said:
“Every cigarette contains chemicals which are harmful to your lungs, and heart. And now new research has found that if you smoke you are more likely to get dementia. But the good news is that if you stop smoking you not only reduce your risk of lung cancer and heart disease, but also of developing dementia.
“It’s never too late to make positive changes. Keeping your lungs and heart healthy in your forties and fifties will also help reduce your risk of dementia. The same chemicals which cause damage to the heart also cause damage to the brain.”
Research by ASH the anti-smoking campaign and Alzheimer’s Research UK shows that dementia is the most feared health condition for people over the age of 55, but that only 18% of smokers know that smoking causes dementia. This compares to over 70% who know that smoking causes lung cancer.
How to quit
For your health and your wallet – remember the average smoker who quits saves around £2,450 a year – if you’ve decided to quit smoking this March, here are ten top tips to help you succeed:
- Pick a quit date and add it to your calendar
- List your reasons to quit
- Use stop smoking aids to help manage cravings
- Change your routine if you smoke at certain times of day
- Tell people you are quitting
- If you’ve tried to quit before, remember what worked
- Have a plan if you are tempted to smoke
- List your smoking triggers and how to avoid them
- Keep cravings at bay by keeping busy
- Exercise away the urge
Need more motivation? For tips, tools, and support, visit NHS Quit Smoking. There’s a range of free support for those looking to quit, including the NHS Quit Smoking app (download for iPhone, download for Google Play), an online Personal Quit Plan, and local stop smoking service look-up tool, as well as advice on stop smoking aids.
In Oxfordshire, use these quit supports:
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