Must Have A Quit Smoking Plan

One Navy guy (Wil Dieck) smoked nonstop for 10 years and had a serious cigarette addiction. It all stopped in 1978. He left the Navy smoking two packs daily. Then, some six months after getting out, he  realized risking his health for several minutes of pleasure from smoking didn’t make sense. Even though he exercised, he knew his strength and stamina weren’t what they used to be. He came to the conclusion that a quit smoking plan was in order – one that would get rid of the nasty habit permanently.

These days you can quit many different ways, but back in the day, smokers relied on hypnotherapy for smoking, coupled with a good dose of willpower. The Navy man slightly deviated from the usual and used a variation of the two methods.

Willpower is most effective if the smoker is of the right frame of mind. Usually, a lot of willpower is needed to quit smoking. A person often has to make several attempts before the idea of quitting sticks. If you choose to rely on sheer willpower to give up smoking, don’t expect it to be a cake walk because it won’t.

Today, people who want to quit smoking have plenty of options. There’s using gum and patches to gradually lower nicotine intake. These came out sometime in the 1990s. They’re perfect for people who squirm at the thought of undergoing smoking withdrawal. How-to books on smoking cessation all have warnings regarding the  symptoms of smoking withdrawal that will likely be experienced.

With gums and patches, smokers are still able to get their daily nicotine dose minus lighting one up. This is how experts explain it. The gum and patches allow for weaning off the usual motions of lighting a cigarette and handling it. There’s none of the unpleasant withdrawal to deal with right away.

Experts are one in saying that nicotine patch therapy ought to be included in the overall stop smoking program. They also agree that some form of counseling, support and behavioral modification should be done. The main goal of therapy is to give up smoking completely and not simply cut down on it.

Doctors might automatically prescribe medications if you ask them about a reliable quit smoking plan. Some sold in the market include Wellbutrin and Zyban. These are basically anti-depressants that have shown success with stopping smoking for some people. With any quit smoking plan, it always helps to have a support system you can depend on for the rough times ahead.

Most smokers favor all-natural smoking cessation methods over taking drugs. Prescription pills, patches and gums don’t come cheap so it makes sense that smokers will want to go for less expensive alternatives. If you’re all for the natural treatment, better load up on St. John’s wort. You could also pencil in an appointment with a local smoking hypnotherapist.

Many have had success using hypnotherapy for smoking. The Navy guy combined visualization with affirmations to survive smoking withdrawal. Although it wasn’t exactly the same as hypnotherapy for smoking, it did utilize a lot of what hypnotists employed in their sessions.

Explore the numerous options out there regarding quit smoking plans. You could even craft your own based on what’s available. Once you’ve got a plan in place, think of ways to stop smoking that don’t clash with your lifestyle and personality. This is the true way to achieving smoking cessation success. If you’re bent on kicking the habit, the first step is making the decision and committing to it. Once this is done, start the plan ASAP.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy, a highly successful method that helps people to stop smoking that uses  NLP and hypnosis. In fact, hundreds of people, just like you, have used Total Mind Therapy to help them quit smoking. His office is located in the middle of Mission valley in beautiful San Diego. Wil is also the author of the e-Course ““Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”” that you can have at absolutely no charge. CLICK HERE to receive your FREE copy of “Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”.

There are more than a dozen schools of hypnotherapy (NLP) so be sure to do your research and choose the one that appeals to you most. You can also mix and match techniques to create an effective path to your ultimate goal of permanent smoking cessation.

One very popular technique is known as hypnosis. This therapeutic method has been in practice since the late 1800s. In the olden days, hypnosis was thought to be a hoax. Today, many health professionals recognize it as a very powerful way to change behavior. Understand that physical addiction is just one aspect of the smoking habit. You must adjust your mind if you want long term change.

When you use hypnosis, suggestions are introduced that will stay with you on a sub-conscious level. Once you have identified the hidden triggers that cause you to choose smoking, you can replace them with new triggers that are in opposition.

It is also very desirable to use very conscious efforts. With MLP, you can understand and focus on the ideas and thoughts that you have control over. When looked at with care, it is possible to influence them with logic and facts

You can create a list of all of the objects and events that you associate with smoking. This will enable you to use this approach. Whenever you start to reach for a cigarette, make a note of the time and the reason. Do you light up automatically as soon as you wake up in the morning? When your boss gives you some odious chore, do you immediately take a smoke break?

When you find the triggers, you can move them into your conscious awareness. Here you can use conscious thought to control them. Like old-fashioned psychoanalysis, hypnosis draws thoughts and issues out of the depths of the subconscious mind.

However, according to NLP these may not come from past events or childhood trauma. They may be the result of past thought processes. For this reason, it is possible to replace the old thoughts with new thoughts for good. It requires some conscious effort, though!

This process is neither automatic nor unemotional. Instead, one must harmonize thoughts and feelings.

If you want to succeed in the long term, you must be willing to put in the effort. If you know what motivates you when it comes to smoking, you are halfway there. It is just as important to take action to resolve the problem.

For example, you could redirect your thoughts to some other activity.

If you feel stressed, choose to exercise rather than smoking. This is twice the favor! If you just give up one cigarette, it is a step toward giving up your life threatening habit. You are building yourself up to a healthy body when you exercise. If you are having a glass of wine or a beer, choose to have some fruit, bread, chocolate, nuts, etc. with it instead of a cigarette.

Either way, the technique you are using is redirection. You must focus that desire to smoke a cigarette on something else. Then it becomes a situation that not only negates one episode of smoking, but also introduces a wanted and healthy alternative activity.

The only way to institute behavior modification on the long term is to reform old habits. Once upon a time you did not smoke. Go back to that time by developing a plan and following it step by step.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy, a highly successful method that helps people to stop smoking that uses  NLP and hypnosis. In fact, hundreds of people, just like you, have used Total Mind Therapy to help them quit smoking. His office is located in the middle of Mission valley in beautiful San Diego. Wil is also the author of the e-Course ““Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”” that you can have at absolutely no charge. CLICK HERE to receive your FREE copy of “Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”.

Today, almost everyone knows the role that long-term, heavy smoking plays in developing lung cancer and heart disease. What is sometimes overlooked is that it also plays a significant role in damaging dozens of other body systems as well as your overall health.

Apart from the specific damage smoking causes to the lungs, larynx and arteries, smoking also reduces the desire to exercise in most people. This is because many smokers relate smoking to lowering stress. By using a chemical to “lower” stress, your motivation to exercise is reduced. When you lower your oxygen concentration your arteries constrict causing a “smoker’s hack”. This reduces the incentives for healthy exercise even more.

Another of the major health effects of smoking is smokers tend to be more sedentary. This reduces your overall fitness. As a result, your body is less able to deal with the normal, everyday strains you put on it. What would be minor health problem for a non-smoker becomes a larger and more difficult problem for a smoker’s immune system to handle.

Long term, heavy smoking has more direct effects on every area of your body. Your odds of acquiring a variety of other cancers, such as cancer of the esophagus, the stomach and the cervix increase. It has also been linked to certain forms of leukemia.

An estimated 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking. Of all the major health effects of smoking, COPD is arguably the worst. Many long term smokers are affected by COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In fact, about one in four smokers contract this lung disease. It’s estimated that 80-90% of all COPD cases are associated with smoking. Emphysema, chronic bronchitis and asthma, which are other types of COPD, are also much more prevalent among smokers than non-smokers.

Another of the health effects of smoking is the increased odds of having an aortic abdominal aneurysm. This is a weakening of the lining of the blood vessel. This makes it much more likely to rupture. If this condition is not corrected within minutes, it is generally fatal.

One more of the health effects of smoking in women is osteoporosis. Postmenopausal women smokers have, on average, a lower overall bone density than those who have never smoked. That makes it more likely for them to suffer hip fractures from falls. This is especially a problem for the elderly because, as a result of subsequent complications, such bone fractures are sometimes fatal.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S and there is a direct correlation between smoking and heart disease. Smoking and the toxins in cigarette smoke cause plaques to form in your arteries, which leads to atherosclerosis. This hardening of the arteries is a major cause of heart problems and disease.

The most well known ill-health effect of long-term, heavy smoking is lung cancer. Close to 90% of men’s lung cancer deaths and 80% of women’s are linked to cigarette smoking.

While ‘long term’ is vague, studies have found that the longer the habit, the higher your odds of contracting one of these diseases. Some studies show that smokers in their 30s and 40s are five times more likely to have a heart attack than non-smokers. Another effect of long-term smoking is one-pack-a-day smokers are 2-4 times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than do non-smokers.

While the term ‘heavy’ is equally vague, one pack per day is the most often cited number. This also correlates well with the amount of cigarettes that most smokers smoke daily. It’s estimated that 87% of lung cancer disease cases in the U.S. are the result of smoking a pack per day for 20 years or more.

Do you want to lower your risk and increase your odds of living longer? Then find a method to help you quit smoking today. Within 3 months your circulation improves, greatly reducing your chances of heart disease. Your odds after a year of acquiring heart disease are half that of a smoker. After 5-15 years, your odds are that of someone who has never smoked.

Remember, it’s never too late to reverse the negative health effects of smoking. Start today to find a method to quit smoking that works for you. It’ll be the best thing you’ve ever done for your health.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy, a highly successful method that helps people to stop smoking that uses  NLP and hypnosis. In fact, hundreds of people, just like you, have used Total Mind Therapy to help them quit smoking. His office is located in the middle of Mission valley in beautiful San Diego. Wil is also the author of the e-Course ““Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”” that you can have at absolutely no charge. CLICK HERE to receive your FREE copy of “Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”.

Probably the best known lung disease is lung cancer. Thankfully people are better able to survive this disease today as a result of improved treatments. These relatively new treatments make it one of the few conditions that can actually be cured. Using a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, a person can emerge from lung cancer with excellent prospects of a somewhat normal lifespan and lifestyle.

One of the best reasons to want to stop smoking is COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), a lung disease that affects millions of people. From chronic bronchitis to emphysema there are many various forms of COPD. The problem with these, or any of the lesser known obstructive lung diseases, is there is no known cure for them yet.

The good news about these diseases is they are easily diagnosed and there are several effective treatments for COPD that can ease their symptoms. Through the use of bronchodilators for short-term relief and corticosteroids to improve long-term function, COPD sufferers can live fairly normal lives. Similar treatments for asthma have long been known and are used by millions of people of all ages.

Tuberculosis is an infectious lung disease caused by a bacterium known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). You can get it by breathing in the air droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person. It is easily diagnosed with a simple skin test. Since it is caused by a specific bacterium, it can be cured in most cases by any of a number of antibiotics.

The best treatment for any type of lung disease is prevention. Although there is no guarantee, particularly because the underlying causes of lung disease are often unknown, an individual can drastically improve his or her odds through their lifestyle choices.

Cigarette smoking, for example, is well-known as one of the major risk factors for a number of lung conditions. The odds of contracting lung cancer, COPD, and more are all about 10 times more likely among those who smoke a pack a day for years. Allergic asthma, while it isn’t caused by smoking, can be worsened by it, since it significantly reduces the body’s ability to deal with the disease.

On top of avoiding harmful substances like smoke and industrial chemicals there are some positive factors that can optimize your lung health.

For example, a diet rich in antioxidants may help lung tissue deal with irritants and invading organisms. Even caffeine and alcohol in moderation have been found to be beneficial. Regular, age-and-health-appropriate exercise helps to bolster your overall health and your immune system. At the same time, it produces benefits which have a direct bearing on your lung capacity and fitness. Keeping your home environment relatively free of fungi, dust, animal dander and other contaminants also helps protect your lungs from harm.

Knowing how your lungs function under normal circumstances can help you see some ways to keep them in the best possible working order. So do your best to keep your lungs in the best of health. If you do smoke then quit. Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death in the world today. The effects of lung disease should be one of the biggest reasons you have to want to quit smoking so do it today.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy, a highly successful method that helps people to stop smoking that uses  NLP and hypnosis. In fact, hundreds of people, just like you, have used Total Mind Therapy to help them quit smoking. His office is located in the middle of Mission valley in beautiful San Diego. Wil is also the author of the e-Course ““Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”” that you can have at absolutely no charge. CLICK HERE to receive your FREE copy of “Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”.

Many of the compounds that are in cigarette smoke are found in only trace amounts, in the range of nanograms, or one-billionth of a gram, for one cigarette. One gram weighs about 3/100 of an ounce so 1 g is about 0.0353 oz., not a large quantity. Nevertheless, there are a dozen or so chemicals that are not only potentially toxic, but found in significant quantities.

Tar, for example, is a part of nearly all cigarettes. It is found at varying levels, from 10-14 mg per cigarette. Even so-called ‘low tar’ cigarettes typically contain 8-9 mg. Just like its counterpart that coats chimney walls, it produces a black substance that coats the linings of the lungs. It’s this coating that interferes with the action of your alveoli.

The alveoli are tiny sacs in the lungs that allow for oxygen to be transported into your blood stream. Their life-giving action can also be hindered by very low amounts of carbon monoxide (CO).

The problem with carbon monoxide is that it bonds with hemoglobin in your blood. Hemoglobin is a molecule that plays a significant role in transporting oxygen in the body. CO interferes with that role, which makes the oxygen unavailable to your body. It has been found that in concentrations as low as 400 parts per million it can cause headaches. The average amount found in a cigarette is 13.4 mg.

Nicotine, of course, is one of the major ingredients found in cigarette smoke. In fact, it’s one of the primary reasons for cigarette addiction. What’s interesting is that nicotine by itself isn’t directly addictive. It’s the brain’s release of dopamine which produces some of the good feelings associated with the habit that a smoker is addicted to. Your withdrawal symptoms are in large part the result of those falling dopamine levels.

Though the level varies by brand there is approximately 1.2 mg of nicotine present in each cigarette. Your body absorbs less of a compound than is present in cigarette smoke but up to about 70% of the total is inhaled and therefore ingested. Also, most people smoke more than one cigarette per day. So, the total absorbed will be between 20-40 mg per day for the average smoker.

It’s also true that sometimes what sounds like a very tiny amount can cause a lot of harm. For example, it may require only a few dozen molecules in the air for a scent to be strong enough to be picked up by a dog’s nose. Many of the systems in your body are similarly sensitive.

There are several organic compounds present in cigarette smoke in even larger quantities. Today, when we read that something is organic we often translate it as a code-word for healthy. But in scientific terms it simply means that it is something that contains carbon (and usually oxygen and hydrogen, as well, often nitrogen, too). In other words, it contains elements often found in other living entities. But not all organic compounds are healthy for all living things, particularly humans.

Benzene, for example, is a type of organic solvent, similar to paint thinner. In fact, a common ingredient of paint thinner, toluene, is also present in cigarette smoke. Benzene concentrations are nearly 50 micro grams and toluene’s nearly 74 micro grams. Both of these chemicals are potentially harmful and you wouldn’t drink paint thinner would you?

The effects of cigarette smoking are well documented as well as the chemicals that are in them. The National Institute of Cancer estimates that about 87% of lung cancer cases are caused by cigarette smoking (30% of all cancers), many of them preventable.

The chemicals we have been talking about are only a few of the potentially harmful compounds in cigarette smoke. When they build up a sufficient concentration in your lungs and elsewhere that ‘potential’ is often converted into ‘actual’ which can cause all the diseases associated with the effects of smoking.

Smoking is the number one cause of preventable deaths in the world today. Don’t you think that it’s time to re-consider what you’re putting into your body? Do it for life.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy, a highly successful method that helps people to stop smoking that uses  NLP and hypnosis. In fact, hundreds of people, just like you, have used Total Mind Therapy to help them quit smoking. His office is located in the middle of Mission valley in beautiful San Diego. Wil is also the author of the e-Course ““Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”” that you can have at absolutely no charge. CLICK HERE to receive your FREE copy of “Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”.

First let’s analyze why cigarette smoking can seem pleasurable. At low dosages, nicotine, the main chemical in cigarettes, is a stimulant. Using nicotine increases your heart rate and raises your blood pressure. Those biological changes in your body interact to produce psychological ones in your mind. At certain levels the reactions to nicotine are perceived as pleasurable. At higher levels, nicotine seems to induce a relaxing state.

Both of these effects can appear to alleviate stress. The stimulation of nicotine generates alertness. This can be associated with a positive feeling. Of course this feeling is actually induced by the dopamine generated in your brain, which causes other changes to its pleasure centers. This release of dopamine has a clear and direct influence on your stress level. An easier and healthier way to create dopamine in your brain is to exercise.

What you need to understand is that physiologically, stress or anxiety and feeling the exhilaration of challenge are very similar. The key to the difference lies in how you evaluate your external events and your reactions. In NLP this is known as how you “frame” an event.

What is interesting is that in most societies today, few external events, if any, are inherently stressful. It all depends on how you evaluate their potential impact on your life and goals. Yet, the facts that lead to that evaluation are real. The loss of a loved one, the risk of losing a job, even everyday situations such as someone changing lanes rapidly in front of you on the highway are all potentially stressful.

Cigarette smoking and addiction come about because of the associations you have made with it. When you first started smoking you associated it to being cool or fitting into the group you wanted to be part of. You associated the act of smoking with a change in attitude, with feeling good. Now when you turn to smoking a cigarette to deal with stress you are actually reacting to a trigger that has been habitually anchored into your subconscious. You are substituting ingesting a chemical for a change in attitude. This is because you have linked this change of attitude to the habit of smoking, just like you did when you started smoking.

If someone cuts you off on the freeway it could be easy to conclude that everyone on the road is rude and dangerous. But this is obviously an overgeneralization. You understand that most people don’t take foolish risks on the road most of the time. You also understand that the risk of lower income from losing a job can happen. But you also might get another, even better, job in a day or a week.

When you want to quit smoking it can be difficult to take this type of positive attitude. This is one of the reasons that using most methods only about 6% of those who want to quit smoking succeed long-term on their first try. A lot of this comes from negative influencers and expectations.

There is one conscious method you can use to build up your positive attitude that can help you when reaching for a cigarette. Work on it while you are actively engaging in the habit. Examine all of the events, or triggers, that you associate with lighting up, especially those that don’t directly involve stress. For these triggers make a conscious effort to not smoke. This can be a very powerful and effective method to help you quit smoking.

For example, after a meal smoking cigarette can be delayed. Delay it longer and longer each day or week. Before long, that one is eliminated from the daily nicotine dose.
If finances cause you stress, build a more long term solution by saving a small part of your income each week or month. Let it accumulate in an account that collects interest. Small amounts build up over time and provide a cushion to fall back on if your job does disappear. In addition to lowering your stress if you should become unemployed, it will also lower your stress all the time you’re saving. Knowing that money is there now in case it’s needed later reduces the stress that can come from imagining the worst in the future.

Make a list of the events and things that cause you stress. Look for ways to reframe these situations. This doesn’t mean to disregard events or adapt the attitude that ‘nothing matters’ either. Pay attention to the things that matter and make a conscious effort to do what you can about them. This will build your confidence reduce your stress level.

When it comes right down to it smoking because you are stressed is really just an excuse. If you really want to quit smoking you can. Developing a strategy to deal with your daily stress is a great method to help you quit smoking and stay smoke free. Remember, smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the world today. No matter what method you use, quit smoking. Do it for life.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy, a highly successful method that helps people to stop smoking that uses  NLP and hypnosis. In fact, hundreds of people, just like you, have used Total Mind Therapy to help them quit smoking. His office is located in the middle of Mission valley in beautiful San Diego. Wil is also the author of the e-Course ““Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”” that you can have at absolutely no charge. CLICK HERE to receive your FREE copy of “Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”.

1. I’m too stressed out to quit. The biggest reason people say they continue to smoke is because of the stress in their lives. In fact people blame stress for continuing in almost any type of negative habit you can imagine, from smoking to heroin addiction. As a society we have made stress the bogeyman to dump much of our personal responsibility on.

Many smokers say that they want to quit smoking but they can’t because of the stress they experience at work or at home. But when smokers are really honest with themselves they know that they smoke about the same whether they are having a stressed out day or not. If they’re having a great day a smoker doesn’t magically forget to smoke and on stressful days they don’t suddenly smoke 10 times as much. A smoker will smoke about the same amount of cigarettes every day, no matter if they are relaxing on the beach or working overtime. If you want proof count the cigarettes a smoker goes though on vacation.

Why does this happen? The reason is because the smoker isn’t smoking as a result of stress but rather as a conditioned habit. We’ll talk about this a little later.

2. I smoke to relax. The second biggest reason people say they smoke is to help them relax. This is actually funny because the same people who say they smoke because they are stressed also say they smoke because they want to relax while drinking a cup of coffee or sitting by the beach watching the waves.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Physiologically smoking is very stressful on the body. When smoke is inhaled it adds physical stress to the heart, lungs, circulatory system and brain. This stress is caused by a lack of oxygen and inflow of drugs and toxins. A smoker also increases their psychological and emotional stress as they worry about smoking related diseases or just find that they are shunned in the workplace. So no one ever really relaxes as a result of smoking.

3. I’ll gain weight if I quit. People also say that they smoke because they are afraid of gaining weight. The facts are there is a grain of truth in this fear. The grain of truth comes from the fact that almost every person who quits smoking will gain some water weight because smoking dehydrates the body. This is usually limited to five to ten pounds. People who gain more weight than this do so because they replace the oral fixation of smoking with the oral fixation of eating. If you use a method to quit smoking like Total Mind Therapy, it doesn’t have to be like this.

4. I just don’t have any will power. Another reason people say they can’t quit is because they lack will power. While they may not be directing their will power to help them quit these people all have will power. If they didn’t they wouldn’t even have a job! So will power, although slightly at fault, is just another excuse. If you really want to quit smoking you can.

5. I really enjoy smoking. Now the final reason that people say they can’t quit is that they really like to smoke. To me this is the only real reason that someone should be smoking, or doing anything else in the first place. When smokers tell me, “I smoke because I love the taste and the smell and I like the way it makes me feel” I ask the obvious question, “Do you really want to quit?”

Usually the answer is a timid “yes”. When I ask why they really want to quit they’ll will say something like “Because my wife keeps nagging me”. These are the type of smokers I send home to argue with their wife because they really don’t want to quit smoking. They just want to get their wife off their back.

The real reason most people smoke is because they have made a habit of smoking. Just like the bell in Dr. Pavlov’s experiments triggered dogs to salivate, certain things, like drinking a cup of coffee or talking on the telephone, cause the smoker to connect or think of the activity along with having a cigarette. One activity causes a smoker to think of a cigarette and the habit of reaching for a cigarette takes over, no questions asked.

The effects of cigarette smoking are obvious. So are the effects of quitting. The good news is if you really want to quit smoking you can. You just have to find a method to quit smoking that will work for you. You can stop smoking by using a therapy like NLP or hypnosis, drugs, nicotine replacement or even through plain old willpower. The key is to decide to quit smoking and keep at it. It’ll be the best thing you’ve ever done for your health and the health of the ones you love most. If you really want to quit smoking start today!

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy, a highly successful method that helps people to stop smoking that uses  NLP and hypnosis. In fact, hundreds of people, just like you, have used Total Mind Therapy to help them quit smoking. His office is located in the middle of Mission valley in beautiful San Diego. Wil is also the author of the e-Course ““Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”” that you can have at absolutely no charge. CLICK HERE to receive your FREE copy of “Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”.

In this context, the phrase ‘heart disease’ usually refers to coronary artery disease. That’s a condition in which a major blood vessel that leaves the heart carrying oxygen-rich blood becomes constricted. This condition increases the odds of a clot or closure that causes a heart attack. That’s why this condition is sometimes referred to as ‘having a coronary’.

There are several reasons that long term, heavy smoking greatly increases the odds of having a heart attack. One of the effects is caused by carbon monoxide present in cigarette smoke. It binds with hemoglobin, the molecule in your red blood cells that helps transport oxygen throughout your body, including your heart. Reducing the oxygen to your heart increases the odds of you having a heart disease.

Nicotine affects the amount of oxygen in your blood, while contributing to other conditions that are potentially harmful. It also increases blood clotting, which can have a direct effect on your risk of having a heart attack, as noted above.

Even more subtle, yet still as dangerous, are the effects are produced by nicotine. One of the most serious, long term, is that nicotine encourages the growth of fatty deposits in your arteries which constricts your blood flow by hardening your blood vessels.

One way of smoking effects your heart health is decreasing the amount of HDL (high density lipoprotein), the ‘good’ type of cholesterol in your bloodstream. HDL’s work to limit the growth of those fatty deposits in your arteries. This condition is known as atherosclerosis and is a major factor in heart attack risk.

As the diameter of your arties decrease your blood pressure increases. This makes it more likely that any weakness present in your artery walls, something termed an aneurysm, will lead to a rupture. This leads to oxygen starvation to your brain which results in a stroke. This is why you’ll so often see ‘raises the risk of heart disease and stroke’ discussed in the same sentence.

As your arteries harden it makes them less able to withstand the normal stresses and strains of their normal function, as well. This is because your blood vessels are both similar to a hose and different in important ways.

Like a hose, your arteries carry fluid. Like a hose they can only do so when there are no holes. At the same time, unlike most hoses, it’s ‘on’ all the time. Any stoppage of blood flow, however temporary, causes immediate health problems. Your tissues need a continual supply of blood or they will die very quickly.

One of the overall effects of cigarette smoking is that it contributes to your risk of heart disease. Smoking causes several physical effects that reduce health. Reduced oxygen, shortness of breath and other effects make exercising more difficult and unpleasant. That, and lifestyle choices often associated with smoking, reduce your overall fitness.

This lack of exercise, and its accompanying increased weight gain and body fat percentage that tend to accompany it, increases further your chances of heart disease and a heart attack. Your body is unable to withstand the strains that for healthier people might otherwise be minor. Your body is less able to withstand the serious biological shock that occurs when a heart attack finally happens. That ups the odds that the attack will be fatal.

One of the greatest effects of long-term, one-pack-a-day cigarette smoking is that you have 2-4 times the chance of developing coronary heart disease than do non-smokers. Quitting today improves your odds immediately and is one of the best reasons to stop smoking immediately. Within 3 months your circulation will improve. After a year, your odds are half that of a smoker. After 5-15 years, you odds are that of someone who has never smoked. Don’t think it’s too late to counteract the effects of your cigarette smoking. Start today on a program to quit smoking. It’s the biggest thing you can do for your health.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy, a highly successful method that helps people to stop smoking that uses  NLP and hypnosis. In fact, hundreds of people, just like you, have used Total Mind Therapy to help them quit smoking. His office is located in the middle of Mission valley in beautiful San Diego. Wil is also the author of the e-Course ““Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”” that you can have at absolutely no charge. CLICK HERE to receive your FREE copy of “Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”.

These are some of the most common complaints that non smokers have about smokers. It is also is the reason behind why people smoke remains largely a mystery to them. Because it brings up so many issues like health, science, media influence, economics, and freedom of choice, smoking still manages to cause a lot of controversy.

The most common reasons that are cited for the reasons people smoke are the high they get from nicotine, peer pressure from their friends, the big screen and television glamorizing smoking, the desire to lose weight and the inability to quit. It’s definitely true that these are factors that contribute to the choice to smoke, but this is an oversimplified viewpoint of cause and effect. Everyone is different and people are a lot more complicated than that. Even with the best observations we can only derive smoking trends not causes.

It might seem intuitive that smoking is bad for you, but technically research hasn’t shown that smoking causes cancer. This is because it’s seen as unethical to perform experiments in which people are asked to smoke and then monitored for the development of cancer. Although research has suggested more than a strong correlation between smoking and cancer, research has often been plagued with real or perceived flaws in design, and so it is still criticized in some circles. That being said, two major reports by the Royal College of Physicians of London (1962) and the US Surgeon General (1964), links cigarette smoking to lung cancer and has been the standard health officials have turned to prove that cigarette smoking causes cancer ever since.

Critics of smoking might have you believe that just one cigarette will cause you to have cigarette addiction for life, but everyone’s biological makeup is different. Just like any other drug that is highly addictive, you can’t say for sure whether one individual will become heavily addicted to nicotine or not. Still, it seems that many people who smoke suffer from a cigarette addiction. Many of these people eventually develop cancer as well.

Another problem we face is that smoking is a significant part of our economy. There is a lot of money to be made from selling tobacco both here and around the world. Don’t look for this to change anytime soon since tobacco companies have so many supporters in the government, included the soon to be Speaker of the House, John A. Boehner who both smokes and supports tobacco companies.

Like all other things that we do with our lives, smoking still remains a personal choice. As simple as it seems, that’s the reason why some people smoke and other people don’t. It is because of this choice there will be some who suffer from cigarette addiction and its affects and some who don’t. So those of us that don’t smoke aren’t affected by this addiction it seems the best thing to do is to keep those who smoke confined to smoking areas and for non smokers to avoid those areas. That way we aren’t affected by a habit that correlates with millions of deaths a year.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy, a highly successful method that helps people to stop smoking that uses  NLP and hypnosis. In fact, hundreds of people, just like you, have used Total Mind Therapy to help them quit smoking. His office is located in the middle of Mission valley in beautiful San Diego. Wil is also the author of the e-Course ““Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”” that you can have at absolutely no charge. CLICK HERE to receive your FREE copy of “Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”.

Why People Who Want to Quit Smoking Don’t

So why don’t people just quit smoking? Here are the top two reasons people tell me that keeps them smoking:

1. I smoke because I’m stressed out. Stress is actually one of the biggest reasons people do any kind of negative habit. “I yelled at my kids because I was stressed out.” I eat chocolate when I’m stressed out.” “I use pain killers because I’m stressed out.” I’m sure you get the point. Stress is a great way to dump your responsibility about almost anything.

When smokers actually own up to it they find that they smoke about the same amount whether they’re stressed or not. A smoker doesn’t smoke less on good days and more on bad. If they’re having a great day a smoker doesn’t magically forget to smoke. On stressful days they don’t suddenly smoke 5 packs of cigarettes. If a smoker smokes a pack of cigarettes a day they will smoke that same pack on a day they are calm or stressed. The fact is that smokers smoke about the same amount no matter if they are relaxing on the beach or working 8 hours of overtime.

Why is it that smokers smoke about the same, no matter what? It’s because smoking is a habit conditioned in your subconscious mind. Smokers have given themselves triggers or have conditioned themselves to smoke when they feel stressed. While some people reach for a chocolate, some go for a run and others reach for a shot of whisky, smokers reach for a cigarette. This leads us to the second biggest reason people say they continue to smoke.

2. I smoke to relax. This goes hand in hand with the first reason, to reduce stress. Now this is actually funny, or at least weird, because the same people that say they smoke because of stress smoke on breaks, while drinking a cup of coffee or sitting by the beach watching the waves.

The truth is smoking adds to your level of stress, both physically and mentally. The physical stress is added to the heart, lungs, circulatory system and brain from lack of oxygen and inflow of toxins. The mental and emotional stress is added when they run out of cigarettes, can’t smoke in the work place, or worry about the increased odds of dying from smoking related diseases.

The facts are that smoking does not reduce stress or help a smoker relax. In fact, it actually adds to stress levels. If smokers are honest with themselves they don’t really have reasons to smoke because when it comes right down to it, smoking is a habit, nothing more, nothing less. What a smoker has is excuses to smoke.

So Why Do You Want to Quit Smoking?

If you are thinking about quitting ask yourself, “Why do I want to quit smoking?” If the reasons you want to stop is bigger than the reasons you smoke, you will quit. If you don’t believe me ask the mothers that quit smoking while they are pregnant, only to return to the habit a few days (or hours) after they give birth. While the baby is in the womb the expectant mothers are completely smoke free because they don’t want to harm the fetus’ development but once the baby is born they begin again, perhaps because they feel that they are only harming themselves. So if the reasons are big enough, you can quit.

What Method Should You Choose to Quit Smoking?

Most people that smoke want to quit smoking, and most have. Some of these smokers have quit smoking many times. A study showed that nearly 70 percent of our nation’s 44.5 million smokers want to quit smoking but only 5 percent of those who try to quit actually succeed. Let’s take a look at the different methods to quit smoking and their success rates.

Cold Turkey

Statistics show that 7 percent of all smokers quit simply cold turkey. They use nothing except for willpower. I recently talked to a man who had smoked two packs of cigarettes for over forty years who just decided to quit one day and he did, without any withdrawal symptoms at all. For strong-willed smokers like this man it’s easy to quit. For others this method might not work. It can be difficult to quit smoking cold turkey because there can be a lot of discomfort along the way.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)

Next to cold turkey, the most common method to help people stop smoking is nicotine replacement therapy or NRT. This is the method that uses nicotine lozenges, gums and patches to quit smoking.

While this method does help some people to quit smoking, many people have a hard time tolerating NRT. A major problem with nicotine replacement is that nicotine addiction is not the main obstacle to quitting. Nicotine can be out of a person’s system in as little as three or four days, while the rest of the 4000 or so chemicals take another week. So if a person can hold out for a mere two weeks they have cleansed their body of all the chemicals in cigarettes.

Statistics show us that the best form of nicotine replacement therapy, using patches or gum, works only 14 percent of the time. Since 7 percent of smokers that quit do so without anything at all, you can see that the difference between people quitting cold turkey and with lozenges or gum is actually quite small. In statistics, this is known to be statistically insignificant. This means there is no real difference between quitting cold turkey or NRT methods because the difference is so small. In case you didn’t know it, most of these are manufactured by the tobacco companies.

Drugs

Statistics show that 14 percent of smokers will quit using drugs such as well-butrin or zyban. Although these smokers do quit, statistics show that more than half of them will be smoking again by the end of the year. So although drugs do work for some people, this method may not be your best choice to quit smoking.

Understanding the Statistics

The only way to really understand how bad these results are is to compare them with a placebo. Placebos are fake pills usually made from sugar or patches without any drugs. Placebos are used in research when scientists want to test them against how well the drug they are studying works. Placebos are best used in what are called blind studies. This are studies of drugs where both the subject (the person receiving the drugs) and the scientists do not know who is getting the drug and who is getting the placebo.

The scientists give one group of a statistically significant group of people the real drug and another group of the same size the fake drug. The key here is that everyone in the study thinks they are receiving the real drug. Then the scientists observe how each group reacts.

In studies of the nicotine replacement therapy and the drugs, on average, approximately twenty to thirty percent of those given the placebo experienced the same relief just as if they had received the real drug. In other words the sugar pills and fake patches worked twice as well as the real drugs and real patches. These results tell the researchers that nicotine replacement therapies do not usually work because, if they did, the subjects taking them would have shown a higher incidence of quitting than those taking the placebo.

What these results do show is that nicotine replacement therapy works purely because of the power of your mind. When you believe that something will give you a certain result it will. What you think you get.

Using Hypnosis and NLP for Smoking Cessation

Most people who want to quit smoking only succeed for a few days. Some people quit smoking for a month or two or even for a year or two and start smoking again. Would you like to know why? It’s because there is more to quitting than merely stopping. Smoking is a habit, a habit lodged in your subconscious mind. This habit causes your subconscious mind to have a constant urge for a cigarette. It is this nagging desire, this subconscious urge that eventually wears you down and is the reason you give in at a moment of stress or weakness.

You can overcome these subconscious urges using hypnosis and NLP. Studies show that using hypnosis and NLP for smoking cessation works about 45 percent of the time. Hypnosis and NLP have no side affects and it works better than a placebo. It works because it helps your subconscious mind deal with the triggers that cause you to pick up a cigarette. If you really want to stop smoking this is a therapy that gives you the best chance.

Which Method Will You Choose to Quit Smoking?

People ask me all the time which is the best method to quit smoking. My best answer is the one that works for you. Always remember you have a choice. You can use will power and quit cold turkey. Using this method you have less than a one in ten chance that this will work but it does work. People use it all the time. You can use drugs, lozenges and patches. These also work but your chances are right about the same. Finally you can use hypnosis and NLP which studies have shown to work better than all the other methods combined.

All I can tell you is to make a decision to quit smoking. Choose a method that you think will help you quit. And, whatever you decide to use do your best to make it work. Make this year and every year hereafter a Smoke Free Year.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy, a highly successful method that helps people to stop smoking that uses  NLP and hypnosis. In fact, hundreds of people, just like you, have used Total Mind Therapy to help them quit smoking. His office is located in the middle of Mission valley in beautiful San Diego. Wil is also the author of the e-Course ““Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”” that you can have at absolutely no charge. CLICK HERE to receive your FREE copy of “Quit Smoking Secrets the Tobacco Companies Don’t Want You to Know”.