Health Education & Promotion – Top Start Health Foundation

Health Education and Health Promotion

To quit smoking is not usually easy but you can do it if you are determined. You can quit now and say no to smoking.

Be Ready: Get prepared emotionally to implement this important life decision.
Select the day you will quit and mark it as a memorable day.
Get Support because you need it. Join an online support group or any such group in your community.
Consider switching to nicotine replacement (patch or gum) or any recommended medication.
Decide to make a clean start.
Getting through the first day is tough. Tighten your seat belt and develop the self-discipline because you need it.
Recognize the triggers and avoid them: smell of cigarette, coffee, certain meals, alcohol and stress.
Be ready for temptations and be determined to avoid them.
Keep moving by going for a walk to keep your mind off the habit
Take an exercise to relieve your stress.
Be determined not to give up. Make forward ever backward never your slogan.
Remind yourself every minute you are doing this to save your life.

It destroys not just the lungs but every part of the body.
It reduces the ability of the body to resist infections and decreases its autoimmunity.
It exposes one to high risk of cough, wheezing, pneumonia and tuberculosis.
It promotes heart diseases.
It is a major cause of stroke.
It promotes heart attack by hardening the arteries.
It results to lung cancer which is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths.
It causes blindness because it leads to cataract and muscular degeneration.
It raises the risk of stomach, throat, larynx, esophagus cancers.
It increases risk of stomach, liver, colon, rectum, kidney and cervical cancers.
It raises the risk of Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD).
It leads to abdominal aortic aneurysm.
It raises the risk of oral, bladders and pancreatic cancers.
It leads underdevelopment and damage to the lungs.
It could lead to infertility in both sexes.
It results to erectile dysfunction in men.
It raises the risk of ectopic pregnancy, miscarriages, and pregnancy complications.
It causes still birth, premature birth and low birth weight in babies.
It leads to deformities in unborn babies.

Choose life not death. Quit today if you want to live!!!

Courtesy: Dimensions Healthcare System Smoking Cessation Program

By Stella Nwosu, MPH, BSN, RN.