Smoking Cessation
Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women.
Want to Quit Using Tobacco?
As part of the high risk lung cancer screening program you are also entitled to a free tobacco dependence assessment.
The Lung Cancer Institute is staffed with trained professionals who understand how difficult it is to quit.
Our program utilizes evidence based tools to assist you with quitting smoking. The program is designed to help you target behavioral modification and create a customized clinical treatment that suits your needs. The combination of these two processes will ensure a successful and supportive method towards quitting nicotine addiction – the single most important step to living a healthy lifestyle.
The length of the program varies with each individual and their commitment to the success in quitting.
Participants receive:
- Counseling from a trained Tobacco Treatment Specialist.
- A customized quit smoking plan to meet your needs.
- Ongoing individual or group counseling.
- Educational information on the latest prescription and non-prescription smoking medications.
Risk of Continued Smoking
- Cigarette smoking accounts for an estimated 443,000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths, each year in the US.
- More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.
- Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women.
- An estimated 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking.
Benefits of Quitting Smoking
- Your body will begin to repair itself as soon as you stop smoking – and you’ll go on feeling the health benefits for the rest of your life.
- 20 minutes after stopping your blood pressure and pulse rate will return to normal. Circulation improves in hands and feet, making them warmer.
- 8 hours after stopping nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in the blood will be cut by half and oxygen levels will return to normal. Chances of heart attack start to fall.
- 24 hours after stopping the level of carbon monoxide in your body will be that of a non-smoker and your lungs will start to clear out mucus and other smoking debris.
- 48 hours after stopping your body is becoming free of nicotine and your sense of taste and smell is improving
- 72 hours after stopping you should be breathing more easily. Airway passages in the lungs begin to relax. Energy levels increase.
At 5 years smoke-free:
- From 5 to 15 years after quitting tobacco, stroke risk is reduced to that of people who have never smoked.
At 10 years smoke-free:
- Risk of lung cancer drops to as little as one-half that of continuing smokers
- Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas decreases
- Risk of ulcers decreases
At 15 years smoke-free:
- Risk of coronary heart disease is now similar to that of people who have never smoked
- Risk of death returns to nearly the level of people who have never smoked