Coffin nails

greg66_tri_v2.0

lost_in_thought wrote:

It was such smashing high jinx, what what!

Fixed dat fer yer.

lost_in_thought

Greg66 wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

It was such smashing high jinx, what what!

Fixed dat fer yer.

Like you didn't attend a similar institution...

bails87

lost_in_thought wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

It was such smashing high jinx, what what!

Fixed dat fer yer.

Like you didn't attend a similar institution...

Bloody hell, are you all this posh over here? Not like us salt of the earth MTBers

Sewinman

bails87 wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

It was such smashing high jinx, what what!

Fixed dat fer yer.

Like you didn't attend a similar institution...

Bloody hell, are you all this posh over here? Not like us salt of the earth MTBers

Yeah..its full of horrah Henry's and jolly hockey sticks types.

They are actually talking about smoking crack too. It is known as 'jinx' at posh schools. One shouts 'huzzah huzzah' after firing up a rock.

woodford2barbican

I used a hardcopy of this.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13827453/Litt ... ng-Smoking

everytime I wanted a cigarette I read a few pages. until the craving went away.

and also putt half an inch of water in a jam jar and a few butt ends - which i would sniff when I wanted a cigarette......just reminds you of what you don't want the inside of your lungs to smell like.

secretsam

MTFU and just do it.

Source: quit ten years ago - was similar to you.

In your favour - you want to quit. So here was my plan:
1) F**k patches, gum, books, hypnotherapy, etc. - all b*llox, it's all about willpower. Grit your teeth and take it like a man;
2) When do you smoke and what triggers relapses - mine was drinking, every time. So I packed in booze for a month;
3) work out how much it costs you - here it's £5+ for 20 now, in Aus that's, I dunno, 2 kangaroos or whatever - but each week tot it up and spend the money saved on some cool stuff JUST FOR YOU - and every time you want a ciggie, think of what you'd be giving up by giving up giving up, so to speak. Put the money in a jar or account if that helps;
4) If you have a ciggie, then don't despair but DON'T DO IT AGAIN. And all the money you saved to spend on yourself goes to a Cancer charity. Every penny;
5) TELL EVERYONE and if any d1ck offers you a smoke, offer them the benefit of your fist in their mush - that's SO not funny;
6) Be aware that you will be HELL to live with so if you're in a dodgy relationship might as well bin her/him/them now;
7) Celebrate your achievement - set milestones that are within reach eg one week, two weeks, etc. Pretty soon it's one year, two years...I can't really remember now.

If all the above works, this self-help plan must be dynamite so that's £100. IF it fails, you're weak and feeble and a lost cause, so you might as well give up and roll over now.

Good luck, be strong. Remember - it's down to you.

Oh - and if you've got kids, imagine them growing up with no Dad/Mum. EVERY time you look at them.

Aguila

As a chest doctor and an ex smoker I feel fairly well qualified to answer this!

I started smoking at Uni and smoked 20 a day till age about 30. I really enjoyed it. For me stopping was made easy by going to work in New Zealand for a year. Amongst our age group it was seen as really socially unacceptable to smoke so continuing to smoke was quite difficult. I had the odd drunken relapse on coming back but have stayed off them. There comes a time when you can't really be a chest specialist and smoke!!

In terms of stopping advice: first of all take it from me that lung cancer and advanced COPD (smoking related lung disease) are profoundly unpleasant things to happen to people, you've all seen the horror stories but there's no substitute for seeing it first hand. People never beleive it can happen to them.

Second: you are far more likely to stop with help so contact your local stopping smoking services, your GP or NHS website can tell you more. You are still statistically likely to fail even with this for any given attempt.

However, do not assume that this means you will never stop. Research shows that smokers who successfully quit in the long term have had on average 3 or 4 failed attempts prior to stopping for good.

Nicotine replacement therapy tripples your chances of stopping. The drug Zyban is about the same but cannot be taken if you have epilepsy.

The drug Champix increases your chances almost 5 fold and is a clever drug. It is a partial agonist at the nicotine receptor which it binds to very strongly. It therefore gives you the same effect as nicotine at a slow back ground but (and this is the clever bit) if you then have a cigarette the nicotine surge that is produced cannot act on your nicotine receptors as they are occupied by champix molecules. In simple terms it prevents you getting anything out of the cigarette so it feels pointless. I use it a lot for patients and it is effective. It cannot be used in patients with depression.

secretsam

Sewinman wrote:

My poor old sister gave up and got bronchitis a month later!

Am sure there's medical evidence that after quitting you are more susceptible to chest infecions - forever.

I'm a slave to bronchitis, it's a small price to pay.

Aguila

SecretSam wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

My poor old sister gave up and got bronchitis a month later!

Am sure there's medical evidence that after quitting you are more susceptible to chest infecions - forever.

I'm a slave to bronchitis, it's a small price to pay.

I bet she didn't, after you stop (about a month) you will start coughing stuff up. People often interpret this as a sign that they are less healthy for stopping, the opposite is true. Our airways are lined with tiny hair like structures called cilia. They work to sweep mucus up and out of our lungs as we breathe. Smoking causes serious damage to your cilia so they no longer work, hence the gunk stays in your lungs. After you have given up for a while the cilia regenerate and immediately start to clear out that accumulated gunk, hence a productive cough for a while.

cat_with_no_tail

Aguila wrote:

The drug Champix increases your chances almost 5 fold and is a clever drug. It is a partial agonist at the nicotine receptor which it binds to very strongly. It therefore gives you the same effect as nicotine at a slow back ground but (and this is the clever bit) if you then have a cigarette the nicotine surge that is produced cannot act on your nicotine receptors as they are occupied by champix molecules. In simple terms it prevents you getting anything out of the cigarette so it feels pointless. I use it a lot for patients and it is effective. It cannot be used in patients with depression.

Apparently it cant be used in patients with high blood pressure either. I recommended it to my old man but his GP said sadly it's a no-no. Much the same story with a number of other stop smoking aids too apparently.

ride_whenever

Champix is very very clever indeed. It actually works for a start!

My housemate really struggled for a long time to give up, did it first time with champix... But then relapsed due to a sudden unforseen emotional trauma... and they wont give it to her again

Aguila

His GP is wrong. Although Champix can rarely raise blood pressure it can be used safely in patients with hypertension. The only absolute contraindication is pregnancy, caution is advised in psychiatric conditions, kidney disease and breast feeding. Tell the GP to look it up in his BNF.

Nicotine perfectly safe in hypertension, after all the alternative is to continue smoking.

Zyban is less good for hypertensives.

Sewinman

Aguila wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

My poor old sister gave up and got bronchitis a month later!

Am sure there's medical evidence that after quitting you are more susceptible to chest infecions - forever.

I'm a slave to bronchitis, it's a small price to pay.

I bet she didn't, after you stop (about a month) you will start coughing stuff up. People often interpret this as a sign that they are less healthy for stopping, the opposite is true. Our airways are lined with tiny hair like structures called cilia. They work to sweep mucus up and out of our lungs as we breathe. Smoking causes serious damage to your cilia so they no longer work, hence the gunk stays in your lungs. After you have given up for a while the cilia regenerate and immediately start to clear out that accumulated gunk, hence a productive cough for a while.

She got signed off from work by a doctor with bronchitis, sinusitus and a chest infection.

Aguila

Sewinman wrote:

Aguila wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

My poor old sister gave up and got bronchitis a month later!

Am sure there's medical evidence that after quitting you are more susceptible to chest infecions - forever.

I'm a slave to bronchitis, it's a small price to pay.

I bet she didn't, after you stop (about a month) you will start coughing stuff up. People often interpret this as a sign that they are less healthy for stopping, the opposite is true. Our airways are lined with tiny hair like structures called cilia. They work to sweep mucus up and out of our lungs as we breathe. Smoking causes serious damage to your cilia so they no longer work, hence the gunk stays in your lungs. After you have given up for a while the cilia regenerate and immediately start to clear out that accumulated gunk, hence a productive cough for a while.

She got signed off from work by a doctor with bronchitis, sinusitus and a chest infection.

Must be true then!! We hear this all the time and it is a myth, its up there with "the flu jab gave me flu", also not possible BTW.

Sewinman

Aguila wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

Aguila wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

My poor old sister gave up and got bronchitis a month later!

Am sure there's medical evidence that after quitting you are more susceptible to chest infecions - forever.

I'm a slave to bronchitis, it's a small price to pay.

I bet she didn't, after you stop (about a month) you will start coughing stuff up. People often interpret this as a sign that they are less healthy for stopping, the opposite is true. Our airways are lined with tiny hair like structures called cilia. They work to sweep mucus up and out of our lungs as we breathe. Smoking causes serious damage to your cilia so they no longer work, hence the gunk stays in your lungs. After you have given up for a while the cilia regenerate and immediately start to clear out that accumulated gunk, hence a productive cough for a while.

She got signed off from work by a doctor with bronchitis, sinusitus and a chest infection.

Must be true then!! We hear this all the time and it is a myth, its up there with "the flu jab gave me flu", also not possible BTW.

What must be true? :roll:

Aguila

Sorry, being sarcastic. Just refering to the "stopping smoking made my chest worse" myth, which is impossible. I think it's very important people realise this.

Sewinman

Aguila wrote:

Sorry, being sarcastic. Just refering to the "stopping smoking made my chest worse" myth, which is impossible. I think it's very important people realise this.

Yes, fair enough, and I made a point of not making any causal link. A sorry co-incidence for my sister and it has made her more determined.

secretsam

Aguila wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

Aguila wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

My poor old sister gave up and got bronchitis a month later!

Am sure there's medical evidence that after quitting you are more susceptible to chest infecions - forever.

I'm a slave to bronchitis, it's a small price to pay.

I bet she didn't, after you stop (about a month) you will start coughing stuff up. People often interpret this as a sign that they are less healthy for stopping, the opposite is true. Our airways are lined with tiny hair like structures called cilia. They work to sweep mucus up and out of our lungs as we breathe. Smoking causes serious damage to your cilia so they no longer work, hence the gunk stays in your lungs. After you have given up for a while the cilia regenerate and immediately start to clear out that accumulated gunk, hence a productive cough for a while.

She got signed off from work by a doctor with bronchitis, sinusitus and a chest infection.

Must be true then!! We hear this all the time and it is a myth, its up there with "the flu jab gave me flu", also not possible BTW.

Surely the HPA's annual flu jab actually contains a small dose of (last year's) flu?

Aguila

It contains antigens from it but no viable flu viruses (usually all killed virus). This means you can then get immunity to the flu virus but it is impossible to actually get flu from it. Inevitably you get an immune response to the vaccine (it can't work without this) it is this that people mis-interpret as actual flu.

attica

marchant wrote:

I was wondering if anyone had experienced any strange (but positive) consequences?

My hayfever has not been nearly as bad since giving up.

To those wanting to quit, get yourself an obsession with riding up big hills, see how much cr4p you can cough up when you get to the top, it'll give you physical proof of what you've put in your lungs and also begin the process of getting it out.
I watched my Dad die of cancer and now I ride up hills as if the grim reaper is chasing me down, I never feel more alive than when I'm gasping for air at the top of a hill that I've just conquered.

Christophe3967

Don't beat yourself up about it. Plenty of top sportsmen / women smoke, including pro cyclists. When its starts to have a real impact on your life you'll give up, if you have any sense. In my father's case, that was when he had a heart attack, but even this doesn't always work. You just need to find a compelling reason - for me it was the realisation that I was no longer 'getting away with it' - then its very easy.

Flasheart

It has been 7 years last August since I smoked. I just picked a date and decided that would be it. I used normal chewing gum as a replacement and a lot of willpower.
I tried that Allen Carr stop smoking course as did my Mrs. I do believe they tried to hypnotise me, yeah like that's going to work. To get my money back I had to go through it again in a few weeks and surprise surprise I didn't go under again.
Both times I left the meeting and stepped outside and lit up. :roll:
In the end as I said it was just me and willpower.
I also thought about the way my Dad died of Cancer and my Mum of Emphysema 3 months later. they were both smokers and neither as heavy a smoker as I was.
Back in Oz it was not uncommon for me to go through 2 x pack of 35 a day if I was out at a nightclub after work. Although I did have to curtail my habit when I moved to England as the ciggies here were 4 times the price than back in Oz :shock:

Now I can pick up the smell of a smoker as soon as they enter my office or more to the point for this forum, as soon as I fly past them on my bike

rally200

Aguila wrote:

Sorry, being sarcastic. Just refering to the "stopping smoking made my chest worse" myth, which is impossible. I think it's very important people realise this.

Agree, but as an ex-smoker I think there is a certain "freak out" when you can suddenly taste & smell properly again, and the surfaces of your lungs start to function again and expell all the yak you've been building up. If a cold comes along at the same time you put it down as another smoking related change

bannedbiker

I've been quit 4 n a half years now after smoking since my earlyish teens.
Will power didn't work for me but I didn't have to resort to gum or anything silly! I used apples!! I found that if you have a nice fresh juicy green apple just before you have a fag it makes your fag taste bloody nasty. I ate an apple before every fag for a couple of days, then carried on having the apples without the fags. I still went out to the smoking-shed with the guys so kept the social aspect, but the apple made me not want to smoke cuz I knew it was minging!
The other thing that helped a lot was having sadistic mates! I told them to not let me smoke an they made sure I didn't give in when we were in the pub (you could still smoke IN pubs then)
The only downside is that i still cant eat apples without thinking about how bad it would taste to smoke after!

gb155

I used to smoke 20-40 a DAY !!!!!!!

One day at work, as I was heading outside I thought to myself "I cant be bothered with this anymore" and have never touched once since, that was about 6 years ago, it wasnt easy but once I was passed the first month or so there was no looking back, you have to WANT to stop though.

Headhuunter

One thing I particularly noticed after I'd given up is my sense of taste returning. Suddenly food was all the more intensively flavoured and delicous. It's true what they say about smoking killing your taste buds and the reason a lot of smokers pile salt all over their food.

bannedbiker

Headhuunter wrote:

One thing I particularly noticed after I'd given up is my sense of taste returning. Suddenly food was all the more intensively flavoured and delicous. It's true what they say about smoking killing your taste buds and the reason a lot of smokers pile salt all over their food.

I still pile salt all over my food...!

secretsam

Aguila wrote:

It contains antigens from it but no viable flu viruses (usually all killed virus). This means you can then get immunity to the flu virus but it is impossible to actually get flu from it. Inevitably you get an immune response to the vaccine (it can't work without this) it is this that people mis-interpret as actual flu.

Thanks - useful info (I'm a healthcare planner so it helps to appear to know what I'm talking about...)

Headhuunter

bannedbiker wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

One thing I particularly noticed after I'd given up is my sense of taste returning. Suddenly food was all the more intensively flavoured and delicous. It's true what they say about smoking killing your taste buds and the reason a lot of smokers pile salt all over their food.

I still pile salt all over my food...!

Watch the blood pressure!

oscarbudgie

Headhuunter wrote:

One thing I particularly noticed after I'd given up is my sense of taste returning. Suddenly food was all the more intensively flavoured and delicous. It's true what they say about smoking killing your taste buds and the reason a lot of smokers pile salt all over their food.

I never got that at all although most people who stop mention it.
Gino Bartali's doctor used to prescribe him 3 cigarettes a day! Merckx was/is a light smoker too.