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Stop smoking problems at home

  • Published
  • By Tyler Patterson
  • TriWest Healthcare Alliance
SPOKANE, Wash. --  Twenty minutes is all it takes for your health to begin to improve after you've quit smoking, according to a study by the American Lung Association. That's less than half an hour from stubbing out that last-ever cigarette. According to their research:

· Twenty minutes after quitting, your heart rate drops.

· Twelve hours after quitting, the carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

· Two days after quitting, your sense of taste and smell begin to recover.

· Two weeks to 3 months after quitting, your heart attack risk begins to drop, and your lung function begins to improve.

· One to 9 months after quitting, your coughing and shortness of breath decrease.

· One year after quitting, your added risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.

· Five years after quitting, your stroke risk now equals that of a nonsmoker's.

· Ten years after quitting, your lung cancer death rate is about half that of a smoker's. Your risk of cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas decreases.

· Fifteen years after quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease is again equivalent to that of a nonsmoker's.

The military estimates that roughly one-third of active-duty servicemembers are smokers. To help these servicemembers snuff the habit and get back on the track to good health, the Department of Defense has launched smoking cessation programs on bases throughout the U.S. and opened a new Web site devoted specifically to helping servicemembers "kick butt," as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. S. Ward Casscells put it.

The Web site, www.ucanquit2.org, launched in late 2007 and hosts a wide variety of anti-smoking information. It also features "My Quit Plan," a free interactive tool that will assist you in developing and sticking to a customized stop-smoking plan.

The Condition (Disease) Management Portal at www.triwest.com/beneficiary can be a powerful tool as well. You can find it through the Healthy Living portal, or simply search for "Smoking Cessation" using the search function in the upper left-hand corner.

In addition to these Web sites, your Primary Care Manager or other healthcare professional may be able to direct you to smoking cessation resources and other wellness programs run by your military treatment facility. All of these are valuable tools in helping you kick the habit. While TRICARE itself does not offer services or supplies for cessation programs, the money you save on cigarettes alone will soon recover the cost of quitting.

So when's the best time to quit? A surge of support is just around the corner. October is Healthy Lung Month and anti-smoking organizations everywhere will be launching their own unique campaigns, such as the American Cancer Society's 2008 Great American Smokeout Nov. 20. The Great American Smokeout is one of the nation's longest-running and most popular quit-smoking events. You can learn all about it at the American Cancer Society's Web site, www.cancer.org.

Whatever route to quitting you take, good luck, we're all behind you!