Stop smoking for immediate benefits

Vicki Farley is examined by Dr. John Woods, who specializes in adult care.

The day you quit smoking is the day you start down the road of a longer, healthier life. Dr. John Woods, an internal medicine physician who specializes in helping his adult patients reduce their risk for cardio-vascular disease, sees the connection between cigarette smoking and cardiovascular problems every day in his office.

“Most people I’m seeing have high cholesterol, high blood pressure and a greatly increased risk of heart disease,” Dr. Woods said. “Though about 25 percent of the population smokes, about half of my patients are smokers. You’re more likely to need to see a doctor if you are a smoker.”

Cigarette smoke, he says, is full of carcinogens. “It does all manner of bad things to your body.” The nicotine in cigarettes lowers your blood oxygen level, thereby lowering the delivery of oxygen to your organs, such as your heart and kidneys. It causes an inflammation of the lining of the arteries and a buildup of fatty substances in the arteries. It also can cause several types of cancer and lung problems.
According to the American Heart Association, a smokers’ risk of developing coronary heart disease is two to four times that of a non-smoker.

If a person quits smoking, his or her risk of heart attack and stroke lowers quantifiably immediately after finishing the last cigarette, Dr. Woods says. “Even a person who has smoked for 30 years can still benefit the first day of quitting.”

He is excited about a new drug from Pfizer, called Chantix, that helps people quit smoking. Unlike some other stop-smoking methods, which scale back nicotine dependency, Chantix actually blocks nicotine receptors so the cravings have no effect on the brain. “It’s a great tool that doctors can prescribe.”

People who quit smoking cold turkey have an 18-20 percent success rate. Nicotine replacement methods, such as the patch, have a 25 percent success rate. Chantix claims a 45 percent success rate. “In this case, success equals the pack-a-day smoker who stops smoking completely, no cigarettes at all, for three weeks,” Dr. Woods said, “so it’s really a very effective therapy.”

Quitting smoking is so hard because nicotine is an addictive drug, one your body will crave if you smoke. Besides the physical dependency, there’s also the psychological/behavioral dependency on smoking.

Dr. Woods spends a lot of time counseling people on how to quit smoking. With Chantix, he says, he can nowprescribe a medication “that treats the smoking” by blocking the craving. “Most people want to quit, but they don’t know how to quit nor how to deal with the cravings. Now I have a tool to help you quit.”