Speaking of Women's Health
The Speaking of Women's Health Podcast is excited to bring you credible women's health information from host and Executive Director, Dr. Holly L. Thacker. Dr. Thacker will interview guest clinicians discussing relevant women's health topics and the latest news and tips.
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Speaking of Women's Health
Steps for Quitting Smoking
Join us on the Speaking of Women's Health podcast as guest host Leigh Klekar guides us through the life-saving journey of smoking cessation. With alarming statistics that reveal smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., this episode will empower you with the knowledge and motivation to quit.
We dive into practical strategies to help you or a loved one quit smoking, starting with identifying personal motivations and recognizing triggers. Leigh shares tips on replacing smoking with healthier habits, the power of visualizing yourself as a non-smoker and the importance of community support. She also stresses the significance of consulting with your physician before starting any medications to ensure you are safely equipped to begin this transformative journey toward a healthier, smoke-free life.
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...
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Welcome to the Speaking of Women's Health podcast. I am your host, dr Holly Thacker, and I'm back temporarily today in the Sunflower House. I love bringing these podcasts to you, my audience, who I adore, and we're bringing you great content from speakingofwomenshealthcom. But, as you may or may not know, not only am I the executive director of Speaking of Women's Health, but I also direct our Center for Specialized Women's Health and run a specialty women's health fellowship, and I want to keep giving you, our listeners, the best content that we have on our site. And so I want to introduce our wonderful executive producer of the podcast, leigh Kleckar, and she is behind the scenes and our social media manager for Speaking of Women's Health, and she is going to guest podcast, including today. So take it away, leigh.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Speaking of Women's Health podcast. I'm your guest host, leigh Klecker, and I'm the producer of the Speaking of Women's Health podcast, and I'm back in the Sunflower House for a brand new episode. The topic for this new podcast episode is smoking sensation, and smoking sensation, also known as quitting smoking, is the process of stopping the use of tobacco products. This is a really important topic and one we have not yet discussed on the podcast, as smoking accounts for about 440,000 deaths yearly, and it can be difficult to smoke. It can be difficult, excuse me, to quit smoking due to the nicotine addiction, which is both mental and physical. However, quitting smoking can greatly reduce the risk of developing serious health problems, including cancer, and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tobacco product use remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. In 2022, there were 49.2 million people, or nearly one in five US adults, who reported current tobacco product use. One in five adults, that is a lot of people. That's 19.8% of our US population and we know that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, which is also known as emphysema or chronic bronchitis, continually ranks among the leading causes of death in the United States. But smoking is also a major cause of cardiovascular disease, heart and blood vessel disease, and smoking takes about 10 years off your life. So this is something that we can prevent. We can prevent these diseases by quitting smoking. So a person's risk of heart attack greatly increases with the number of cigarettes he or she smokes, and we know from the podcast episode that Dr Thacker did in February. We talked about heart disease and how to prevent certain types of cardiovascular disease, like stroke, and there is no safe amount of smoking, so smokers increase their risk of heart attack the longer they smoke. People who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day have more than twice the risk of heart attack than non-smokers, and women who smoke and also use oral contraceptives, like birth control pills, increase several times their risk of coronary and peripheral artery diseases and heart attack and stroke, compared with non-smoking women who use oral contraceptives. So these are really really really important things to know if you are smoking and if these are not enough reasons to quit smoking, also know that smoking plays a role in all of these diseases. And here we go Lung cancer, heart disease, heart attacks and stroke. We just mentioned that Cancer of the mouth, larynx, esophagus, lips and tongue. Cancer of the pancreas, kidney bladder, stomach, colon and liver. Peripheral vascular disease, which is poor circulation, asthma in children, low birth weight babies, sudden infant death syndrome, early menopause. I'm still going. This list is long osteoporosis, cataracts, macular degeneration, peptic ulcer disease, which is stomach ulcers, uterine and cervical cancer, premature wrinkles, decreased sense of smell and infertility and impotence. That's a really long list and I'm sure you're well aware.
Speaker 2:But did you know that there are dangerous chemicals in tobacco? I mean, there are chemicals in tobacco smoke that include acetone, mercury, lead, nicotine, cadmium, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, cyanide, arsenic, fennel, formaldehyde and DDT. Gross right, I mean we hear about this in the news a lot like, oh, limit your lead intake and how bad it is. And you know, don't use products that formaldehyde in, but if you're smoking you're putting that in your mouth and in your body every day. You know, kind of going back to women smokers, lung cancer kills more women than breast cancer and breast cancer will claim the lives of 41,000 women this year, while 68,000 women will die of lung cancer. 22% of US women smoked. This is back in 1998. So it'd be interesting, you know, there of course, we're getting a lot of statistics that are going to be later than we are here in 2025. Are here in 2025. But there's also been a 600% increase in the lung cancer death rate in women since 1950. 600% and since then we know that cancer or smoking leads to lung cancer and all these other diseases that we just listed, and there's been a 600% increase.
Speaker 2:Also, adolescence and smoking I mean long-term nicotine addiction results primarily from tobacco use during adolescence, and approximately 43% of students in high school have used tobacco. The earlier the onset of smoking, the more severe nicotine addiction is likely to be. And by age 17, 50% of smokers have tried to quit 17,. Geez, and they fail. Many regret having started in the first place. I know my dad said he started when he was in high school and somebody offered him a cigarette. He said yes, due to peer pressure and that was a lifelong habit of his, that he tried several times to quit and, good news, he's now an ex-smoker, so we could talk a little bit about his success later on. I'd like to mention that because we're real proud of him and just so you know. You know he was a smoker. Let's I'm going to say I can do the math really quick at least 50 years. So if he can do it, you can do it too.
Speaker 2:A little bit more about adolescents, and you know the impact that smoking and nicotine has on them. You know they, of adolescents who smoke, 75% have one or both parents who also smoke. So let's talk about why you should quit and the benefits of quitting. So there is good news when you quit smoking, quitting smoking today, results in both immediate and long-term improvements in health. So when you quit, after 20 minutes only 20 minutes the air is less polluted around you, your blood pressure and pulse start to decrease and the temperature of your hands and feet will increase. I know my dad and he still does complain, but he always would talk about how cold he was. I never understood it until I've done more research here about smoking.
Speaker 2:And so after eight hours of stopping smoking, the carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal and your oxygen levels in the blood increases. After one day, 24 hours, your chance of heart attack decreases. That's huge right. And after 48 hours your nerve endings adjust to the absence of the nicotine and your ability to taste and smell begins to return. After 72 hours, your bronchial tubes relax. Two weeks to three months after you've quit smoking, your circulation will improve. Your exercise tolerance improves. One to nine months after you'll notice that your coughing, your sinus congestion, your fatigue and shortness of breath all have decreased. The body's overall energy level will increase and you also have that increase in the ability of the lungs to handle the mucus, clean the lungs and reduce infection. So that could mean less likely to get a type of respiratory infection.
Speaker 2:I know again I'll be mentioning this a lot about my dad, but I feel like it could be very relatable for a lot of people out there who are wanting to quit. He definitely noticed I mean he used to get a lot of respiratory infections and the coughing and that mucus cough and he has said now you know he's a year and a half after quitting I don't hear him that hacky cough, that's gone, I mean, unless he becomes sick. But really that's something he's seen a huge, huge improvement in. Okay, back to our list. One year after quitting smoking, the excess risk of heart disease is decreased to half of that the smoker. The excess risk of heart disease is decreased to half of that the smoker. And five years after, the risk of stroke is reduced to that of non-smokers Again huge. Ten years after quitting smoking, the risk of lung cancer drops to as little as one half that of continuing smokers, and the incidence of other cancers like mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas. They all decrease. And if you are a 15 years, if you have quit smoking for 15 years, the risk of heart disease is now similar to that of people who have never smoked and the risk of death returns to nearly the level of people who have never smoked. So a lot of benefits there.
Speaker 2:Here's some more. If you smoke, quitting is the most important step you can take to protect your lungs, and it's never too late to quit. I mean, I mentioned how my dad was in his sixties when he quit mid sixties, and he's already seen, you know, improvements in his health and your body can show drastic improvements, as we mentioned, within minutes of your last cigarette and your health can improve and you will feel more lively and more energetic. So we're going to talk about a few more health benefits that people receive after quitting smoking. So we talked about your ability to breathe. Even non-smokers experience a decrease in lung capacity, which is the volume of air you're able to take in and forcibly exhale in one second. With age, however, you can minimize the impact by quitting smoking, and the earlier you quit, the more lung capacity you will retain. So if you have smoked an average of 30 cigarettes a day, beginning at, say, age 25, your lung capacity can decrease slightly more than a non-smoker and would be below the average capacity of a non-smoker by the time you turn 40. And furthermore, if you are a smoker at risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is a lung disease, your lung capacity can decrease rapidly by age 65, at which point you'll likely be frequently short of breath, which isn't fun, I mean by the time you get to retire.
Speaker 2:You want to live a healthy life, you want to enjoy that retirement after working so hard. So don't let smoking, you know, hinder what you want to do with the rest of your life. And so how will you feel when you quit? You may crave cigarettes, you may feel very hungry, you may cough, often get more headaches, have difficulty concentrating, have constipation, may feel very tired, may have a sore throat and you could have difficulty sleeping. Although these withdrawal symptoms will be the strongest when you first quit, they should go away within a few weeks. So how can you become an ex-smoker If you feel emotionally and mentally prepared to quit smoking? And you're quitting for yourself and not to please someone else.
Speaker 2:This is the first step in taking towards healthy living and there is no one right way to stop smoking or stop chewing tobacco. The right way is whatever works for you. But before you crumple up your last cigarette pack, you do need to plan ahead. But before you crumple up your last cigarette pack, you do need to plan ahead. So there are some proven methods that experts have said that will successfully kick the nicotine habit. They are number one pick a date to stop smoking and stick to it. So plan ahead.
Speaker 2:As we mentioned, make a list of your reasons for quitting and read it every day before and after you quit. So you consider health reasons as maybe one of those, or social reasons. My dad's was, you know. I want to see my grandkids get married. I want to, you know, be there when they graduate college, graduate high school, when they graduate college, graduate high school. Write down when you smoke, why you smoke and what you are doing when you smoke, to learn your triggers. So if it's maybe when you go out to socialize, that could be a trigger Stress, you know, after work, lunch break, those could be some triggers, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Make a list of the activities you can do instead when you face one of your smoking triggers. So take a walk, maybe, exercise, drink a glass of water. My dad chooses cookies and cake. Luckily he's very active. He also go outside and do a lot of yard work, so he was cutting the grass like two or three times a week those first few months after he quit smoking, but he still hasn't put a cigarette in his mouth since. So it works. Experiment by going without a smoke in certain situations, so maybe after lunch or after dinner before you quit for good. So try that. Visualize yourself as a non-smoker. So see yourself climbing stairs effortlessly or jogging easily. Notice lines disappearing from your skin. Yeah, share your plans to quit with friends and family and invite those who smoke to join with you. So quitting together can make it easier for some.
Speaker 2:Ask your healthcare provider about smoking cessation aids. They really help. Some people like over that hump. So choices can be the nicotine replacement gum patches, inhalers, there's sublingual which is under the tongue, tablets, there's lozenges or nasal spray, and then there's prescription medications and sign up maybe for a smoking cessation support group or program, and I know they have those online as well. So let's talk about some of these nicotine replacement therapies and medications. So, depending on your preferences, you can choose to stop using tobacco through medicines containing nicotine or not containing nicotine. So both types of treatments have certain benefits and drawbacks. So it's up to you and your doctor to determine which method is right for you.
Speaker 2:Nicotine replacement therapy. So let's talk about this for a sec. Prior to using any smoking sensation product that contains nicotine, it is very important to stop smoking and stop using any other nicotine containing products. Please carefully read the labels of these medicines for directions on product use and other really important information. Consult with your physician before using any over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy to make sure these treatments are compatible with your current medications and medical conditions. So my dad also has rheumatoid arthritis and he definitely needed to consult with his physician before he started on the medication. He chose to quit smoking and actually smoking is a risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis because it's not in our family and he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when he was in his early fifties and he's male. So and make sure you store all of your medications, all of your nicotine replacement medication medications, out of the reach of children and pets.
Speaker 2:We're going to talk about here the nicotine gum and lozenges. So those are available without a prescription and you can get them in two and four milligram doses. The dose for nicotine gum is based on how much the patient smokes per day. So patients who smoked maybe 25 or more cigarettes per day should use probably the four milligram gum, should use probably the four milligram gum, and those who smoked fewer than 25 cigarettes per day should use the two milligram gum. But again, make sure that you are talking with your doctor before starting this. Eating or drinking, except for water, should be avoided 15 minutes before or after using the gum or the lozenges, and acidic beverages can reduce the absorption of nicotine and shouldn't be consumed while chewing the gum. So transmedermal nicotine patches these are available without a prescription Nicoderm and generic nicotine patches they come in 21, 14, and 7 milligram strengths, while nicotrol patches are available as 15, 10, and 5 milligram patches.
Speaker 2:The recommended dosing of these products is based on the patient's prior cigarette use. So the nicoderm and generic nicotine patches should be worn for 16 to 24 hours, and 24 hours specifically for patients who crave a cigarette upon waking in the morning. And Nicotrol patches should be worn for 16 hours and they're removed at bedtime, so you do not wear more than one patch at a time either and don't cut the patches in half. Nicotine nasal spray. Nicotrol is available by prescription only and is supplied as 10 milliliter bottles containing nicotine with a metered spray pump, and the dose of these should be individualized based on the patient's nicotine with a metered spray pump, and the dose of these should be individualized based on the patient's nicotine dependence and, for best results, use at least eight doses per day, but be sure to not use more than five doses per hour or 40 doses per day.
Speaker 2:The nicotine inhaler this is available also only by prescription and they come in cartridges. The cartridges contain 10 milligrams of nicotine and the nicotine released from the inhaler is absorbed in the mouth. Use of this inhaler mimics the hand-to-mouth routine of cigarette smoking. Mimics the hand-to-mouth routine of cigarette smoking. Non-nicotine medications so there are several non-nicotine prescriptions that are approved for smoking sensation and these include Rupopion excuse me is a non-nicotine prescription drug approved for smoking sensation and it is available as a 150 milligram tablet and takes two weeks for the drug to be effective. So the patient should plan to stop smoking within two weeks after they start this prescription drug.
Speaker 2:Another non-nicotine prescription that is available is varenicillin, also known as chantix and chantix is what my dad chose to go with. He had a few friends that successfully quit smoking by taking chantix, so, um, he chose to do that. Now it's interesting because he actually took chantix about two years prior to being successful. So his second time he took it he was successful and quit, but the first time he started it it did not work for him. And it was interesting it was right when his mother, my grandma, had gotten really, really sick and my dad was having to do a lot with her and take care of her, and his doctor thinks that probably the stress he had from that and then starting that medication at the same time was just, you know, one of the reasons why the smoking sensation did not work that first time. But it did work the second time.
Speaker 2:And so that's where that planning ahead and picking a date you know you don't want to probably, if you're starting a new job or going through any stressful time in your life, want to choose the date right in the middle of that to quit smoking. Chantix should be started one week before an established smoking stop date and make sure to take it after eating and with a full glass of water to help reduce any upset stomachs. Glass of water to help reduce any upset stomachs. Well, I want to talk about now vaping, because vaping is becoming a huge trend, and not just with adults, but with young folks, teenagers. So is vaping better than smoking? The American Heart Association states that the increase in cigarette use, particularly among young people, is a dangerous trend with real health risks.
Speaker 2:For many reasons, e-cigarettes should not be promoted as a safe alternative to smoking, promoted as a safe alternative to smoking. While fewer people are smoking or starting to smoke than ever before, many are using other forms of tobacco and electronic nicotine delivery systems. And the increase in e-cigarette use or vaping by kids and young people in recent years is a serious public health threat. And I can you know I see that, having two teenagers. I hear a lot of stories about how many teens in high school are vaping and it is. It's really really scary because they don't know what they're putting in their mouth. They don't know how bad it is for them, you know, especially if they're. I know, I think there's lots of these that have the you know what like yummy flavors, candy flavors, so they just probably think, oh, it tastes like candy. It can't be that bad, right. However, it is bad for them and the battery operated devices. They come in many forms and they look like conventional cigarettes or pens or these, like sleek tech gadgets. They almost look like things you want to plug into your laptop. Users inhale and exhale a vapor-like aerosol and this way of taking in nicotine it poses huge health risks to the users and non-users around them. E-cigarette promoters. They claim the devices can help people quit smoking, but much more evidence is needed to determine if they are an effective way to quit, and research suggests that users are more likely to continue smoking cigarettes or other tobacco along with vaping, which is referred to as dual use. So it's best to you know again, talk with your doctor and find a safe way to stop smoking, because you'd hate to pick up another habit.
Speaker 2:Many people think vaping is less harmful than smoking. Well, it's true that e-cigarette aerosol doesn't include all the contaminants in tobacco smoke. It still is not safe, and here are a few reasons why. One, most e-cigarettes deliver nicotine, which is highly addictive and can harm the developing brains of teens, kids, amphetises and women who vape while pregnant, and some types expose users to even more nicotine than traditional cigarettes. In addition to nicotine, e-cigarette vapor includes potentially harmful substances such as a chemical that's linked to a serious lung disease, diacetyl, cancer-causing chemicals, volatile organic compounds and heavy metals such as nickel, tin and lead. Users breathe in these toxic contaminants and non-users nearby risk secondhand exposure.
Speaker 2:The liquid used in e-cigarettes can be dangerous, even apart from its intended use. Children and adults have been like poisoned by swallowing, breathing or absorbing the liquid through their skin or eyes. Boy E-cigarettes have also been linked to thousands of cases of serious lung injury, some resulting in death. I know I've heard stories about this and it's so scary. While the exact cause is still not confirmed, the CDC recommends that people not use e-cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
Speaker 2:It's the biggest threat to public health and the increasing popularity of vaping may renormalize smoking, which has declined for years. So, goodness gracious, we made so much effort with getting that message out right about how smoking is bad for you and now we have another crisis vaping. So reversing these hard won gains in the global effort to curb smoking would be catastrophic. And smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death, as we talked about earlier in the podcast. You know being responsible for so many deaths in the US each year and this really upsets me of having.
Speaker 2:You know, being a mom of three kids, especially two teenagers, how these tobacco companies want to hook this new generation on nicotine and smoking Again. You know these yummy, gummy bear flavors or you know these sour flavors, again mimicking candies and ice cream and fun stuff and putting it in vaping and these companies. They've spent more than $8.2 billion on aggressive marketing, and that was in 2019. So imagine how much they're spending now. That's more than $22 million each day and almost $1 million every hour trying to market to kids and teens to start using nicotine and smoking and vaping. Nearly 76% of middle and high school students that's all three of mine, that's three out of four kids they have been exposed to tobacco product advertising and about 74% of these students had seen e-cigarette related posts and content through social media. E-cigarettes are the most common form of tobacco used by kids and teens and over 2.1 million youth are currently using e-cigarettes, with a decline interesting in use by high school students in the US in 2023, so a few years ago. And many young people say they've tried e-cigarettes because of the appealing flavors and among the youth currently using e-cigarettes, almost nine out of 10 use the flavored ones. The US Surgeon General called e-cigarette use among young people a public health concern, and we know that the long-term effects of e-cigarettes are not well understood yet, but the science clearly indicates vaping is not a safe or healthy alternative to smoking for people of any age. So we've talked a lot about quitting smoking and the benefits of quitting smoking.
Speaker 2:I want to quickly touch on the dangers of secondhand smoke. So secondhand smoke is, you know, the combination of smoke from a burning cigarette and smoke exhaled by a smoker, and the smoke that burns off the end of a cigarette or cigar actually contains more harmful substances than the smoke that's inhaled by the smoker. This means that people who don't smoke but are regularly around those who smoke are exposed to the health risks of cigarette smoking. You know this would be somebody like my mom, who's been with my dad since she was 15 years old, which is when he started smoking, and this can be extremely scary and another reason why, if you smoke, please try to quit, and I want to just end this podcast episode with what's next if you are trying to quit smoking.
Speaker 2:So you need to decide to give yourself the most precious gift a smoker could give to him or herself, which is a gift of life, health and self-esteem, by becoming a non-smoker. And you can do it. I know you can Take these tips talk with your doctor, get a good support group around you, and can do it. You know treatment costs less than a pack of cigarettes a day, and so not only will you probably save money in the long run if you quit smoking, but you will add years to your life. Well, thank you for joining me and listening to this episode of the Speaking of Women's Health podcast on smoking sensation. Don't miss a future episode. Please be sure to subscribe to our podcast. We have so many great episodes coming up in 2025 season three that you don't want to miss, and you can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends and leave some five-star rating or review. Thank you, and we'll see you next time in the Sunflower House. Be strong, be healthy, be in charge.
