Quitting Smoking For Dummies or Prostate

Quitting Smoking For Dummies

Author: David Brizer MD

The decision to quit smoking is far from a casual one. Quitting smoking involves your complete commitment; it must become your number-one priority. Mustering all the support you can get, you need to decide to turn up the flame on your survival instincts, your belief in a healthy future, and your will power and faith that you can and will quit.

The sooner you stop smoking, the better your chances of avoiding some of the unwelcome consequences of smoking. You body and brain begin to recover almost immediately. Cigarette cravings aside, your body wants to stop smoking, and the moment you cut loose the smokes, your respiratory system begins to clear itself out. Here are just a few of the benefits you can reap from kicking the habit:

• A longer life with a lower risk of cancer and other deadly diseases

• No more sore throats, congested lungs, and persistent cough

• The ability to exercise and "get back into shape"

• Kissable breath and clothes that don't smell like you just came home from a bar

• Being able to really taste good food

• Pleasing your family and friends and no more being the outcast

Like all smokers, you've probably tried to quit a half dozen times, only to relapse. Perhaps you'd given up all hope of being able to quit, but now you're getting pressure from others, such as family members, to end your smoking career completely. But how do you take those first steps? And how do you follow through with your commitment to quit smoking? Quitting Smoking For Dummies can help.

Quitting Smoking For Dummies takes a total approach to help youquit smoking – short of yanking the cigarettes from your hands. It gives you the cold, hard truth about why you're addicted and how smoking harms your body – and it helps you develop a plan for finally quitting. Here's just a sampling of the topics you'll find covered:

• Understanding the various forms of tobacco – and their effects

• Figuring out why you're addicted

• Analyzing the health risks of smoking

• Developing a strategy to quit smoking

• Exploring nicotine replacement therapies

• Staying clean: Avoiding the relapse

• Getting help from support groups and programs

• Special considerations for pregnancy and teen smoking

So, the question to ask yourself is, "Why wait to quit?" You're going to have to eventually; why not start now? With Quitting Smoking For Dummies, you can start your recovery today, and look forward to a long and healthy life.

Table of Contents:

	Introduction	1
	About This Book	2
	Conventions Used in This Book	2
	Foolish Assumptions	3
	How This Book Is Organized	3
	Icons Used in This Book	5
	Where to Go from Here	6
Part I	Taking Stock: your Decision to Quit	7
Chapter 1	Calling It Quits	9
	Making the Call	9
	Visualizing the New, Healthy You	10
	Getting a Fresh Start	12
	Coming to Terms with Your Addiction	14
	Knowing When You're Ready to Stop	17
	Finding Quitting Aids to Help You	17
Prescription and over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs)	19
	Alternative quitting methods	20
Chapter 2	Filtering Out the Many Forms of Tobacco	23
	Naming Your Poison: Different Smokes for Different Folks	23
	Cigarettes	24
	Smokeless tobacco	24
	Pipes	27
	Cigars	28
	Breathing Deep: The Lowdown on Low-Tar and Low-Nicotine Cigarettes	30
	Getting the Effects of Tobacco	30
	Physical effects	31
	Mental effects	33
	Social effects	33
	Financial effects	35
	Legal effects	36
	Political effects	37
	Cultural effects	37
Chapter 3	Knowing Why You Get Addicted	39
	Looking at the Benefits and Risks of Smoking	39
	Naming Your Poison	42
	Understanding What Addiction Is	43
	Defining addiction, dependence, and abuse	44
	Defining other key terms	45
	Knowing How Neurotransmitters Function--and How Substances Like Nicotine Mess Things Up	48
	Analyzing Drugs (Including Nicotine) and Why People Use Them	49
	What do drugs do?	51
	Why do people use drugs?	51
	Looking at the Various Theories of Addiction	53
Chapter 4	Figuring Out Why You Smoke	57
	Smoking Out the Smokers: Who Smokes?	57
	Recognizing Why You Started	58
	Understanding Why You Smoke Now	59
	Smoking to be cool (cigarettes aren't!)	60
	Smoking to control weight	61
	Smoking to control stress	63
	Understanding the Addictive Personality	65
	Seeing Your Brain on Nicotine	67
	Smoking 'til You Choke	69
Chapter 5	Evaluating the Health Risks of Smoking	71
	Breathing: A Mini-Primer	71
	Looking at Smoking's Effects on the Respiratory System	74
	Smoking Out the Health Risks of Tobacco	77
	Smoke gets in your eyes (and mouth and heart and lungs ...)	78
	Cigarettes and cancer: A match made in heaven	79
	What nicotine does to your body	80
	Evaluating Your Own Health Risk	81
	Quitting While You're Ahead	82
Chapter 6	Adding Up the Damage	85
	Evaluating the Actual Cost of Smoking	85
	Adding up what a pack a day costs in a year	86
	Adding up what each pack costs society at large	87
	Realizing the triple savings of quitting	88
	Probing Public Health Issues	88
	Debates in the United States	89
	International issues	89
	Massaging the Media: Advertising and Cigarettes	90
	The impact on kids	91
	The impact on families	93
	Scanning the Statistics	94
	Smoking around the world	94
	The U.S. smoking scene	95
	Smoking Even if You Don't Want To: Secondhand Smoke	96
	The stir about secondhand smoke	96
	Getting smoke out of public places	98
	Appreciating the Ripple Effects	99
	The morning after	99
	Recognizing the guilt	100
	I've quit a thousand times	101
	Rejecting rationalizations and looking inside yourself	101
Part II	Packing It In: Taking the Leap	105
Chapter 7	Breaking a Bad Habit	107
	Looking in the Mirror: Analyzing Your Smoking Patterns	107
	Realizing that there is no such thing as a seasoned smoker	110
	Recognizing common smoking patterns	111
	Evaluating What Went Wrong Before	112
	Identifying common triggers--and the specific ones that get you	112
	Staying positive about past failures	115
	Overcoming Your Fear of Failure	116
Chapter 8	Taking Your First Steps	119
	Quitting Time	119
	Leafing the Nostalgia Behind	120
	Letting Go	121
	Putting Smoking to Rest	123
	Doing Without: The Cold-Turkey Method	125
	Cutting Back Gradually	125
	Varying Your Nicotine Routine	127
	Giving It Up--and Getting Something Else Instead	127
	Dealing with the Changes You'll Be Going Through	128
	Inner Strategies for Success	130
Chapter 9	Using Nicotine Replacement Therapies	133
	Clearing the Air about Nicotine Replacement Therapies	133
	Comparing Success Rates	135
	Playing It Safe with NRTs	136
	Patching Things Up with Over-the-Counter Nicotine Patches	136
	Chewing Cravings Away with Nicotine Gum	139
	Giving Nicotine Lozenges a Try	140
	Talking It Out with Your Doc: Prescription-Only Options	142
	Considering nicotine inhalers	142
	Using nicotine nasal spray	142
	Trying out anticraving medication (Zyban)	143
	Combining Quitting Aids	144
Chapter 10	Trying Alternative Methods for Quitting Smoking	147
	Getting By with a Little Help from Your Friends: Support Groups	147
	Trying Hypnosis to Get Yourself to Stop	149
	Contemplating Meditation or Self-Hypnosis	150
	Learning to appreciate and control your breathing	151
	Letting go: How to meditate	152
	Exorcising Nicotine with Exercise	154
	Trying Acupuncture	155
	Experimenting with Vitamins, Herbs, and Supplements	155
	Getting in Touch Spiritually	157
	Checking Out Other Methods	158
	T'ai chi	158
	Yoga	159
	Feng shui	159
	Aromatherapy	160
Part III	Sticking with Quitting	161
Chapter 11	Fighting on All Fronts	163
	Psyching Yourself Up to Quit	163
	Creating a strategy for success	164
	Sticking with your decision	166
	Preparing Yourself for the Change	166
	How your body may change	168
	How your emotions may change	169
	Surviving Your First Week	170
	The first 24 hours	170
	You've made it through the week!	174
Chapter 12	Staying Clean	175
	Practicing Early Relapse Prevention	175
	Assessing your relapse risk	176
	Recognizing relapse rationalizations	176
	Nailing stinkin' thinkin'	178
	Handling Relapses	180
	Losing the battle, but winning the war	180
	Catastrophizing	180
	Tackling Triggers	182
	Putting smoking cues on disconnect	183
	Learning from your (and others') mistakes	183
	Identifying common relapse mistakes	184
	Understanding recidivism and denial	184
	Staying Focused	185
	Focusing your energy on other things	186
	Taking charge: You are king of your thoughts	187
	Seeing the Big Picture	189
	Reframing Relapse: A Day without Nicotine Is a Successful Day!	190
	Handling Secondhand Smoke When You're a Quitter	191
	Conquering the Dragon: Cognitive Skills for Success	192
	Taking the High Road: Will Power versus Kill Power	193
Chapter 13	Getting Help from Support Groups and Programs	195
	Finding a Quitting Buddy	195
	Making Networking Work	196
	Supporting Your Success with Nicotine Anonymous	197
	Overcoming your fears of fitting in	198
	Learning to scrutinize your behavior and its effects	199
	Adjusting to the group mentality	200
	Embracing the 12 Step (or some other) approach	200
	Sampling Smokenders	201
	Starting Your Own Support Group (or Finding Peace by Keeping to Yourself)	202
	Discovering Sources of Inspiration	202
	The Cigarette Papers	204
	The Passionate Nonsmoker's Bill of Rights	204
	Locating Helpful Web Sites	205
	The American Lung Association	207
	The American Cancer Society	207
	Other great sites	208
	Joining in the Great American Smokeout	210
Chapter 14	Self-Medicating Mood Swings	213
	Deciphering Depression	213
	Situational (reactive) depression	214
	Major depression	215
	Unipolar and bipolar mood swings	216
	Alleviating Anxiety	217
	Putting down panic	219
	Understanding the Principle of Drug Karma	220
	Managing Mood Swings	221
	Undergoing cognitive therapy	222
	Combating panic and depression with medication	223
Chapter 15	Getting the Skinny on Weight Gain and Healthy Living	227
	The Truth about Quitting Smoking and Weight Gain	228
	Understanding Obesity and the Factors That Cause It	229
	Genetics or environment: Which makes you fat?	230
	Saying bye-bye to bingeing	231
	Mouthing off on quick-fix foods	231
	Getting a Handle on Weight Gain	232
	Managing weight gain medically	233
	Doing your part by exercising regularly	233
	Eating right	235
	Supporting Your Health Habit	235
	Exercising your way to a new you	235
	Practicing self-care	236
Part IV	Looking at Special Groups	237
Chapter 16	Focusing on Smoking, Fertility, and Pregnancy	239
	Monitoring Mom's Health	239
	Smoking and Sex	240
	Smoking and Fertility	241
	Smoking during Pregnancy: Everyone Loses	242
	Reviewing the risks to the fetus	244
	Looking at smoking-related complications to the pregnancy and the mother	245
	Quitting Smoking during Pregnancy	246
	Thinking about nicotine replacement therapy	247
	Being aware of depression's role	247
	Smoking and Breast Feeding	248
	Maligning Marlboro Moms: The Long-Term Effects of Maternal Tobacco Use	248
Chapter 17	Smoking and Teens	251
	Examining the Evidence	251
	Imitating What They See	253
	"Do what I say, not what I do"	253
	Peer pressure and low self-esteem	254
	Preventing Your Teen from Picking Up the Habit	254
	Sizing up your teen's attitudes and tendencies	256
	Getting across the gateway idea	257
	Helping your teen realize that nicotine is a drug	258
	Forming healthy family attitudes toward smoking	259
	Helping your teen say no to tobacco	260
	Aiding Teens Who Smoke	261
Chapter 18	Helping Someone You Care About Quit	263
	Convincing Someone to Quit	263
	Finding Out Whether a Person Is Ready to Quit	264
	Helping Someone Implement a Quitting Plan	265
	Providing support	266
	Being a quitting buddy	267
	Staying Ahead of a Stalemate: How to Rescue Yourself	268
	Identifying codependency	269
	Avoiding codependency	270
	Dealing with Secondhand Smoke	271
Part V	The Part of Tens	273
Chapter 19	Ten Signs That You're Ready to Quit	275
	Catching Your Breath	275
	Watching Your Wallet	276
	Walking a Mile for a Camel	276
	Feeling Like a Social Misfit	277
	Being Unable to (Fill in the Blank) without a Smoke	277
	Catching Criticism from Others	278
	Smoking More and Enjoying It Less	279
	Reacting to Comments from Others	280
	Missing Your Senses of Smell and Taste	280
	Wanting a Healthier Future	281
Chapter 20	Ten Rationalizations That Keep You Hooked	283
	I'll Quit When I'm on Vacation	283
	I'm Not on Vacation	284
	My Life Is Too Stressful	285
	Smoking Helps Me Eat Less	286
	Smoking Calms Me Down	287

Interesting book: Best of the Best from South Carolina Cookbook or Nell Hills Entertaining in Style

Prostate: A Guide for Men and the Women Who Love Them

Author: Patrick C Walsh

This year, 200,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. An even greater number will seek help for problems caused by prostate enlargement and inflammation. This book is for them--and for the wives, sisters, and daughters who often take responsibility for educating men about health matters and encouraging them to see a physician. Written by the world-renowned Johns Hopkins surgeon who devised the new, nerve-sparing surgical procedure for treating prostate cancer (generally known as the "Walsh procedure") and an award-winning medical writer, here is an accessible and authoritative resource about the three most common prostate disorders: prostate cancer; benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH, commonly known as enlarged prostate); and prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate).

The good news of the book is that effective treatment--and relief of symptoms--is available for all of these disorders. It's especially good to know that prostate cancer, when caught early, is curable. By alleviating men's fears about treatment and assuring them that many men can lead normal, active lives after prostate surgery, the authors hope to encourage men to seek medical attention for their prostate problems and help them to understand the options that are available.

Library Journal

"Every three minutes, a new case of prostate cancer is diagnosed in the United States. Every 15 minutes, a man dies from it." Thus, the message of this book that "most prostate trouble can be preventedand, if caught early enough, all prostate problems can be cured, even cancer"is good news indeed. State-of-the-art medical knowledge is provided by Johns Hopkins Urologist-in-Chief Walsh, clearly written by science writer Worthington, and informatively illustrated by Leon Schlossberg. The authors acknowledge that "medical care in this country is uneven," so their goal is "for you to come away from this book informed, prepared and able to discuss your situation intelligently with your doctor." This comprehensive reference on the prostate and its disorders complementsand surpassesSylvan Meyer and Seymour C. Nash's recent case study approach in Prostate Cancer: Making Survival Decisions (LJ 11/15/94).James Swanton, Albert Einstein Coll. of Medicine, New York