Category: Quitting Tobacco

How to help others quit tobacco. Behavioral 7D intervention to help quit tobacco. Articles to help specialists intervention.

Tobacco and Stress

The commonest reason for starting and continuing tobacco given by most people is STRESS.

The reason one starts tobacco -stress of studies, stress of work, stress of being in relation, stress of job (like drivers, night watchman). To that extent the people given the reason of tobacco for being in the profession like doctor and lawyer.

One straight question to them – those who do not take tobacco are they not performing the duties? Or are those who do not take tobacco not to be in the profession.

No scientific data has proven that tobacco is a stress buster.

Nicotine the mood-altering drug, reaches brain in 8-10 seconds and it seems to decrease the feelings of frustration, anger, and anxiety. This action is through the various neurotransmitter like dopamine release from the activation of nicotine acetylcholine receptor. This release is temporary and ones the dopamine level goes down the feeling is worse than before, tempting the person to smoke again. A person addicted to smoking would not be able to perform his duties with out smoke.

Chewing tobacco release nicotine slowly and for this purpose a chewer tends to keep the chew in his mouth constantly. A smoker is likely to become a chewer because there is a constant release of nicotine and dopamine stimulation, keeping the person high through out and making him addicted more than ever.

Tobacco (smoking or chewing)may make you feel calmer, but it actually increases the level of stress in your body and causes negative reactions –

  • Increase in blood pressure
  • Increase in heart rate
  • Tensed muscles
  • Constricted blood vessels
  • A decrease in oxygen carrying capacity of blood

With awareness and education – Tobacco use causes stress – the mind is stressed that the habit is going to cause some disease. The person tries to quit but unfortunately the failed attempts and frustration leads to more stress.

What should one do to relieve stress:

  1. Meditate – Deep breathing exercise and visualization can instantly help you control your stress. This can be done any where even when you are in the board meeting or while on the job.
  2. Exercise – take a walk do some yoga, cycling, swimming any sports activity. The release of endorphins with exercise makes one feel good and can lift your spirits tremendously.
  3. Diet – a healthy diet can calm your mind. Ayurveda has put a lot of emphasis on the type of food and our mood.
  4. Medication – many anxiolytics are available. Need to be used only one absolutely necessary. Most are sedative. A non-sedative medication Relaxium (lactium and theanine combination) may be most appropriate.

Tobacco is harmful to the body and no reasons can justify its use by anyone.

To relieve stress of tobacco use, quitting tobacco is a must. The journey of quitting tobacco can be made easy by adopting the right method. Tobacco is a disease and it is a complex disease, it needs a specialist to plan with behavioural and cognitive therapy, pharmacotherapy and comorbid therapy. Do check the 7D of tobacco cessation.

NO BODY TAKING TOBACCO CAN BE FREE OF STRESS !

The ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness Program incorporates all the above in the digitalized protocol based intervention program designed by Mr Rishabh Agrawal.

ICanCaRe team of Certified tobacco Cessation Specialists and Quit Coaches work with you to make your journey smooth, easy, interesting and achievable.

ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness Centres with its India’s first digital protocol based assessment process guide intervention as per requirements.

Do visit the ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness Centers or register online by visiting our page or call ICanCaRe quitline 011-43077695

Evidence Based Approach for Successfully Quitting Tobacco

Quitting Tobacco is easy but staying quit is difficult! People quit tobacco to restart and this cycle goes on leading to frustration and loss of confidence. With increasing awareness people come to me with “Please don’t tell me why, TELL ME HOW TO QUIT”.

Why is it So difficult to quit?

Why is it people are not able to quit tobacco, in spite of so much of awareness about Tobacco.  According to World Health Organization Tobacco is a DISEASE (and not just a habit). And it is a Complex disease. Like any other disease it has to be treated. Complexity lies in the fact that there are various component of this disease that includes – social, psychological, and physical.  Each of these components have to be recognized, explored and treated.

When to quit?

Earlier the better. Continuing Tobacco use is definitely going to harm you and it is just not cancer, it can be cardiovascular, respiratory, Central nervous system, skin, dental every part of our body is harmed by tobacco besides unidentified mineral and vitamin deficiency. Has tobacco started affecting you – it is important you check yourself and recognize any of the 27 early signs of Tobacco use. If you quit hopefully these may be reversed and you can get back to normal. Continuing will lead to more of any of the 19 diseases   And if one still continues it would cause major 10 advanced disease which would cause morbidity, pain and death.  Remember all tobacco users will have some or the other disease, better quit now.

Components of Tobacco Disease – Is your will power enough to quit tobacco? This is the dilemma. A proper assessment by Fagerstrom grading system into mild, moderate and severe grade of the tobacco addiction disease is to be done. Recognizing the predominant component of the tobacco disease – social, psychological and physical for the person and treating accordingly.  A tool is available to assess the will power of the person (free APP for android  – ICANCARE). The treatment of this disease is done accordingly.

Methods of Quitting – The intervention therapy includes – Behavioral therapy and Pharmacological therapy. Both intervention are important and essential part of the treatment.  The proper intervention includes individual and group counselling and treatment with medication to decrease the withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms are the biggest deterrent of successful cessation. Now specific medicine is available which decreases the withdrawal symptoms and at the same time blocks the nicotine receptor in the brain.

Who can help me quit– Most of the people have tried quitting multiple times before they actually seek help by a professional who is trained for the purpose. Most of the doctors fail to help as tobacco addiction is a complex disease and everyone are not trained to handle this. There are two types of doctors – AAR (ask, advise and refer) or 5A (ask, advise, assess, assist and arrange). Training program – Certificate Course has been introduced  for the first time in India to upgrade the skills of the doctors to be able to treat these large number of patients of tobacco addiction. Recognized ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness centers are coming up to specifically help these patients.

Relapse  – The cycle of tobacco addiction includes the planning phase, active phase and maintenance phase. The whole cycle lasts for 2 years. A person may relapse at any point of time so has to be vigilant and recognize any triggers. Most common cause of relapse is social, and one trail means you have to START once again. A Tobacco Wellness App is available to keep track of the tobacco habit for the patient.

Tobacco is a complex endemic disease. It is well recognized and now diagnostic methodology, specific medicines and counselling process are available to treat this disease. The book WIN OVER TOBACCO MADE EASY authored by Dr. Pawan Gupta is a comprehensive guide for those willing to quit and also for doctors. It is moral responsibility of all doctors taking training to understand the intricacies of the disease and advise the patient in an evidence based method for tobacco quit to be successfully.

Max Super Specialty Hospital understands the need and ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness center is now serving tobacco addicts to help them quit the habit at the Vaishali unit of Max Hospital. Current success rate is 92%. Do visit ICanCaRe site to know more about the quit process and to register for seeking professional help for quitting today!

(The Author – Dr Pawan Gupta M.Ch. is Director of Surgical Oncology at Max Super Specialty Hospital, Vaishali and has written many book on tobacco and is highly recognized for his work on Oral Cancer and Tobacco Cessation.)

Make quitting tobacco a pleasure journey. Talk to the experts!! Call ICanCaRe Quitline 011-43077695 or visit  www.icancare.in.

Tobacco Withdrawals – Managing Constipation

Now Constipation can be Easily Managed Upon Quitting Tobacco/Smoking

Constipation is one of the most common withdrawal symptoms associated with Long use of tobacco in any form, either smoking or chewing. Taking tobacco as first thing in the morning or before going to the washroom is associated with smooth bowel evacuation. Mostly this is psychological and rarely a physical dependency.

Washroom – has been the best hiding place, and you enjoyed your tobacco
peacefully here!

The Abdominal symptoms like constipation may also be related to the changes you are making in your routine since quitting tobacco.

Some of the causes to be noted are:

  1. Change in food – Change in diet pattern and type of food tends to be part of the quit plan. Frequency of food intake increase and also food is used as an alternative to cravings.
  2. Stress – Anxiety and stress related to quitting tobacco or routine work may manifest physically as abdominal symptoms.
  3. Physical Activity – For many there is likely to be change in physical activity one tends to become inactive, lethargic in the early days of quit journey. These may be contributor to the abdominal symptoms
  4. Medications – check the medicines you are taking some of the medicines might be having constipation as side effects. Some common medicines like painkillers (tramadol) has side effects of constipation. Varenicline used for quitting tobacco may cause nausea and constipation

These may trouble you initially but resolves very quickly in a few days.

The withdrawal symptoms needs to be noted and addressed, it may require behavioral intervention and many a times require medications for coping up with it as given below:

  • Deep Breathing and Meditation may calm control your anxiety and stress.
  • Light physical activity – walk, cycling etc helps
  • Water intake as a routine. Water 2 glasses early morning and  half an hour before food – keeps you hydrated avoids bloating and aids digestion and softens stools to ease motions. (Related Reading –
  • Add fibres to your diet – fruits, vegetables etc
  • Warm Lemon water with honey in the morning
  • Jeera water as it has wonderful effects on your intestine
  • Warm milk with haldi at night
  • Medicines  – Isabgol, Lactulose, Rarely pegylated glycol may be required
  • Medicines to increase motility of intestine may be given when absolutely required
  • Allopathic medicines like Proton pump inhibitors, digestive enzymes, liver enzymes may be required and to be taken under guidance and prescription of specialists.

The digestive imbalance can be taken care with proper intervention and make your journey to freedom from slavery of tobacco easy.

The ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness Program incorporates all the above in the digitized protocol based intervention program designed by Mr. Rishabh Agrawal, Director and CEO, ICanCaRe.

ICanCaRe team of Certified tobacco Cessation Specialists and Quit Coaches work with you to make your journey smooth, easy, interesting and achievable.

ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness Centres with its India’s first digital protocol based assessment process guide intervention as per requirements.

Do visit the ICanCaRe Tobacco Wellness Centres or register online by visiting our page or call ICanCaRe quitline 011-43077695.