Quit smoking myths that you should not believe.

CLEADOC editor

Not a doctor but a meticulous writer who writes informative articles related to healthcare in Malaysia.

We want to help you quit smoking. But the myths out there are just not helping. Don’t give yourself excuses on why you shouldn’t quit.

1. Smoking helps me relax and reduce stress.

This is not true ! In fact, smoking will increase blood pressure and heart rate and does not help reduce stress.

After some time has passed without smoking, a person will feel more at ease than they did before quitting. Nicotine (the addictive ingredient in tobacco) cravings are only temporarily satisfied by smoking. At the time, this may seem soothing, but it’s actually only easing the stress brought on by your dependency.

Once you’ve given up smoking, you’ll be able to deal with stress in a more productive way. If you need help, see a doctor or other healthcare professional.

2. E-cigarette is a healthy alternative to smoking

Not true ! E-cigarette aerosol (vapour) contains fewer toxic chemicals than regular cigarettes, but they can still be harmful. Smoking e-cigarettes such as vapes and pods exposes you to harmful chemicals like formaldehyde and acrolein, as well as metals like lead, nickel, tin, and aluminium, which can lead to cancer.

Vaping can also deliver nicotine to your body, causing physical dependence. Most importantly we don’t really know what is the long-term health effects of vaping. (Source: mdanderson.org)

3. It’s too late to quit smoking, harm has already been done.

It’s not true ! It’s never too late to quit smoking. Regardless of how long you’ve been smoking, you can always decide to quit. When a person quits smoking, many of the negative impacts on his/her health quickly disappear. If you are a smoker and you stop before age 50, your risk of dying within the next 15 years is cut into half. The probability of suffering from a heart attack after 3 years decreases by half. Lung cancer mortality risk if halved every decade.

Quitting as soon as possible maximises the positive effects. Even if you don’t quit smoking until you’ve turned 60, you’ll gain another extra 3 years of life over smokers who did not. (Source: nsw.gov.au)

Once you stop smoking, will your body be able to heal? Yes ! In fact, your carbon monoxide and oxygen levels will return to normal within eight hours of your last cigarette being extinguished. And in just two days, you’ll be much less likely to have a heart attack. Your blood pressure will normalise within three months. (Source: healthhub.sg)

4. Smoking helps to slim down my body.

It also does not imply that the more you smoke, the slimmer you will appear. In fact, it may alter your shape in unexpected ways. According to a study, increasing the number of cigarettes smoked per day was associated with a larger waist circumference and more abdominal fat.

Furthermore, a subsequent meta-analysis published in a 2015 by British Medical Journal examined the former, and never smokers and discovered that for a given BMI, a gene variant associated with heavy smoking may lead to a relative increase in waist circumference. It’s not conclusive, but the more you smoke, the more likely you are to gain weight around your middle. (Source: WeightWatchers)

5. Nicotine is the main toxin in cigarette.

Not true ! Nicotine is what causes the addiction, but other content in cigarettes is what causes the harm.It is the other 7,000 toxins and chemicals in tobacco which are most harmful, particularly tar and carbon monoxide. There are 70 known cancer causing agents in tobacco smoke. (Source: health.nsw.gov.au)

Want to quit smoking, but don’t know how and where to start ? Speak to your friendly doctor from CLEADOC via Virtual Doctor.