QUIT CIGAR SMOKING WITH HYPNOSIS

Some smokers have a very romanticized image of cigars and cigar smoking. They may see themselves as very sophisticated like elegant men in tuxedos shown in James Bond films. Some believe that smoking cigars emphasizes masculinity like that in movies like “Wolverine” and “Iron Man” . While others associate cigars with relaxing places like out on a deck or on a boat. And some women have seen Madonna and Demi Moore puffing away on cigars and consider cigar smoking glamorous. If you are ready to give up the “romance” of cigars, hypnotherapy can help.

Unfortunately, many cigar smokers think that they are at much less risk for health problems than that caused by cigarette smokers. This is simply wrong. Cigar smokers often tell me that it is alright to smoke a cigar because they don’t inhale. Certainly most cigar smokers do not inhale in the same way cigarette smokers do. But cigar smoking is linked to cancers that develop where the smoke traveled - the lip, tongue, mouth and throat as well as the lungs. Smoking cigars also increases the risk of heart and lung disease and pancreatic and bladder cancer.

Secondhand smoke from cigars is even more dangerous than cigarette smoke. This is true for a number of reasons One reason is that cigars are bigger so they contain more tobacco. Because it takes longer to puff through a cigar, a person’s exposure time to the toxic chemicals increases. In addition, a large cigar can contain up to 200 milligrams of nicotine. This is 23 times the amount of nicotine in a typical cigarette.

For all these reasons, smoking cigars is not a good alternative to smoking cigarettes. If you are ready to set yourself free from smoking cigars, hypnosis can be a valuable tool to stop smoking permanently.

SECOND-HAND SMOKE AND THE BRAIN

If you or someone you love have been exposed to second-hand smoke, you need to be concerned about the health risks associated with that exposure. If you share your home or your life with a smoker, please have them read this to learn how secondhand smoke can affect the people they love. If they are ready to stop smoking and eliminate the risk for those they love, hypnosis can help.

Exposing others to the risks of heart disease, stroke and brain damage are three important factors to consider in making the decision to become a healthy nonsmoker.

David J. Llewellyn, PhD, a research associate with the department of public health and primary care at the University of Cambridge, England, theorizes that second-hand smoke damages the brain as well as raises the risk for heart disease and stroke based on a study of 4,809 nonsmoking adults.

The study showed that the participants with the highest levels of nicotine by-product, cotinine, were 44% more likely to show memory problems and other cognitive impairment than those with the lowest levels..

If you have not chosen to stop smoking for yourself, perhaps you will decide the risk of second-hand smoke to your loved ones including young children is important enough to stop exposing them to toxins which could affect their health. If you want to stop, hypnosis can help you protect those you love and be a healthy nonsmoker.

SECOND-HAND SMOKE AND CHILDREN

If you have been concerned about how second-hand smoke could affect your children’s health, you have a legitimate reason for that concern. Hypnotherapy can help you stop smoking and no longer worry about exposing your children to the dangers of second-hand smoke.

You may have seen the news about the possibility of laws to make it illegal to smoke in a car which is carrying young children. Some smokers believe this would infringe on the personal rights of the smoker to make choices about one’s behavior on one’s own property and consider this a civil rights issue.

The fact is that if an adult smokes in a car with a young child, that child is also smoking. Poisons from the cigarette include carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide and benzene. When a child ingests these poisons through second-hand smoke, the smoke may trigger lower respiratory tract infections, asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, decreased lung function and recurrent ear infections.

Allen Eskenazi, M.D., Director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at University of Maryland Medical Center has reported that second-hand smoke is responsible for 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections each year in infants under 18 months. In addition, each year second-hand smoke is responsible for 16,000 new cases of asthma.

Your child deserves clean air and a chance at a healthy life. So do not smoke within the airspace of children. Choose the non-smoking section permanently. Better yet, become a healthy non-smoker so you no longer have to worry or feel guilty for exposing your children to the poisons in cigarettes.

If you are ready to stop smoking and if you do not want to use prescription medications with their side effects, hypnosis can be a valuable tool. Become a healthy non-smoker and you and your children can BE WELL.

HYPNOSIS CAN HELP LOWER RISK FOR PREMATURE DEATH

If you want to have the best chance at a long, full healthy life, make positive lifestyle choices. That is the result of a study reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study followed 4,886 adults for twenty years. Habits identified as unhealthy included smoking, alcohol consumption of three or more drinks per day for men and two or more for women, less than two hours of exercise per week and averaging less than three daily servings of vegetables and fruits. Hypnosis can help you make those changes.

The statistics are clear. During the twenty years, 1,080 of the participants in the study died. Those who scored poorly on all four standards and were identified as having the worst health habits compromised 29% of those who died. By contrast only eight percent of the 1,080 died from the category which had none of the four unhealthy standards.

The chances of dying earlier were greater in every category for people with the unhealthy habits. The risk was 10% greater because of poor diet, 18% from excessive alcohol consumption and 43% higher for both physical inactivity and smoking.

The researchers indicated that the study did not try to assess whether changing a poor lifestyle behavior would also change people’s risk for dying prematurely. They did conclude that the more unhealthy behaviors in which a person engages, the greater the risk for premature death.

If you are ready to lower your risk for premature death by changing poor lifestyle behavior, hypnosis can help you make the changes. Whether it’s quitting smoking, lowering alcohol consumption, exercising more or eating healthier, hypnosis can be a valuable tool to make those changes, lower your risk for premature death and BE WELL.

AGING FROM SMOKING? STOP SMOKING WITH HYPNOSIS

Have you ever heard the term “smoker’s face”? Even if you have not, did you immediately get an idea of what the term means? Almost everyone knows someone who has smoked for years and has not aged well. Time to stop smoking? Hypnosis helps.

The combination of smoke damage and the component chemicals in cigarettes damages skin in several ways. These chemicals reduce the body’s ability to create collagen. As collagen, the skin’s main structural component, decreases, elastin, the long smooth fibers in the skin thicken and break apart. This can cause heavily wrinkled skin. When the elastin breaks apart it cuts estrogen levels in women, causing cracking and skin dryness which interferes with the skin’s ability to protect itself from oxidation.

Researchers have found that female smokers between the ages of 40 and 70 were three times as likely to have moderate to severe wrinkling as nonsmokers. Plastic surgeons verify this research in their practices reporting on more dramatic wrinkling in smokers than in nonsmokers.

In my own practice, I see a fair number of clients referred by plastic surgeons to stop smoking before having a face lift, tummy tuck or eye brow lift, Smoking increases the complication of all surgeries and since cosmetic surgery is elective, some surgeons ask this commitment before a surgical procedure.

If you are aging before your time or planning to have surgery, i may be tme to stop smoking. If you need a strong, non-invasive tool to help you become a nonsmoker, hypnotherapy helps.

SMOKING, LUNG CANCER AND HYPNOSIS TO CHANGE

It’s not too late — that is the good news for those smokers age 50 or more who are thinking about quitting smoking. The statistics about smoking and lung cancer are truly terrifying. A report in the British Medical Journal shows that men who are lifelong smokers have a 16 percent chance of dying of lung cancer by the age of 75, and those who smoker more than 25 cigarettes a day have a 24 percent chance. Women smokers have a 10 percent chance of developing lung cancer which escalates to 19 percent by the age of 75 for heavy smokers.

Richard Peto, one of the authors of a study at Oxford University, on lung cancer risk for smokers states, “Even in middle age, stopping really works. This idea that adults can’t stop, that all you can do is prevent young people from starting smoking, is just really wrong.”

According to the study, quitting smoking at age 50 reduces the risk of dying and lung cancer to six percent for men, effectively cutting it by more than half. Quitting at age 30 lowers the chance of dying of lung cancer to 1.7 percent, which is far less than that of people who continue to smoke until age 75.

If you want the best chance at a long, full healthy life, it is time to become a non-smoker. Hypnosis is a valuable tool to quit smoking without putting other chemicals into your body. Use hypnosis to quit smoking and BE WELL.

STOP SMOKING WITH HYPNOSIS

    Are you ready to quit smoking?  Have you already tried and failed to become a nonsmoker?  Mark Twain once wrote, "It's easy to quit smoking.  I've done it thousands of times." And, nearly a century ago, the magazine Punch, reporting on a raise in the tobacco tax predicted, "All those people who gave up smoking last year will do so again this year."

   There are lots of ways to quit smoking from going cold turkey to going to a medical doctor for a prescription.  But you may not have thought of using hypnosis for smoking cessation.

    If you want an easy and simple way to quit smoking, hypnosis is a great method and has the added bonus of not putting chemicals in your body.  Clients often ask me what are the side effects of using hypnosis to become a nonsmoker.  The answer is simple, "you quit smoking."

   My program for smoking cessation is simple.  I ask a commitment to two sessions.  There is no hypnosis in the first session.  It is a clinical interview in which I will ask the client a lot of questions to understand their smoking habit.  What do you smoke?  How much do you smoke?  What do you like about smoking?  What do you dislike about smoking are just some of the questions that I will ask in the 90 minute interview.

    At the end of the first session, I give the clients some forms to bring back to their second session.  These will give me information about how they process stress, whether they are left or right brain dominant and whether their neurolinguistic learning channels are visual, auditory or kinesthetic.  These help me design their individual hypnosis session.

    The  second session is about 75 minutes and includes a 45 minute hypnosis session which many clients choose to record on their cellphone for reinforcement.  At the end of the second session, they will be nonsmokers.

  I am so confident of this, that I guarantee that I if they slip I will do a free session and get them started again.  Obviously, I couldn't do this if it happens often.  Last year I saw two people that needed to do a free session.  One started again when he picked up a cigarette at the funeral home when he was there for his mother's funeral.  The other went on an alcoholic binge and found that alcohol brings down inhibitions.  

   Every hypnotherapist will have their own process but hypnosis can work to help you be the healthy nonsmoker you want to be.  

MAJOR ILLNESSES LINKED TO SMOKING. QUIT WITH HYPNOSIS

     A report published in JAMA INTERNAL MEDICINE by researchers at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, was an analysis of data from 2006 through 2012 on data from two national health surveys.  The analysis showed the huge toll of smoking on smokers' health.  At the time of the report, smoking was linked to 14 million cases of major illness in the United States.  The report concluded that for each death caused by smoking in the U.S. at that time, fifteen to twenty people were suffering with a major disease caused by their smoking habit.

   I once had a close friend justify her smoking habit with the comment, "Everyone has to die of something".  Well, she died of lung cancer that spread to her brain.  Major diseases like cancer and heart disease are often side-effects of smoking.  If you have been thinking about quitting smoking, don't wait until you have a bad diagnosis. 

    Recently a message was left on my voice mail, I'd like to share with you."Hi, Jennifer,  This is Elizabeth _____, Today is the first anniversary of quitting smoking with your help.  Thanks to you, I'll never smoke another cigarette.  I feel so much better.  My life is better.  My grandkids get to keep me.  Thank you so much."  Don't wait for a major illness to quit smoking.  Hypnosis can help you stop and BE WELL.

E-CIGS DON'T HELP. HYPNOSIS DOES

     Many e-cigarette users report trying to quit smoking by using them along with regular cigarettes.  Stanton Clantz, PhD, a professor of medicine at University of California-San Francisco and director of the university's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education reported that people trying to quit smoking by using a combination of regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes were 28% LESS likely to quit smoking than those using regular cigarettes alone.

   You can quit smoking.  In the late 1960s one half the population smoked.  Today, far fewer people smoke.  If you are trying to become a nonsmoker, hypnosis can be a valuable tool to help you give up cigarettes.  E-cigarettes are not the answer.  They just prolong the problem.  Set yourself free with the help of hypnotherapy.  Be an active, healthy nonsmoker and BE WELL.

MILLIONS OF LIVES SAVED BY ANTISMOKING EFFORTS

In 2012 researchers at Yale University School of Public Health in New Haven, CT analyzed their data on smoking cessation along with data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.  This analysis was published in THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.  They reported that since the 1964 report by the Surgeon General identifying the dangers of smoking, the rate of smoking fell from 42% in 1964 to 18% in 2012.  They estimated that the antismoking effort engendered by the report had saved eight million lives at that time.

If you are a smoker and want the best chance at having a long, healthy life, it's time to become a healthy nonsmoker.  There is a special section of my website www.JenniferPJohnson on being a health nonsmoker.  Plus you can find a number of blog post articles on quitting smoking and becoming a nonsmoker through hypnosis,  Claim that long, healthy life today,  Quit smoking and BE WELL.

TEEN USE OF TOBACCO, MARIJUANA AND ALCOHOL

        A 2012 study based on annual surveys of between 45,000 and 50,000 high school students in around 400 secondary schools found that 17.1% of U. S. teens had reported smoking tobacco within thirty days of the survey.  This was good new as the study by researchers at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, funded through research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one of the National Institutes of Health showed the number down from 18.7% a year earlier.  The teens reported their use of marijuana was about the same. While 22.6% of high school seniors reported smoking marijuana in the past thirty days in 2011, 22.9% reported  using marijuana in the previous thirty days in 2012.  Alcohol use was reported about the same levels.  More than 40% of high school seniors reported drinking alcohol in the thirty days before the survey.

    If you have a child who is using tobacco, marijuana or alcohol and wants to stop, hypnotherapy can be a valuable tool.  Help them stop smoking and using alcohol .  Hypnosis helps!

CIGARS AREN'T SAFER THAN CIGARETTES

  Sometimes new clients come to see me because they want to quit smoking cigarettes and say "but I still want to smoke cigars".  In most cases, they believe that smoking cigars is safer for their health than smoking cigarettes.  And cigar smoking has continued to increase. Jiping Chen, MD, PhD, MPH and epidemiologist at the FDA Center for Tobacco Products in Silver Spring, MD noted that by 2013 cigar smoking had more than doubled in the US since 2000.  He reported that in a large-scale analysis comparing blood and urine sample results from cigar smokers and nonsmokers, cigar smokers were found to have higher levels of a number of toxic substances in their blood and urine than nonsmokers.  At least one potential cancer-causing agent found inthe samples was comparable to that found in cigarette smokers.

   If you or a loved one has felt because you "only smoke cigars" that you were not at risk from the kinds of health dangers that cigarette smokers have, it's time to think again.  Hypnosis can help you become a healthy nonsmoker and BE WELL.

LUNG HEALTH MEANS BETTER BRAIN HEALTH

Still another reason to keep your lungs healthy.  Charles Emery, PhD, and professor of psychology at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, reported on research tracking health data of 832 adults for nearly two decades.  The adults were in a an age range of 50 to 85.  The researchers found that reduced pulmonary (lung) function led to mental decline in not only people suffering from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) but even in healthy adults.  It is believed the reason for the cognitive decline was because when lungs function poorly, it reduces oxygen in the blood which could slow down signals between brain cells.

    To have the best chance for better brain health, it is important to keep your lungs healthy. Make healthy choices like eating a healthful diet, exercising regularly and avoiding pollution to your lungs by stopping smoking and avoiding secondhand smoke.  You can support those healthy choices with the use of hypnosis.  Breathe better, think better and BE WELL.  

SMOKERS' SPOUSES AT GREATER STROKE RISK

    If you are a smoker, you are risking not only your own health but that of those who are around you particularly your spouse.  In 2009, M. Maria Glymour, ScD, assistant professor in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, reported on a study of 16,225 people who were married to smokers.  The people were followed for an average of nine years.  It was found that people who had never smoked but were married to a person currently smoking had a 42% greater risk for a first stroke when compared to people who never smoked married to people who had also never smoked.  The risk jumped up to 72% higher risk for ex-smokers married to a person currently smoking.

   Smoking is dangerous not only to your health but the health of those you love.  Quitting smoking can bring down the risk of your spouse having a stroke.  If you need help to become a healthy nonsmoker, hypnotherapy can help. Stop smoking and you and your spouse have the best chance to BE WELL.

LUNG HEALTH MEANS BETTER BRAIN HEALTH

 Still another reason to not smoke, eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly and avoid environmental pollutants such as secondhand smoke.  Charles Emery, PhD, professor of psychology at The Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio,  reported on research on lung function and its influence on brain health.  The researchers followed health date on 832 people between the ages of 50 and 85 for almost twenty years.  They found that reduced lung function  due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) but also in otherwise healthy adults led to cognitive deterioration.  

   The researchers theorized that reduced oxygen in the blood due to poor lung function could slow down signals between cells in the brain.  If you need to get motivated to quit smoking, exercise regularly, avoid secondhand pollutants or exercise regularly, hypnosis can be a valuable tool to increase your chances for better brain health.

STRESSORS INCREASING STROKES AND HEART ATTACKS

    Barry A. Franklin, PhD, director of preventive cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, has identified five emotional and physical stressors that can temporarily increase the risk of a cardiovascular event such as strokes and heart attacks.  While the risks are highest in people with heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, physical and emotional stress can also affect healthy people.

     Physical stresses which can trigger strokes and heart attacks include overexertion such as shoveling snow and strenuous winter sports such as cross-country skiing. A combination of a diseased heart, cold temperatures and unaccustomed physical activity can increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke by 50 to 100 times over those who don't exert themselves.  For people who don't normally exercise, shoveling snow or skiing can cause increases in blood pressure and heart rate at the same time that breathing cold air is constricting the arteries. In addition, people skiing tend to be at higher altitudes with a lower pressure of oxygen in the air making increased demands in the heart.

    Another physical stressor which can trigger a cardiovascular event is having sex. This is particularly true in extra-marital sex which can cause a greater level of arousal than normal  and cause the heart rate to increase by as much as 30 beats per minute which can put extra demand on the heart.  One report indicated that around 80% of heart attack deaths which took place during or after sex took place in hotel rooms where the sex partner was not their spouse. Researchers do not believe sex is risky for people who are physically active and having sex with a regular partner or spouse.

   Emotional stressors can be just as dangerous in increasing the risk for a heart attack or stroke.  Bad news like learning of the death of a loved one or getting bad health news immediately elevates your risk for a heart attack.  THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE reported that the risk of having a heart attack is highest on the day bad news is received.  The risk continues to remain high for at least a month afterwards.

    Another emotional trigger which could activate a cardiovascular event is watching sports.  This is important for those who are really invested and passionate about their team.  When true fans get really excited, the heart rate can increase by as much as 100 beats per minute which could rigger arrthythmias or clots.

    Extreme anger can also raise your risk for a heart attack.  Just being aggravated does not raise your risk but extreme anger can trigger an increase in blood clots, heartbeat irregularities and constriction of arteries.

    There are things you can do for each of these risks. If you are normally quiet sedentary, don't shovel snow.  Buy a snow blower or hire someone to shovel your snow.  If you are a sedentary, amateur skiier, start increasing your activity level well before your ski trip.  And dress for the cold weather including a scarf to cover your nose and mouth. exercise regularly for safer sex and choose a regular partner or spouse.  Become less invested in sporting events and take any heart medication prescriptions regularly. If you have received bad news, spend time with loved ones and other people who care. Consider therapy for extreme anger and get medical advice from your doctor. All of these risks are greatest in people who don't exercise, are overweight and who smoke.

    Dr, Franklin is coauthor with Joseph C. Piscatella, of PREVENT, HALT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE.  Learn more about how you can lower your risk for heart attacks and strokes. Remember hypnotherapy can be a valuable tool to make positive changes to decrease your risk of stroke and heart attack.

SET A QUIT DATE FOR BECOMING A NONSMOKER

    Robert Sokolove, health psychologist at Boston Medical Center, suggests people who are thinking about quitting smoking set a quit date ahead of time.  He notes, "Your quit date has symbolic value".   I suggest to my clients that they pick a date of significance which has meaning for them - a birthday, a religious event or a secular holiday is something to look forward to and will be remembered later.   Many experts also suggest that people choosing to quit smoking choose a date a couple of weeks to a month ahead so they have time to mentally prepare.

   If you are thinking about quitting smoking, hypnotherapy can be a valuable tool to help you.  Each hypnotherapist will have their own program.  I am so confident that I can help smokers become nonsmokers that I tell clients that If they should slip and start smoking any time for an entire year, I will be happy to do a free session to get them started again as nonsmokers.  My website, www.JenniferPJohnson.com, has a section where you can learn more about my program. If you are thinking about becoming a nonsmoker, set a quit date and call a hypnotherapist to make your commitment a reality. 

IMPROVING LONGEVITY FOR AMERICAN MEN

   A paper in the journal, HEALTH POLICY, reported that about 150,000 American men in the United States die prematurely each year from preventable causes.  This was a higher rate than in fifteen developed countries.  Among the most identified diseases causing the high rates of preventable disease in American men were diabetes, heart disease and prostate cancer.

    The magazine, MEN'S HEALTH, recommended studying some of the other developed countries which did not have such a high rate of male premature death.  Italian men make heart-healthy eating choices including a Mediterranean diet, olive oil and moderate amounts of red wine.  Italian men also smoke much less than they once did.  Japanese men drink green tea which has been identified as a help in fighting prostate cancer.  In Switzerland, men are much more apt to ride a bike or walk to work.  This activity may be an identifiable reason for the lower risk of diabetes in Swiss men.

    The men in those countries were all making good choices to take care of themselves and their health.  If you or the man in your life are ready to improve the chances for a long, full healthy life, it's time to eat well, quit smoking and even have a glass of red wine or a cup of green tea.  Hypnotherapy can help to make those changes so you can BE WELL.

NICOTINE NOT SAFE

     As more and more people try to avoid the dangers of smoking, many try to replace cigarettes with other nicotine delivery systems such as an e-cigarette, nicotine patch or nicotine gum or lozenges.  But recent research out of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech  led by geneticist, Skip Garner, found that nicotine is not only addictive it is also carcinogenic.

     Professor Garner reported, "Previous tests measure and classify whether nicotine is a carcinogen or mutagen were conducted with old technology, sponsored by tobacco companies.  What we've done is we make a direct measurement of the genome using the latest technology of next gen sequencing and we could directly measure the number of mutations that exposure to nicotine caused.  The conclusion, nicotine alone can cause cancer even without the other chemicals in conventional cigarettes."

     He believes that using alternative nicotine delivery systems instead of cigarettes, actually could make the situation worse.   "When you smoke cigarettes, the actual dose is fairly low because it has spread out through your entire body, but when you're administering nicotine through a patch or you're chewing it with gum or you're inhaling it with e-cigarettes, your mouth and your skin get very high doses of nicotine."

    If you have been thinking about becoming a non-smoker, don't try to replace cigarettes with e-cigarettes, the patch or gum.  Instead, get the help you need.  Hypnotherapy can be a valuable tool to become a non-smoker and avoid the carcinogen, nicotine.

SMOKING LINKED TO CHRONIC BACK PAIN

  If you suffer from chronic back pain, be aware your smoking habit may be part of the problem.  A study  by A. Vania Apkarian, PhD, professor of physiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, found that smokers are three times more likely than nonsmokers to have chronic back pain.

    Although researchers are not sure why this surprising link between smoking and back pain exists, it is believed that smokers have a stronger connection between the regions of the brain controlling chronic pain and addictive behavior.  In the study, participants who quit smoking showed a drop in the connectivity between those two regions decreasing their risk of chronic pain.

    If you are  smoker suffering from chronic back pain, you have still another reason to stop smoking.  Hypnosis can be a valuable tool to Be a Healthy NonSmoker and BE WELL.