New Year, New You?

The New Year often brings about positive thoughts and encouragement to try

something new or to make a change. If you have thought about giving up smoking
but can never find the ‘right’ time to give it a go, the New Year brings that
perfect opportunity. One of the most important aspects of quitting is that you
are doing it because you believe you can do it and that you are doing it for
yourself. However, if you live or work in the City of London or in the London
Borough of Hackney there are some initiatives running in January that may help you along the way.

Workers in the City of London will not have to pay prescription charges on any stop smoking medication for the month of January including both Champix and Nicotine Replacement Therapy. Those living or working in Hackney could have the chance to receive a £20 shopping voucher if they successfully quit with our service. For more information call 0800 169 1943.

Remember quitting on your own can be difficult so to give yourself the best chance why not see what’s available in your local area. Last January, an incredible 62% who set a quit a quit day with us successfully stopped. Go on, you can do it too!

New Royal London Hospital

Last week the first clinical services started to move in to the new Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. With more space and state-of-the-art facilities the hospital will continue to provide excellent healthcare across East London. We also had the first referrals for inpatients requesting smoking cessation support, another service run by the Smokers' Clinic. This aims to help inpatients spend more time on the wards receiving care, reduce withdrawal symptoms and hopefully assist them in quitting smoking completely - reducing readmission rates.

The Price of Nicotine

As all smokers will be aware the price of cigarettes always seems to be rising. More expensive cigarettes should reduce the prevalence of smokers, but it hasn't - smokers smoke slightly less cigarettes per day but in order to compensate for reducing they smoke harder. Did you know that you can get up to 6 times more nicotine out of a cigarette if you smoke it hard enough? Have you thought about how hard you smoke your cigarettes?

 

Patches

At the Smokers Clinic our clients are always interested on the latest news regarding stop smoking medication and occasionally things pop up in the media that can cause concern. Some readers of this blog may have read the front cover story of the Metro yesterday regarding the use of prescription based painkilling patches in strong heat. There was an additional suggestion that using a nicotine patch in a hot bath or shower could cause an overdose of nicotine leading to unpleasant side effects. So should you be worried?

In short, no. Nicotine patches are completely safe to use in the bath, shower and sunbathing!

In our years of clinical experience we have never come across this to be an issue – in fact many clients report difficulty in getting the patches to stay on in water in the first place!  We can reassure you that it is extremely hard to ‘overdose’ on a nicotine patch even if you wear it in the bath - it’s actually probably best to try and keep it on to keep those cravings at bay! At our annual smoking cessation update last week other clinicians from around the country reported that some of their clients find heating up the patch beforehand improves the functionality of the patch. Recently researchers in Denmark found that by heating a nicotine patch it improved nicotine release and increased nicotine uptake with no reported side effects or discomfort on participants.  If you are ever concerned or have questions about how best to use the nicotine patch then speak with your trained stop smoking advisor, pharmacist or GP who will be able to answer you query.  

Addiction Incorporated

At the Smokers’ Clinic we try to focus on treating nicotine dependence and stay out of policy and legislation regarding tobacco. However this trailer for a new feature film – “Addiction Incorporated”, scheduled for release a week today in the States, looks very provocative.

It must be noted that they say nicotine kills - nicotine from cigarettes is very addictive, but it's the thousands of other chemicals in cigarettes which cause the damage, just the nicotine that keeps people smoking them.

We don’t know when the film will be available over here, but will keep you updated.

Quit Smoking this January!

Every year there is a significant increase in the percentage of smokers trying to quit in January. However as we all know most new year’s resolutions unfortunately don’t last long! Why not increase your chances of quitting for good this time and join the smokers successfully quitting here at the Smokers’ Clinic. Furthermore we have some exciting new research taking place into some new methods in quitting. Take a look at our research trial page or call us on 0207 882 8230.

Younger adults are quitting more

Data gathered from smokers in England over the last year show that those between 18-34 years of age are setting more quit dates comnpared to those in age groups above them. Do you smoke and fall in to this younger age group? If you would like to join the hundreds of thousands of younger adults quitting smoking in England each year call the Smokers' Clinic now on 0207 882 8230.

Smoking and Exercise

Published earlier this year in Nicotine & Tobacco Research and also covered in this month’s Women’s Fitness magazine is research suggesting that people who took part in a 12 week weight training programme as an adjunct strategy to quitting smoking were more likely to quit successfully. Usually here at the Smokers’ Clinic we say focus on one thing at a time, but some may potentially benefit from doing both together. What do you think would suit you best?

Training and Research Update

This Thursday 1^st December is the Annual Smoking Cessation Training and Research Programme Update and Supervision Day, held in London, UK.  It is the key Continuous Professional Development resource for UK stop-smoking advisors and managers. It consists of talks by leading UK researchers and practitioners on new developments in the Stop-Smoking Service, treatment theory and practice, and new research findings relevant for clinical work. What does this mean for smokers? Firstly it means a higher standard of care will be provided by smoking cessation advisors to those who want to quit smoking, and secondly it means some of the latest research in the field will be disseminated on the blog over the coming weeks, so keep checking back for the latest news! For more details on the course call us on 0207 882 8230.

Nicorette Quickmist Mouthspray

Launched earlier this year by Nicorette, the Quickmist Mouthspray has attracted a lot of attention from potential quitters. It's considered generally aesthetically attractive, easy to carry around and easy use by most of our quitters here at the Smokers’ Clinic. It is supposed to work fast too; getting to work on cravings within 2 minutes.Want to quit smoking using the Mouthspray? Get in contact with us! Tried the Mouthspray before? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!

Clinic Dates

The start of a new year often inspires people to make an attempt to quit smoking. Why not increase your chances of staying quit this time by joining one of our clinics starting soon. The dates of various clinics, research trials and drop-in sessions are now available on the "Join a Clinic or Research Trial" page on the right. We have a variety of options across East London and the City - call us now on 0207 882 8230 to book!

Smoking and COPD

Are you short of breath? To mark World COPD Day the Smokers' Clinic takes a brief look at what COPD is and where smoking fits in.

COPD stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and involves the narrowing of the airways in the lungs through chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Shortness of breath is usually the main symptom and smoking tobacco is often the main cause. Smoking Cessation is a vital management strategy for anyone diagnosed with COPD - it slows down the rate of progression of the disease. A simple breathing test done by a GP or nurse called spirometry can help determine if you have the disease.

Read more about COPD here

Smokers' Clinic likes...

The Smokers' Clinic is a massive fan of Terry Martin's Smoking Cessation blog on about.com which can be found here. It offers a comprehensive resource of all things to do with smoking cessation as well as a great forum for all those thinking about quitting. It has also been a big inspiration for the Smokers' Clinic's own blog - check it out!

Most Smokers want to quit, but few suceed. Why?

Recent reports from the States suggest that as much as 70% of the smoking population say they want to quit, and more than half have tried in the last year, but less than 10% have suceeded? Why is this? The most likely reason is that they are trying to give up by themselves, without the behavioural and pharmacological support of stop smoking services.

Read the full article here or here.

Shisha / Hookah / Hubble Bubble

Shisha comes in loads of flavours and tastes sweet, surely it isn't as bad as smoking cigarettes? Uncover the hidden dangers of Smoking Shisha.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

You can now follow The Smokers' and Weight Clinic on Twitter and like our page on Facebook!

Blog goes Live!

The Smokers' and Weight Clinic Blog has gone live! We will attempt to bring you regular news, information and opinion on smoking cessation and weight management. Follow us to keep up to date with new clinical trials and research into the latest smoking cessation and weight loss medications and methods here at the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit

As always - call us on 0207 882 8230 or freephone 0800 169 1943 if you live or work locally to the clinic and are interested in quitting smoking or losing weight.