COPD and Why You Should QUIT!

[Andy McGregor]

Oh - and maybe this deserves its own thread?

This is that thread.

Congratulations on the most jarring topic-change yet, Mr Thank-You-For-Not-Dying-too-soon McGregor

Having said that, I'd not heard of COPD before, so looked it up. Yeugh. I don't think I'd be wanting any of that. Makes me even more glad I quit. So. How high a risk? Got any handy statistics?

The primary risk factor for COPD is chronic tobacco smoking. In the United States, 80 to 90% of cases of COPD are due to smoking.[11] [12] Exposure to cigarette smoke is measured in pack-years[13], the average number of packages of cigarettes smoked daily multiplied by the number of years of smoking. The likelihood of developing COPD increases with age and cumulative smoke exposure, and almost all life-long smokers will develop COPD, provided that smoking-related, extrapulmonary diseases (cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer) do not claim their lives beforehand. [14]

Having worked in both smoking cessation and COPD I heard a lot of statistics. The most compelling statistic I heard was that a GP can save more lives by simply dropping into the converstation with a smoker "you should give up smoking" than anything else he can do in his working day!

[DavidY]

So what is COPD?

[HelenB]

So what is COPD?

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease



From wackypedia

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) refers to chronic bronchitis and emphysema, a pair of two commonly co-existing diseases of the lungs in which the airways become narrowed.[1] This leads to a limitation of the flow of air to and from the lungs causing shortness of breath. In contrast to asthma, the limitation of airflow is poorly reversible and usually gets progressively worse over time

[Jay Jay]

This is that thread.


Having worked in both smoking cessation and COPD I heard a lot of statistics. The most compelling statistic I heard was that a GP can save more lives by simply dropping into the converstation with a smoker "you should give up smoking" than anything else he can do in his working day!

So weird that you have started a thread on this subject......it is very close to my heart at the moment as this Saturday marks 4 weeks of being 'smoke free'.

I have to say I have always been aware of all these awful diseases and everything negative to do with smoking but it has never been enough to make me give up. Knowing I smell of cigarettes, knowing I am playing 'Russian Roulette' with my life, knowing it is can be anti social, having everyone on my case, even indeed a good friend of mine who is a heart consultant who asks me everytime we see each other why haven't I given up yet.............I could go on and on.

When I decided to stop it was totally spontaneous even shocked me. Basically, I couldn't be bothered to go out in the rain just to go and get some cigarettes (which I had done three times that week).....and that was it.

So really we all know what we are doing by smoking but we put our head in the sand because it just makes us feel guilty..........but when you are at that place in your head you can do it.

[Gav]

One of my neighbours in Norfolk died as a result of his emphysema a few years back. He could barely get out of his chair and walk to the front door without getting out of breath and needing a break.

[bigdjiver]

Killed my Mother, destroyed her first.

[Jay Jay]

One of my neighbours in Norfolk died as a result of his emphysema a few years back. He could barely get out of his chair and walk to the front door without getting out of breath and needing a break.

I know the whole reason of this thread is point out the whys and wherefores but sometimes success stories are more helpful.

Just a thought, this could turn out to be a really depressing thread. I know there is nothing good to smoking but there is a lot of good in giving up.

[Gav]

I know the whole reason of this thread is point out the whys and wherefores but sometimes success stories are more helpful.

I don't think it's possible to have a success story with emphysema is it?

[Jay Jay]

I don't think it's possible to have a success story with emphysema is it?

Gav you know what I mean

[Chef]

My father was a truck driver, had a surprising amount of wisdom for someone that left school at 14 years old, worked 6 days a week so if you wanted to be with him you had to learn how to repair trucks, and a lifelong smoker of roll up cigarettes in a time when almost everyone smoked. He cared only about his two sons and his wife and he made a seamless transition from being a parent and protector in early years to friend and confident in my later years.

Unfortunately a combination of hard living and smoking led to emphysema and he had to retire due to ill health when he was 55. This was when I was told that the cells in the lining of the lung and the brain share the common trait of not regenerating after damage. The damage to my fathers’ lungs was not going to get better with time, rest, and abstinence from smoking.
All those years of working hard for the family in the hope of having quality time in retirement just disappeared to be replaced with not being able to walk to local shops, then needing to rest between the car and the front door, to having to have oxygen to stand up. The last 6 years of his life was spent tied to a chair by an oxygen tube unable to escape from his own body and daytime TV.

He had been in and out of hospital so many times I had started to feel that he was somehow bulletproof like some action hero that always comes out of the rubble no matter how much ammunition had been used, bloodied but intact. Then one day he didn’t get sorted out in hospital. I couldn’t stop crying for 15 hours in a way that I never believed that a grown man could, until I was too tired to cry anymore. Crying for the friend I had lost, for all those wonderful times he should have had in retirement with us, for the effect on my mother losing a husband of 38years and it all seemed so cruel and stupid that it was over cigarettes.

I had enough knowledge to know about the inevitable decline that was ahead for my father. I watched him alive but slowly suffocating for 18 years and there was nothing that could be done to put the damage right, only treatment to alleviate the symptoms. Being so helpless to prevent the pain of people you love is a cold, hard place to find yourself.

I am now middle aged and overweight and the latter part is under my control. Any health issues I have as a result of that are entirely my own fault but I now understand just how much it will affect those that love me.

None of us are going to live forever but a long, painful, dull, joyless, decline is not how I hope to go.

What have I said about COPD? I have seen it. It robs the person that suffers of quality life. It makes those that love them suffer greatly. I hate it and the things that cause it

[Andy McGregor]

I know the whole reason of this thread is point out the whys and wherefores but sometimes success stories are more helpful.

This is absolutely true. Quitting is really difficult and fear of a painful and early demise is only one reason to quit.

The good news is that quitting smoking will alter the rate of progression of COPD - but it's the only thing that does this. There are no drug treatments that alter the rate of progression. Some treatments will help your lung capacity in the short term, but the disease will continue to progress the whole time you are smoking.

So, the success stories are stories of quitting. If we need a few horror stories to save just one forumites life it's worth being horrified.

[Jay Jay]

So, the success stories are stories of quitting. If we need a few horror stories to save just one forumites life it's worth being horrified.

Absolutely agree with you 100% and I suppose different things work for different people, but what I was trying to get across was that I knew and know all the horror stories, have seen some horrible photographs, even went to the Body Exhibition and saw face to face what smoking can do, but it wasn't enough..........there just comes a point, something just clicks and when you are ready, and most importantly you want to do it for yourself, you can do it. As with all addictions really.

[Andy McGregor]

there just comes a point, something just clicks and when you are ready, and most importantly you want to do it for yourself, you can do it. As with all addictions really.

This is absolutely right. Nicotine addiction is a very strong addiction which will not go away on a whim. You need to really want to quit and be ready to do it. The most important thing is to get professional help. The NHS say that a person has successfully quit after 12 weeks without a puff. With chemical help and support about 50% of smokers are classed as having quit at 12 weeks. Without help that figure falls to 5%!

Every time we talk about we are moving smokers that little bit towards making the decision to quit. Those of us who would like our friends to quit must remember that we should never quit.

[straycat]

I know the whole reason of this thread is point out the whys and wherefores but sometimes success stories are more helpful.

Just a thought, this could turn out to be a really depressing thread. I know there is nothing good to smoking but there is a lot of good in giving up.

Well - if you want a success story...
I quit eight and a half years ago. Haven't had so much as a puff since then. Nowadays, I can't even imagine smoking anything again.

A month after I quit, I had a fitness test. The figure that stuck in my head was the FEV test (maximum amount of air one can expel from one's lungs in the first second of breathing out). Mine came to around about 1.8 litres. Eight months later, I had a second fitness test. The FEV that time came to around 4.4 litres
4.4 was a little below average for my age, I'm told. 1.8 is apparently (in the words of one personal trainer) 'utterly pathetic'.

I really should repeat that test now...


On another incentives note, I've saved a tonne of money since quitting (OK - so not a literal tonne, but still) A heavy-smoking friend of mine once told me he'd calculated in an idle moment... that if he'd saved every single penny that he'd spent on smoking in his whole life, he could have paid off his mortgage in its entirety, although, to be fair, I think he was factoring in the cost of certain .... shall we say 'additives' ... that he tended to enjoy with his nicotine...

[Double Trouble]

Those of us who would like our friends to quit must remember that we should never quit.

Are you listening Trouble? I only moan at you about smoking because I don't want you to get ill. You've gone 12 days smoke free so far, lets make this the last time you give up smoking and don't let any evil smokers sabotage your efforts.

[Jay Jay]

The NHS say that a person has successfully quit after 12 weeks without a puff. With chemical help and support about 50% of smokers are classed as having quit at 12 weeks.

Eight and a half weeks to go and counting

Those of us who would like our friends to quit must remember that we should never quit.

Always remember though there is a fine line between mentioning and nagging.....the thought of being given a hard time about my smoking did put me off making arrangements to see certain friends! Even though they were obviously doing it for me

[Andy McGregor]

Always remember though there is a fine line between mentioning and nagging.....the thought of being given a hard time about my smoking did put me off making arrangements to see certain friends! Even though they were obviously doing it for me

We just need to be a bit subliminal with our nagging. I fully support my friends who smoke - I even brought an outdoor ashtray last week so smokers at our classes have somewhere to put their butts. I told one of the lady smokers that I'd brought it for her ashes - just a slip of the tongue

[Martin]

Ok, on a serious note has anyone tried Champix?

I have a friend who used it and it is working for him, but when I look it up on the web, it seems to have many possible side effects.

Would anyone recommend Champix, or not recommend Champix.

The thing is, I guess you have to have the desire to quit as well.

[Andy McGregor]

Ok, on a serious note has anyone tried Champix?

I have a friend who used it and it is working for him, but when I look it up on the web, it seems to have many possible side effects.

Would anyone recommend Champix, or not recommend Champix.

The thing is, I guess you have to have the desire to quit as well.

You are talking about Varenicline and you can go here to find out more about the undesireable effects.

Here is what the NHS say about Varenicline here

varenicline was the most successful pharmacotherapy in helping people quit, with 61 per cent successfully quitting at the four week follow-up, compared with 50 per cent who received bupropion only, 46 per cent who received NRT, and 49 per cent who did not receive any pharmacotherapy

The possible effect you are probably talking about suicidal ideation. This is an uncommon possible consequence of quitting smoking and one of the strong reasons to get support when quitting.

Suicidal ideation and acutal suicide is so uncommon it's difficult to prove that there is a correlation between quitters taking any smoking cessation product and actual suicide.

Seeing a healthcare professional and getting help with quitting is one way to minimise the risk of such unwanted effects. Putting it simply, if you're the type who might top themselves the professional is unlikely to recommend that you give up smoking at this time.

[Double Trouble]

Would anyone recommend Champix, or not recommend Champix.

Trouble and Scarface are using it at the moment. I think the worst side effects they've had are sickness and bad dreams. They both gave up the fags 2 weeks ago and it seems to be working so far. It's early days though.