That's Fit

'I'll take you on vacation if you quit smoking,' I told Jon a few months ago. An incredibly stressful situation at work lead to him taking up the habit again, much to my chagrin. And I've been doing what I can to get him to quit again, but to no avail. 'Thanks, but I have to do it for myself if it's going to last.' he tells me.

And the infuriating thing about it all? He's completely right. According to recent research, bribing smokers with incentives and prizes if they quit doesn't work, especially in the long run. So what does work? Social support, buddy systems and nicotine replacement therapies all have better success rates.

What made you quit? Or what's kept you from quitting?

Genetics may be to blame for hooking some people on cigarettes. Genetics may make some smokers more prone to lung cancer too, say three new studies. This is the strongest case so far for the biological foundation of nicotine addiction.

Scientists have pinpointed genetic variations related to smoking that could one day lead to screening tests and customized treatments for those trying to kick the habit.

The gene variations, which govern nicotine receptors on cells, could help explain some of the mysteries of chain smoking, nicotine addiction, and lung cancer -- like why a 90-year-old lifetime smoker never gets cancer, why some people can occasionally light up and never get hooked, and why some people have such a hard time quitting.

Initially, researchers are pretty certain that a smoker who inherits these genetic variations from both parents has an 80 percent greater chance of lung cancer than a smoker without the variants. That same smoker tends to light up two extra cigarettes a day and has a much harder time quitting than smokers who don't have these genetic differences.

The three studies, funded by U.S. and European governments and published Thursday in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics, looked at more than 35,000 white people of European descent in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Blacks and Asians will be studied soon.

If you're one of the 21 percent of the American public that still smokes, it's possible that you're also part of the large percentage (70 percent) that would like to quit, but for some reason can't. Fortunately, there may be good news for you on the horizon.

A new vaccine, designed to curb the urge to smoke, may be available in the U.S. Administered by injection, this new vaccine will stimulate antibodies, reducing the amount of nicotine that makes it to the brain and releases dopamine. In trials, conducted by the University of California San Francisco, 16 percent of smokers who received this anti-smoking shot put out their cigarettes for good in a year, as opposed to only 6 percent of smokers who were given placebos.

Look for the vaccine, which is tentatively being called NicVax, to be on the market by around 2012.

It's a fact -- 80% of smokers gain weight when they quit. So which is a worse habit: being overweight or being a smoker? Both have been shown to lead to cancer.

The answer, of course, is to be neither overnight nor a smoker. Yes, it is possible. So if you're thinking of quitting smoking, don't let potential weight gain deter you from taking that important step. Arm yourself with the facts and set out to defy the statistics.

Everyday Health has some tips to help soon-to-be-ex smokers from piling on pounds:

-Limit the fat you're eating -- it's high in calories
-Instead of focusing on what you can't eat, focus on what you can eat -- there are a lot of great foods that are weight-friendly.
-Avoid sweets.
-When you get the urge to snack, snack on fruits and veggies
-If you're used to having a cigarette after a meal, develop a different habit like having a cup of herbal tea after meals.
-Record what you eat in a food diary.

Some smokers I've talked to in the past believed that not only was it too hard to stop smoking, that their health was already damaged; so, why not just continue the habit?

Well, that's not entirely true -- or even close to true. Although long-term lung damage can be the result of years of smoking for some (in the form of cancer at some point), quitting now offers benefits almost immediately.

According to Tobacco Facts, some benefits that almost immediately become apparent once you give up the habit include:

• Carbon monoxide in the body drops within eight hours
• Oxygen levels rise to normal after eight hours
• After two days, your taste and smell is enhanced. Also, the risk of heart attack decreases
  

Want more? See this, then put down that cigarette for good.

Sick of dealing with the haze from your office's smoking area? Wish the colleagues you've grown to care about would stop killing themselves with their nicotine addiction? Here's a decorating idea that'd serve as a not-so-subtle hint about the long-term health effects of cigarettes.

Of course, I'm sure this would also lead to resentment and bickering between smokers and non-smokers at your company, so maybe it's not the best idea in the world.

It is, however, very clever, and would certainly get the point across.

Smokers looking for a way to quit now have yet another option: Thrive nicotine replacement gum by Novartis. Just approved by the FDA, Thrive is designed to help smokers kick the habit in 12 weeks. The bold mint flavored gum tingles as users chew it and lasts about 30 minutes.

1 in 5 American adults smoke, but the majority of that number admit to being interested in quitting. That's a good thing, and hopefully this new Thrive gum will be also because smoking kills as many as 438,000 people every year. What a horribly large number of people dying from something completely preventable!

If you have lots of bad habits (and I think most of us do) it seems working on them simultaneously may be the most effective way to quit, as opposed to working on one at a time. A study was recently conducted with 239 participants to see how different approaches worked to help them quit smoking, reduce salt in their diets, and increase how much they exercised and the group that received counseling sessions for all three areas at once did better (in the long run) than the group that worked on one at a time.

Interesting and good to know, but why do you think this is?

It is no news flash that there are many rewards in trying to stop smoking. After smoking bans started popping up all over the place, the urge to spread the health benefits to those already hooked seems just as important as ever. That appears to be the same reasoning behind why this author decided to convey how he feels at the end of one month of being completely smoke-free.

After trying to kick the habit many times before, he prefaces the article by saying he's been an ex-smoker in his past, but that it takes a mental transition to finally curb the habit. Now he is psychologically prepared to be a non-smoker for good, and this is how he feels.

Mentally he says he feels stronger, relaxed, more confident and more attentive. He's also more efficient since he doesn't get caught going outside every so often for a smoke. Socially speaking, the author says he is now able to better interact with people since he doesn't reek of fumes. On the physical side of things, he doesn't get out of breath as easily and his frequent coughing is all but gone.

Like it's been said before, these are only a few of the reasons to kick the routine of nicotine. This guy seems to have all of the pros for going cold turkey. Although it probably won't be as easy as just dropping it so abruptly, even a slow transition to a smoke-free life is better than leading one fueled by lighting up daily. Don't believe it? Read on for more.

If you smoked 40 cigarettes a day, and you cut back to 20, your lungs are twice as healthy -- right?

Wrong. According to researchers, smokers who cut back compensate for their reduced nicotine intake by inhaling more smoke from the cigarettes they do smoke. So, in a group of smokers who smoke the same number of cigarettes every day, those who cut back still have a higher cancer risk than those who have always been light smokers. In fact, studies show a reduction in tobacco consumption by 62% only results in a 27% reduction in cancer risk.

However, if you're trying to quit, don't be discouraged. Cutting back is easier than quitting cold turkey, and, as long as it's a stepping stone toward stopping entirely, it's still a healthy choice.

What keeps us indulging in bad habits, even when we know they're harmful?

According to a recent study, there's a host of reasons, including human defiance, the need to be socially accepted, inability to comprehend the risk, or simply our ability to rationalize addition.

While there's no single strategy, or "silver bullet" to changing people's behavior, the study suggests that emotional, and not intellectual factors are more likely to be effective. For instance, people's fear of cancer may lead them to quit smoking, as opposed to statistic about the number smoking-related deaths. Or, as was the case when I smoked, the numbers just didn't register -- but when I learned I was having a child, I had an emotionally charged reason to put down the pack.

Environment also plays a hand in whether or not a person will chose to quit a particular bad habit. Someone who perceives his or or friends as making certain lifestyle choices (smoking, tanning, etc), will justify making similar choices themselves.

I find that most of my bad behavior persist because I don't let myself stop and think about why I'm engaging in that behavior. I recognize that it's not good for me, and I do it anyway. This study has inspired me to take a closer look at my motivations -- do I really have a good reason to grab that third or fourth Oreo?

Probably not.