A Smokefree New Year: How to Quit, and One Woman's Story

Quitting smoking is one of the most important things you can do for your health — however old you are and however long you've smoked. Whether it's a New Year's resolution or a wish to be there for family and friends, quitting lowers your risk of heart disease, cancer, lung disease and other smoking-related illness. Not sure where to start? Proven treatments can help.

Counseling

A quit coach, doctor or other health professional can help you make a quit plan and prepare for stress, urges and other challenges. Ways to get it:

• talk with a counselor one-on-one or join a group;
• use free online help at CDC.gov/quit and Smokefree.gov;
• join a free texting program — text QUITNOW to 333888 (message and data rates may apply);
• use an app such as quitSTART.

Medicines

Quit-smoking medicines ease nicotine withdrawal and cravings. Getting used to life without nicotine can feel uncomfortable at first, but withdrawal gets better the longer you stay smokefree.

There are seven FDA-approved medicines, all safe and effective for adults who smoke cigarettes:

Ask your provider which are right for you.

Counseling and medicine together give you the best chance of quitting for good — and may be free or covered by insurance.

Elizabeth's story

Elizabeth B. started smoking menthol cigarettes at 18 because her friends and co-workers did, and within a year smoked about a pack and a half a day. Her life, she has said, came to revolve around being able to smoke; she felt imprisoned by the addiction.

At 42 she had a stroke. Her doctors told her to quit at once, but she struggled for another 10 years, trying many methods. At 52 she found what worked: she set a quit date, threw out her ashtrays, changed routines tied to smoking, and used nicotine patches.

Two weeks after quitting, she began dating her future husband, Stephen B. They loved long walks — until she developed numb feet and calf cramps. It was smoking-related peripheral artery disease (PAD): narrowed arteries blocking blood to her legs. Four months after the wedding, she needed major surgery to restore the flow. Later she developed kidney cancer, but PAD is her biggest daily challenge. She can't climb stairs, and walking hurts — yet it's essential to saving her legs from amputation, so she and Stephen walk every day. She wonders whether, had she never smoked that first cigarette, she would have PAD at all, and wants to help young people never start.

What quitting does

Your body starts improving from your last cigarette, and keeps improving for years. Quitting:

• improves health and quality of life;
• lowers the risk of early death;
• lowers the risk of heart disease and stroke;
• lowers the risk of 12 types of cancer;
• lowers the risk of COPD;
• improves health for people who already have heart disease or COPD;
• improves the health of pregnant women and their babies.

Free help to quit

Sources

Based on "Celebrate a Fresh Start: Make Your New Year Smokefree!," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including Elizabeth B.'s story from the Tips From Former Smokers campaign; a work of the United States government in the public domain; rewritten in hubnx's own words.