Senior Medical Officer
Ministry of Health
What are the ways a smoker can do to quit smoking?
There are 10 steps to quit smoking, according to EBM (evidence-based medicine):
1. Fix the day. Commit yourself to a specific 'Quit Day'. This 'Quit Day' may be your Date of Birth, your Wedding Day, a very close friend who had died due to tobacco smoking, May 31, the date announced by the WHO as World No Tobacco Day, or the first day of Ramadhan for Muslims.
2. Quit with a friend. Try to get a friend, partner or work mate to quit with you.
3. Cash not ash. At the end of each day, set aside the cash you would normally have spent on smoking, and use this accumulated cash to treat yourself to, let say, a 12- day trip to Saudi Arabia to perform umrah.
4. Throw away all cigarettes and all smoking materials, such as ashtrays, lighters and matches, just before your 'Quit Day.'
5. Train your mind by saying 'I will never ever smoke again in my life'.
6. Distract yourself. When you stop smoking, your hands, mouth and brain will miss cigarettes, especially after meals, or when bored or stressed. So, keep busy by taking up a new hobby, such as routine exercise.
7. Get professional assistance from those who may be able to offer nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). In private pharmacies in Brunei Darussalam, there are several NRT available, namely nicotine gum, nicotine patches, nicotine inhalator as well as nicotine lozenges.
8. Commit yourself to saying 'No thanks, I do not smoke', when offered cigarettes.
9. Watch your weight. Because of improved taste and smell, and the absence of nicotine, which suppresses the appetite, weight gain is a common problem on quitting smoking. So, regular exercise is recommended.
10. If you do not succeed at your first attempt, please plan to quit again and again.
Benefits of smoking cessation:
- Former smokers have fewer days of illness, fewer health complaints and view themselves as healthier
- Within one day of quitting, the chances of a heart attack decreases
- Within two days of quitting, smell and taste are enhanced
- Within two weeks to three months of quitting, circulation improves and lung function increases by up to 30 per cent
- Former smokers live longer: after 10 to 15 years abstinence, the risk of dying almost returns to that of people who never smoked
- Women who stop smoking before or during the first trimester of pregnancy reduce risks to their baby to a level comparable to that of women who have never smoked
Effect of anti-smoking interventions at six months
Intervention Effect size
Anti-smoking leaflet Two per cent
Intensive support (eg. smoking clinic) Seven per cent
NRT Five per cent
Intensive support (smoking clinic + buproprion/NRT) 13 -19 per cent
Why teens smoke?
If a person does not start smoking before the age of 20, he or she will probably never become a smoker. However, by the time smokers become adults, the choice to stop becomes an illusion. Although two-thirds of smokers want to quit and about a third try each year, only two per cent succeed.
Five reasons why teens smoke:
1. Peer pressure - Many teens are extremely self-conscious. They don't want to appear 'different'. If friends are smoking, a teen may feel tempted to smoke as well. But a smoking habit, with its associated risks, is a high price to pay for being part of a crowd.
2. Advertising images - Magazines and billboards often make smoking seem sophisticated and 'cool'. They never show the ugly sides of smoking or tell how dangerous it is.
3. Insecurity - Some teens smoke to try to feel more at ease around other people. But a cigarette is no substitute for self-confidence.
4. Concern with weight - Some teens smoke because they think it will help them keep off unwanted kilogrammes. But smoking won't make you thin and it's one of the worst things you can do to your health.
5. A need to rebel - Some teens start smoking because they know their parents don't want them to. But in many cases, these teens got the idea to smoke from their parents. They are not rebelling so much as imitating.
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