Harley Street Stop Smoking Clinic Blog
By now, the health benefits of quitting smoking are widely known.
The fact that quitting lowers your risk of lung cancer and heart disease are probably one of the main reasons why 70% of adult smokers say they want to quit permanently.
But the benefits of quitting don’t stop there. No matter what your reason is, quitting smoking can change your whole life for the better.
If you smoke and you live with others or with pets, thirdhand smoke is a great reason to quit.
A study on mice published in the journal PLOS ONE has shown that thirdhand smoke (which settles on furniture and other common surfaces) can lead to Type 2 diabetes but also damage the liver and lungs, interfere with wound healing, and cause hyperactivity.
Thirdhand smoke can settle on surfaces such as clothing, furniture, hair, etc. Scientists warn that it should be avoided to protect the health of the elderly, as well as children living with smokers.
While smoking in the UK has reduced overall, 15.8% of people still smoked as of 2016, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Every year, people try to quit on their own, and every year, only a few are successful. Quitting alone almost never works, which is why many people employ therapies such as hypnosis to repel the cravings. Knowing how the body heals also helps some people put away the pack for good.
While every person’s process is different, the following is gives you an idea of some of the symptoms and experiences that are often encountered in the weeks, months and years after cigarettes are gone.
Smoking has been one of the most destructive widespread habits known to mankind. Sadly, it’s also among some of the most difficult habits to stop for many when using willpower alone.
Smoking has several direct and indirect repercussions and in this article, we will discuss how smoking affects your workout and the tangible benefits which you will receive once you stop smoking for fitness.
Approximately 9 million adults in the UK smoke cigarettes which equates to 19% of men and 15% of women. Of these, two-thirds started smoking before the age of 18. 
Despite these somewhat alarming figures, smoking rates across the United Kingdom continue to fall, showing a sharp decline since 2010 among younger people, In 2016, 15.8% of all adults smoked, down from 17.2% in 2015 according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
If you would love to quit smoking and feel held back simply because you have been smoking for most of your adult life or because you are over the age of 65, take heart; research shows that it never is too late to quit, and that big benefits can be reaped from kicking the bait.
One recent study, published in the scientific journal of the British Geriatrics Society, has found that current smoking increases frailty in older people, but having smoked in the past does not have the same effect.
According to the Health and Social Care Information Centre, 19% of adults in Great Britain smoked in 2014 with the average daily consumption per adult being 11 cigarettes. During the same year it was also estimated that up to 78,000 deaths could be attributed to smoking-related complications. The harrowing side effects of smoking have been known for years and although feared by most smokers, it does not always serve as sufficient motivation to quit the nasty habit.
When an elderly person has been smoking for quite some time, the thought of quitting has probably surfaced numerous times, yet never materialised into anything. Quitting is never easy despite the countless therapies designed to make the process easier. It is often only when the risk factors of smoking is weighed against the enjoyment of smoking at an older age that a conscious decision is made to quit and that action is taken to ensure the success of the decision.
If you needed one more reason to quit smoking, there could be no better one than pneumonia: a series of lung infections that takes the lives of 10% to 30% of people aged over 65 who develop it. Seniors, by virtue of their age, have a greater likelihood of developing pneumonia, and the most important step they can take is to quit.
Research indicates that those who smoke over 20 cigarettes daily are almost three times more likely to catch pneumonia, than non-smokers. Smoking is currently seen as the number one risk factor for pneumonia even in healthy young people, since it causes oxidative stress and alterations in the responsiveness of inflammatory cells.
This recent review of our clinic highlights how powerful hypnotherapy can be for smoking cessation, particularly to stop smoking cannabis, which some people perceive to be a more difficult proposition.
As you can read below, this client had a longstanding 30-year cannabis habit, but also admitted being skeptical about hypnosis being effective.
Our hypnotherapists are skilled in explaining the process and answering any questions a client may have. The result of this is nearly always that any reservations or concerns held by the client do not grow into strongly-held ‘limiting beliefs’ and thus do not form an obstacle to the appointment being effective.
We recently received via email this detailed ‘case study’ testimonial from a client who attended our 1-session stop smoking hypnotherapy treatment.
It was our hypnotherapist Rory M-J who helped this lady and this review is particularly interesting as it explores the different experiences a person can have in the process of becoming a non-smoker.
Every individual is unique and hence the tailoring of the session is, in our view, the hallmark of a professional approach.