Do smoking cessation pills and programs work?
I know many former smokers; my son-in-law quit 9 years ago, his father knows the exact day in 1980 that he quit after 37 years of being a smoker. Both my father and my husband's father began smoking as teen-agers; one quit at 39, the other around 50 (his wife didn't quit and died of lung cancer). A good friend of ours quit about 5 years ago in his 60s after heart surgery, but has recently been diagnosed with cancer. I know many people who thought they could not live without a cigarette but miraculously discovered after lung cancer, COPD or triple by-pass, they could indeed live well and not smoke. Of all the former smokers I know, all quit by. . . quiting. They stopped lighting up, usually cold turkey not gradually, and just suffered the short term consequences and discomfort rather than the agony and pain of losing a lung or the disability of having a stroke or heart attack.So when I read about Medicaid paying for smoking cessation programs I wondered if that's the best use of our tax money. 41 million Americans have their health insurance through Medicaid, and 29% of them are smokers. Medicaid is handled by the states--in Ohio, 37.6% of our state taxes go to fund Medicaid. Thirty-eight of the 50 states offer some sort of coverage for at least one smoking treatment according to MMWR 2006:55:1193-1197. Some are a mix and match between drugs and behavioral modification.
Obviously, it's not healthy for anyone to smoke, but does any one but the pharmaceutical companies and the people who run these programs really benefit?
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2 comments:
I don't know what the answer is. I have no idea if these programs and medicines work to help folks quit smoking.
I've never lived anywhere but the south, so I can only speak about the environment I grew up in, but I started dipping Skoal, a form of chewing tobacco when I was 13. It was all around me and many of my peers either smoked or "dipped." I was hooked on it, on and off for a lot of years. This past November marked 10 years of having laid the stuff down. I finally got to the point that I just did it, and I asked for church friends to pray. I went from a can a day to zero in one day, and I never have missed it.
I also started making sure that when I bought gasoline, that I paid at the pump and never went into the convenience store part. Recently I found out that Skoal is over $3 per can here, and I almost had a heart attack. If nothing else, the cost would have made me quit by now. Smokeless tobacco is said to have the equivalent amount of nicotine in one can as three packs of cigarettes.
One thing that helped is that I don't need it to live. Eating and weight loss continue to be the bane of my existence.
As an ex smoker I can assure you that the best and surest way to quit is cold turkey. It is not easy. You must want to quit and commit to it. It makes the process much easier when you are told you have heart disease or lung problems since the reality has become a choice of life or death. For a nonsmoker it may be difficult to believe that the urge to smoke does not leave you for many years. You must remember that this is an addiction not just a habit.
MurrayT
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