Tag Archives: quitting smoking

One side effect of COVID-19: People quitting smoking in record numbers

July 24, 2020 Pepe Lepew

An interesting story out of the UK: A study done by the University College London showed that more people in the UK quit in 2020 than at any time since 2007. That’s credited to concerns about smokers being more vulnerable to complications from the COVID-19 virus.

From a BBC article:

A team at University College London has been asking 1,000 people a month in England about their smoking habits since 2007 as part of the Smoking Toolkit Study.

In the year to June 2020, 7.6% of smokers taking part in the survey quit – almost a third higher than the average and the highest proportion since the survey began more than a decade ago.

On average, 5.9% of surveyed smokers quit per year since 2007.

Data isn’t complete and plenty of studies are going to be done on the connection between smoking and COVID-19 mortality. However, a lot of signs sure point to smokers doing worse responding to COVID-19 than nonsmokers.

From the BBC article:

Data from the Zoe Covid Symptom Tracker app suggested smokers were 14% more likely than non-smokers to develop the three “classic” symptoms of coronavirus infection – fever, persistent cough and shortness of breath.

The app, created by researchers at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals and King’s College London, analysed data from more than 2.4 million UK participants.

Their analysis found smokers with a positive Covid-19 test were more than twice as likely as non-smokers with coronavirus to be hospitalised.

This aligns with research from the US which found hospitalised smokers with coronavirus were 1.8 times more likely to die.

And:

Public Health England’s guidance states: “There is strong evidence that smoking tobacco is generally associated with an increased risk of developing respiratory viral infections.

“Smoking causes damage to the lungs and airways and harms the immune system, reducing your ability to fight infection.”

That’s certainly true for me, as I had near-constant respiratory infections every winter from secondhand smoke beginning when I was a kid and lasting well into my late 20s.

Tetris

Australian study: Tetris good for something — reducing cravings for cigarettes

August 17, 2015 Pepe Lepew

2952d01320722cf324bf02c639e7cd8a — Jesus, move the block to the far left, you can take out four lines at once!

In the category of “I really can’t make this crap up,” a new study has shown that playing Tetris helps reduce cravings for nicotine (and food), possibly by stimulating the same part of the brain that controls cravings.

In this study from Australia, students were told to report when they had cravings for cigarettes, food and even sex. Half the students were given an iPad to play Tetris. Students reported that playing the game reduced their cravings “by a fifth.” (And how cravings are measured is beyond me.)

From a Daily Mail article:

The boffins from Plymouth University reckon playing the game works because it occupies the same mental processes used to imagine indulging in the craving.

The week-long study, which also involved Queensland University of Technology, Australia, focused on 31 undergraduates, aged between 18 and 27.

Professor Jackie Andrade, of Plymouth University, said: ‘This is the first demonstration that cognitive interference can be used outside the lab to reduce cravings for substances and activities other than eating.

‘We think the Tetris effect happens because craving involves imagining the experience of consuming a particular substance.

‘Playing a visually interesting game like Tetris occupies the mental processes that support that imagery. It is hard to imagine something vividly and play Tetris at the same time.’

So, in all seriousness, perhaps this could actually help people quit smoking. Whenever people get the urge to smoke, perhaps they should reach for their iPhone and start playing Tetris (and I imagine other video games would like have a similar effect.).

By the way, Tetris is one of those old school games that I actually find kind of addicting. I’m still trying to find an old MS-DOS game a roommate of mine had about 25 years ago called “Hustle!” that was ridiculously addicting. It was one of those snake games, but I’ve never been able to find the exact game she had.

cigarettes, Lung disease, quitting smoking, smoking

CNN: Nine powerful stories of smokers’ last cigarettes

November 22, 2013 Pepe Lepew 2 Comments

Awesome, poignant article by CNN.com.

For the Great American Smokeout last week, CNN.com interviewed 9 former smokers about their final cigarette. Most every ex-smoker can remember their last cigarette, when they finally had had enough and quashed one out for the final time. Most smokers can remember their last cigarette because it usually takes three, four or even more tries to quit, and when the day comes that quitting finally works is a big event in their lives.

So, CNN collected some awesome quotes from these nine people, citing everything from existentialism to their families as reasons for quitting. Let me share some of them:

A fellow workmate made a profound statement to me: ‘You know, Bob, there is never a good day to quit smoking, is there?’ That hit me like a ton of bricks.

— Bob Miller, last cigarette: April 1, 2006

*****

Now, when I feel that urge, I think about two small faces, and how I’d answer them if they asked me why I was sick or why I was dying. I’d have no one to blame but myself.

— Beth Woods, last cigarette, Aug. 5, 2008

*****

I remember a trip to the ER with a bad case of bronchitis. This was the first time that my husband had seen me that sick. The look of panic and helplessness convinced me that I had to stop.

— Lisa Gonsalves, last cigarette 2005

Gonsalves’ bronchitis was so severe, she had to have tubes inserted into her lungs to drain the fluid and her chest “cracked open” to clean out her lungs.

“I can’t say that I don’t crave it – especially when I am stressed out,” Gonsalves told CNN.com. “I do have to constantly remind myself of the pain and the feeling of drowning because I couldn’t breathe to keep me from running out and getting a pack. It is a very mental game I play every day but I get stronger and stronger every day without a cigarette.”

*****

When I smoked my last one, it was more of a release, rather than freaking out about how I was going to deal with it.

— John Turner, last cigarette 2011

*****

My wife got the news she was finally pregnant. The very moment she told me I crushed my pack of cigarettes up and threw them away.

— Martin C. Grube, last cigarette 1983.

*****

Then the story of Kara Wethington, who quit after her 66-year-old grandmother died.

“I loved smoking. The social aspect of it, the taste of it, the way it made me feel — everything about it was romantic to me.”

But the death of her grandmother was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” soon after Wethington herself was diagnosed with an aggressive form of strep throat, and she hasn’t looked back for 13 years.

“I’ve had smoking dreams that felt so intimately real that the line of reality and fantasy blurred out my memory. I know I didn’t smoke but sometimes those dreams feel really good and sometimes with real regret.”

(Interesting, I never heard of this dreaming of smoking before, but another ex-smoker said the same thing.

“It took me years to stop dreaming about having a cigarette and sometimes I would wake up and not be sure if I had smoked.”

— Linda Parker