Improving Your Health

Physicians are often asked how I can improve my health. Physicians are often criticized because we don’t preach and fuss to our patients about their health habits. It should be clear to most people that the medical profession is geared to take care of sick or ill people. That is our mission and has been our role throughout antiquity. In Matthew 9, verse 12: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” In this column today, we will encourage you to get rid of the number 1 scourge of preventable death in our community and that scourge is cigarettes. Here are the facts: Between 15-20% of African Americans smoke cigarettes. We actually smoke less and start smoking later than other Americans. About 75% of the cigarettes we smoke are menthol ones. Menthol makes it easier to inhale the smoke into your lungs. Unfortunately, this makes it easier to become addicted to the nicotine that is in tobacco. For each cigarette that you smoke, an average of 11 minutes is taken off your lifespan. A pack a day smoker will live 12 years less than a non-smoker. This is why some physicians and advanced care providers will admonish, hop up and down, and preach about the hazards of cigarette smoking. I was always more than surprised when after several months a patient would come back and tell me, “Doc, I quit smoking after you talked to me 6 months ago.”

This is what we know: 30% of all coronary heart disease, ie , blockages in the arteries of the heart that lead to heart attacks are caused by cigarette smoking. Similarly, there is a much increased incidence of stroke in those who smoke. Ten to 15% of cigarette smokers develop lung cancers. The vast majority of people who get lung cancers are cigarette smokers. This is not always true in women because they can get lung cancer without smoking. Some of the lung cancers in women can be explained on the basis of exposure to the cigarette smoke from their husbands or partners, so-called second hand smoke. Cigarettes are also directly related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD) and/or emphysema, cancers of the mouth and tongue, esophagus, pancreas, and bladder.

Those of you who have never smoked, please don’t start. Stopping smoking reduces the risks of all of the life shortening diseases greatly. So we want you to quit smoking now and don’t be discouraged that you have failed many times before. Here are our suggestions to help:

1. Talk with friends who have quit and see how they stopped.

2. Start an exercise program or ratchet up your program if you have one already.

3. Avoid situations and habits that stimulate your desire to smoke

4. Use nicotine gum and patches according to directions. The patches may be available by prescription.

5. Many physicians and other providers prescribe varenicline or Chantix which also helps suppress your desire for nicotine

6. Contact CDC.gov for numerous resources regarding the hazards of cigarette smoking and tips about quitting.