If you need more inspiration to quit smoking, Allure will have you wanting to put down that lighter . . . stat.
I'm not telling you anything new when I say smoking is horrible for your health — deadly, in fact. But if that isn't enough to convince you, then how about the fact that smoking is making you ugly? Here's a headline for you — Quitting Smoking Will Make You Prettier — and here's how:
When new mama Hilary Duff was spotted holding a cigarette outside of a Los Angeles bar on Friday, buzz amongst the media quickly ensued, with writers and readers alike sharing their reactions to the 24-year-old actress's actions. In response, Hilary was quick to tweet, "Yikes me holding a cigarette for my friend might have been a bad idea! pretty bummed about the photo.. Sorry guys, looks worst than it is!"
Whether or not Hilary's tweet was a quick PR move or an honest response to being spotted with a friend's cigarette, the bigger question is, do we have a right to care?
Hilary's not the first famous mom to be spotted with a cig — Salma Hayek, Katherine Heigl, Uma Thurman, Kate Moss, and others have all been seen with nicotine in hand. And, according to a poll released by the Center For Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality last month, celebrities aren't the only ones who are lighting up — one in five moms in the US has admitted to smoking while pregnant. So the question is, should famous parents be held to different standards than the rest of us? We want to hear what you think!
There was a time when it was unladylike for women to smoke. When they did, it was done defiantly, late at night, and behind closed doors. So how did we go from taboo to addiction in less than a century?
Well, as we've seen on Mad Men: advertising. In last night's season finale, Peggy Olson gets the chance to take on Philip Morris's yet-to-be-released cigarette for women at her new agency. (An account that Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce fails to get in the previous season.) Peggy has to take up smoking in order to learn what women want from their cigarettes, but at least she gets to go on her first business trip to glamorous Virginia.
Cigarette ads targeted at women always capitalize on the social climate of the time. So we've enlisted the expertise of former ad man and coauthor of The Cigarette Book: A Celebration of the Culture of Smoking Fletcher Watkins to find out how cigarette companies, advertisers, and the media made those ads stick.
Quitting cigarettes can be tough to endure; nicotine is so addictive. That's why we're thrilled to hear Jennifer Aniston is putting herself on the nonsmoker list. People reports that in a recent press conference Jen said:
"And rumor Number two: no, we're not pregnant. It's just I quit smoking, so I've gained a couple of pounds."
It's common when quitting smoking to put on a little weight since you tend to reach for other things to keep your mouth busy. Cigarettes can also suppress your appetite, and when you give them up, your hunger may increase. If you're a smoker and are worried giving up the habit will cause you to pack on the pounds, here are some tips to help you quit without gaining weight.
Keep reading for more tips to help you quit cigarettes without gaining weight.
It's a given (hopefully) that pregnant women and kids don't light up. There's been enough consciousness raising about the dangers associated with cigarette smoking that if an adult decides to smoke — while knowing all the risks — that's their business. Or is it? The harmful effects of secondhand smoke on children and expectant mamas are pretty unsettling. Test your knowledge on what secondhand smoke really does to an unborn baby, and how it affects tots.
When I hear the word hypnosis, a man swinging a pendulum in front of a person squawking like a chicken is what comes to mind. Stage hypnosis, performed by entertainers, is vastly different than therapeutic hypnosis, which is used to improve a person's well-being. Over the last 10 years hypnosis has gained more recognition because more and more research shows hypnotherapy can effectively treat medical conditions. A number of studies have discovered that this type of treatment can help alleviate chronic pain, reduce stress and anxiety before surgery, and also lower health care costs since patients using hypnosis have shorter hospital stays.
The hypnotic state has been likened to meditation or daydreaming; when hypnotized, one has a heightened sense of inner focus and concentration. When under hypnosis, people tend to feel calm and relaxed and be capable of paying attention to one specific thought, memory, emotion, or sensation while blocking out any other distractions, making them extremely open to the power of suggestion, although they remain completely aware and in control of their actions. This is why hypnosis is used for weight loss, smoking cessation, pain control, childbirth, dental procedures, anxiety, and gastrointestinal problems such as IBS. It should be noted that one session won't instantly "cure" your ails, so don't expect to instantly despise cigarettes after your first appointment.
Faced with a worrisome increase in young smokers, Iceland's government has come up with something a little radical — prescription-only cigarettes.
The country has proposed a new law that would make it illegal to buy cigarettes without a prescription from a doctor and would make cigarettes available only from pharmacies. The government hopes this practice will cut the amount of smokers from 15 percent of the total population (and 20 percent in teenagers and kids) to less than 10 percent.
Who would get a prescription to smoke? Since under the law nicotine would be classified as an addictive drug, only those who are unable to quit following addiction programs, or those who refuse to quit, would be able to get prescriptions.
If passed, I wonder if doctors in Iceland will feel uneasy about prescribing something that is known to be a major public health issue, or if the program would be the best option for reducing the amount of new addicts. What do you think?
With smoking-related deaths on the rise, US health officials are predicting that smoking bans will cover all US workplaces, bars, and restaurants by 2020. As of December 2010, the CDC reports that 26 US states had imposed comprehensive smoke-free laws and that nearly half of the country's residents were covered by some sort of state or local smoke-free laws. The laws have certainly come a long way baby, considering back in 2000 there weren't any indoor smoking bans. If trends continue, all 50 states should have implemented some form of protection for nonsmokers by the end of this decade.
But what's interesting to note here is that the perceived smoking capital of the world, France, adopted the nationwide ban on smoking in public places back in 2007. Is the US lagging behind in its smoking-ban laws? Is another nine years too long to wait for all of these laws to take effect? Please weigh in below!
DrSugar is in the house! This week she's reminding us that smoking, even in moderation, is a habit worth breaking.
Dear DrSugar,
I don't consider myself a smoker, but do smoke socially. I have three or four cigarettes almost every weekend — I tend to smoke when I have a few drinks. I don't think this is dangerous, but am wondering just how bad this is for my health?
One Social Smoker
Thank you for asking this question, as I'm certain that there are many people out there who can relate to you in terms of your smoking patterns. Even though you don't consider yourself a "smoker," you actually are, and can be labeled as a "social smoker." According to the University of Montana website, social smoking is a pattern of tobacco use that is based on the context of its use — smoking in social settings like bars, nightclubs, and sporting or music events. The social situations act as a trigger or cue to the person to smoke. Now that we've defined social smoking, keep reading to learn the health risks of the occasional smoke.
The post-coital cigarette is something of legend, but have too many, and you might not have many chances to light up after sex. Smokers are twice as likely to develop erectile dysfunction and nicotine impacts blood flow to lady parts, too.
Quitting smoking is hard because it forces us to put off immediate gratification. The latest episode of Radio Lab explores this challenge and follows 80-year-old Zelda Gamson, a woman who tried to quit smoking for decades. She couldn't until one day she told her friend she would donate $5,000 to the KKK if she ever smoked again. And it worked!
Neuroscientist David Eagleman explains that rewards offered right now (a satisfied cigarette craving) have so much more power than the things offered later (avoiding cancer and death). Zelda could quit when she tied the long-term plan to quit to an immediate feeling of disgust associated with the KKK. The immediate disgust fought the immediate desire. It was now vs. now. This reminds me of the cigarette packages plastered with graphic pictures of sick patients, or as they do in Europe, with bold letters warning that smoking causes sexual dysfunction — they try to illicit an immediate threat.
Since sex is about immediate desire, maybe reminding smokers that they can trade the instant gratification of a cigarette for better sex will help them rethink the cigarette. Let's just hope they don't hit a dry spell!
