It’s hard to believe that it has nearly been a whole year since we last blogged about World No Tobacco Day (WNTD).  So many things have happened since then, and yet it feels like just a few weeks ago, and I’m sure that your lives have been busy in the past year too.  But have you taken the plunge and begun a new, healthier way of life?  If not, May 31^st might just be the perfect time to quit smoking cigarettes for good!

Ash trays with fresh flowers are a common symbol of World No Tobacco Day

When The Whole World Says No

One thing that can help you in taking on a major change in your life (such as quitting smoking and cleaning up your lungs), is knowing that you are not alone.  Knowing that there are thousands of people all over the world doing the same thing you are.  That is the beauty and the benefit of WNTD for the individual; that it can give you that final kick of motivation that gets you exchanging a destructive, dangerous habit for healthier, better ones.

World No Tobacco Day was created in 1987 by the World Health Organization (WHO), and 2011 is WNTD’s 23^rd year (actual observance of WNTD began in 1988).  Each year has a theme that follows through press releases, to promotional flyers, pamphlets and other media materials.  In 2011, the theme is “The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).” Now you might just be saying ‘wha?’ to this.  This year’s theme is not a particularly personal one (as it has been in past years), but rather, an important WHO agreement that attempts to persuade governments and corporations to agree on reducing the production of tobacco, and tobacco products, and to replace tobacco farming with other, healthier crops.  To quote the WHO:

“The world needs the WHO FCTC as much as, if not more than, it did in 1996 when the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an international framework convention on tobacco control. Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death. This year, more than 5 million people will die from a tobacco-related heart attack, stroke, cancer, lung ailment or other disease. That does not include the more than 600,000 people – more than a quarter of them children – who will die from exposure to second-hand smoke. The annual death toll from the global epidemic of tobacco use could rise to 8 million by 2030. Having killed 100 million people during the 20th century, tobacco use could kill 1 billion during the 21st century.”

If you’d like to know more about this years WHO World No Tobacco Day theme, please follow this link.

World No Tobacco Day Can Be YOUR No Tobacco Day Too!

On a more personal level, WNTD is, at its core, a day where people that have a tobacco habit can forgo tobacco and tobacco related products for a whole day (Tuesday, 31^st May), knowing that tens of thousands of others all round the world are doing the same thing.  It is in this sharing that you gain power and motivation to do something positive for yourself, just as the WHO is working for positive change in the world.  By observing World No Tobacco Day, you are being a part of that, and if you can do it for one day, perhaps you can go for longer… and make not smoking a part of a new, healthier life for yourself and for your lungs.

And don’t feel left out if you are a reformed smoker, now living healthy and free of nicotine!  This is your day to celebrate the effort you have gone to in making your life healthier. One way to really celebrate this is to start something designed to improve your health even further.  I can think of nothing better than building on a day of no tobacco by consider our flagship product, ‘The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide’ Series.  Whether you have already quit, or in the planning stage of saying goodbye to nicotine for good, our Lung Cleansing Guide has all the advice you need to turn one day free of nicotine into a lifetime of better health, and to speeding up the removal of tar and mucus that clogs up a recently reformed smoker’s lungs.  Trust me; you want this stuff out of your lungs, and your life.

So consider quitting smoking on World No Tobacco Day 2012, you could be feeling a whole lot better and having a cleaner set of lungs as well!

Until next time,

stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds

day, there are news reports and journal articles about discoveries and developments in the fields of quitting smoking and lung detoxification.

Here are a just a few:

You Think Smoking Doesn’t Affect Your Life Expectancy – Think Again!

According to a paper in the latest edition of Journal of Tobacco Control, smoking is responsible for up to 60% of the longevity gap between men and women in most European countries.  That is, smoking is the main reason why men die sooner than women.  Recent World Health Organization figures on death rates were the source of the discovery.

In the UK, women live and average of four years longer than men – although, in recent years, the gap has been closing.  Second to smoking, alcohol accounts for 20% of the disparity.

So guys, quit now, clean yourself up, and have a better chance of living as long as your woman!

Science Finds Quit Gene

According to a very recent study, scientists have pinpointed a source of nicotine craving in the brain, opening up a new path toward drug treatments to kick the habit.  This is highly desirable, given that tobacco kills more than five MILLION people every year, and accounts for nearly one in EVERY 10 adult deaths, 90% of them involving lung cancer.

In experiments with mice and rats, researchers have mapped the functioning of a gene called CHRNA5, previously linked with nicotine addiction.  The gene controls a receptor – an entry point on the surface of brain cells – which responds to nicotine molecules.  With a normal version of this gene, anything more than a tiny dose of nicotine triggers a message to the brain which says in effect “stop consuming,” the scientists found.  Larger doses [of nicotine] unleash a sense of repulsion, similar to ‘bad tasting food or drink,” said Paul Kenny, lead researcher at the Scripps research Institute in Florida.  But the effect was quite different in mice in which a tiny sub-unit of the receptor, known as alpha5, had been knocked out.  The negative message was never sent, and as a result the rodents couldn’t get enough of the potent drug [being nicotine].

Researchers believe a similar scenario occurs natural in some humans, genome-wide screening studies have identified genetic alterations which impair alpha5 unit functioning.

So there you go.  Your genes effect how easily you get addicted to nicotine, and likewise make it harder for some to quit.

Nicotine Patch Prices To Be Slashed

It appears that the Government in Australia has decided that nicotine patches are effective enough to be added to that country’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.  Before this sensible move, the smallest pack of patches cost nearly three times what a pack of cigarettes cost.  With a doctor’s prescription, the price drops from between Au$100 – 140 down to Au$34.20, or $5.60 with a concession card.  Australian residents are eligible for up to 12 weeks supply of the quit smoking patches per year.  This is indeed good news.

If you don’t have the good fortune to live in Australia, our product, ‘The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide’ Series, has other, more cost effective ways to help you quit, stay quit, and detoxify your lungs as quickly as possible, saving you years of tar lung that increases your chances of cancer, emphysema and other related diseases.  Give it a try, you won’t regret it!

Until next time,

Happy New Year, stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds

Smoking – The Habit That’s Trendy To Hate

Many smokers, before they quit, have related to me that while they were sitting outside having a puff, rather self-righteous people often came up to them telling them how bad their habit was for them.  Now despite the fact that this is accurate, there are quite a number of other societal ‘dependencies’ that don’t cop the same sort of vocal putdown. Take overweight people when they are eating a muffin while destroying their bodies with excess calories, or parents with more than two children for overpopulating the earth.  All these things are intrinsically bad for society as a whole, but only smoking is ‘fair game.’  And the only difference would be the 2^nd hand smoke issue.

It’s just as hard for a smoker to quit as it is for a food addict to do so, but one is considered discrimination, and the other a valid target.

Now you might be wondering, ‘what the? - are you actually defending smokers?’ Well not exactly … I’m raising the ‘finger pointing’ attitude that society is developing in this day and age, and how some people’s weakness is targeted while other’s is conscientiously avoided.

Outside the bar or pub or workplace, the ‘designated smoking area’ is becoming the last bastion of the smoking holdout.  Smokers are herded together like social outcasts, sharing this chastised habit, and maybe even making new friends through a shared experience.  Thus a smoker can end up with more smoking friends than non-smoking, and this can make it very hard to quit, when you take into consideration the social effect of peer pressure (ironically the same pressure that probably got them to take up smoking in the first place).

But if you go all out and make the jump from smoker to lung health advocate, what then?

New Opportunities Await

So you took the plunge and quit.  That’s great, but now not only your chemical, but your social world is changing.  Sure you can hang out with your smoking friends, but you’d better not go outside with them when they go.  The temptation will be high, and the Situational Smoking Effect (see yesterday’s post) may well come into play.  But just like you made friends with smokers when you smoked, you can now make friends with those that used to indulge, but now are on their way to healthier lungs!  Just like you shared the lows of dependence, you can now share the burgeoning highs of those discovering life after dependence on nicotine.

And let’s face facts, it’s becoming a non-smoking world.  And after quitting, you’ll no longer need to slink off during a dinner for a puff, it will spell and end to those sideways glares from people in the street, and there will be no more comments from supposedly well-meaning individuals, who are sure their telling you what you were doing to yourself made all the difference!  Smoking was once hip, and you joined the hip crowd, but the world has woken up to the cigarette company’s poisons, attitudes have changed, and you’ve moved with the times.  Right?

Your Willpower Is Like A Muscle

I’ve been informed there is a new Quit Smoking advertisement on Australian television (I will post a video if it pops up online later).  It has the distinction of being the first POSITIVE add I believe they’ve EVER produced.

“Your willpower is like a muscle; every cigarette you don’t smoke makes your willpower stronger.”

It IS a good message.  It’s something that all those who have moved beyond smoking must do to stay clean, but the good news is, the more you resist, the easier it gets, and this is basically true.

But for most of us, it takes a little more than just willpower to make a successful Quit Attempt.  Our product, ‘The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide’ Series is designed to give you all the information, tools and tips you need to make your next Quit Attempt your last, and if you’ve already quit, great, we provide some really pertinent tips to keep you healthy and avoid relapse, and – as the title suggests- all the best information on all the best ways to get toxins and tar out of your lungs – fast.

1 More Day!

We are getting really close now to the release of the updated Guides for 2011!  Over the first six days of the New Year, we’ll have a series of New Year’s Resolution Lung Detox posts, all related to the new release and to starting the adventure to a healthier new you.  Check back tomorrow for the sixth and final topic in the series; Exercise In The New Year – Vital To A Successful Lung Detox.

Until tomorrow,

Happy New Year, stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds

Quit One Day, Smoking Again The Next?

The siren song of Nicotine, the chemical in cigarette smoke that makes your quit attempts more difficult, doesn’t just go away the day after you take your last puff.  As many a Quitting ex-smoker knows, it can take weeks for the cravings to subside, and then you still get the occasional pang from time to time, in places and situations where you used to smoke.  These cravings, considered by many doctors to be wholly caused by the absence of Nicotine in the subjects system, are now treated by NRT – or Nicotine Replacement Therapy, and other medicines that block the receptor sites that Nicotine attaches to in the brain.

But if NRT or other chemical treatments is all it takes, why are there still people who fail at a Quit Attempt?  Shouldn’t they all be successful, the first time they use these quit smoking aids?

Well it turns out that there is a lot more to it than just the chemical side of things, and that is an oft missed angle that our product, ‘The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide’ Series aims to cover.  In our product we cover NRT and other therapies – some of which may surprise you – to combat the chemical side of the equation, but we also cover the psychological dependence side as well.  This is something that many other products simply do not do.

The following is a taste of the sort of tips available in Book 2 – The Complete Quit Smoking Guide.

Being Ready For The Siren Call

So you’ve got your NRT or equivalent chemical substitute happening for you, you’ve passed your Quit Day, and you ARE doing it, you HAVE quit! But the itch is still there.  Why do you still feel like a smoke?  We cover this is great detail in our Guides Series, but it has to do with the way your mental ‘habit’ of smoking has effected your mind.  Here is one example:

It’s a pressure called the Situational Smoking Effect (SSE) – where you mind actually down-regulates your neurochemicals when you are in a situation or place where you regularly smoked in the past.  It works like this – when you first started smoking, you got a buzz out of it, but after a while, you had to smoke just to feel OK.  No more buzz, yeah?  Well that is your brain becoming ‘used’ to having a regular nicotine supply.  That is why you feel bad when you don’t smoke, and why it is not a simple thing to quit – until you train your brain to go back to the way it was originally.  But after you have ‘trained’ your brain to expect a nicotine hit in a certain place or situation, it gets ready for it by down-regulating your neurochemicals (it’s actually a throwback from a system to prevent a dose of a chemical from hurting you– nicotine is a poison in high does after all).  So there you are, having gone through the ‘tough times’ of nicotine withdrawal, and you’re feeling better, over the ‘worst of it,’ and on your way to healthy lungs.  And then you go to that place or are in that situation, and BANG, you get a pang, and it can sometimes be strong enough to break your resolve.  THAT is the SSE, and if you are not ready for it, it can beat you.

But Knowledge is Power, and our product contains effective tips to combat the SSE, and many other pitfalls of the Quit Journey.

2 More Days!

We are getting really close now to the release of the updated Guides for 2011!  Over the first six days of the New Year, we’ll have a series of New Year’s Resolution Lung Detox posts, all related to the new release and to starting the adventure to a healthier new you.  Check back tomorrow for the fifth topic in the series; Life After Cigarettes – The Social Impacts Of Quitting.

Until tomorrow,

Happy New Year, stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds

What Motivates You To Undertake A Quit Program/Lung Detox?

Determining your motivations, and nailing down exactly why you want to Quit Smoking and/or Detoxify Your Lungs is really important to keep you working towards these goals. The exact reasons vary for each and every one of us, so if you go to the trouble of really understanding your own reasons, and then feeling them – desiring them – you will have a much greater chance of staying smoke-free and cleaning up your lungs – fast!

There are many possibilities, and slight variations – but in some way or form these motivations can be summed up by this basic premise: giving up cigarettes forever, detoxing your lungs and be healthier, feel better and live longer for yourself and your family. Your smoking habit has caused this damage, and has the potential to continue to do so, for up to 10 years after your last cigarette. That is why a Lung Detox is an essential part of any Quit journey.

Reaching That Critical ‘Activation Energy’

Often in any great effort to change, the first hurdle is the toughest. This can be referred to as achieving Activation Energy – that is, making the start that will bring about the improvement in your health (presuming you stick with it – see next section). With most decisions to Quit Smoking and Detoxify Your Lungs, the primary motivation usually comes from a place of anger and fear. Fear of an early, wasting death, possible loss of quality of life for years beforehand, and missing out on seeing your grandchildren, and possibly even your children, grow up. These are all quite rational and sensible fears seeing the dangers of smoking are so well known and publicized these days.

We recognize that motivation through fear has its place. It is sad but true that we humans are far more motivated to flee from danger than we are to move toward things that are good for us. However fear motivation is strong, but short-lived. It can help you reach that critical Activation Energy to get started on your journey to better health, but once this is done it tends to peter out, and those old, short-term cravings seem to have the strong pull they always did. This is because people just can’t maintain a fear response for long periods; we are just not designed that way, and if we try it has considerable negative impacts on both our minds and bodies.

Seeing It Through

So if negative motivation can start us off, but won’t get us there, what do we do then? The answer is to swap to positive motivation! This simple but often overlooked change in motivational methodology can easily be the difference between a successful quit/detox attempt, and waking up one morning with a packet of cigarettes back in your top pocket or handbag. By knowing what your own personal, positive, long-term motivations are to get healthy, and using techniques like Visualization/Positive Forward Projection and Positive Mental Conditioning to keep you feeling those motivations strongly and permeating through all the levels of your mind, your chances of a successful quit/detox attempt will skyrocket!

In fact, we think this is so important, it is the topic of our newest Booklet in the ‘The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide’ Series, Book 1 – The Complete Motivations For Lung Health Guide. Complied over several years, and drawing information from top authorities in the field, this newest addition to the Guide Series will help you stay the course, and reach your quit/detox goals.

3 More Days!

We are getting really close now to the release of the updated Guides for 2011! Over the first six days of the New Year, we’ll have a series of New Year’s Resolution Lung Detox posts, all related to the new release and to starting the adventure to a healthier new you. Check back tomorrow for the fourth topic in the series; Nicotine Dependence – It’ll Get You Back If It Can.

Until tomorrow,

Happy New Year, stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds

Negative Pressure

For most people, stress is a negative pressure that adversely affects our day to day health and happiness.  If it builds up to intolerable levels, it can even stop us doing what we most want to do, and can also bring on all sorts of other mental instabilities, and physical sicknesses to boot.  And when Quitting Cigarettes or undertaking a Lung Detox, it can be the one factor too many that leads you to fail in reaching the goals you set out to achieve.  But what if there was a way to understand stress more clearly, and stop it having such detrimental effects on your life?  It turns out there is…

Stress – It All Starts In Your Head

Stress doesn’t physically exist.  It’s not ‘out there,’ seeping into your life with the pressures put upon you at work, or in the home, or a hundred other places.  It’s all in your head.  Truly.  Stress is YOUR reaction to pressures other’s – and even you – put on you.  Plain and simple.  Sure, the pressure comes from ‘out there’ for the most part, but the stress is all yours.

So what does this little factoid actually do to help you, you may be wondering?  The pressure is still there.  But once you realize that stress is your reaction, it means you have options.  You can learn to control your reaction to external and internal pressures.  You can take your reaction back, and use it to your advantage.

Turning Stress Into Success

Do you know the difference between the stressed out person who burns out and slips back into the smoking habit, and a person who turns that corner, changes their life for the better, becoming healthier in the mind and body?  The relapsed smoker turns pressure into stress, and reaches for that pack, that’s what.  And the other?  Well they learn how to turn that pressure into challenge, what is for many of us a negative into a positive, and achieve their goals.  That is what we all want, after all, isn’t it?

And that’s what the ‘Stress Reduction’ section of our product, ‘The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide’ Series is aimed at helping you achieve, with many ways to reduce and avoid pressure laden situations, and more great advice on turning Stress into Success.

4 More Days!

We are closing in on the release of the updated Guides for 2011!  Over the first six days of the New Year, we’ll have a series of New Year’s Resolution Lung Detox posts, all related to the new release and to starting the adventure to a healthier new you.  Check back tomorrow for the third topic in the series; Motivation – Your Best Friend, Full Stop.

Until tomorrow,

Happy New Year, stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds

Jumping In, Boots And All

Most people wake up on the 1st of January, and once their hangovers clear, decide it’s a New Year and time to make a change.  This is a good thing.  It is a fine time to make this sort of decision.  However, it’s what they do next that decides if they will be successful or not.  Most smokers throw away their last pack and go cold turkey, or at best have nicotine patches to fall back on.  These can certainly help, in part, but they are NOT the be all and end all.  There is much more to know, and much more to do, before starting down the path of a successful quit attempt for the New Year; one that will become a new – and far healthier – lifestyle habit.

Failing To Plan Is Planning To Fail

It’s that simple.  If you don’t have a good plan for your quit attempt, you’ll likely be lining up again next year to try it again. Now I’m not saying that you can’t just stop smoking and ‘tough it out,’ relying on pure willpower to not slip back.  I’m really impressed with people who can do this.  But let’s face it, that’s not most of us.  Most of us are fallible mortals, who need a good plan, and a fair bit of help, to make that life changing move to healthy lungs.  This is what our product, ‘The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide’ Series, is aimed at providing; a complete program to guide you to a successful Quit Attempt, and/or Lung Detoxification.

Our product will give you a tried and tested method to prepare and enact a well-planned Quit Day, utilizing the best methods and tips for your personal situation, including when to actually schedule your last cigarette.

Picking The Right Time – For You

There are many factors that you should have working in your favor to make your next quit attempt your last, and your most successful.  If you spend the time preparing – reducing stress, understanding your short and long term motivations, keeping them in mind, and organizing the right help methods to get you on the path to healthy lungs *takes breath* then you will succeed.  And the important thing is, you might spend a month preparing, but that month is not nearly as much time to expend as you would use with multiple future quit attempts, is it?

Likewise, the actual day you set is important.  Choosing a day that is, for example, NOT during a busy time at work, or not during some other event that will distract you from your goal, is very important.  Your chances of success sky rocket when you have the time to focus on quit techniques and beginning healthy alternatives, like a new exercise program, diet, or the methods presented in our product.

Just 5 More Days!

We are closing in on the release of the updated Guides for 2011!  Over the first six days of the New Year, we’ll have a series of New Year’s Resolution Lung Detox posts, all related to the new release and to starting the adventure to a healthier new you.  Check back tomorrow for the second topic in the series; Stress – A Smoking Relapse Trigger That Doesn’t Physically Exist!

Until tomorrow,

Happy New Year, stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds

WNTD stands for World No Tobacco Day, which is celebrated around the world on May 31^st every year.  It was first suggested by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1987, when the World Health Assembly passed resolution WHA40.38 calling for April 7, 1988, the 40^th anniversary of the WHO, to be “a world no-smoking day.”  In 1988, Resolution WHA42.19 was passed, calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day, every year on May 31^st.  Since then, the WHO has supported WNTD every year, with each year linked to a different ‘ills of tobacco’ related theme. This year, the theme is ‘Gender and tobacco with an emphasis of marketing to women.’

Women Are Being Targeted By Tobacco Companies!

According to the WHO, women constitute one of the biggest ‘targets of opportunity’ for cigarette companies today.  The tobacco industry is constantly and aggressively looking to replace lost users – be they lost due to quitting or the half of all smokers alive today who will die from smoking related diseases.  Currently fewer woman than men smoke or chew tobacco.  Of the world’s over 1 billion smokers, only about 200 million are women!  With women, the industry simply has more room to expand.  And while tobacco use amongst men in some countries is slowly decreasing, use amongst women is similarly increasing.

The following are some frightening statistics.  Currently, over five million people a year die from tobacco related illnesses (but that won’t be you, because you’re doing something about it, right?).  Of that five million, currently one and a half million are women. Worldwide, of the roughly 430 000 adult deaths caused yearly by second-hand smoke, about 64% occur in women.   With less than 9% of the world’s population being covered by comprehensive tobacco advertising bans, and only 5.4% covered by comprehensive national smoke-free laws, that leaves a lot of young women to be bombarded by tobacco advertising, without the benefit of equivalent awareness campaigns on the damage and harmful effects of tobacco products.

To quote the WHO:  “World No Tobacco Day 2010 focuses on the harm which tobacco marketing and smoke do to women. At the same time, it seeks to make men more aware of their responsibility to avoid smoking around the women with whom they live and work.”

So what does this mean for you?  Well I make the presumption that if you are reading this blog post, you’re either are smoker, and ex-smoker looking to reverse damage done to your lungs, or perhaps you are a family member or a friend of a smoker or ex-smoker you are wishing to help.  Tobacco and its ills have affected all our lives. World No Tobacco Day seeks to promote a possible future where every day is a no tobacco day. That what we here at lundetoxification.com want for everyone who visits this site with the aim to give up and get their lungs clean; a long, happy lifetime of no tobacco.

Now the WHO suggests that you abstain from smoking on May 31^st.  I think this is a laudable goal.  Even choosing WNTD as your quit day is very symbolic, but seeing it’s less than 24 hrs away for most of us, and as good preparation is key to a successful quit attempt, let me suggest and alternative.  If you are a smoker, wishing to quit and stay free of the ills of tobacco, why not spend a few hours on WNTD looking for ways to support your quit program.  You can abstain from smoking too, but you need to prepare, possibly for weeks before quitting, so keep that in mind before going cold turkey tomorrow.  And for those of you who have quit and are looking to help repair damage to their lungs, do your research on how to help this course of action on WNTD.  Wherever you are on your journey to better health, pass on what you have learned to those that are likewise working towards better health.  By supporting each other on the lung health trail, we’ll all get to where we want to be sooner, and all live longer, healthier lives.

One great resource for not only quitting, but making every day a ‘no tobacco day’ is The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide. We have information on the physical and the psychological sides of tobacco dependence, the importance of stress management, using positive forward projection to keep the goal of optimal lung health in mind at those weak moments, and a plethora of tips and methods to get your lungs free of the ills of tar far quicker than your body can manage on its own.  You owe it to yourself, on World No Tobacco Day, to check it out.

Until next time,

stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free,

oh and happy World No Tobacco Day!

William Renolds

Does where you smoke matter?

Have you ever been in a place, or been doing an activity, at which you have regularly smoked in the past and really felt like lighting up again, even if you’ve vowed to quit?  Then you’ve experienced the effects of Situational Smoking.  The thing is, it’s not just an association in your mind; recent research suggests that it is your brain getting ready for an infusion of your drug of choice – nicotine.

I expect every smoker that has quit feels this way at one time or another.  You are in your favorite chair, or in the car in a traffic snarl, or relaxing after some intimate time with your partner, in general a place or an activity that your mind strongly associates with smoking.  Have a think about it.  You’ll probably find at least one, but more likely several.  A favorite doorway outside work, a food or drink that you associate with a smoke, or a piece of furniture that you‘ve regularly occupied when smoking.  Whatever it is, you have just discovered a habitual queue that tells your mind you are likely to smoke.

So what is happening in your head at times, or in places like these?  To help you understand the effect, I have to tell you a parallel story that you might have never dreamed could be related; that of junkies dying in alleyways.

Ever wondered why so many heroin users die in alleyways?  Perhaps you think the just go there to shoot up, overdose and die.  Not so.  What would you think if I told you that they have no more heroin in that alleyway than they do at home.  They didn’t die from that dosage at home, so why do they die in the alley?  This comes down to the situational effect again.  Here’s how it plays out.

The user injects say 10 units of heroin to get the buzz they need at home.  They go out to dinner.  Their last buzz wears off, and they want it back before they go clubbing.  They sneak out into the alley behind the restaurant, and hit up with their usual 10 units and it kills them.  Why?

This is the Situational Effect, and you know what, it wasn’t the heroin that killed them, it was their brain.  When you mind associates a place or an activity with the intake of a drug, and you are in that place or undertaking that activity, your brain expects a hit of your drug of choice (and don’t kid yourself, nicotine is a drug of addiction).  So what does your brain do?  It’s depresses your neurotransmitters (specifically the chemicals in your brain that make you feel good) to make you ‘ready’ for the drug.  Some researchers think it’s a protective mechanism to prevent overdose.  Sad thing is, when the drug taker is not in their regular drug taking place or doing the drug-related activity, their brain does not depress their central nervous system (CNS), they go too far on the same dose, and OD.

So that’s what happens to our hapless junkie.  A dose that would have given just the right buzz at home kills them in an unfamiliar location.

Now I’m not suggesting you are a junkie.  You’re a regular person who’s probably having a rough time quitting cigarettes.  But one of the ‘why’s’ that cause this rough time is the Situational Effect.

Whatever this place or activity is, if your mind associates it with smoking then it will cause you to really want to light up when you are there, or when you are doing that activity.

Now our Complete Lung Detoxification Guide recommends that you get away from these places and activities to help you break the association.  Problem is, the research I’ve recently been following suggests that as soon as you do the activity again, or go back to the place that your mind associates with smoking, your brain will down-regulate your CNS and you’ll feel crappy, and want to smoke. This happens even if you’ve been quit for quite a while.  And unfortunately, there is no easy way to get around it.

As we so often state: awareness is the key.  If you are aware that this will happen, you can be ready for it.  This effect is only temporary, lasting from half an hour to several hours, depending on your past levels of smoking.  If you know it is coming, you can be ready for it, and can distract yourself until your neurotransmitters recover.

The good news? The more times you put yourself in your ‘Situational Smoking’ locations, or do the related activities WITHOUT smoking, you’re retraining your brain not to do this anymore. Eventually (and the time this takes will vary from person to person) your brain will lose the association of smoking with that place or activity, and the CNS depression of that situation will decrease, and then disappear entirely.

So keep at it!  Put yourself in your Situational Smoking place/activity when you are feeling strong, and wait it out.  When you do so and you don’t feel like smoking, you’ll know you’ve REALLY beaten the habit that kills millions every year!

Until next time,

stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

~William Renolds