As part of our #HealthyRhinos week we are working with Leeds Public Health to offer our fans advice on healthy lifestyles. Each day during Health Week we will take a look at ways to make positive choices to help you lead a healthy lifestyle. Today we look at advice on stopping smoking.
Our Health Week will culminate with fans getting the opportunity to have a health check at the Rhinos' game against Hull KR this Friday 22nd May.
Key and current messages
- Around half of all smokers will die from smoking related illness.
- Stopping smoking is the single most helpful thing you can do to improve your health and the health of the people around you.
- You are four times more likely to quit smoking with a combination of stop smoking medication eg patches and behaviour support
Why is stopping smoking important?
- Stopping smoking results in a range of health benefits including reduced blood pressure, improved circulation and breathing to name a few.
- The longer you are smokefree the greater the improvements and the risk of developing a smoking related disease is reduced.
- When parents quit smoking, their children are less likely to start smoking
Key facts
- A person who smokes 20 a day is likely to spend more than £2500 per year on cigarettes.
- Children of smokers are 3 times more likely to smoke than children of non-smokers
Top tips for stopping smoking
There are a variety of methods to help people quit smoking with varying degrees of success. Cold turkey is the most common method which and doesn’t involve any treatment or behavioural support. Although the most popular, it is not the most successful, so try and learn from any previous attempts and identify anything that was helpful.
- Get support!
Evidence shows that people who attend a NHS stop smoking support session significantly; improve their chances of quitting smoking compared to people who go cold turkey. Leeds; NHS Stop Smoking Services offer a range of flexible stop smoking sessions to help people quit.
- Pick a day!
It may seem obvious but people who commit to a specific day are more likely to quit than those who cut down.
- Delay and distract
Craving last for a few minutes at a time and the longer you go without smoking the frequency of craving reduce. If you have a bad craving trying doing something to distract yourself e.g. drink a glass of water, go for a walk
- Make a list of reason to quit.
This will remind you of why you are quitting and will keep you motivated, especially when you get a craving.
- Exercise
Research shows that smokers who regularly exercise have a much higher quit smoking success rate and are twice as likely to quit smoking compared to those smokers who did not exercise.
Key tools and resources
www.smokefree.nhs.uk Visit this website for your free Quit Kit, Addiction Test, Cost Calculator, Quit App, Leaflets and more.
www.breathe2025.org.uk Breathe2025 details the actions we all need to take in order to inspire a tobacco free generation and improve the future for our young people.
Where to go/who to contact?
Leeds NHS Stop Smoking Service
Tel: 0800 169 4219
Call to book into a stop smoking clinic.