Smoking Tobacco addiction

The history of tobacco goes back over 2000 years. The Mayans considered tobacco to be God's representative on Earth, for the pleasure and well-being effects it produced. It was even recommended by doctors at the time for the treatment of asthma and migraines.

Tobacco is a psychoactive plant that gives dependence and habituation superior to cocaine, opiates and amphetamines. Its absence causes deprivation symptoms (malaise, headaches, dizziness, sadness, anxiety, difficulty in concentrating and sleep disorders), which makes it difficult to break the habit.

But... smoking is the main cause of preventable death in the world and, despite having been used for centuries, only recently have the harmful effects of tobacco become widely known, not only for smokers but also for people exposed to smoke, namely children.

Even when not smoking, smokers continue to release carbon monoxide, which exists in their expired air and which will be inhaled by children or adults around them, making them passive smokers, with the possibility of having the same health consequences like active smokers.

Although the biggest concern of smokers is lung cancer, other smoking-related diseases are highly limitative and affect quality of life, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD. In addition to respiratory diseases, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, and even sudden death have also been described in smokers with more than 20 cigarettes a day. Smoking is also associated with diseases of the digestive system (gastritis, gastroesophageal reflux), the female reproductive system (decreased fertility and premature menopause), the central nervous system, strokes and all vascular pathology, whether arterial or venous . Finally, the highly carcinogenic effect of cigarettes, not only on the respiratory system, but also on the digestive system (oral cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas), the urinary system (bladder, kidney) and breast.

Tobacco is responsible for 90 percent of lung cancer deaths, 25 percent of coronary heart disease deaths and 85 percent of COPD deaths.

According to the WHO, every year, five million people lose their lives due to diseases caused by tobacco, more than the sum of deaths from AIDS, cocaine, heroin, alcohol and traffic accidents. Half of these deaths occur between the ages of 35 and 69.

Smoking, in addition to being a risk factor for various diseases, is itself considered a chronic disease with relapses, which requires medical advice and therapeutic support.

Through the Smoking Cessation Consultation, you can develop, together with your clinician, a personalized program to quit smoking, eliminating all the associated risks.

There are now several therapies, both pharmacological and psychological, which help to overcome this problem more easily.

Start your smoking cessation program today and stop smoking!