Medical Specialists® inundated with requests for smoking cessation treatment in the run up to No Smoking Day

Medical Specialists® Pharmacy are proud to support this year’s national No Smoking Day, which will be taking place on 11 March.

For those not aware of its origins, No Smoking Day is an annual campaign that has been running since Ash Wednesday in 1983, when it was known as ‘Quit for the Day’, although despite the name, it is obvious this one day is intended to be a sampler / springboard for a longer-term and more permanent quitting of smoking.

The campaign was initially led by a charity bearing the same name that operated in London with only four full-time staff, until it was then merged with the British Heart Foundation in 2011. The funds are provided by coalition of governmental and voluntary sector organisations looking to improve the nation’s health.

Each year there are an estimated one million smokers that use No Smoking Day to try and stop smoking. The No Smoking Day charity has previously claimed that about 1.5 million smokers have successfully managed to quit for good since its launch 32 years ago.

After experiencing a recent surge in the requests for smoking cessation treatment Champix, Medical Specialists® believe that this year, there could be potentially significantly more than just one million people trying to give up the cigarettes in Britain.

What the campaign doesn’t do is attempt to harass or force smokers into immediately stopping for good – the day is primarily for those smokers that want to quit, in addition to providing support prior to and after No Smoking Day, with the British Heart Foundation website offering information on national helplines, local stop smoking services and the chance to join a support forum.

The forum is an excellent way to get in touch with thousands of other fellow smokers looking to quit and lets people know they are not alone in their efforts to stub out. The forum is even moderated by ex-smokers that have successfully given up themselves.

As the name of the charity would suggest, the British Heart Foundation use their knowledge and resources to boost the public’s heart health, and provide information on the damage smoking does to the body, even detailing some of the toxic chemicals that smokers inhale with each passing cigarette – it certainly makes for grim reading.

The fact remains that smokers are at double the risk of suffering from a heart attack compared to people that have never smoked and smoking is the main cause of a multitude of cancers and lung disease.

Even with these health risks, some people still refuse to stop smoking. This could explain why last year the British Heart Foundation chose to reach out to smokers in other ways – namely highlighting the financial benefits of stopping smoking.

With the current financial climate, it is simply unfeasible to be regularly forking out £10 for a packet of cigarettes and skimp on food or even withhold paying bills.

The British Heart Foundation have even detailed what people could treat themselves to with the money saved from not buying cigarettes*.

For example, after…

1 Day – £8.50: two movie rentals / a new lipstick / download a new album
1 week – £59.50: a family cinema trip/ a pair of shoes / a meal for two
1 month – £255: a shopping spree / Premiership football tickets / a weekend break
3 months – £765
6 months – £1,530: a leather suite/ a home cinema / a top of the range bicycle
1 year – £3,102.50: a new kitchen / designer jewellery / holiday of a lifetime

*Figures based on a 20-a-day smoker paying £8.50 per packet of 20 cigarettes.

And if that wasn’t music to the ears of smokers, by quitting smoking they will earn extra pocket money on top of that already saved! Ex-smokers may now suddenly discover that life, home and car insurance are cheaper due to then being a non-smoker.

Medical Specialists® wish all smokers the best of luck for next weeks No Smoking Day. There is plenty of help at hand, from the British Heart Foundation’s ‘I want to quit’ page, their links to a forum and various nationwide stop smoking services, to smoking cessation treatment from Medical Specialists® like Champix, for a more longer term quitting strategy. This treatment can be obtained by an online consultation with one of our GMC-registered doctors, or by sending us a private prescription.

Healthier younger adults linked to drop in smoking levels

As we reach the tenth day of the annual Stoptober Challenge, smokers across Britain should be encouraged to learn that the proportion of adults that are smoking in the UK has dropped to its smallest percentage since records began in the 1940s.

Figures published this week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that amongst the over-18s, smoking prevalence stood at 18.7% in 2013 – down from the rate of 19.8% in 2012.
The decline was revealed by the Integrated Household Survey run by ONS, a survey that quizzed almost 270,000 people over the age of 18 about their smoking habits.

The other large-scale survey to monitor smoking – the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey – demonstrated a smoking prevalence of 20% in 2012, and is widely expected to confirm the drop below one in five when its latest set of figures are released in November.

The 18.7% smoking rate shows ministers could be on course for hitting their target of bringing down the percentage of smokers to 18.5% by 2015 – if more people continue to quit.

Public Health Minister Jane Ellison said: “It is very welcome that the number of smokers is at its lowest level as this means many more people will not die prematurely. However we want to help more people to quit as smoking is still a huge killer, taking nearly 80,000 lives a year. We know the idea of giving up smoking can be daunting but by using a local stop smoking service smokers are four times more likely to succeed.”

Much of the drop has been pinpointed to an ever-increasing number of younger adults that are quickly wising up to the massive damage that smoking can do, and turning against tobacco. The younger generation are generally more clean-living than their ancestors, something many believed could be linked the rise of social media, meaning there is a better chance youngsters are in their bedrooms on Facebook instead of hanging around street corners or in bars.

The ONS survey did find however that around 21.1% of men are smoking, compared to just 16.5% of women. A third of the population have successfully quit smoking, whilst half say they have never smoked.

The proportion of the population lighting up has drastically decreased though since the 1940s, then tobacco industry statistics showed almost two thirds of men were smokers. When the ONS began records of their own in 1974, 45% of Brits were smokers – 52% of men and 41% of women.
By 2006, the numbers had slashed in half, but stayed at around the 20% level through the years of the recent recession, despite the introduction of the 2007 smoking ban.

The new figures released this week were obviously met with delight by ministers and the charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), who said the findings should allay fears that increasing use of electronic cigarettes would result in more people turning to regular smoking.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Ash, said: “This statistically significant decline in adult smokers shows that the government’s tobacco control plan is working. However, over 80,000 people still die from smoking every year in England and every week hundreds of children take up smoking.

“Tough new measures to regulate tobacco, like plain standardised packaging, are needed if we are to drive down smoking still further. We urge the government to waste no time in allowing parliament to vote on the regulations which will finally get rid of glitzy, glamorous cigarette packs forever,” Arnott said.

“The drop in smoking also shows that concerns that the use of electronic cigarettes would lead to a renormalisation of tobacco use appear unfounded. The rapid increase in use of these products has coincided with a consistent steady decline in smoking.”

Cancer patients could be more nicotine dependent with e-cigarettes

A new study into e-cigarettes has put further fuel onto the fire about just how useful a tool they are in helping smokers successfully quit smoking, after researchers found cancer patients who used c-cigs to try and stop smoking actually ended up more addicted to nicotine.

The findings have been published online by the journal Cancer, and will undoubtedly spark further doubts regarding the devices  that have come under scrutiny from the World Health Organisation in recent years, who want tighter regulations on them and a banning of them being used indoors.

The new study was conducted by researchers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York City, who assessed 1,074 cancer patients who were smokers and that had signed up to stop smoking schemes at cancer centre’s between 2012 and 2013.

The researchers discovered a three-fold rise in e-cigarette use from 2012 to 2013 – increasing from 10.6% to 38.5%.

When the patients’ enrolled into the smoking programme, the researchers determined that those also using e-cigarettes were more dependent on nicotine compared to those not using them, had tried to quit smoking on more occasions, and had a higher risk of developing cancer of the lungs, head, or neck.

During a follow-up assessment, it was found that seven-day abstinence rates were comparable with both e-cigarette users and non-users. Researchers found rates of 44.4% for e-cigarette users and 43.1% for non-users. By the time the study came to a conclusion, those using e-cigarettes were just as likely as non-users to be smoking regular cigarettes.

Dr Jamie Ostroff, lead researcher said: “Consistent with recent observations of increased e-cigarette use in the general population, our findings illustrate that e-cigarette use among tobacco-dependent cancer patients has increased within the past two years.”

She admitted further studies would be needed due to limitations with this one, saying: “Controlled research is needed to evaluate the potential harms and benefits of e-cigarettes as a potential cessation approach for cancer patients. In the meantime, oncologists should advise all smokers to quit smoking traditional combustible cigarettes, encourage use of FDA-approved cessation medications, refer patients for smoking cessation counselling, and provide education about the potential risks and lack of known benefits of long-term e-cigarette use.”

One such smoking cessation treatment is Pfizer’s highly popular Champix, of which Medical Specialists® Pharmacy have been inundated with requests for recently in the run up to Stoptober on 1 October.

Stoptober is an annual campaign run by Public Health England, which challenges all smokers to abstain for 28 days. The idea for 28 days of no smoking is that it is believed smokers are 5 times more likely to stop smoking if they can last the duration of the challenge. Keep checking the Medical Specialists® website for more information about Stoptober in the run up to it, including more to get involved and support available for smokers looking to quit.

Smokers shun the NHS for help quitting smoking

The number of people using the NHS for help in successfully quitting smoking has declined for the second consecutive year, according to a new report.

Statistics to emerge from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) have been branded “disappointing” by anti-smoking campaigners, showing that more than 586,000 people set a quit date using the NHS Stop Smoking Services through 2013/14, in comparison to over 724,000 people in 2012/13 – representing a 19% drop.

It marks the first time a decline has occurred over successive years since 2001, when NHS Stop Smoking Services began being provided to England’s local authorities.

Anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) believe the drop is down to a “combination of the impact of changes in the health service, fewer mass marketing campaigns that specifically encourage people to visit services and the impact of electronic cigarettes”.

Around half (300,540) of those who had set a target quit date then managed to give up smoking, with the over 60s being able to boast having the largest number of successful quitters at 58%.

Unsurprisingly, people aged 18 or under were the demographic with the lowest percentage of people who had managed to quit smoking (39%).

Hazel Cheeseman, director of policy at ASH said: “We know an ever increasing number of people are using electronic cigarettes to help them quit. While services can’t prescribe people electronic cigarettes, they can give people who want to use them extra support which can make all the difference to a successful quit.”

Martin Dockrell, tobacco control programme lead at Public Health England, which monitors NHS Stop Smoking Services, commented how “local stop smoking services are effective as ever at helping smokers to quit, even if overall numbers using the services have declined. Smokers are four times more likely to succeed using these services.”

He further added: “Many factors could explain why overall numbers are down including the emerging popularity of e-cigarettes as a quitting aid. However, so far no e-cigarettes have been licensed as medicines, and their contents and quality varies greatly. There is no reason why someone wanting to quit using an e-cigarette shouldn’t also speak to a stop smoking service to receive additional support and advice to stand the best chance of quitting for good.”

Smoking is still the single biggest factor behind illness and early death in Britain, not only negatively impacting the person smoking, but those in the close vicinity around them through second-hand smoking. Quite simply, quitting smoking is the best thing you can do. It is never too late to stop, making a big difference to your health and even increase life expectancy.

Smokers warned they are 45% more at risk of dementia

It isn’t the first time the two have been linked together, but more research has shown a clear association between smoking and the onset of dementia.

Despite the fact anybody can develop the debilitating disease, research released by the World Health Organization (WHO) working together with Alzheimer’s disease International (ADI) has highlighted a link between smoking and dementia risk.

The report warns that smokers are putting themselves at a staggering 45% increased risk of developing dementia compared to non-smokers, and the more someone smokes, the higher the risk goes.

The experts involved in the report believe 14% of all cases of Alzheimer’s cases around the globe are because of smoking and WHO state that even those exposed to second-hand smoke (known as passive smoking) can still have an increased risk of developing dementia.

Shekhar Saxena, director of the Department for Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the WHO, said: “Since there is currently no cure for dementia, public health interventions need to focus on prevention by changing modifiable risk factors like smoking.

“This research shows that a decrease in smoking now is likely to result in a substantial decrease in the burden of dementia in the years to come.”

Serge Gauthier, chair of Alzheimer’s Disease International’s medical scientific advisory panel, added: “The research also shows that quitting smoking later in life might be beneficial so encouraging and supporting current tobacco users to quit should be a priority.”

Doug Brown, director of research and development at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “This shocking estimate that so many cases of Alzheimer’s may be linked to smoking surely means we must count the global burden of the condition alongside the millions of deaths we already know are caused by tobacco.

“With 44 million people worldwide living with dementia, it is now time to rank the condition alongside others like cancer and heart disease when we talk about tackling smoking.

“With no cure yet for dementia, we need more research to gain a better understanding about how lifestyle factors can increase risk and a significant public health effort to attempt to reduce the number of future cases of the condition.”

Dementia is a term used for a group of symptoms that are the result of one of a number of brain diseases, with Alzheimer’s being the most common by far. When somebody develops dementia, it is not only tragic for the affected person, but for all friends and family of that person.

The condition impairs a person’s ability to think, rationalise things and remember. Memory loss is often viewed as the obvious sign of dementia, but there are other signs to look for such as: changes in personality and mood, speech and language difficulty, delusions or hallucinations, wandering or restlessness, depression or anxiety, agitation and balance problems.

The Alzheimer’s Society say there are about 800,000 people in the UK that have dementia. A third of the over-65s will develop dementia, with two thirds of sufferers being women.

As people are now generally living a lot longer, the numbers will only increase. By 2021, there could be as many as 1 million people living in the UK with dementia.

However, people can act now to help lower the risk of developing the disease, such as: engaging in regular exercise, maintaining a healthy body weight, stopping smoking, sticking to a healthy diet and limiting alcohol intake.

Asthma and premature births down 10% thanks to the smoking ban

The ban of smoking in public places has helped to reduce premature births and severe child childhood asthma attacks by 10%, according to research from Europe and the United States and published in the medical journal Lancet.

“Our research shows that smoking bans are an effective way to protect the health of our children,” said Jasper Been of the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Population Health Sciences, who led the study.

He says their findings should hopefully result in anti-smoking laws being implemented in those cities, countries and districts that do not currently have such restrictions in place.

The smoking ban was introduced in England in 2007, making it illegal to smoke in all enclosed public places such as restaurants, nightclubs, bars, restaurants and shopping centres. The ban has previously been shown to be highly effective at protecting people from the serious health problems associated with passive (secondhand) smoking, with a 5% drop in asthma hospital emergencies in the years following the ban.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) say tobacco is responsible for the deaths of six million people around the world annually. Over 600,000 of these deaths are not even people who smoke, but those who have died due to heavy exposure to secondhand smoke. Health experts have predicted the worldwide death toll will rise to eight million by 2030 if current trends are kept up.

According to WHO, alarmingly there is just 16% of the world’s population that feel the benefits of being protected by comprehensive smoke-free laws, with a shocking 40% of children around the world being regularly exposed to secondhand smoke.

The new research in the Lancet, involved researchers from the University of Edinburgh, Maastricht University, Hasselt University in Belgium, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital analysing data from over 2.5 million births and around 250,000 hospital visits in relation to asthma attacks and is the first comprehensive study assess exactly how anti-smoking legislation has impacted children’s health.

Co-author Professor Aziz Sheikh, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts, and the University of Edinburgh, says there is still a huge opportunity to improve the health of more children around the world.

“The many countries that are yet to enforce smoke-free legislation should in the light of these findings reconsider their positions on this important health policy question.”

There has never been a better time to quit smoking than now following a massive price reduction on a wide range of products and medications, and this includes the smoking cessation treatment Champix. For example, an online consultation for the Champix starter pack was £75, but this has now come down to just £38.95.For those already in possession of a private prescription, the price is even lower, at just £27.48!

No Smoking Day arrives as financial rewards are considered for quitters

No Smoking Day is upon us today as millions of smokers in Britain and indeed around the rest of the world are encouraged to at least give up cigarettes for this one day to help prepare them to give them up for good in the near future. Basically, if you can successfully do it for this one day, you should see you are able to do it everyday eventually!

In the three decades following the introduction of No Smoking Day in 1983, the proportion of UK adult smokers has fell from a third to a fifth, but the fact remains that there are still a staggering ten million smokers in the country and 100,000 of them will lose their lives each year as a result of this dangerous habit, such as from heart or circulatory diseases.

Although an estimated one in five UK adults smoke, studies have previously indicated that around two thirds of them would like to quit smoking. Therefore, today’s No Smoking Day is the perfect time to start.

This year’s No Smoking Day has been given a ‘V for Victory’ theme to it, hopefully helping hundreds of thousands of smokers to win the fight against cigarettes and it has now become one of the UK’s biggest annual health awareness campaigns.

However, could bribing smokers to quit be the answer? The findings of a new study indicated that smokers were more likely to quit when there were financial rewards to be gained from it – even as little as just £3 was found to be effective.

Researchers at Newcastle University assessed the results of 16 projects where people were urged to stop smoking, lose weight, go for vaccinations, or attend cancer screening appointments and were then awarded money, vouchers, lottery tickets or other financial incentives to improve their ways.
The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, states that the smokers these schemes were more than twice as likely to stop smoking for six months compared to people merely given advice on how best to quit.

Collating the results from all the schemes, the researchers came to the conclusion that financial incentives managed to raise the chance of behaviour improving by an impressive 62% and interestingly it was found higher amounts of money on offer were not much more effective than smaller ones.

Interestingly, the risk of being penalised financially also worked as a motivator, but it was found that people tend to change for the worse once the incentives are pulled.

The researchers argue there are those who will no doubt eventually return to their previous ways regardless of which method they have undertaken in order to quit smoking, lose weight, or other ways of improving their health.

Researcher Dr Jean Adams described such schemes as providing ‘rewards’ rather than ‘bribes’ and though the 16 projects they looked at were given in the US, similar financial motivations for patients may save the NHS a lot of money in the long-term.

Dr Adams said: “We try all kinds of techniques to help people quit smoking or otherwise live healthy lives, so why not try this? It is about nudging people to healthier behaviours. There is a chance this could save the taxpayer money in the long-run.”

Smokers encouraged to quit for No Smoking Day on 12 March

Medical Specialists Pharmacy is proudly supporting the next annual No Smoking Day, which will be taking place on 12 March 2014. Whether it is for this yearly awareness day, month-long campaigns such as ‘Stoptober’, for a New Year’s Resolution, or any other particular occasion, basically there is always a good reason to quit smoking today, not way in the future.

No Smoking Day is being pioneered by the British Heart Foundation, who understand not everybody can go ‘cold turkey’ and suddenly quit smoking for good instantly, but they are encouraging smokers to quit at least just for this one day to prove to themselves they can do it. It is hoped this one day smoke free will increase their motivation to quit for good in the long-run; this can be achieved with the help of smoking cessation medication such as Champix.

Now is the perfect time to quit as Medical Specialists Pharmacy have just drastically reduced the price of Champix to its lowest ever price! Prices have been reduced by as much as a whopping 50%. For instance, an online consultation for the Champix starter pack was £75, but this has now come down to just £38.95! For those already with a private prescription, the price is even lower, at a mere £27.48.

Everyone may have their own personal reasons for wanting to give up smoking. In the current financial climate, paying almost £10 for a packet of cigarettes is simply not feasible, with food and bills obviously much more important. For others, quitting could be part of a much wider plan to become healthier and include increasing exercise, eating better, etc.

A packet of 20 cigarettes can set you back around £7-£8, so the average 20-a-day smoker could suddenly have an extra £56 in their pocket each week. Wondering what to spend all that extra cash on? If you are spending £7 each day on your smoking habit, here’s what else you could be spending your money on:

1 day (£7): Two movie rentals or a new lipstick.
1 week (£49): A family cinema trip or a meal for two.
1 month (£210): A shopping spree or premiership football tickets.
3 months (£630): A new laptop or the latest flat screen TV.
6 months (£1,260): A leather suite or a home cinema.
1 year (£2,555): A new kitchen or a holiday of a lifetime.

If all that wasn’t music to your ears, you will feel extra money in your pocket in other ways. You will now suddenly find that life, home and car insurance will now be cheaper because you are a non-smoker.

It is worth remembering that you and everybody around you will reap the massive benefits from you stopping smoking. Your friends and family will no longer be inhaling second-hand smoke and having their health badly impacted too and for you personally, this is what you can look forward to in the forthcoming 12 months after stopping smoking:

20 minutes

Your heart rate and blood pressure return to a normal level.

8 hours

Oxygen levels return to normal as the nicotine and carbon monoxide begin to leave your body.

24 hours

Mucus and other smoking debris is cleared from the lungs.

48 hours

Nicotine should have been removed from your body by this stage and your sense of smell and taste are boosted.

2 – 12 weeks

Breathing improves and you find exercising is easier.

3 – 9 months

Any coughs, wheezing and breathing problems are reduced as your lungs repair.

1 year

You now have half the risk of coronary heart disease than that of a smoker.

If you want to get involved with No Smoking Day you can visit here or here to download the huge and informative campaign handbook which has details about the history of the day, what is included in the ‘V for Victory’ kit and advice for schools, employers and much more. On the downloads page of the British Heart Foundation website you can even see the smoking percentage statistics for your specific town and compare this against other regions within the United Kingdom.

Under-18s to be banned from buying e-cigarettes

The government has announced it is pressing ahead with plans to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to those under the age of 18.

E-cigarettes are used by around 1.3 million people in the UK, intended to resemble a traditional cigarette. Liquid nicotine is converted into a mist, or vapour, that the user inhales – simulating the process of smoking. As the devices emit a smoke-like water vapour, this has led to the term ‘vaping’ being commonly referred to for their use.

Smoking rates have dropped, but there are huge concerns that the e-cigarettes could be helping to encourage youngsters to begin smoking who previously never had, critics arguing they are a gateway to nicotine addiction and there needs to be further research into the impact on our health.

“We do not yet know the harm that e-cigarettes can cause to adults let alone to children, but we do know they are not risk- free,” England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies commented in a statement.

She continued: “E-cigarettes can produce toxic chemicals and the amount of nicotine and other chemical constituents and contaminants, including vaporised flavourings, varies between products – meaning they could be extremely damaging to young people’s health.”

The fact remains though that they have become so popular that some are under the belief the market for e-cigarettes could grow bigger than that for traditional cigarettes. Last year mark consultant Euromonitor estimated the global market for e-cigarettes to be worth over $2 billion (£1.2 billion).

The banning of the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s will be introduced as early as next week as an amendment to the Children and Families Bill. In a further crackdown on smoking, ministers are also formulating plans to stop adults purchasing regular cigarettes for under-18s.

Any adults found guilty of disobeying this particular law may be hit with a £50 fixed penalty notice or could be fined up to an amount of £2,500.

The laws follow Department of Health statistics showing 41% of 15-year-olds who smoke admit to acquiring their cigarettes from others instead of trying to purchase them from a shop.

Furthermore, an incredible 95% of 11 – 15-year-olds who smoke say someone else has bought cigarettes for them from a shop in the previous year.

Public Health Minister and Conservative MP Jane Ellison said: “Two thirds of smokers say they smoked regularly before they were 18, showing that this is an addiction largely taken up in childhood. We must do all we can to help children lead a healthy life. That’s why this measure is designed to help protect children from the dangers of being bought cigarettes by irresponsible adults – something that I hope concerned parents and responsible retailers will welcome.”

It seems completely quitting smoking altogether and not just reverting to e-cigarettes would be the safest option for smokers. Fortunately, Medical Specialists Pharmacy is able to help you quit smoking with the aid of the smoking cessation medication Champix, which mimics the effect of nicotine on the body, reducing the urge to smoke and relieving withdrawal symptoms. It can also decrease the enjoyment you experience of smoking if you are still smoking whilst on the treatment.

How to stick to your New Year’s resolutions

2014 is now already three days old, with the year going off literally with a bang following that hugely spectacular and big-budget firework display by the London Eye as hundreds of thousands of people crowded into the capital to watch the event.

With a new year comes the chance for self-improvement, forgiveness for events from the previous year, a time to learn from mistakes, a chance to start again, strengthen relationships with loved ones, and strive to overhaul your lifestyle – if it needs it of course!

All these factors usually come in the form of something which dates back to the time of Julius Caesar; New Year’s resolutions. Romans would typically make a vow to be good to each other, and this is something which some people today probably still vow to do, but as times have changed in the modern day, latter day resolutions reflect this. ‘Cut down on Facebook’ or ‘Sell unwanted stuff on Ebay’ show how modern technology has impacted our outlook on life.

Things that will never change, regardless of the times, is the strife for many of us to try and give our health, diet, nutrition, exercise habits, etc. a boost each and every year. Unfortunately, the statistics of success with resolutions reads pretty grim. In 2007 Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol carried out a study of 3,000 people and found that 88% of those who set New Year’s resolutions failed to meet them. This was in spite of the fact that over half (52%) of the participants had confidence of meeting their goals at the start of the study.

Therefore, you might be wondering what you can do to make yourself part of that elite 12% who actually manage to make their resolutions stick. If so, read on…

. Plan out small, realistic steps to your goals

Realising your ultimate goal, say losing weight, can be intimidating at the beginning of your journey. Creating one giant goal of simply ‘lose weight’ means you are much less likely to accomplish this unless you create some broken-down, personal, actionable steps. For instance, try writing down a series of smaller milestones that you can do before you reach the bigger picture. This could be ‘joining the local gym’, ‘switch from whole milk to skimmed’, ‘go for a 20 minute jog on Tuesday and Thursday mornings’.

. Anticipate obstacles that could arise

Focusing back onto the previous example of losing weight and going for jogs as part of this, an obstacle for this could be the weather. Plan ahead and check weather forecasts; is it going to be cold the next morning? Is it going to rain? Make sure you are fully equipped for everything and have appropriate running shoes, gloves, a woolly hat and make yourself visible with a reflective jacket if it is dark in the morning. If possible, having a treadmill at home could keep you on your weight loss goal for the occasions it is simple not feasible to get out for a jog. Or if you are worried about temptations with ‘bad’ foods whilst trying to adhere to a healthy diet, create avoidance tactics.
. One thing at a time

A limited amount of willpower we possess means that tackling multiple resolutions simultaneously is just asking for trouble, and likely unattainable. Focus on one goal at a time and when you have accomplished a particular goal, move on to the next. Remember you have twelve months to hit your targets, which brings us on to our next point; Try to keep your resolutions to an absolute maximum of ten.

. Don’t beat yourself with each slip up

You are only human at the end of the day and there is a good chance you will fall off track at least once or twice along the way to reaching your goals. Say you are quitting smoking as one of your resolutions for the year and something happens during that year that upsets you, and you smoke one cigarette. Don’t dwell on it, learn from it. Slip-ups like that actually usually strengthen a person’s resolve to meet their goals. Find ways to manage stress or discover other things to do when you find yourself tempted by that cigarette or chocolate cake (if trying to lose weight).

. Document your progress

There are many ways to do this in the modern age of technology. You could maintain a word document tracking your progress through the year as you reach each goal, describing your emotions and feelings on a daily basis, or what temptations and triggers you faced if you had slipped up. Positive and negative actions made during the year allow you to reflect on the time in an honest way. There are also many smartphone apps that will allow you to track your progress and alert you to what the triggers are to your behaviour patterns. Consider joining online forums where you can find support in others who might be going through similar experiences to yourself. Having people to share your successes and struggles throughout the year will make it easier to achieve your New Year’s resolutions.

Powerful anti-smoking campaign could shock people into quitting smoking

Smokers could be scared into quitting smoking when they catch a glimpse of a new graphic television advert set to be given its debut today. More than 10 million British adults smoke – around 22 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women, so many will have their eyes opened wide upon seeing the advert, which says “If you could see the damage, you’d stop”.

The advert is said to “bring to life the toxic cycle of dirty blood” generated by the inhalation of cigarette smoke. It has long been common knowledge the devastating impact that cigarettes have on the heart and lungs, with smokers being double the risk of dying from a stroke in comparison to non-smokers.

However, health officials have now used the new campaign get the message across how the toxic chemicals in cigarettes – such as arsenic and cyanide – can destroy cells in the brain. This therefore increased the risk of not only stroke, but suffering dementia and cognitive decline is also greatly increased.

The campaign has been funded by Public Health England and has been launched by the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies.

“We know about the serious effect smoking has on the heart and lungs but smokers need to be aware of how much potential damage is being done to the brain and other vital organs through toxins in cigarettes entering the blood,” she commented.

She added: “Smoking is the major cause of premature death, with one in two smokers dying prematurely from smoking related diseases, and it is extremely worrying that people still underestimate the health harms associated with it. However, it is not all doom and gloom for smokers looking to quit this New Year. Within five years of stopping smoking, your risk of stroke can be reduced to the same as a lifetime non-smoker.”

In addition to the obvious health benefits of people quitting smoking, there is also a hugely underestimated impact on the economy as a result of smoking. In particularly, a staggering amount to the tune of £5 billion is lost each and every year due to health costs, sick leave and lost productivity.

Professor Kevin Fenton, national director for health and wellbeing for Public Health England, speaking to the BBC News, said: “Tar, arsenic, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide – these all have either effects that they can cause cancers or they can cause significant amounts of damage to the lining of blood vessels. We really want to draw attention to that toxic nature of cigarette smoke and the ways it can be dealt with – which are either to stop smoking or to switch to healthier nicotine delivery systems – for example nicotine patches etc.”

Professor Fenton argued that there is so much more than can still be done to urge more people to kick the habit into touch.

Also speaking to BBC News was somebody who has successfully managed to quit smoking. John Lee, suffered a stroke that “came out of the blue” at the age of just 42. This resulted in paralysis to the left side of his body.

“I had been playing golf in Portugal. I flew home, got in the shower, felt a bit light-headed and that was it. My twins were seven years old at the time…The children were devastated. It’s really hard to explain the effect a stroke has. It doesn’t just affect you, it affects everyone around you. I was married at the time – since then my marriage has broken down, basically due to the stroke. The children have gone from having a dad that can run around and play football and do everything with them, to basically being able to do nothing. I would encourage anyone never to start smoking.”

Quitting smoking can get the blood flowing into your love life

It has long been said that smoking not only harms a man’s fertility but also effects his ability to achieve and sustain an erection, and the findings from a new study suggest that smoking is indeed disastrous for a man’s risk of suffering with erectile dysfunction.

The study, conducted over a period of three years, was carried out by experts based at the University of Hong Kong Schools of Public Health and Nursing. They assessed 700 men aged between 30 and 50, who were all smokers and complaining of impotence problems.

The team found that over half (53.8%) of the participants who successfully managed to quit smoking actually noted their erection problems had subsided, and within merely six months after quitting smoking. Therefore, those who gave up cigarettes had a 91.5% better chance of having a good sex life.

Involved in the study was Professor Sophia Chan, who stressed the need for smoking cessation programs to be introduced in a country such as China where there are a high number of men who are suffering with such problem.

Smokers should be aware of such adverse effects from their smoking and should quit now to prevent erectile dysfunction and other diseases caused by smoking”, commented Lam Tai-Hing, who was involved in the study with Professor Chan. Tai-Hing added; “In fact, erectile dysfunction patients who smoke can expect some quick benefits after quitting smoking.”

Smoking is believed to cause erectile dysfunction as it promotes narrowing in the arterial walls and negatively impacts blood flow to the penis through the pelvic region. There are a number of treatments available to men with impotence problems such as Viagra and Cialis; taken by millions of men around the world.

Viagra works it magic by enabling the blood vessels in your penis to relax, which then allows better flow into your Corpus Cavernosum and Spongiosum when you get sexually excited with stimulation.
Lifestyle improvements to boost cardiovascular health has also been found to ease the symptoms of erectile dysfunction. Men experiencing this problem may be advised to lose weight and begin exercising, lowering bad cholesterol level, lower blood pressure and adhere to a healthy diet that is low in saturated fat.

Maybe the graphic image warnings on cigarette packets about their dangers are not sufficient enough to get some men to quit smoking, but the risk of impotence could perhaps provide the motivation to finally stub out.

Stoptober begins as thousands try to stop smoking for 28 days

You may not be aware but today is the first day of the Stoptober challenge, a 28-day challenge aimed at getting as many of the 10 million adults who smoke in Britain to stop smoking for this time period as health experts believe you are five times more likely to stay smokefree if you have successfully managed to stop for 28 days.

One way or another, smoking can and usually does impact all of us. There is a good chance that one or more of your family members smoke, and you are friends with people who smoke. Even if you yourself do not smoke, you could still be impacted by passive smoking. What smokers may not realise is that for each 28 days abstaining from cigarettes for the rest of your life, you can actually save a whole week in life.

Of course, some benefits you may notice in the short-term. Following 48 hours of not smoking, your body will now be free of nicotine and this will boost your sense of taste and smell. After 72 hours, your breathing will be improved and within 9 months of quitting you will probably notice a dramatic reduction in coughing, wheezing and breathing problems.

Last year’s Stoptober challenge saw an incredible 160,000 smokers complete the 28-day challenge and it is hoped that even more will get involved this year. Helping them along the way will be a free Stoptober pack containing support tools to help get through the 28 days, a mobile app available on iPhone and Android smartphones, as well as regular text and email support which will offer tips and advice to keep you focused in reaching your goal.

Stopping smoking can be an incredibly difficult challenge however and unless you have experienced it yourself, it can be hard to understand what it is like to try and give up cigarettes. If you think you may struggle to complete Stoptober, or even completely stop smoking after completing Stoptober, here are some tips to help you through the next month and hopefully beyond:

. Understand your reasons for quitting

Writing down a list of the reasons why you want to quit smoking may provide the necessary motivation to power through when things get difficult and you find the temptation to smoke is increasing. Who will benefit from you stopping? How much money each week/month will you save? How will your health and appearance benefit? Write down all these positives and know your reasons for quitting smoking – it will drive you on to persevere.

. Social media can connect you to fellow quitters

Facebook and Twitter can provide a useful outlet for describing your trials and tribulations during the next 28 days and reaching out to friends, family and fellow quitters you may not even know, could prove a huge morale-boosting motivation to quit. During last year’s Stoptober challenge, 50,000 people joined the Facebook Stoptober page. That’s like a football stadium full of people all cheering you on to the finish line!

. Stay active

Exercise may not be the first thing you feel like doing whilst trying not to smoke, but there is research to suggest that exercise actually helps to reduce cravings. It is thought that exercise helps the brain to produce chemicals which can suppress cravings. Even if you don’t fancy joining a gym just yet, try walking the dog or going for a brisk walk around the block, or just playing badminton perhaps with a friend.

. Get rid of cigarettes and other tobacco products from your home, car and work place.

If you don’t want the temptation there to smoke and want a feeling of liberation, then throw away all your packets of cigarettes. This means keeping absolutely no ‘emergency’ packs on standby! Next, bin any lighters, ashtrays, and matches you have cluttering up your house, car, or at work as you don’t need reminding of the habit you are benefitting from stopping. Then vigorously wash anything that still has the disgusting odour of cigarettes on it, whether this be clothes, curtains, furniture, bedding, etc.

. Reward yourself

Keep a jar handy and all the money you would usually spend (waste) on cigarettes can be put into the jar. Then at the end of the month you can treat yourself to something nice such as clothes, new shoes, or even more…depending on how many cigarettes you were previously buying!

Smokers are encouraged to join the Stoptober challenge

For the second consecutive year, the anti-smoking campaign ‘Stoptober’ will be running and aimed at encouraging smokers to quit smoking for 28 days in October.

Public Health England (PHE) is behind the campaign which begins on October 1^st and promotion for it has already begun across England and Wales. PHE state that 2012’s challenge was an overwhelming success, with over 275,000 people registering for last year’s Stoptober, of which 160,000 managed to finish the 28 day challenge.

The 28 day time length for the challenge is not simply an arbitrary number; health experts say that a smoker who quits for 28 days, and abstains from cigarettes, could add a week onto their lifespan, every 28 days, for the rest of their life.

The benefits to stopping smoking


Those who quit usually experience physical improvements such as a better sense of taste and smell, more energy, a delayed onset of facial aging and wrinkles, whiter teeth, fresher breath and better sex due to improved blood flow and stronger erections for men.
In the longer term, those who quit smoking can significantly reduce the risk of suffering from heart disease and a wide range of cancers such as lung cancer, on top of preserving the health of those around you as there will now be no secondhand smoke.

England’s chief medical officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, said: “One in two long-term smokers die as a result of smoking, this is the single biggest cause of premature death taking more than 100,000 lives in the UK and costing the NHS up to £2.7 billion each year. Life is precious and Stoptober is all about supporting and encouraging each other to quit – potentially adding years to your life. Taking part in the challenge is a first step to a longer and healthier life, so have a go by stopping with Stoptober.”

Professor Kevin Fenton, director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England, added: “Campaigns such as Stoptober, along with the support provided by local stop smoking services, play a huge role in helping people to stop. Whilst smoking prevalence across the country as a whole is falling steadily, it remains high in some parts. We want every smoker to consider making a quit attempt this October and join the thousands of people who are feeling the benefits from stopping smoking last year.”

However, there are also major monetary benefits to be felt from giving up cigarettes – particularly important when considering how difficult it is for many families in the current financial climate. By quitting smoker, the average smoker can expect to save more than £150 a month and nearly £2,000 a year – if we take £7.77 for the cost price of a packet of cigarettes and an average daily consumption of 13 cigarettes per smoker. Incredibly, it was estimated that during last year’s Stoptober campaign £25 million was saved by 160,000 people from not buying cigarettes.

Those who want to sign up for Stoptober will receive a free stop-smoking pack, a 28-day mobile phone app and text support via daily updates and advice on quitting.

If you are a smoker who is aged 18 or above and wants to quit, you do not need to wait for Stoptober to begin. Quit today with the help of Medical Specialists Pharmacy. You can obtain the smoking cessation medication Champix following an online consultation with one of Medical Specialists’ GMC registered doctors. Champix works out from as little as just £75.00 per pack and mimics the effect of nicotine on the body, reducing the urge to smoke and relieving withdrawal symptoms. It can also decrease the enjoyment you experience of smoking if you are still smoking whilst on the treatment.

Quitting smoking – not ‘cutting down’ – improves life expectancy

Do you think you are being healthy by cutting down on cigarettes? Think again…New research suggests that smokers who merely cut down on their smoking instead of actually fully quitting, are unlikely to extend their lifespan.

The claims emerge from a huge study conducted by researchers from both Glasgow and Stirling Universities, spanning an incredible four decades.

Approximately 5,200 smokers from Scotland’s ‘central belt’ were involved in two smoking studies from the early 1970s. Despite the name, the central belt is not exactly central Scotland, but is actually the Scottish Highlands to the north and the Southern Uplands to the south; the area of highest population density in Scotland.

The participants were then asked about their smoking habits several years later. For instance, about whether they had managed to quit, had reduced how many cigarettes they smoked daily, or kept a similar level of smoking habit up, or even increased.

Data was compiled between the 1970s and 2010, documenting each death during this time from those in the two studies. The researchers noted that people who had successfully stopped smoking had lower mortality rates in comparison to those who had kept up the deadly habit. Moreover, there was no massive difference discovered in mortality rates between the smokers who had cut down their intake and those who had not.

Professor Linda Bauld, one of the report’s authors from Stirling University, commented: “Our results support the view that reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke is not a reliable way of improving your health in the long term. However, what we do now know is that it may have a valuable role as a step toward giving up altogether, through cutting down to quit, an approach that has been recommended in recent guidance in the UK.”

The findings however do not correlate with a similar long-term study conducted in Israel, whereby the results seemed to suggest that decreasing the number of cigarettes smoked can reduce mortality rates, although the results of the Scottish study back up the findings from larger studies of a shorter time period carried out in Denmark and Norway.

Regardless though, what we can be certain of is that smoking is an incredibly dangerous habit for long-term health reduces your lifespan by many years and can impact those around you via secondhand smoke. Medical Specialists Pharmacy and almost every other health body across the world advise smokers to quit smoking rather than just ‘cutting down’. One cigarette per day is still one too many in many people’s eyes.

Let’s not forget that smoking is directly the cause of numerous types of cancer, stroke and heart attacks, can cause male impotence, is terrible for the skin, but the habit is an incredibly expensive one to have to maintain.

The British Heart Foundation have listed the staggering amount of money that can be saved over the duration of a year by giving up smoking, in addition to more appealing things that the cash can be spent on.

They say the financial gains of stopping smoking are:

1 day (£7): Two movie rentals or a new lipstick.
1 week (£49): A family cinema trip or a meal for two.
1 month (£210): A shopping spree or premiership football tickets.
3 months (£630): A new laptop or the latest flat screen TV.
6 months (£1,260): A leather suite or a home cinema.
1 year (£2,555): A new kitchen or a holiday of a lifetime.

Medical Specialists Pharmacy is able to help you quit smoking with the aid of the smoking cessation medication Champix, meaning you will both protect your health and save huge amounts of money in the future as the government continually look to raise tobacco prices.

Champix mimics the effect of nicotine on the body, reducing the urge to smoke and relieving withdrawal symptoms. It can also decrease the enjoyment you experience of smoking if you are still smoking whilst on the treatment. The medication equates to just £75.00 per pack – inexpensive in comparison to the £2,555 you can save over a year by quitting smoking!

Fear of impotence and wrinkles drive smokers to quit

Here is some basic information about some of the numerous dangers of smoking:

. Scientists say that the average smoker will lose 14 years of their life because of smoking.
. Smokers are twice as likely to suffer from a heart attack in comparison to their non-smoking counterparts.
. Smoking has been proven to be directly responsible for many types of cancer including: throat, lung, kidney, bladder, stomach, liver and cervix.
. Smoking accounts for 71% of all lung cancer deaths.

Now, you’d be forgiven for thinking these reasons alone would be enough of a deterrent for smoking and perhaps persuade current smokers into quitting smoking to improve their long-term health.

New research would suggest however this isn’t the case at all and it is in fact vanity/self-preservation motivations that are the reasons behind people kicking the deadly habit into touch rather than the worry of a premature death.  Indeed, there still remains an estimated 10 million Brits who are addicted to smoking, which should not be the case when there is smoking cessation medication available such as Champix that can help them quit for good, saving potentially thousands of pounds a year and adding years onto their life.

Despite the government’s best efforts to get people to stop smoking via steep increases in cigarette taxation and increasingly more graphic warnings and images being plastered on cigarette packets, for men it is the worry of impotency and a loss of sex drive that urges them to quit smoking.  Whilst it would seem women are concerned about cigarettes accelerating the aging process and giving them wrinkles, laugh lines and dreaded ‘crow’s feet’.

Stirling University’s Brian Williams, professor of Behavioural & Health Services Research, commented on his team’s research, saying: “Eight out of ten smokers want to quit. Targeting groups with images of issues that relate directly to their own concerns can have most effect. If we know one brand has a certain market – among say women – it would allow us to design images that were tailored to that particular demographic, say on looks or fertility. It is what advertisers do as well.”

Professor Williams and colleagues scrutinised answers given from around 19,000 people who completed a UK-wide online survey about their thoughts/reactions to graphic images printed on cigarette packaging.

It was found that there were three particular images that struck a chord with respondents due to their shock factor. A neck tumour image was found to be the most powerful, with 80% admitting this had affected them. Second was diseased teeth at 77%, and diseased lungs was third most powerful, with 72% saying this had upset them.

Interestingly, researchers observed that particular images seemed to have a bigger impact on certain age and gender groups differently than others.

For instance, the study found that female smokers were considerably more affected by all three images regarding aging in comparison to male counterparts. Images related to pregnancy and children also had a bigger impact on women compared to the male smokers.

The study report added: “Men were consistently more affected by the images relating to sexual performance/impotence. Images relating to heart and lung disease as a consequence of smoking were most effective amongst over-50s. Students and professionals were more affected by cosmetic issues than those who were unemployed or retired, possibly due to the impact of damage to their appearance caused by smoking. Most of the images relating to fertility, impotence and pregnancy > had a significantly greater effect on the 16-39 age group. The closer the characteristics of both the narrative and visual > forms match those of the viewer the greater the likely impact on risk representations.”

The report concluded: “This suggests that, as specific images have a more persuasive effect on particular groups, it may be worth considering a targeted approach to anti-smoking messages, placing appropriate images on brands known to be purchased by young, adult and older smokers.”
Professor Williams believes that smokers may not quit with shock tactics alone. He said: “What we are missing at the moment is images and messages on cigarette packets that encourage people to take the next step; that it is possible to give up.”

Crackdown on e-cigarettes: Stricter regulations announced

In three years’ time The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will begin to regulate e-cigarettes as medicines when new European-wide tobacco laws are due to be introduced.

The MHRA have confirmed from 2016, cigarette manufacturers will face much stricter regulations than previously, being forced to adhere to strict safety standards or risk their products being banned.
E-cigarettes contain nicotine, which can be highly addictive and may even cause heart problems.

However, there are no harmful chemicals that are contained in regular tobacco cigarettes such as carbon dioxide and tar. The decision, announced yesterday by the MHRA, will cover all products currently on the market that contain nicotine.

Along with smoking cessation medication such as Pfizer’s Champix, e-cigarettes have increased in popularity over recent years and there are an estimated 1.3million users just in the UK alone. The battery-powered devices are designed to resemble a real cigarette, but do not require any match or flame to be smoked.

Liquid nicotine is converted into a mist, or vapour, that the user inhales – simulating the process of smoking. As the devices emit a smoke-like water vapour, this has led to the term ‘vaping’ being commonly referred to for their use.

E-cigarettes that are deemed fit for purpose and pass the new safety standards will then be available to obtain on prescription from the NHS as an aid for stopping smoking.

From 2016, smokers eager to quit will still be able to get their e-cigarettes over the counter in supermarkets and newsagents, however manufacturers will now have to apply for a licence beforehand and will be prohibited at advertising any products judged to be targeted at under-16s.
Currently there are chocolate and bubble-gum-flavoured products being sold, but by 2016 it is unlikely these would be licensed. Some argue those particular flavoured-products are merely a ‘gateway to smoking’ for youngsters, and risk helping them to smart smoking when otherwise they wouldn’t.

The debate regarding the pros and cons of e-cigarettes is one that will not go away anytime soon. Previously, health experts have voiced their opinions that millions of lives could be saved if smokers switched to e-cigarettes.

However, unlike regular cigarettes due to the smoking ban, the electronic devices are permitted to be smoked in public places such as bars, restaurants and public transport. There are those who believe this is ‘normalising’ something which is now generally viewed as unacceptable.

Speaking yesterday after the news was announced of the proposed regulations, Jeremy Mean, group manager of vigilance and risk management of medicines at the MHRA, said: “Reducing the harms of smoking to smokers and those around them is a key government health priority. Our research has shown that existing electronic cigarettes and other nicotine-containing products on the market are not good enough to meet this public health priority. Some NCPs (nicotine-containing products) are already licensed and the government’s decision to work towards medicines licensing for all these products is designed to deliver quality products that will support smokers to cut down and to quit. The decision announced today provides a framework that will enable good quality products to be widely available. It’s not about banning products that some people find useful, it’s about making sure that smokers have an effective alternative that they can rely on to meet their needs.”

Whether people can completely rely on e-cigarettes though remains to be seen. In the past experts have stated that users of the products cannot be guarantee of the purity of the nicotine contained inside them and MHRA research has discovered that amounts of nicotine can be ‘considerably different’ from the level printed on the label, casting doubt on exactly how useful the products are to those who are trying to cut down or stop smoking, a MHRA spokesman said.

The previously mentioned smoking cessation medication Champix is a drug which contains no nicotine and works by stimulating the nicotine receptors in the brain, thereby reducing craving and withdrawal symptoms you may experience when stopping smoking. In addition, Champix can also reduce the enjoyment of cigarettes if you do smoke when on the treatment. Champix is available today from Medically Specialists Pharmacy from as little as just £75.00 per pack, a small price to protect your long-term health.

Ireland to join Australia in having plain cigarette packets

‘Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship’ is the theme of this year’s World No Tobacco Day according to the World Health Organization (WHO) – a specialised United Nations agency responsible for monitoring public health and also the pioneers of other world health awareness days such as World AIDS Day and Blood Donor Day.

Therefore, ahead of tomorrow’s World No Tobacco Day, Ireland Health Minister James Reilly has announced plans for the Republic of Ireland to follow Australia’s lead and become only the second country to adopt plain-packaging for cigarettes.

Australia became the world’s first country to implement this innovative anti-smoking agenda back in December 2012. The legislation forced all tobacco company logos to be banned from packages and instead replaced by bland, dreary green/brown-coloured packaging with unpleasant warning text and an accompanying image designed to shock smokers into quitting smoking.

Dr Reilly spoke on Tuesday saying there had been government approval for the go-ahead to abolish what he describes as a ‘mobile advertisement’ for tobacco companies who he says use intelligent marketing, with packet sizes, colour and style aimed at luring in younger smokers, particularly girls.

“The introduction of standardised packaging will remove the final way for tobacco companies to promote their deadly product in Ireland. Cigarette packets will no longer be a mobile advertisement for the tobacco industry”, he commented.

For Dr Reilly, the issue of smoking and what tragic health impacts it can have is a subject close to home. The Health Minister revealed he had witnessed first-hand the effects of tobacco after his brother died of lung cancer and his father lost his sight following a stroke. Both were smokers.

Dr Reilly also says that 5,200 people die in Ireland each year from tobacco-related diseases. He said: “One in two of all smokers will die from their addiction. I lost a brother who was a doctor, who understood fully what the cigarettes did, who was so addicted he couldn’t give them up. And my father was prematurely blind because of a stroke and spent the last 14 years of his life without being able to see.”

The decision to press ahead with plain packaging was agreed by a massive majority of the Cabinet on Tuesday and the aim is to make the products look less appealing and health warnings more obvious and alarming to smokers.

Minister Reilly says he is fully aware that tobacco companies will try every trick in the book in an attempt to thwart a plan that could potentially lose them a lot of money.

Unfortunately, not everyone thinks the idea of plain packaging is a good move and some believe it will have little effect on its apparent purpose – to reduce smoking rates.

The National Federation of Retail Newsagents Ireland President Joe Sweeney says the only groups who will benefit from the Minister’s announcement will be smugglers and criminals.

Mr Sweeney warned: “I support the government in its efforts to curtail the use of tobacco and alcohol. In doing this though, it must seek to find a balance between regulating harmful but legal, taxed behaviour and driving consumers into the black market to buy illicit products from criminals and subversives whose activities pose an even greater threat to society. The Minister for Health is sticking his head in the sand on policies towards the tobacco black market in Ireland which are putting retailers out of business. At a time when at least one in four cigarettes smoked in Ireland is illegal, the Minister’s failure to address the growing criminal fuelled trade in tobacco products shows a breath-taking lack of joined-up thinking.”

However, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Faculty of Public Health Medicine spokesman Dr Fenton Howell welcomed the news, saying: “Plain packaging will stop the tobacco industry from using the pack as a marketing tool to mislead another generation of young people into thinking that smoking is cool and fashionable, when in reality cigarettes makes addicts of our children and condemns them to a life of unnecessary illness and death 10-15 years ahead of time.”

Ministers in Wales abolish plans to permit smoking on film sets

Proposals that would have seen the smoking ban relaxed in Wales to permit actors to smoke in film or TV sets have been scrapped following a review of the arguments for and against it by ministers.
An alteration to the provisions of the 2007 smoking ban would resulted in performers being excluded from the ban in particular circumstances, but health leaders heavily criticised the potential exemptions, arguing it could be setting a dangerous precedent.

Wales, just like England, has a smoking ban in place that applies to enclosed public places such as bars, restaurants and in the workplace. After the law was passed in 2007, coalition ministers in Wales specifically made sure that the regulations also extended to actors smoking on set.

Assembly Members were due to vote on an amendment to the smoking law at the end of last year, but the vote never took place – largely because of a lack of support from Assembly Members.
Yesterday’s decision to abolish the plan though has been met with relief and joy by many anti-smoking campaigners and politicians.

Elen de Lacy, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in Wales said: “We are delighted that plans to dilute the smoking ban in Wales have been dropped by the Welsh Government. The smoking ban has always been about protecting public health and all workers in Wales have a right to be protected from the harm of second-hand smoke, wherever they work. The film and TV industry’s demands have rightly been thrown out and we hope they never make these demands again. This decision sends a firm message to all industries who want to challenge our legislation, including the tobacco industry, that our values on public health are not for sale.”

The main calls for a relaxation in the smoking law came from BBC Wales, who had warned about an inadvertent impact to the economy in Wales if changes were not made. They argue that productions could withdraw from Wales and instead switch to England where such exemptions already exist – ergo bypassing the more restrictive Welsh law.

Changes to the law in Wales were being taken into consideration by two Assembly committees. Providing her case to the smoking sub-committee, BBC Wales’ head of productions Clare Hudson claimed that losing one particular drama would potentially cost Wales up to £12m.

However, Health Minister Professor Mark Drakeford was a staunch opponent of the planned amendments to the smoking legislation. After taking up his position in March, one of his first aims was to stop any changes being made.

Shattering BBC Wales’ hopes, Prof Drakeford released a statement yesterday saying: “Prior to them being debated it was announced that the Enterprise and Business Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee of the Assembly would take evidence from all interested parties on this matter, with a view to producing a final report on their conclusions. The minister for economy, science and transport and I have reviewed the evidence presented to the sub-committees to date, and have concluded that the government will not proceed with the original proposals at this time.”

Plaid Cymru health spokeswoman Elin Jones was delighted with the news, commenting: “It was clear from the evidence given to the committee that creating an exemption from the ban was not justified on health or economic grounds. Reducing smoking must remain one of the priorities for the Health Minister. Banning smoking in public places has been a great success and we believe that there are further measures that the Welsh Government could take to reduce smoking.”

Smoking ban leads to annual 5% drop in asthma hospital emergencies

An annual 5% drop in hospital admissions for asthma patients in England requiring treatment could be attributed to the introduction of the 2007 smoking ban, which made it illegal to smoke in all enclosed public places such as restaurants, nightclubs, bars and shopping centres.

The 5% drop basically means that there are around 1900 fewer asthma-related admissions every year, say the authors of a new study who looked at the number of emergency asthma admissions for adults aged 16 and above in England between the duration of April 1997 and December 2010. Affecting roughly 5.9% of the population, the prevalence of asthma in England stands at one of the largest in the world.

For the study, published in the journal Thorax, Researchers based at the University of Bath discovered that there were a total of 502,000 ‘emergency’ hospital visits due to asthma in this time frame. Unsurprisingly, with cold weather being a trigger for symptoms to flare up, more admissions were evident throughout winter months compared to the summer; however numbers of admissions vastly differed depending on the area of the country.

Researchers took into account factors such as varying seasonal temperatures, differences in population size, and long-term patterns in regards to the prevalence of asthma. After considering all of the aforementioned factors, they discovered that emergency admissions for adults with asthma decreased by 4.9% during each of the first three years after the 2007 smoking ban, with a similar percentage decline in all geographical regions of England.

Dr Michelle Sims, author of the paper, said the benefits of the anti-smoking legislation were clear to see, commenting: “Secondhand smoke exposure has significant adverse health effects on the adult respiratory system with current evidence suggesting that it contributes to the onset and exacerbation of asthma. There is already evidence that smoke free legislation in England is associated with reductions in second hand smoke exposure among non-smoking adults and fewer emergency hospital admissions for heart attacks and childhood asthma. Our findings show that these health benefits extend to adult asthma.”

Emily Humphreys, head of policy and public affairs at the charity Asthma UK, said: “Eight out of 10 people with asthma tell us that other people’s smoke makes their asthma worse. That’s why we campaigned for the smoke-free laws and are delighted to see evidence of the benefits these are having on the millions of people with asthma in England. By taking action to reduce asthma triggers, we can prevent asthma attacks that can lead to hospitalisation and even death. However, more still needs to be done to prevent attacks, which kill three people each day in the UK.”

This new study is interesting and certainly highlights how cigarette smoke and asthma can be strongly connected. The findings follow that of a separate study which Medical Specialists Pharmacy reported back in January. Conducted by a team at Imperial College London, that particular study looked at admission rates spanning back to April 2002 and found an incredible 12% decline in childhood asthma hospital admissions during the first 12 months after the ban. This was calculated by taking into account a predicted 2.2% rise annually – and a decline continued in subsequent years with 3.4% fall per year for the next two years.

Asthma is a serious condition that is only worsened by exposure to cigarette smoke. Medical Specialists Pharmacy advise you to immediately quit smoking if you or a loved one also suffers from asthma, and we are able to help you achieve this with the aid of the smoking cessation medication Champix.

Champix mimics the effect of nicotine on the body, reducing the urge to smoke and relieving withdrawal symptoms. It can also decrease the enjoyment you experience of smoking if you are still smoking whilst on the treatment. The medication equates to just £75.00 per pack – inexpensive compared to an estimated £2,555 you can save each year by quitting smoking!

Alternatively, visit the ‘Asthma and Allergies’ area of the Medical Specialists website for a full list of all the preventer and reliever inhalers we provide for suitable patients.