Lifestyle Choices

Smoking

Smoking is such a difficult habit to break, but by cutting down or even better, stopping completely, you have the power to change your future dramatically. It is the single most important risk factor.

You are aware that smoking is damaging, but do you know just how destructive it is to your health? Smoking changes the composition of your blood and therefore affects your circulation.Your chance of having a heart attack is more than double, and you have a fourteen times risk of developing lung cancer than non-smokers. You are also at very high risk of developing a whole host of other diseases including strokes, vascular disease and gangrene, as well as some awful cancers of the mouth, throat nose and bladder.

The good news is that by making the decision to stop, you can dramatically reduce your risk of developing these awful conditions and you can save what is left of your good lung function and allow some areas to return to normal.

Tobacco kills about three million people a year and greatly outstrips all other causes of premature death.

It is never too late to quit because in one year after quitting, the risk of heart disease is halved and within approximately 10 years, the risk is as if you had never smoked.

Take charge, take care, take action

The most successful way to quit smoking is to make a plan and follow through with it.

1. Clear your house of cigarettes, lighters and ashtrays. Clean your house in order to eliminate any lingering odors.
2. Avoid the places that you associate with smoking, for example, your particular spot outside your office or a specific coffee shop. Also try to avoid standing next to or being with smokers.
3. During moments of intense craving, do something to distract yourself.
4. Try to do this together with someone else. Someone who is also trying to quit can help you try stick to your goal.
5. Tell your friends and family what you’re doing and ask them all to help you through it.

Stress in women

Stress is a normal part of life. And I would suggest even more so for women who carry more of the load at home, within the extended family and the community together with the demands in the workplace. A certain amount of stress is necessary and even good for you. This ‘good stress‘ is better called ‘challenge’. You need the challenge of work, goals and vision to keep you motivated and focused.

Unfortunately, every-day stress often becomes overwhelming. It is when the stressful situation becomes unrelenting that damage begins to occur. As your worries envelop you, there is an outpouring of stress hormones which wear out the adrenal gland and deplete the immune system. This may cause you to develop health problems: the vast majority of illnesses are either directly caused or triggered by stress. It is important to recognise the signs of overwhelming stress and to deal with it.

The specific body (physiological) changes that occur in stressful situations are called the ‘fight-flight’ reaction. The primitive response of your body to stress is either to flee or to fight (see page 210). As soon as your body experiences a danger or perceived danger (stress) it starts to mobilise its forces. Your body responds in an identical manner whether you are actually in danger or just thinking about it. The problem is that this response goes on relentlessly within your body even when there is no danger, just deadlines, bills to pay, work to be completed and chores to be attended to all at a frenetic pace. The adrenalin continues to pump and the stress simmers away inside you.

It is normal to feel anxious, stressed and even depressed some of the time. If these feelings seem to be present with you most of the time, it is important to seek help from a psychologist.

Take care, take charge, take action

In the midst of all this external chaos, you have the power to create internal harmony instead of internal tension. The value of learning potent stress management techniques provides your body with the physiological experience to fight off stress. It allows your mind and body time to repair, regenerate and recover from the wear and tear of every-day strain.

• Rest and adequate quality sleep are essential to withstand and manage stress. Sleep is a time for restoring and repairing all the wear and tear effect of stress, both emotionally and physically.
• Use some easy breathing techniques often throughout the day to calm your nervous system.
• Learn a relaxation technique, such as meditation or visualisation, to implement into your daily strategy. It provides your body with the experience opposite to stress i.e. calm, tranquillity and peace for a short period every day.
• Exercise is a great stress buster. It blows off excessive agitation and negative energy.
• Communicate: Being able to offload to someone who can truly listen to you is extremely beneficial.

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