Treatment and benefits of quitting smoking

The treatment to stop smoking is limited because there are few products available but these are very effective. We have nicotine replacement therapy: patches, tablets, tricyclic antidepressants, ... Everyone has a direct action on nicotine dependence. The treatment we start with a clinical history from which we can know what the background and all the pathology other than tobacco, and is usually related, such as cardiovascular disease, lung disease etc ... Once we have the clinical history, even with radiological, analytical and electrocardiogram support in the most complex cases, the treatment to be followed is established. Treatment that will not be less than 3 months and in a few cases is more than 6 months. Once we have overcome the first days of this treatment, we are adjusting the patient's dose in periodic controls and the effectiveness of this treatment.. Undoubtedly, as a support, a psychological treatment must be applied, which is very important in order to be able to get the patient to become an ex-smoker.

What advises people to keep the purpose in time?

Initially before a patient who comes to the consultation to try to stop smoking, the first thing is to be clear that he wants to quit smoking, it is important because initially it is going to suppose a great effort for both him and the professional. The second premise is that you go to a specialist trained in smoking who is trained to be able to achieve the success of the different treatment mechanisms. And thirdly that the treatment is spacious, that is, you can not consider a treatment in a month but it has to be a treatment with different periodic visits and of not less than 3 months up to a maximum of 6 months. Of course, afterwards they have to do annual checks and starting from the first year you can start talking about an ex-smoker.

What are the short and long-term benefits of quitting smoking?

In the short term we will achieve freedom by removing an obligation or dependency that we have related to nicotine that is responsible for tobacco dependence.. In the medium term we will gain dental hygiene, recovery of taste, recovery of smell and a considerable improvement in the coloring of our skin. In the medium term we can assure that we will have a better respiratory and cardiac function, which will avoid cardiac pathology, myocardial infarctions and vascular insufficiencies and at the respiratory level we will avoid the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD. And in the much longer term, we will avoid the appearance of tumors at different levels. It is clear that a person who has 10 or 15 years without smoking has the same risks to any pathology of which I mentioned that a person who has not smoked in all life. And finally we can say that we can make our last years of life comfortable enough to be able to develop this last stage of our lives without the addiction so pernicious that is tobacco.