{"id":69,"date":"2020-05-02T07:31:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-02T06:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbannonsblog.aprendo.co.uk\/drbannonsblog_wp\/2020\/05\/02\/smoking-and-covid-now-is-the-time-to-quit\/"},"modified":"2021-03-24T09:29:14","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T09:29:14","slug":"smoking-and-covid-now-is-the-time-to-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbannonsblog.aprendo.co.uk\/drbannonsblog_wp\/2020\/05\/02\/smoking-and-covid-now-is-the-time-to-quit\/","title":{"rendered":"Smoking and COVID – Now is the time to quit….."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>This my the longest post so far, unless you don’t smoke, in which case that’s about it. You clearly slipped through the net of big tobacco and can literally breathe easy and do something else\u2026..<\/span><\/p>\n

However if you do smoke, or live with someone who smokes, or have a loved one who smokes, or are just interested in the whole crazy phenomenon of smoking, then please read on….If this helps you move toward quitting, or helping someone else quit, then I will be delighted. <\/span><\/div>\n

There are lots of resources out there to help quitting smoking, from your local primary health care team, to advice from the NHS <\/a>website and a multitude of pamphlets and books; the best one I found to be Allen Carr\u2019s :The Easy Way to stop Smoking.<\/a> Better still is huge sense of relief for you, and the love and respect from family and friends that ending your smoking career will bring. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Perhaps, early in the age of COVID19, now really is the time to stop. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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Smoking and COVID19<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

It looks like smokers are more likely to get COVID in the first place. This is true of other respiratory viruses<\/a>. Smokers are twice as likely to get flu and did worse with MERS. Reversible damage to the lining of the airways and the constant hand mouth touching are more likely to help the virus find its way to the lungs.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

What do we know about smokers who get COVID? A recent <\/span>review from March 20<\/span><\/a><\/span> (which already seems an age ago) shines some early light on the relationship between smoking and COVID:<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

A small study<\/a> suggested that smokers are 14 times more likely than non-smokers to have severe disease. Another that smokers were 2.4 times more likely to be admitted to ITU<\/a>. I\u2019m sure more data will emerge, but as COVID is mainly a respiratory virus, it will hit smokers, and those with other “western” illnesses caused by smoking, the hardest.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

So, here is my personal missive, gleaned from years of being a smoker myself as well as a GP seeing the problems caused by smoking in every clinic. It may well be that I saved more lives and more suffering by helping people quit smoking that any other single intervention in my time.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

While I penned this with MS in mind, it applies even more to the dilemma of smoking and COVID19. I\u2019ll include it as some readers of this blog have MS, but also because it highlights just what a huge health boost non-smoking is.<\/o:p><\/span>

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COVID and Vaping<\/span><\/h3>\n

<\/span>By smoking I also mean tobacco, cannabis and also the increasingly widespread half-way house of vaping, big Tobaccos latest adaptation to the market. Inhaling collections of inflammatory and carcinogenic chemicals deep into the lungs is going to hurt, no matter what the substance or the method . <\/span><\/div>\n

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In particular, no-one vaping should be complacent. Flavoured tobacco has already been shown to cause “popcorn lung” which I can assure you is not as amusing as it sounds. This was due to one particular ingredient, subsequently removed. <\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span>However, It might be interesting to hear the N<\/span>HS advice on vaping:<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span>“It may come as a surprise to many that we don’t know exactly what is in e-cigarettes and the effect they have on health, especially given that there are more than 7,000 different “e-cigarette flavours” and the devices are used by millions”<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span>Sounds to me like a recipe for disaster!<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span>There are<\/span> concerns across the pond too<\/a>, where vaping is <\/span>increasing common in the young<\/a>, who comprise of 20% of COVID19 admissions. Astonishingly, vaping in US teenagers increased by 80% (yes, eighty per cent!!) between 2018-19 alone!  <\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span>Let’s not take another half century to prove that inhaling tobacco vapour flavoured with umpteen unknown chemicals is likely to cause problems for health. <\/span> 
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Don’t be distracted either by the theory that nicotine may have a role to play in treating COVID<\/a>. Might nicotine o<\/span>n its own reduce the risk of infection? No one knows yet, but that smoking worsens your chances with COVID is pretty universally agreed.<\/span><\/div>\n


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How many people still smoke?<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

The latest UK figures from the National Statistics Office<\/a> still makes grim reading.  15.8% of adults still smoke in the UK (18% of men and 14% of women). Rates in the UK might be dropping, and are thankfully dropping faster in the young, but it still means one in 6 people smoke. Worrying too is that nearly 3 million people in the UK are vaping.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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Globally,  1,1 billion people smoke<\/a>, 80% of whom live in low and middle income countries. 6 million people die annually, including 600,000 from passive smoking<\/a>. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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Smoking is in fact, a bigger problem than ever. <\/span>So why the hell are so many people smoking? Why do you smoke??  <\/span>Here are my reflection on a lifetime of helping people to quit.<\/span><\/div>\n
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For the on-line world, this is a long post, but quitting smoking can be a long problem. If you want to read on, and if you smoke, I hope you to, I will cover:<\/span><\/div>\n


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