Healthy Hearts Carmarthenshire

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Quit Smoking

How Does Smoking Affect My Health?

Chemicals in cigarettes make the walls of your arteries sticky, thus causing fatty material to stick to these walls. This fatty material begins to clog your arteries and reduces the space available for blood to flow through properly.  Clogged arteries that would normally carry blood to your heart could cause a heart attack.  If the arteries that carry blood to your brain become clogged then you are at a high risk of having a stroke

Smoking can also affect your heart and blood vessels by:

  • increasing your risk of blood clots
  • causing an instant rise to your heart rate
  • causing an instant rise to your blood pressure
  • reducing the amount of oxygen delivered to the rest of your body.
Click here to see how smoking affects your heart
Healthy Hearts Carmarthenshire

Understanding Smoking

British heart foundation
Understanding Smoking
British heart foundation
Deall Smygu
Healthy Lifestyle and Diabetes

How To Quit Smoking

  • Think positively, you may have tried to quit before, don’t let that bother you, try again.
  • Tell your friends and family the date that you intend to quit, they can offer you support on your journey.
  • Plan what you will do to avoid smoking during “trigger” times when you would normally smoke
  • Cravings only last for a short amount of time, try to keep yourself busy during these times
  • Remind yourself why you are quitting
Self-Referral to a Health Coach
To Help You To Quit

Why Stop Smoking?

Stopping smoking can extend your life.  On average, a man will add 10 years to their life if they quit by the age of 30, or 3 years if you quit by the time you are 60.  Being a non-smoker can also improve your chances of being more physically active and healthier as you get older.

Benefits of Quitting Smoking

The immediate effects of quitting smoking include:

  • your risk of a heart attack is half that of a smoker after just one year
  • your breathing will improve, and exercise will become easier after only a few weeks
  • within as little as 8 hours a smoker’s carbon monoxide levels can halve, within 24 hours carbon monoxide is eliminated from the body and it can then begin to clear mucus and debris from the lungs
  • your sense of taste and smell will improve after only a few days
  • your heart and blood pressure returns to normal after only 20 minutes.
  • you will have fresher breath, whiter teeth
  • your skin will age less quickly
  • you will have more energy
  • your immune system will improve
  • your sex drive may increase, improving fertility
  • you will be protecting the health of your loved ones

Want Help Quitting?

Free NHS Support is available from your home with trained advisors who will provide individual support and access to free Stop Smoking Medication.

The service will provide structured support on preparing to quit, quitting, staying stopped and your smoke free future.  Sessions are delivered by trained stop smoking experts.  All services are free and will give you the best chance of quitting smoking for good.

Don’t go it alone.  We are here to help.  Complete this online referral form here, call 0300 303 9652, or email Smokers.Clinic@wales.nhs

Ash Cymru has a mission and it is to achieve a smoke free Wales – defined as just 5% still smoking – by striving for strong tobacco control policy and bold campaigns across Wales.

Help Me Quit was launched in 2017 and is:

  • a single brand for NHS stop smoking services in Wales
  • a bilingual website with information on all NHS stop smoking services in Wales
  • a contact centre team that provides smokers with access to all NHS stop smoking services making it easier for smokers to choose the right NHS stop smoking service support for them in their local area
  • the best choice a smoker can make to quit smoking.

Discuss with your local pharmacist your intention to quit smoking and they can offer support and advice on how to do this effectively.

Healthy Hearts Carmarthenshire

Healthy Hearts Carmarthenshire

What Can I Do?

Health Matters

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