Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy London Courses

'Intuitive' tapped to evict spirits

2009-08-04T06:56:00.000-07:00

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- The house is one that might prompt fantasies: three stories, a deck with an ocean view, a Laguna Beach address.

Yet, like a house from a scary movie, it gave Lori Duarte the creeps.

She woke up screaming from nightmares.

She also saw images out of the corner of her eye and heard strange noises.

"It was a pretty house, but it didn't feel that way," she said. "I would rather be in a shack."

In November 2007, after 18 months with her husband, Duarte joined him in deciding to end their marriage -- and sell the house.

The home stayed on the market for the next seven months, without any takers.

Whatever it harbored, Duarte said, kept buyers away.

She talked to her ex about a woman who could be hired to chase away the spirits.

"If you can get it to sell," he replied, "do whatever the hell you want."
A young discovery

Julie Belmont, an artist in Laguna Hills, Calif., works in oils, pastels and charcoal.

She makes Victorian chokers. She knits scarves.

And, she said, she sees dead people.

As a 4-year-old living in Madrid, Spain, she awoke one morning to find an aunt standing at the foot of her bed, smiling kindly.

Her aunt said she had come to say goodbye. Then she faded away.

"OK," Belmont remembers thinking, "I am awake."

She went to her parents with what she had seen, she said, and they didn't flinch.

"Get your coat," they told her.

The family went to a hospital where the aunt had been ill. The old woman passed away soon after they arrived.
A fateful meeting

Duarte, a flight attendant and mother of three, met Belmont at the Chakra Shack in Laguna Beach in the fall of 2007. The woman who usually reads Duarte's cards wasn't in, but Belmont was.

Some people might call Belmont a psychic; she prefers the term intuitive.

"People still stereotype," she said.

Since childhood, Belmont said, she could see, hear and feel things that others couldn't. The more she focused on her intuition, the more it developed. But, until recently, she shared it only with friends and family.

After growing up in Madrid, she moved to Toronto, where she fell into modeling, becoming Canada's first poster girl.

A 1980 magazine spread titled "Battle of the Poster Girls" shows her in a bathing suit alongside cheesecake swimsuit photos of Cheryl Tiegs, Suzanne Somers and Cheryl Ladd.

Soon, Belmont moved to Newport Beach, Calif., where she decided she wanted to be a police officer. She enrolled in the Golden West Police Academy and, in a few years, became a reserve officer for the Costa Mesa Police Department.

Less than two years later, she became pregnant and quit her job to raise what would be her only child, Krystle.

For the next decade or so, Belmont was mainly a mom, living in the exclusive Nellie Gale neighborhood, making and sometimes selling her art.

About five years ago, though, some of her friends who work as psychics told her: "You're just as good as us. Why don't you get a job?"

She was hired at the Chakra Shack, reading cards. She also does hypnotherapy and has written some books.

Then, about two years ago, watching yet another TV news report on foreclosures, Belmont fell into a reverie about all those people leaving their homes in sadness and anger.

What sort of negativity, she wondered, are they leaving behind?
An energy cleansing

Belmont arrived at Duarte's house armed with crystals, candles and rose water. Duarte took her from room to room. Then Belmont told Duarte to go outside and wait -- standard operating procedure because the person who lives in the home might become frightened.

"Spirits gain strength from fear," Belmont said.

Once alone, she walked through each room, counterclockwise, burning sage.

"It's a modern, everyday house, and that day was sunny," she said of the house that is, at most, a few decades old.

"Yet it felt dark, like something was there that shouldn't be."

Belmont emerged about 40 minutes later. Then, she and Duarte sprinkled rose water in the backyard and said a prayer, asking for "whatever it was that was there" to leave.

Belmont calls what she does "spiritual home staging."

Her flier reads: "Don't live in somebody else's past."

Her fee -- for everything from basic "energy cleansing and balancing" to "communication with the unseen, and evacuation or dismissal of unwanted energies or other phenomena" -- is $200 an hour.

Never mind that some people might consider her a kook -- or, even worse, a fake.

"There're always skeptics."
A positive outcome

Duarte isn't one of the skeptics. Still, she worries that people who read about her decision to hire Belmont might think she's "a fruitcake."

"Some people just don't believe in this sort of thing," Duarte said. "And that's fine. But unless you've experienced it . . ." Her voice trailed off.

The bottom line: "I would wake up at night screaming, open my eyes, and see people standing next to me. It felt like I was hallucinating. I hated being alone in that house. It just felt creepy.

"And everyone who would visit would say the same thing."

After Belmont left, Duarte said, her house felt lighter. The cold, dark feeling was gone. And within a month, she had a buyer.

Today, Duarte and her children live only a few blocks from their former home. Her daughter still plays with their former next-door neighbor's child, so they pass by the old house frequently.

"And it looks like a different house," Duarte said. "I don't know how to explain it. Physically, nothing's changed.

"There are things out there you just can't put your finger on. I don't know. Do you believe it?"

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Hypnotherapist Max Kirsten Brings Hypnotherapy To The iPhone

2009-08-03T06:55:00.000-07:00

’The ABC of Better Sleep’ is compatible with Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch devices and assists people who suffer from insomnia to make necessary adjustments and enable the user to develop a relaxing, refreshing sleep pattern whatever their schedule. Individuals who work shifts or frequently travel across time zones can often encounter sleeping difficulties due to the disruptive nature of this lifestyle. This application offers powerful techniques to assist these individuals.

Having worked in collaboration with the London Sleep Centre, located in Harley Street W1, Max Kirsten has now developed his own program: ’The ABC of Better Sleep’, which combines powerful hypnotherapy techniques with a series of practises enabling the user to learn to quickly drift off into a deep, refreshing sleep. Remember, that even after only four hours, the brain has gained many of the important benefits of sleep. Don’t worry about getting eight hours sleep, the quality of sleep is more important.

The app costs £4.99 from the iTunes Store and includes an introduction video, over two and a half hours of spoken audio, ’The Secrets of Better Sleep’ eBook, Better Sleep fact cards, three extra sleep soundtracks with embedded alpha waves and access to further support and resources.

In Jan 2009 Max Kirsten became The Times Newspaper’s leading ’Self-help’ expert with a special 5-day series on stress, anxiety and sleep. He has also been listed in Tatler Magazine’s ’Top 150 best private doctors’ and has a wealth of success stories including helping Hollywood actor Ewan McGregor to quit smoking, and hopefully this latest app will assist the many people who struggle to sleep – all from the convenience of their portable device.

All Max Kirsten hypnotherapy NLP downloads are also available for other format portable MP3 devices from maxkirsten.com.

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Chronic Tonic: Adventures in Chronic Pain (Stranded Wind)

2009-08-02T06:53:00.000-07:00

CHRONIC TONIC posts on Thursdays at 7 EST, it is a place to share stories, advice, and information and to connect with others with chronic health conditions and those who care for them. Our diarists will report on research, alternative treatments, clinical trials, and health insurance issues through personal stories. You are invited to share in comments (and note if you'd like to be a future diarist). In addition to our weekly diaries, please join us for ongoing conversations at the Kossacks Networking site.

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Chronic Tonic: Adventures in Chronic Pain 7/2/09

Today’s Diary By: Stranded Wind

* Chronic Tonic's diary :: ::
*

My life changed forever, Friday, May 13th of 1994, at 3:05 PM. We were turning left across Southwest Army Post Road in Des Moines, Iowa, when another Nissan Sentra, traveling at highway speed, struck our Sentra directly between the doors on the passenger side.

The other car had just got its brakes on and was traveling at perhaps 35 miles per hour when we were hit. I was sitting in the passenger seat and the windows on that side became a blizzard of broken glass. The impact moved the door post on my side in a good eight to ten inches. We spun around through the busy afternoon traffic without being hit again, then everything was still.

Once the dust settled I tried to draw a breath. And couldn’t. And tried again. And couldn’t ...

I sat for a long moment, stunned by the impact. I tried to draw a breath and found I couldn’t. I relaxed, tried again, and still couldn’t breathe. The fear washed over me; was I going to die right there? Finally the air came. I was in my mid twenties and still resilient. I crawled out through the broken window and waved off help. Forty five minutes later I was strapped to a board in an ambulance on my way for a CT scan, which found nothing.

Two weeks later I found the damage on my own. I buckled up, attached the rappelling rope, and stepped backwards off a 120’ bridge piling. I knew something was wrong right away – I couldn’t apply proper pressure pushing back with my right arm. Luckily someone else was already down so I had hands to belay me while I extracted myself from the situation. The next year I got a further evaluation and it was determined I’d lost a third of my strength and range of motion to the left – a whiplash injury.

Four years later I was struck from behind at 9:15 in the morning on a Houston on ramp near the Astros’ training field. The woman, Paula Smith, was on SR22 high risk insurance and had a history of drunk driving. She didn’t get the brakes on at all, striking me, pushing me into the back of a Houston police car, then ramming my rental car again. The hood of her Cadillac was folded double because the nose of her car went under the relatively high bumper on my rental Taurus. I probably could have walked away but being a bit wise to such things I accepted transport to Ben Taub General Hospital. They felt the need to get a urine sample from me "to check my kidneys for damage". I would have punched someone but I was in too much pain. Paula skated away without any charges despite likely having a couple of drinks of breakfast before hitting me.

The tendons in my right rotator cuff aren’t torn, but they’re not right. I can throw a ball about as far as my eight year old daughter. The disk in my neck at C5/C6 is slightly herniated – not enough for surgery, but enough that the muscles under my right shoulder are a constant knot. I was wearing a seat belt both times and I count myself very lucky, in spite of all the trouble these crashes have brought me.

I’ve tried a variety of things over the years to treat the pain associated with this injury with varying degrees of success.

The pain is nerve related rather than due to the muscles so your typical analgesics and anti-inflammatories can’t touch it. I did try both Celebrex and Vioxx, both of which I reacted to quite violently, and both of which got me hospital stays. I did a five year stint on a tiny dose of Elavil, an older tricyclic antidepressant and it made the situation bearable, but I felt like I was smoking dope on a nightly basis and I didn’t care for the constant fuzziness and weight gain.

I wore out my welcome with Elavil at age 35, developing the racing heart and other troubles associated with elderly users of the drug. I had to find something else to do.

I did have a good chiropractor at first, which helped with mobility, but I’m active and stretchy enough that I stopped needing it some years ago. I keep on it with a certain set of yoga stretches, things I do while just hanging around the office. I favor the right side and it’s funny to see how much more flexible that side is after ten years of effort.

Even with good habits and being in decent shape the pain was getting to me. I finally found a doctor that would do an epidural injection in the affected area. The first one was a treat – I got it, felt tremendous relief, and went back to work. I was a used telecom equipment dealer in those years and I bought quite the funny collection of stuff that day. Lesson learned – rent a movie or two before the epidural and go straight home after getting it. These were $300 out of pocket once or twice a year and they did the trick for a long time.

As I’ve diaried here before, I got Lyme some time in 2006 or 2007, it pretty much disabled me by the summer of 2007, and I only got back to work at the beginning of 2009. I’ve only had one epidural in that time, it’s been eighteen months, and I’m really paying for not having access.

One of the things prescribed to combat Lyme and it’s side effects was hydroxychloroquinine. This is an anti-malarial and it is used to raise vacuole pH to flush out the bacteria, which may cyst up under pressure of antibiotics. It’s also used as an anit-inflammatory. I took this for ninety days as part of my treatment and only recently quit – the paranoia and vision troubles were bad enough, but when I started getting an irregular heartbeat I’d had enough. Notice the trend with prescribed drugs and nasty side effects?

I am not at all opposed to ‘alternative’ treatments, although the word offends me, as what that means is ‘not AMA/pharma company profit boosting’. I have tried in no particular order ...

Glucosamine and chondroitin. It got debunked in some ways a few years back and I never felt that much affect from it.

I did the Anti-Inflammatory Diet for a while and I like the effects, but I was already pretty healthy. I can’t tell all that much difference with fish oil, even the high purity stuff with lots of DHA/EPA.

SAM-e is pure magic if you don’t have any family history of manic behavior. I took 200mg and that was enough for me for quite a while, then I stopped when I got disabled and poor, and now I’m taking 800mg to counter joint pain associated with Lyme, which is quite evil in combination with the old injuries. I think about half of all depression cases in Europe are treated with this stuff – it’s a potent anti-depressant and liver detoxifier in addition to the affect it has on joints. The anti-depressant effects come on in about forty eight hours and there isn’t any detoxification period if you decide to stop taking it.

If I need a quick acting overall muscle relaxant I really like Kava Kava. There are some stories out there about liver toxicity but I think it’s big pharma propaganda – they checked something like 100,000 users and found six had died. But they were drunks (!) who were abusing the stuff(!) I had a bit of euphoria the first few times I took it but now it’s a simple muscle relaxant and little more. Get the capsules rather than the liquid – you’ll feel like you’ve given a goat a tongue bath if you get a taste of the stuff.

I recently tried Ashwagandha on the advice of a friend. This is good for kidneys (mine have cysts) and like every other Ayurvedic drug it has a raft of other benefits. It isn’t exhaustively studied since it can’t be patented but it strikes me as being very worthwhile for all sorts of aches and pains.

I used Tiger Balm topically on my shoulder for a long time and it’s OK. I really like the 0.1% Capsaicin creams, but you have to have a latex glove to apply them and woe unto you if you get any on your lips or in your eyes, which I manage to do pretty much every time I have it on.

I should say some words about not only what helps but WHO helps.

Chiropractors can be good ... or they can be a little dingy, which comes from being too focused on their specialty to the exclusion of other needed things.

I went to a pain specialist and it was a tremendous relief to get a treatment that really worked well. There is a price to be paid, at least the way I did it, but it was well worth the time and money.

I had an Ayurvedic doctor for a while and I wish I could find another one here. I had a customer herbal prescription and it was really slick, but I don’t recall the names of the things in it and the whole point to having a practitioner is that they know you and tune the prescription for your needs.

My yoga instructor was also an acupuncturist. This I strongly recommend – might seem like mumbo jumbo, but it works like crazy. I’ve got a western trained guy here now that I’ve just started seeing and at $40/visit that’s a screamin’ good deal for what he does for me. I was paying $75 in the big city.

Best of all, three of the seven years since I got divorced were spent with a massage therapist. The pain in my shoulder is the sort that responds to touch ... any touch, just someone laying their hands on the affect area, but to have someone who actually knew what she was doing was truly marvelous.

I have a copy of hypnotherapist Richard Bandler’s Convincing Comfort. This short audio CD can’t address the roots of pain, but it can put an end to the anxiety – pain is physical and mental in nature.

Along the same lines I’ve got to put a plug in for mindfulness meditation as a means to reduce the suffering one faces with chronic pain. Listening to the teachings of primarily Andrea Fella from Audio Dharma has been like adding an instrument panel for my body. I’m aware much sooner when something is bothering me and things are a lot less troublesome as I know they’re not forever.

If you’re facing chronic pain and reading this I hope I’ve provided some tidbit of information that’ll make your life easier.

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Tell jerk hubbie to quit mocking fear of flying

2009-08-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Robin

I have an issue with my husband, and he actually dared me to write you after I threatened him with it. I am absolutely terrified of flying, and he likes to make fun of me over it. It has gotten so bad that I have to take medication before I fly in order to stay calm. I am petrified the plane will either get hijacked or crash. It is paralyzing to me, but he just laughs. He even does stupid things while on the plane like shake the seat, and point out people who look "suspicious." He thinks it's funny, meanwhile I am in tears. We are going on vacation next month, with a very long flight involved. He is already making jokes and telling people about my fears. What can I do?

Freaked-out flier

Dear Freaked-out

Tell your husband to stop being a jerk. I hate flying and can completely relate to how you feel. It is a very real fear that can get to the point of debilitating. The fact that he is making fun of this doesn't give him very high marks in my book. He is supposed to be your support system, but instead insists on joking about it?

OK, maybe he is just trying to make you look at the light side of things, or take your mind off of it by getting you mad, but if that is the case, he is going about things all wrong. If it is so bad that you have to take medication to get through it, he has no business making fun of you at all. It is up to you to decide if he is doing this for the reasons above, or if he is simply an insensitive boor. Let him know how upset this makes you, and tell him this behaviour needs to change.

You should try to figure out when and why these fears began. Talk to someone, no, scratch that ... send your husband to talk to someone and maybe they can teach him something called empathy. You, in the meantime, could try hypnosis, or even meditation to help change your mindset and help you stay calm. Do what you need to do to get through the flight, then put up your feet and enjoy your vacation.

Dear Robin

I was given a gift for helping out a friend of the family who was ill. It may sound nasty, but the gift was of a religious nature, and not my particular faith. I feel insulted and don't know what to do about it. They are not close friends, but do know what faith I follow. Should I say something?

Gifts of Faith

Dear Gifts of Faith

Absolutely not. Unless you truly think these people are blatantly and rudely pushing their beliefs in your face, accept the gift graciously with a thank you. You were given a gift as their way of showing appreciation for what you did. Unfortunately, sometimes people who don't know someone well give gifts they think the recipient would, but often it is to their own tastes.

Be grateful that they were thinking of you during a time when their loved one was ill. If it is that distasteful to you, put it away somewhere.

People tend to get insulted over every little thing these days. Maybe everyone should just step back and see the positives behind the action, rather than automatically going on the defensive.

Robin Anderson

Robin Anderson is the winner of Sun Media's national advice competition.

Send questions to advice@sunmedia.ca and read her online at canoe.ca/advice.

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Changing patterned behaviors

2009-07-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

By DAWN AULET For The Herald News

Diana Zilly learned about the power of the human mind while she was still working on her degree to be a counselor.

"I learned when I was focused that I could break two boards with my palm," she said of her time learning tae kwon do. "When my mind wasn't focused, I could not break those boards."

So, when it came time for the Plainfield woman to add tools to her practice, hypnotherapy seemed like a perfect complement.

"It ties in well, there is a physiological process going on," she said. "Hypnotherapy actually allows the person to kind of take a break from their left brain chatter.

"It's a heightened state of being in the present."

Hypnotherapy in the clinical sense is used to change patterns of behavior. For example, if a client is looking to quit smoking or better control weight, hypnotherapy can be a useful tool.

Linda Herrick, owner of Alternative Soulutions in Plainfield, recently began offering hypnotherapy as well.

"My mom died last year from stage four lung cancer; she could not stop smoking," she said. "So, I wanted to help people stop smoking."

It was one of the first classes she added after becoming a certified hypnotherapist.
Changing behaviors
Hypnotherapy helps to give clients alternatives to what has become conditioned behavior.

Zilly said the idea of conditioning happens every day.

She said when people drive cars they get used to how the cars are laid out: where the gear shift is, how the windows roll down, etc. When a person gets into someone else's car, the person automatically reaches to the same areas, because of conditioning. It is like that with many things.

In addition to a smoking cessation class, Herrick also teaches hypnosis for weight management. She said emotional links to eating are reprogrammed by hypnotherapy.

"Everyone has emotional triggers to food," she said. "(Hypnotherapy) helps to separate the emotional triggers to it.

"It helps you shift into a more healthy lifestyle and helps that lifestyle to feel good."
Myths
Perhaps one of the biggest worries Zilly hears from prospective clients is that they will not be in control when they are under hypnosis.

"I've found the main fear that people have is a perceived lack of control," she said. "That is stage hypnotism.

"In reality, it's just the opposite; it's teaching the person to be in control."

Herrick agrees that her clients have the same fears.

"Hypnosis is a natural state of mind, when your mind is in theta," she said, comparing it to sleep. "Hypnosis is to get into that mental state to talk to your subconscious."

No one will bark like a dog or cluck like a chicken unless it is something they would have done anyway. And, none of those kinds of stage tricks are used in therapeutic hypnosis.

"There's no dangers in hypnosis," she said. "No one can have their will control you."

For information on Zilly, visit renewedclarity.com or call 630.... For information on Herrick, visit www.alternativesoulutions.com or call 815-439-7442.

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Learn to overcome panic and anxiety

2009-07-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

Panic attacks are terrifying and can happen without warning or reason. They are characterised by sudden fear and extreme nervousness along with the sense of going crazy or losing control.

The first time a person experiences a panic attack, he often ends up in a doctor’s surgery or the emergency room, convinced he has a serious physical condition. When he discovers that he is physically fit, he is often left bewildered and confused.

Having just one panic attack can have a debilitating effect on a person’s life, as he develops ways to avoid any situation that could instigate an attack. This can lead to a very limited, stressful, existence.

Common symptoms of panic include racing or pounding heartbeat, dizziness, loss of breath, chest pains, tingling, and fear.

Kilkenny Hypnotherapy can help you to discover how to relax, and learn to develop your natural ability to feel calm and confident in any situation, leaving panic attacks behind for good. Orla and Síona, Kilkenny’s most experienced hypnotherapists, can help you find ways to deal with a range of issues, from quitting smoking to losing weight, overcoming phobias to eliminating stress.

For more information visit www.kilkennyhypnotherapy.com or phone 056..., 086 2202000. See our voucher ad on this page.

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EVI SHAW: It is possible to conquer childhood demons

2009-07-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

As I was watching the news on various channels and the coverage of the Michael Jackson memorial service, it was mentioned several times that Jackson was not able to shake the demons of his childhood and let go of associated scars.

This compels me to say that experiences of an adverse childhood can be overcome and have been overcome. It is my understanding that our president’s childhood was less than ideal. Yet look at what Obama has achieved on his own, neither crediting nor blaming events of his childhood for his success.

Brian Wilson, formerly of the Beach Boys, worked through his struggles with schizophrenia with some capable and not-so-capable therapists to the point that he was able to pick up his career writing and singing songs again on his own.

One would think Jackson had access to the finest and most capable mental health providers in the world to help him overcome his childhood demons. Evidently, he fell into the trap of being medicated and then medicated more and more, to the point of no return. It could be that, later on, Jackson even refused the services of a psychotherapist, when taking medication was made easy and effortlessly available to him.

I never was a fan of his musical style, but I am truly sorry that his life ended so tragically.

I see people in my practice wanting to rid themselves of their bad childhood experiences. Some people do so successfully by letting go of old negative thoughts and feelings of the past that do not serve any purpose for them in the here and now. They are also willing to admit their parents did the best they could even though it may not always have been socially or legally appropriate.

These people quit blaming and accept responsibility for their own behavior.

Then there are people who hang on to their anger, guilt, shame, frustration and everything negative they can think of. So what can be reasonably expected from going into therapy?

Your therapist cannot make you happy by making you accept your husband is a drunk and will not quit, when you are not willing to accept the fact, but want to stay with him for financial reasons. Your therapist cannot make you happy when trust has left your marriage to the point that you hire a private investigator to keep tabs on the spouse or look at all her communications hoping to find the evidence.

Your therapist cannot quit eating for you or make you quit buying things you do not need because you want to medicate emotional hurt. These unrealistic expectations tend to produce failure in therapy, with people tending to think the therapist does not know what he is talking about or that “it” — the therapy — does not work. When therapy does not work, it is often the case that the patient or client does not want to work on his or her concerns.

Research has shown that a good relationship based on trust and liking is more important to the success of therapy than the type of therapy used. So to work through problems, find a therapist with whom you feel comfortable, and then set reasonable expectations.

Counseling serves to produce positive change. Without change people stay the same, do the same things over and over, and get the same results. Change is work for both the therapist and the patient or client.

If people are not motivated to change, chances are that therapy will produce few, if any, results.

Therapy can help people take control of their lives. Luck controls only a small percentage of our lives. We control the majority of it, despite roadblocks that will invariable occur in our lives. Some people experience more of these than others, but we all have the inner resources to function better in our lives. These resources just need to be elicited in therapy.

So if you think you are in a rut and there is no way out, find yourself a good therapist to show you the way to fix yourself and get rid of or alleviate the concern of so-called childhood demons.

Evi Shaw is a licensed professional counselor in solo private practice, a diplomate of the American Psychotherapy Association and an approved consultant of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. Contact her at Evishaw@verizon.net.

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An urgent plea to America's Smoker in Chief

2009-07-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

Brendan Smialowski/The New York TimesAs Vice President Joe Biden looks on, President Barack Obama joins in the applause from lawmakers and representatives of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids after signing the the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act at the White House on Monday, June 22. The legislation gives the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented authority to regulate tobacco.

President Barack Obama, who admits he struggles with his craving for cigarettes, should have been with us at the hospital the day surgeons removed part of my dad's tongue. It might have inspired the president to quit for good. Dad did. After battling his nicotine addiction unsuccessfully for three decades, he never smoked again after that surgery. By then, though, it was too late. His cancer finally took him a little more than a year later.
The president, like my late father, is a strong and intelligent man. That's the devilish thing about tobacco. You can be the strongest, smartest person in the room, someone like Obama or John Bates, who died last fall, and still not be able to figure out how to kick a powerful addiction to nicotine.
Some smokers manage to do it, of course. And more than a few of them are woefully self-righteous about it.
We saw that last week after Obama, pressed by reporters to talk about his smoking habit, admitted he battles with it "constantly," although he sidestepped the issue of whether he still lights up. That brought forth a barrage of blog posts from former smokers, several of whom slammed the president for being "weak" and lacking in will power.
What bunk. The truth is that precious few smokers can quit without help. And that's where our society continues to have a massive blind spot. Tobacco-caused disease has become the nation's leading preventable cause of death, killing more than 400,000 Americans every year, yet our health care system and federal government do next to nothing to help smokers who want to quit but can't conquer their cruel addiction.
Historically, nicotine addiction has been one of the most difficult of all drug addictions to break. A 1988 Surgeon General's report on it concluded that its pharmacological effects on the brain "are similar to those that determine addiction to drugs such as heroin and cocaine."
Ten years after that report, 46 states negotiated more than $246 billion in legal settlements against the tobacco industry for its crippling financial impact on the health care system. At the time, the states promised to spend a significant portion of the money on programs to protect kids from tobacco and help smokers like my dad quit. However, they've spent only 3.2 percent of their tobacco money -- just $6.5 billion -- on prevention and cessation programs.
Oregon ranks among the worst states at breaking this promise. In fiscal year 2009, a period when the state raked in $355 million in tobacco settlement revenue and cigarette taxes, Oregon allocated just 2.7 percent of it to protect kids and help smokers quit.
Dad tried so hard. So did my wife's father, Merle Burton. Both men got hooked on cigarettes while fighting overseas during World War II. By the time they came home they were heavy smokers and kept it up well into the 1970s before deciding to quit.
Neither could do so for long. Lung cancer killed Merle at age 58 in 1978. About that time my dad began trying nicotine patches, nicotine gum and hypnosis, over and over to no avail. The closest thing he ever got to actual help, if you could call it that, was an occasional lecture from his doctor.
Everyone marveled, though, that he never got lung disease. The official cause of death was pancreatic cancer, which doctors said was related to his smoking. He was 84 when we lost him last Oct. 9.
The president would certainly improve his own odds of living that long if he can kick what his aides describe as an "intermittent" smoking habit. In fact, he has a wonderful opportunity to provide some unprecedented leadership on the issue.
Obama has already done much. As a U.S. senator, he co-sponsored an unsuccessful bill to give the Food and Drug Administration broad authority to regulate tobacco products. Just last week, as president, he signed similar legislation recently passed by Congress.
That's huge, historic progress, but Obama could do more -- much, much more.
I'd like to see him enroll, very publicly, in a smoking cessation program. He could speak up about his struggle and demonstrate to the nation that even a strong, savvy person often needs help breaking the addiction.
Obama could also lead the way on ramping up spending on help for smokers who want to quit. States should be held to their early promises, and health insurers should be required to cover cessation programs.
Years ago, if my struggling father could have had a few hundred bucks worth of physician-supervised cessation treatment -- something he could not afford on his own -- it could have saved tens of thousands of dollars in surgeries and cancer treatment.
Even better, he'd still be here today.
-- Doug Bates, associate editor; dougbates@news.oregonian.com

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Ron Simon: Who the heck can afford to smoke these days?

2009-07-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine is hopelessly addicted to cigarettes. What's worse, he is out of work and not a millionaire.
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Recently, I stopped at a tobacco shop to buy him a pack or two of the cheapest cigarettes I could find and discovered that a 10-pack carton of fags, as we used to call them, runs close to $50.

Makes you wonder what a nicotine patch would cost. Not that they work all that well.

While an occasional cheap cigar can make my day a little better, I can't imagine what it would be like to consume the three packs a day I was wiping out when I quit close to three decades ago.

It took hypnosis and a lot of luck to kick that habit.

Non-smokers have a hard time seeing just how addictive smoking can be. I imagine non-drinkers have the same attitude about alcoholics.

"Just quit!" one simpleton told me years ago. I could have punched him.

It was too hard for me to do on my own. But coughing fits in the middle of the night and dried blood on my pillow in the morning convinced me to try.

Obviously, I was getting nowhere on my own. So I tried a hypnotist who advertised sure success. She was in Columbus, which may have helped in some odd way.

She told me that if I really wanted to quit (and I sure did) that all I had to do was tap into my willpower. What she provided was the vital link between the desire to quit and the willpower that resided somewhere in my head.

She charged just $100. It's the best money I ever spent.

I tossed a pack of cigarettes into a trash can on the way out of her office. I had smoked nearly 10 cigarettes on the way down. I never had another for years. When I did, just for the heck of it, there was no appeal. No desire to light up another.

Yet I like a cigar now and then. Go figure.

What I asked my inner self to do during that long-ago session, was to quit wanting to light up. I didn't want to be bothered by other smokers. Nor did I want to suddenly eat my way up to 500 pounds.

All three wishes were granted. I went from 170 to 225 and that was acceptable. Older men and potbellies seem to go together like chili and peppers. Just as long as that potbelly doesn't look too obscene.

I know my late wife, Victoria, would never have given me the time of day had I shown up for our first date with a Camel dangling from my lip.

Recently, while portraying the late Ohio Gov. Mordecai Bartley during a living history session at Mansfield Cemetery, I used a lit cigar as a prop. I went through four of them and had to swear off for a week.

Tobacco, even in small amounts, can be pretty awful unless you are hooked.

In days of yore, I would fill a big glass ashtray at work with spent cigarette butts each day.

Tom Brennan, my boss then and now the high poobah at the News Journal, said my trademark was to take a drag of smoke, type a few paragraphs, take another drag and type some more. It went like that all day for years. The big surprise is that I have any lungs left.

The truly big surprise is that people are still smoking.

Ohio has put such heavy taxes on smokes that it is darn near impossible to keep going. So far, cigars haven't been hit that hard. They will be.

I do know that when Ohio voters decided to ban smoking in restaurants and public places, somebody decided to extend the rule to private clubs and to bingo parlors.

The result was a disaster. I know charity money that comes from gambling in private veterans clubs took a plummet when the smoking ban went into effect.

Bingo didn't do so hot, either. Those chain-smoking bingo players sort of faded from sight, and a lot of charitable organizations -- including the Mansfield Memorial Museum -- took a hit.

I do understand that smoking has become fashionable in the Far East. The Marlboro Man is now wearing a different sort of hat.

It would obviously be better to invest in tobacco shares than to indulge in the habit.

Incidentally, somebody once asked me if I inhaled while smoking a cigar.

"Do I look that crazy?"

We all know what happened to the late Marlboro Man.

Ron Simon is a retired News Journal reporter and columnist. Call Simon at 419... or e-mail rsimon@ neo.rr.com.

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E-cigarettes: Cure, or crutch?

2009-07-26T06:26:00.000-07:00

Anti-smoking groups slam the device, while smokers embrace it

Monday, July 06, 2009

By STEPHANIE SLEPIAN

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Susan Albano took her first drag at 15 in a Brooklyn school yard. By her early 20s, she was addicted.
The 51-year-old Prince's Bay woman -- who sometimes plans her day around where and when she can smoke, which even she admits is absurd -- has tried to kick her pack-a-day habit "a million different ways" ever since.

Hypnosis and acupuncture failed. She was allergic to the adhesive in nicotine patches, and Chantix -- a smoking-cessation medicine -- made her sick. Cold turkey didn't work either.

Last week, Mrs. Albano took her first puff on an electronic cigarette -- simply known as an e-cigarette.

The battery-powered, tobacco-free, nicotine-delivery device looks like the real thing, right down to the odorless vapor mist. And while e-cigarettes are being criticized by anti-smoking groups and monitored by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they are embraced by large numbers trying to quit or avoid bans on lighting up in public.

"My sister got it first, and me and Mom are trying it now," Mrs. Albano said after purchasing a starter kit in the Staten Island Mall at the Smoke Anywhere Kiosk, a cart decorated with gold ribbons to match the product packaging, glossy boutique-style shopping bags and glamour shots of e-cigarette users who might make the Marlboro Man jealous.

"My sister had some spots the doctors thought could have been lung cancer. We just got the good news that it's not. She had a kidney removed due to cancer and we thought it was spreading. It was kind of a wake-up call to all of us."

Starter kits, which typically include the battery-powered cigarette, replaceable cartridges and chargers, range in price from $70 to $150 at mall kiosks or online retailers.

When the user inhales, a heating element is activated, vaporizing the nicotine solution, which comes in a variety of strengths and flavors.

The tip glows red, imitating a real cigarette, but without the odor or secondhand and tar-filled smoke. E-cigarettes can be used in airports, shopping malls, restaurants and movie theaters -- or anywhere a cigarette can't.

"We think this is a reliable and safe alternative to smoking," said Matt Salmon, president of the Electronic Cigarette Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group representing an industry on track to make $100 million this year.

"It gives smokers the nicotine they crave, but without all the known carcinogens found in combustible cigarettes."

TOO MANY UNKNOWNS?

But some see e-cigarettes as nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

The American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids have joined Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) in calling on the FDA to remove them from the market until they can be tested.

Critics also charge children may be attracted by the e-cigarette's novelty, accessibility and its chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, cherry or mint flavorings.

"These devices haven't been examined by any government agency," said Alberta Brescia, regional vice president of the Staten Island American Cancer Society. "We don't know how the ingredients are affecting the body.

"Many smokers who use [e-cigarettes] also continue to smoke cigarettes, and they are under the false impression that because they are smoking fewer cigarettes, it's OK to keep smoking."

The FDA has banned several shipments of e-cigarettes from coming into the country -- mostly from China, where they have been manufactured for the last five years -- saying the product is a drug-delivery device requiring agency approval before being legally marketed and sold in the United States.

There is also no scientific data documenting the safety of e-cigarettes, a spokeswoman for the agency said.

Anti-smoking groups slam the device, while smokers embrace it

But Salmon said his group's members sell e-cigarettes strictly as an alternative that allows smokers to get their nicotine in a way that is more palatable, not as smoking-cessation products that need federal regulation. They also do not sell to minors, though many non-members play by their own rules.

"There are a lot of anecdotes out there about people kicking the habit, but those aren't claims we're making," said Salmon, a non-smoker who as an Arizona congressman pushed through a state law that was among the nation's first public-smoking bans.

Some companies have taken the FDA to court, arguing the agency has no jurisdiction over e-cigarettes because they are not designed to help people quit.

"You've got special interests out there that see us as a threat or maybe even a displacing technology and they're trying to do everything they can to gear up the FDA and the powers that be here in Washington to protect them," said Salmon, noting his association is not involved in any of the pending litigation.

"Withholding the e-cigarette from the market is like telling someone who chooses to smoke that his or her only legal option is to smoke tobacco," he said. "My feeling is government should try to help people have an alternative, not take them away."

For Mrs. Albano, an executive assistant to the CEO of Thomson Reuters in Manhattan, there is only one reason to power up her e-smoke.

"I think the concept is just perfect for people who want to quit -- and I want to quit."

Stephanie Slepian is a news reporter for the Advance. She may be reached at slepian@siadvance.com.

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Spur Of the Moment Quitting Works Too Says Researcher

2009-07-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

Listening to how people quit smoking can give you ideas of how to quit yourself

At Ukmedix News we have often written about the importance of planning your smoking cessation attempt because we have seen evidence and listened to experts who tell us that this greatly improves your chances of success. However new evidence from a clinical study suggests that people who give up impulsively on the spur of the moment can also have high rates of success.

Professor Saul Shiffman from the department of psychology and pharmaceutical science based at the University of Pittsburgh explained that according to his research almost 40 percent of people who quit smoking permanently did not actually plan out any smoking cessation strategies and just quit cold turkey immediately. He did however suggest that many of those people who quit spontaneously had in fact subconsciously been very dissatisfied and concerned about their smoking and had been aware that they wanted to stop smoking for some time.
According to Professor Shiffman the results did not discredit the act of planning out a smoking cessation attempt but it did nevertheless remain important that smokers were aware of their weaknesses and took stock of how they were going to deal with situations and scenarios in which they developed strong cravings to smoke. His research was published in the medical journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research and involved 1,700 smokers and ex-smokers.
In fact at Ukmedix News we have often written about how individuals need to come up with their own strategies which work for them. We have called it “Do It Your Own Way” because every single successful quitter has their own story to tell about how they managed to overcome the hurdles of nicotine and psychological addiction to cigarettes, and every story seems to be unique. Listening to how people quit smoking can give you ideas and help you come up with your own strategies for success.
Some people find hypnotherapy effective, others find the use of smoking cessation aids such as nicotine replacement therapy or the medication Champix effective too. Do It Your Own Way ( :

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Project Combat To Beat Smoking In Soldiers

2009-07-24T05:01:00.000-07:00

It is important that you find something that works for you.

A novel way to help people quit smoking is being developed by Professor Alexander Prokhorov. An expert in behavioural science, Professor Prokhorov said that his idea (which is specifically designed for soldiers) is to develop an animated video game called Project Combat which will allow soldiers serving in the armed forces around the world to deal with the pressure that quitting smoking brings.

Smoking rates among serving soldiers are higher than normal civilian rates. In the United States army almost 40 percent of soldiers smoke and 15 percent use smokeless tobacco which is also harmful to health. The new video game is designed to help soldiers to deal with withdrawal symptoms and peer pressure problems as well as to take their minds off the stress which accompanies routine military life and going into battle.
Professor Prokhorov speaking recently at the Texas Medical Centre explained that the use of tobacco increased significantly during the Second World War. There is definitely a feeling that when you are in a dangerous war zone the possible health consequences of smoking are insignificant to the overall picture, however in fact continued smoking is probably more likely to kill or injure a soldier than his choice of profession.
As part of the research for this game around 2,000 soldiers based at Fort Hood in Texas will be given it free in order to get feedback and to see how effective it is. At Ukmedix News we believe that this smoking cessation game could be useful but is unlikely to be the only thing required for a heavy smoker to quit. Psychological conditioning in the form of a game could provide a little bit of motivation but at the end of the day you will require your own willpower and determination to quit too.
There are many quit smoking remedies which can be made use of and which can be recommended by doctors such as hypnotherapy, nicotine replacement therapy and the use of the smoking cessation drug Champix. It is important that you find something that works for you.

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When I snap my fingers, you will laugh out loud

2009-07-23T06:21:00.000-07:00

Joe Boccuti is quick to shoot down a popular misconception about hypnosis, that people in a hypnotic trance can do things they wouldn't ordinarily do.
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"Completely false," Boccuti says. "If I could do that, I'd have people robbing banks for me all over the country."

Boccuti has taken his talent for tapping into the human subconscious onto the stage with "Hypnosterical," his 75-minute show at Trump Marina.

Boccuti began his career as a hypnotist in a conventional manner. He used the power of suggestion to help people lose weight and quit smoking. But in the course of his practice, the thirtysomething Philadelphia native also realized that people are inherently funny -- and they become even funnier when they're under his hypnotic spell.

That led him out of the office and onto the stage, where he began developing an act in which he is more of a guide than the center of attention. It's the people who willingly climb onstage who are the real stars of the show.

"When you take away their inhibitions and let them let go and just be themselves, you'll be surprised at what will happen," Boccuti said during a pre-show interview.

Boccuti's interest in hypnosis began when he was 11 and had begun having vivid and scary nightmares. He began reading books about dreams, trying to find a way to have only happy ones.

"Over and over, I kept seeing the word "subconscious,' so I started reading books about that," he says.

He learned the subconscious part of the mind is a vast and mostly unexplored area for most people.

When he got serious about pursuing hypnosis as a career, he began studying under established hypnotists, some of whom practiced clinically and others who had become entertainers.

"There's no college or university you can go to, so I learned from the guys who are experts at it, people who had studied the work of the forefathers of hypnosis like (Franz) Mesmer and (Milton) Erickson," he explains.

He also learned how to think quickly and react on stage when something funny or unexpected happens, which it usually does during every "Hypnosterical" performance.

When it's show time, Boccuti bounds onto the stage of the casino's intimate, 462-seat Shell Showroom with the energy of an athlete, the patter of a comedian and a twinkle in his eyes which says he knows what's coming, but the audience doesn't.

From an initial group of about 30 people who willingly take the stage, he weeds out those he feels won't make good subjects. Once under his spell, the volunteers appear to fall asleep on his command. Soon, the stage is littered with sleeping bodies, whom he then awakens and commands to do things such as use one another as pillows or swim like a fish in a bowl.

The show takes an R-rated turn when he suggests the volunteers are strippers auditioning for a job. At one point, he sends them into the audience, where they actually do lap dances with strangers.

Through it all, Boccuti insists nothing in the show is staged or rehearsed.

"I don't use stooges or plants," he says adamantly. "People are funny when you tap into their subconscious. That's why the show is so funny. Because people are different, the show is never the same."

It's the return of "Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia," featuring The O'Jays, the New Stylistics, Jerry "The Iceman" Butler and other acts with Philly roots in the Event Center at Borgata. Show time is tonight at 8. Tickets are $50, $65 and $85, available through theborgata.com or ComcastTIX at (877) 544-8499.

Paul Potts, the winner of the first "Britain's Got Talent" TV showcase, will fill the Music Box at Borgata with his big tenor tonight at 9. Tickets are $39.50, available through theborgata.com or ComcastTIX at (877) 544-8499.

Rock 'n' rolling bass guitar virtuoso Les Claypool will thump onto the stage of the House of Blues at Showboat tonight at 8:30. Tickets are $25 and $30, available through ticketmaster.com or (800) 736-1420.

The tribute band series will continue at the Hilton with Spread Eagle's tribute to The Eagles tonight at 9. Tickets are $15, available through ticketmaster.com or (800) 736-1420.

Veteran rockers Stone Temple Pilots, with 15 Top 10 hits over the past 15 years, will land on the stage of Borgata's Events Center Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $95 and $135, available through theborgata.com or ComcastTIX at (877) 544-8499.

Singer, songwriter and actor Robin Thicke will headline the House of Blues at Showboat Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $30 and $35, available through ticketmaster.com or (800) 736-1420.

Loverboy, the Canadian rock band that has been bringing it for nearly 30 years, will play the Atlantic City Hilton Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30, available through ticketmaster.com or (800) 736-1420.

Comedian Dave Attell will crack wise in Borgata's Music Box Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $35 and $45, available through theborgata.com or ComcastTIX at (877) 544-8499.

Drake Bell, the actor, comedian and musician who stars on the Nickelodeon series "Drake & Josh," will headline the Tropicana Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $35 to $65, available through ticketmaster.com or (800) 736-1420.

On-going shows include: Chazz Palminteri starring in "A Bronx Tale" at Harrah's Resort through Aug. 9; "Cirque Dreams: Pandemonia" at Trump Taj Mahal through Sept. 6; "Carnival of Wonders" at Trump Plaza through Sept. 6; and "Fame" at the Tropicana through Sept. 9. For tickets and show times, contact ticketmaster.com or (800) 736-1420.

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NRT: Studies Destroy “Four Times More Likely To Quit With NHS” Claim

2009-07-22T06:31:00.000-07:00

2009-07-11 21:06:51 - Freedom2Choose, working with hypnotherapist Chris Holmes, reveals that the continued use of the Department of Health’s claim “you are up to four times more likely to quit with NHS help” has no evidential basis. Freedom2Choose can show that the Department of Health routinely uses misleading statements to promote Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) products as its preferred method of treatment for smoking cessation. This promotion is a very costly exercise, at a time of imminent cutbacks to public services.

Belinda Cunnison, of pro-choice group Freedom2Choose, investigated the common claim that you are “four times more likely to quit with NHS”, which is used in most promotional materials for NRT products, and frequently in press releases on the subject of smoking cessation. “I traced this claim to a Department of Health web page,(1) which also claimed a 15 per cent
success rate at 12 months for NRT. The evidence that was supposed to demonstrate this 15 per cent success rate and the ‘four times more likely to quit’ phenomenon was not listed in the footnotes, so I wrote to the Department to ask for it.”

It took over three months to get the information. The following reports were made available by Cameron Gordon of the Department of Health in relation to smoking cessation studies:

• The Ferguson Health Inequalities Reduction Paper(2)
• The Evaluation Report(3)
• The Shiffman Report(4)
• The Cochrane Reviews(5)
• The Hughes Report(6)
• The Borland Report(7)

The documents revealed neither a 15 per cent quit rate at 12 months, nor any evidence that quitting with the NHS is four times more effective than willpower alone. The Borland Report recorded a 12-month success rate of 6.5 per cent (higher rates were achieved only in the smaller scale studies), whereas the largest study done on quitting using willpower alone achieved a rate of around 6 per cent.

“On the government’s own evidence, the claim ‘up to four times more likely to quit with the NHS’ is completely untrue. How can this claim be justified?” continues Belinda Cunnison. “The use of NHS treatments makes almost no difference at all to quitting success. A recent study published in the British Medical Journal(8) has also documented the long-term success rate of NRT at a mere 1.6 per cent. The whole exercise is futile as well as being enormously expensive.”

Freedom2Choose also has evidence that General Practitioners are given payments for patients who set a quit date, and an additional payment for patients who remain quit at four weeks. The payments are listed in NHS Warwickshire’s board report, March 2009.(9) This reflects the urgency of smoking cessation on the Trust’s list of priorities – an unfortunate choice of priority since patients seem just as good at giving up smoking under their own volition as they are with NHS help.

“At a time when we need to economise, particularly in the Health Service, why is our Government pumping tax-payers’ money into a failed product and using misleading claims to the service user?” questions Belinda Cunnison. “Will-power alone has a comparable success rate for those who choose to give up smoking. This is a complete waste of our resources.”

Author and hypnotherapist Chris Holmes(10) agrees and states, “We are exposing a systematic and deliberate policy to seriously mislead the public over the true effectiveness of these services. The actual extent of long term failure was being quietly covered up - which we now know from the Borland report is 94 per cent failure at 12 months - whilst four-week results were shamelessly promoted, even including published 'success rates' as high as 90 per cent. Since they knew that to be the exact opposite of the real outcomes, this is a fraudulent misappropriation of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. NRT simply doesn't work.”

References:
1 NHS Stop Smoking Services & Nicotine Replacement Therapy -
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Healthimprovement/Tobacco/Tobaccogeneralinformation/DH_4002192
2 The Ferguson Health Inequalities Reduction Paper -
http://opus.bath.ac.uk/6357/
3 The Evaluation Report -
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118739516/issue?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
4 The Shiffman Report -
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/1/21
5 The Cochrane Reviews -
http://www.cochrane.co.uk/en/index.html
6 The Hughes Report -
http://www.hospitaldofuturo.com/imagens/Shape%20of%20the%20relapse%20curve%20and%20long-term%20abstinence%20among%20untreated%20smokers.pdf
7 The Borland Report -
http://fampra.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/cmn046
8 British Medical Journal -
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/apr29_1/b1730
9 NHS Warwickshire, page 7, Appendix 2H -
http://www.warwickshire.nhs.uk/trustboardenclosures/march09/Enc%2016%20Tobacco%20Control%20and%20Smoking%20Cessation%20Board%20Report%20-%20March%202009.pdf - Page 7, Appendix 2H
10 Chris Holmes: Truth Will Out -
http://www.truthwillout.co.uk

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Seminar explains how hypnosis may help

2009-07-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

David Prudhomme, the director of Mederi Wellness in Port Clinton is presenting his free seminar on hypnosis and hypnotherapy called "Your Best Life Now." The seminar will be presented from 6 to 7 p.m. Monday, at the Magruder Hospital Conference Center, Conference Room B, 615 Fulton St., Port Clinton.

The free one-hour seminar explains how hypnosis has helped millions of people successfully lose weight, stop smoking, reduce stress and anxiety, manage their pain and even improve their sleep. Prudhomme will explain the latest facts about hypnosis and the myths and misconceptions about hypnosis. The American Medical Association has approved hypnosis since 1958.
A study presented Oct. 22, 2007 at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians found that hypnosis was more than twice as effective as quitting "cold turkey," and over three times as effective as nicotine replacement therapy.
Hypnosis has helped millions of people easily quit smoking for good after the first session, without gaining weight and without the need for will power. Hypnosis allows a person to change their subconscious mind to match their conscious desire to be a non-smoker.
Bev Krofft explains her experience of hypnosis to stop smoking, "I thought I would be a hard nut to crack when it came to quitting smoking. I smoked for 37 years. I was tired of cigarettes controlling my life. I couldn't sleep more than two hours at a time, my hair and clothes smelled, my car smelled. I tried many times to quit smoking. I am a happier person and it feels good to be in control again. I do not have the urge to smoke and I can be around people who do smoke and it doesn't bother me."
The Journal of Clinical Psychology reported that in a recent study weight loss subjects who utilized hypnosis as an adjunct to their weight loss programs experienced significantly more weight loss than the subjects who did not use hypnosis. The benefits increased over time.
Hypnosis can help a person lose weight easily and permanently without dieting. Hypnosis allows a person to easily let go of their cravings for sweets, unhealthy snacks or emotional eating patterns. In hypnosis a person's subconscious mind accepts and creates new healthy patterns and habits. According to Prudhomme, people should stop feeling bad or beating themselves up, because the fact is will power doesn't work.
David Prudhomme is a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists and a certified master practitioner of Neural Linguistic Programming.
Register for the seminars at www.mederiwellness.com or by calling 419-341-1858.
Attendees will receive a 25 percent discount off hypnosis by attending this seminar.

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Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy, alternative medicine at local center

2009-07-22T04:52:00.000-07:00

Trying to quit smoking for the fifth time? Ready to overcome your fears of heights or flying? Or, maybe you just lack the confidence to perform well in sports.

A good hypnotherapist can help many folks make such life changes.

Roanoke-based health consultant and hypnotherapist Kweethai Neill said that alternative medicine has not only become more popular over the years, but more practical for many.

"Hypnotherapy is becoming more popular because of the high cost of medical care, and people are tired of taking too much medication," said Neill, who has clients from all over the Metroplex.

"Alternative and complementary modalities of health care are serving many people who want to take responsibility for their health," Neill said.

Neill, who has had her office in the area for the past two years, came back to the area after moving to Georgia when her husband was transferred.

Before her current profession, she was a health professor at the University of North Texas and then Texas Woman’s University.

These days, as a health consultant, Neill said she helps clients become healthier in their lifestyles by teaching them how to behave in healthier ways.

"More than half the time, our health status is a result of how we act," she said. "The foods we eat, whether or not we are physically active, how we cope with stress and how we handle personal and work relationships."

Neill said that after many years as a health professor and researcher, she has learned that knowledge does not always translate into changed behavior.

In her mind, that’s exactly where hypnotherapy comes in.

"The clients I see are usually highly intelligent people. Many are very successful in their careers, yet they are somehow stuck," she said. "My work as a clinical hypnotherapist is to help them get into their subconscious mind to find out where they are stuck, or what is preventing them to make the changes they desire and help them get over it. Simply put, I help them put their spirit in order."

As for all the television shows depicting people being under hypnosis or in a deep trance and somehow being manipulated, Neill said it’s not true.

"Hypnosis is really a natural state of consciousness," she said. "Everyone engages in hypnosis sometime or other."

Neill also points out that the correct term is being in — not under — hypnosis. The "trance state" is perfectly natural and normal, she adds.

"When you are in trance, whether it is self-hypnosis or facilitated by a hypnotherapist, your brain slows down, and you experience a profoundly peaceful state of relaxation," she said.

"One thing I can say, every client can attest to how enjoyably relaxing it is to be hypnotized."

So whether it’s weight loss, the desire to stop smoking, the reduction of fear, craving, anxiety or phobias or even to provide help with grief, traumas and performance anxieties, hypnotherapy really can change a person’s life, Neill said — if the person will let it.

For Neill, her way of doing that is helping a person change from inside out.

"When your spirit is in order, your life will be in order," she adds.

Even with the recession in full swing, Neill said her client base is steady and growing everyday as more people are discovering that hypnosis is a natural and safe medical alternative.

"There are no drugs to take and no needles to poke you," Neill said. "Those who don’t believe in hypnotherapy generally have very little knowledge on the subject. If they are willing, I will educate them.

"No one leaves my office without experiencing a change. Since it is the client’s subconscious that directs each session, success is really the client’s responsibility, not mine."

Rita Cook is a special contributor to The Keller Citizen.

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Changing patterned behaviors

2009-07-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

By DAWN AULET For The Herald News

Diana Zilly learned about the power of the human mind while she was still working on her degree to be a counselor.
"I learned when I was focused that I could break two boards with my palm," she said of her time learning tae kwon do. "When my mind wasn't focused, I could not break those boards."

So, when it came time for the Plainfield woman to add tools to her practice, hypnotherapy seemed like a perfect complement.
"It ties in well, there is a physiological process going on," she said. "Hypnotherapy actually allows the person to kind of take a break from their left brain chatter.
"It's a heightened state of being in the present."
Hypnotherapy in the clinical sense is used to change patterns of behavior. For example, if a client is looking to quit smoking or better control weight, hypnotherapy can be a useful tool.
Linda Herrick, owner of Alternative Soulutions in Plainfield, recently began offering hypnotherapy as well.
"My mom died last year from stage four lung cancer; she could not stop smoking," she said. "So, I wanted to help people stop smoking."
It was one of the first classes she added after becoming a certified hypnotherapist.

Changing behaviors

Hypnotherapy helps to give clients alternatives to what has become conditioned behavior.Zilly said the idea of conditioning happens every day.
She said when people drive cars they get used to how the cars are laid out: where the gear shift is, how the windows roll down, etc. When a person gets into someone else's car, the person automatically reaches to the same areas, because of conditioning. It is like that with many things.
In addition to a smoking cessation class, Herrick also teaches hypnosis for weight management. She said emotional links to eating are reprogrammed by hypnotherapy.
"Everyone has emotional triggers to food," she said. "(Hypnotherapy) helps to separate the emotional triggers to it.
"It helps you shift into a more healthy lifestyle and helps that lifestyle to feel good."

Myths

Perhaps one of the biggest worries Zilly hears from prospective clients is that they will not be in control when they are under hypnosis."I've found the main fear that people have is a perceived lack of control," she said. "That is stage hypnotism.
"In reality, it's just the opposite; it's teaching the person to be in control."
Herrick agrees that her clients have the same fears.
"Hypnosis is a natural state of mind, when your mind is in theta," she said, comparing it to sleep. "Hypnosis is to get into that mental state to talk to your subconscious."
No one will bark like a dog or cluck like a chicken unless it is something they would have done anyway. And, none of those kinds of stage tricks are used in therapeutic hypnosis.
"There's no dangers in hypnosis," she said. "No one can have their will control you."
For information on Zilly, visit renewedclarity.com or call 630.... For information on Herrick, visit www.alternativesoulutions.com or call 815-439-7442.

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How Does Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy Work?

2009-07-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

Bearded boffins and the down to earth “man on the street” all ponder this question from time to time. In fact this has been going on for close to 200 years. How does hypnosis work? Does hypnosis even work for that matter? The various theories and myths continue, with skeptics and fanatics alike. Despite all this rhetoric, no one has even so far managed to come up with an accepted definition of exactly what hypnosis is.

So we don’t know what it is and we don’t know how it works. Not a great start really. This may be why there is so much misinformation about the subject. There is room to maneuver the facts. Room to create interesting and sensational stories, even of the truth is erm…pushed aside a little.

Perhaps we need to see the bigger picture. To understand exactly how hypnosis works, we need to ultimately discover how the human mind works. Due to the immense power and complexity of the human mind, this is practically impossible right now, leaving many of the workings of hypnosis a mystery.

Psychiatrists do understand the general characteristics of hypnosis, and they have some model of how it works. It is commonly accepted that it is a trance state that is characterised by greater suggestibility, relaxation and increased imagination. It is a natural state of mind rather like daydreaming. You are fully conscious, but you become consciously unaware of most of the stimuli around you. This is rather like when you are deeply absorbed in a book or film, and cannot hear someone trying to talk to you.

The problems of explaining how hypnosis works are compounded by the fact that everyone’s experience of hypnosis is unique, and the readiness and ability of patients to be hypnotised varies considerably. Hypnosis is the very opposite of a trip down to McDonald’s - no two experiences are exactly the same. In one case it might be a Chicken Bhuna, and the next a seafood soufflé. However modern technology is beginning to allow us to take a deeper look, and almost peer inside the mind at what is actually happening to the brain whilst in hypnosis.

Recently the University of Geneva published a study in the journal ‘Neuron’ using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for a series of hypnotic studies. They noted that there were differences in the activity of the brain when a subject was placed in a hypnotic trance.

The researchers used fMRI to scan brains of 12 people who were tested on hand movement before and after being hypnotised for left hand paralysis.

Despite the paralysis, neurons in the motor cortex region were still firing in preparation for the task. However the cortex appeared to be ignoring parts of the brain that it normally communicates with for controlling movement.

These results suggest that hypnosis does not inhibit the motor cortex and directly stop the hand from moving. It seems like the hypnotic suggestions allow the individual to choose to have left arm paralysis.

This makes sense from my observations of being a clinical hypnotherapist for many years. It is commonly accepted in hypnosis that a hypnotherapist cannot actually make a subject change. They can only facilitate it. For example a clinical hypnotherapist could do a very good and professional job with a quit smoking session. However the subject can choose to ignore this and immediately light up after the session. They can (and sometimes do) take the attitude “I’ll show them that I can still smoke…puff…see it doesn’t work”. It’s rather like deliberately paying to go and watch your least favourite musician and booing all the way through – a waste of your own time and money. If they really want to quit, and accept the therapy rather than fight against it, then they will find it relatively easy to quit. But they always seem to have the choice.

And I think it’s good that the subject can ultimately choose. What if their nagging spouse sent them to see me when they did not really want to quite smoking? They could ultimately exercise a choice. After the session they may on reflection decide their spouse was indeed right and quit, or they may wave to them with a two cigarette salute and continue. I’m very comfortable with this. I don’t personally want to be part of ‘making’ someone change.

This runs counter to some popular myths of hypnosis that are sometimes portrayed in the media. For example the classic clucking like a chicken when the doorbell sounds. In reality the person has a choice, and if they don’t want to, then they can easily resist any poultry related urges. If an emergency should break out whilst a subject is in hypnosis, then they can easily snap out and deal with it in an appropriate way.

This is rather like what is commonly termed ‘highway hypnosis’. This is where a person can drive a distance of many miles without remembering the journey. Does this sound familiar? They are literally in a natural hypnotic trance whilst driving. If during that journey something happens where the driver needs to react, then this is no problem. The driver will immediately snap out of the trance and respond accordingly.

There are still many questions regarding hypnotherapy and how it actually works. It would seem that hypnosis can help us make changes, but ultimately it is up to use to choose whether to accept these changes. Modern technology is beginning to help us to uncover more of the answers, but there is still a long way to go. A stronger scientific foundation for hypnotherapy can only help people realise what a powerful and effective form of therapy it really is, and dispel some of the myths that are plainly untrue.

Click here for details of online hypnosis http://www.AllHypnosisDownloads.com

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Class will use hypnosis to help smokers quit

2009-07-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

The Albany Parks & Recreation Department is offering a Stop Smoking with Hypnosis class for adults from 7 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, July 14, at the Albany Senior Center, 489 Water Ave. N.W.

The program was developed over more than 21 years and has a high success rate. The class is taught by Howard Hamilton, a board certified member of the National Guild of Hypnotists and a member of the board of directors of the Oregon Hypnotherapy Association.

Cost is $65 for participants who live outside the Albany city limits or $49 for Albany residents. An audio conditioning, reinforcing recording is included.

For information or to register, call (541) 917-7777 or visit www.cityofalbany.net.

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NRT: Studies Destroy “Four Times More Likely To Quit With NHS” Claim

2009-07-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

2009-07-11 21:06:51 - Freedom2Choose, working with hypnotherapist Chris Holmes, reveals that the continued use of the Department of Health’s claim “you are up to four times more likely to quit with NHS help” has no evidential basis. Freedom2Choose can show that the Department of Health routinely uses misleading statements to promote Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) products as its preferred method of treatment for smoking cessation. This promotion is a very costly exercise, at a time of imminent cutbacks to public services.

Belinda Cunnison, of pro-choice group Freedom2Choose, investigated the common claim that you are “four times more likely to quit with NHS”, which is used in most promotional materials for NRT products, and frequently in press releases on the subject of smoking cessation. “I traced this claim to a Department of Health web page,(1) which also claimed a 15 per cent
success rate at 12 months for NRT. The evidence that was supposed to demonstrate this 15 per cent success rate and the ‘four times more likely to quit’ phenomenon was not listed in the footnotes, so I wrote to the Department to ask for it.”

It took over three months to get the information. The following reports were made available by Cameron Gordon of the Department of Health in relation to smoking cessation studies:

• The Ferguson Health Inequalities Reduction Paper(2)
• The Evaluation Report(3)
• The Shiffman Report(4)
• The Cochrane Reviews(5)
• The Hughes Report(6)
• The Borland Report(7)

The documents revealed neither a 15 per cent quit rate at 12 months, nor any evidence that quitting with the NHS is four times more effective than willpower alone. The Borland Report recorded a 12-month success rate of 6.5 per cent (higher rates were achieved only in the smaller scale studies), whereas the largest study done on quitting using willpower alone achieved a rate of around 6 per cent.

“On the government’s own evidence, the claim ‘up to four times more likely to quit with the NHS’ is completely untrue. How can this claim be justified?” continues Belinda Cunnison. “The use of NHS treatments makes almost no difference at all to quitting success. A recent study published in the British Medical Journal(8) has also documented the long-term success rate of NRT at a mere 1.6 per cent. The whole exercise is futile as well as being enormously expensive.”

Freedom2Choose also has evidence that General Practitioners are given payments for patients who set a quit date, and an additional payment for patients who remain quit at four weeks. The payments are listed in NHS Warwickshire’s board report, March 2009.(9) This reflects the urgency of smoking cessation on the Trust’s list of priorities – an unfortunate choice of priority since patients seem just as good at giving up smoking under their own volition as they are with NHS help.

“At a time when we need to economise, particularly in the Health Service, why is our Government pumping tax-payers’ money into a failed product and using misleading claims to the service user?” questions Belinda Cunnison. “Will-power alone has a comparable success rate for those who choose to give up smoking. This is a complete waste of our resources.”

Author and hypnotherapist Chris Holmes(10) agrees and states, “We are exposing a systematic and deliberate policy to seriously mislead the public over the true effectiveness of these services. The actual extent of long term failure was being quietly covered up - which we now know from the Borland report is 94 per cent failure at 12 months - whilst four-week results were shamelessly promoted, even including published 'success rates' as high as 90 per cent. Since they knew that to be the exact opposite of the real outcomes, this is a fraudulent misappropriation of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. NRT simply doesn't work.”

References:
1 NHS Stop Smoking Services & Nicotine Replacement Therapy -
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Healthimprovement/Tobacco/Tobaccogeneralinformation/DH_4002192
2 The Ferguson Health Inequalities Reduction Paper -
http://opus.bath.ac.uk/6357/
3 The Evaluation Report -
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118739516/issue?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
4 The Shiffman Report -
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/1/21
5 The Cochrane Reviews -
http://www.cochrane.co.uk/en/index.html
6 The Hughes Report -
http://www.hospitaldofuturo.com/imagens/Shape%20of%20the%20relapse%20curve%20and%20long-term%20abstinence%20among%20untreated%20smokers.pdf
7 The Borland Report -
http://fampra.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/cmn046
8 British Medical Journal -
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/apr29_1/b1730
9 NHS Warwickshire, page 7, Appendix 2H -
http://www.warwickshire.nhs.uk/trustboardenclosures/march09/Enc%2016%20Tobacco%20Control%20and%20Smoking%20Cessation%20Board%20Report%20-%20March%202009.pdf - Page 7, Appendix 2H
10 Chris Holmes: Truth Will Out -
http://www.truthwillout.co.uk

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Kicking Butt: Why and how to stop smoking

2009-07-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

New federal tobacco legislation has many people talking about the so-called “smoking gun” of cigarettes and other tobacco use among young people, since the regulations are aimed at restricting the ability of tobacco companies to market their products to youth. “Once you've gone down this path, then it's something you continually struggle with,” said President Barack Obama in a press conference following the new law’s passage. He said the legislation was passed to prevent young people from starting down that path.

But the new regulations do little for already-initiated smokers, many of whom have been seasoned for years with the addictive nicotine and other chemical contents of cigarettes.

“Nicotine is the most addictive substance known to man, and it’s very hard to quit smoking,” said Richard Bonds, prevention specialist at Cheaha Regional Mental Health Center.

Those people already suffering from nicotine addiction are virtually on their own when it comes to quitting. One thing that can help them break the smoking habit is realizing its costs – to both pocketbook and health history.

Burning money

Smoking can incur high health and financial expenses in the short and long term, doctors and insurers said.

Most smokers can calculate the financial cost of their cigarettes by simple multiplication. The national Stop Smoking Foundation reports the average smoker consumes one pack of cigarettes per day. A pack of cigarettes now costs about $5. Multiply that by days in a week and weeks in a year, and the average smoker is spending more than $1,800 annually on cigarettes alone. But even many savvy smokers fail to realize just how much money they are burning through in insurance costs every time they light up.

Health insurance providers can charge smokers from 10 percent to 40 percent more than they do non-smokers. Farmer’s Insurance agent Josh Parris of Childersburg said smokers are hit hard on their life insurance premiums because of the health risks they run by consuming toxin-laced products notorious for their power to kill.

“Smoking doubles your life insurance premium, easily,” Parris said. “No matter what company you’re with, your premiums are going to be twice those of a non-smoker.”

Cigarette lovers may also see an increase in their homeowners insurance rates, Parris said. At Farmer’s Insurance, those who like to light up pay on average 10 percent more to insure their homes, because of the fire hazard caused by smoking at home.

“Not smoking can save you a lot of money,” Parris said. “Overall, insurance for a non-smoker is cheaper.”

Health toll

Most anti-smoking campaigns spend more time focusing on the activity’s negative health effects than they do on the financial cost

“Smoking actually contributes to two of the three main causes of death in America,” Bonds said.

In fact, smoking accounts for about 443,000 deaths in the United States per year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most health complications from smoking are not experienced in the short term, said Dr. Stephen Bowen, of the Craddock Health Center in Sylacauga. But the long-term health ramifications range from chronic heart and lung diseases such as obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, coronary artery disease and cancer. Smoking also increases the risk for strokes, heart attacks and aneurisms caused by hardened and narrowed arteries.

If those risks aren’t enough to persuade smokers to reconsider their attachment to the cigarette, the multitude of short-term health effects might:

Sinus problems

Shortness of breath

Increase in blood pressure

Increase in anxiety

Discoloration of teeth and fingernails

Loss of senses of smell and taste

Wrinkling of skin

Dryness and itchiness in eyes

Hand tremors

“Many people know smoking cigarettes will cause cancer and heart disease, but most people believe it will take 20-30 or even 40 years to do damage to your body,” Bonds said. “But scientists have been able to determine that smoking even one cigarette can harm your heart.”

The stimulants in a cigarette can cause the pulse to increase, an effect intensified by the heart’s attempt to replenish oxygen to the body after the invasion of carbon monoxide caused by smoking inhalation.

Mentality over method

The inherent health and financial costs of smoking have many smokers wanting to quit, but the paths toward that end are numerous and unreliable.

“Everybody has their own little methodology for quitting smoking, but there are none that are uniformly successful,” said Dr. Gary Turner, M.D., a Sylacauga-based specialist in otolaryngology – or an ear, nose, throat, head and neck doctor. “In my experience, the best methodology is for the patient to finally come to the realization that smoking is terrible for their health and has a high probability of decreasing their life span.”

Debra Sayers, a longtime smoker, said she is aware of the costs of her habit, but she has no intention of quitting.

“I say it’s OK; I’m only hurting me,” she said.

At her age, she said, you don’t experience a lot of peer pressure to quit.

Bowen said the side effects to quitting can be unpleasant. Nervousness, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, nausea and shaking can all visit quitters initially to try to lure them back to cigarettes.

“Everybody that quits says they quit 20 times before they finally succeeded,” Bowen said.

In order to avoid relapsing, Bowen said it is important to find the right method for you — whether it is hypnotherapy, group therapy, prescription medication or over-the-counter patches. But relying on a quitting method alone won’t work, he said; the real challenge is overcoming the psychological attachment to the drug. He added that the most effective anti-drug for nicotine addicts is education about the health hazards associated with smoking.

“They need to learn that the associated diseases are so horrible that they make up their minds to decide they’re going to quit,” Turner said. “All the methods are just crutches for the quitting process, and without the mentality, their success is not very great.”

Paul Drake, who picked up cigarettes at the age of 12, quit cold turkey two years ago at the age of 40. It was his second attempt to quit, after quitting for two years and picking cigarettes up again.

A massive heart attack motivated him to break his 28-year habit in 2007. The cravings haven’t gone away entirely — even after 24 months.

“There are still days I could smoke one as big as my leg,” he said. “But now I have a reason not to start again.”

Bonds said there are a number of resources available to help those ready to take steps toward quitting. One of the most important and underrated resources is a counselor who can help break the psychological addiction to tobacco, he said.

The Alabama Department of Public Health sponsors the Alabama Tobacco Quitline, which is a free service for all Alabamians who want to quit tobacco. Callers over the age of 19 can also receive a free four-week supply of nicotine patches. The Alabama Tobacco Quitline number is 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-8...).

The federal government provides a number of resources to assist in smoking cessation at www.smokefree.gov.

The Internet’s leading Web site for helping smokers quit cold turkey is located at www.whyquit.com.

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Bills would force insurers to cover quit-smoking drugs

2009-07-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

In the last two months, the average price of a pack of cigarettes in Rhode Island has jumped nearly $2, to $8.35, thanks to increases in federal and state excise taxes.

That means a pack-a-day habit costs about $250 a month, or about $3,000 a year, especially sobering figures at a time of double-digit unemployment.

The sting of the cost increase has prompted many people to try quitting. In the family practice of Dr. Albert J. Puerini of Cranston, for example, the number of requests for smoking cessation materials has doubled since April.

Now the General Assembly is poised to give additional help to those struggling with nicotine withdrawal. Companion bills apparently headed for passage would require insurance carriers to extend mandated insurance coverage of smoking cessation drugs.

Until now, health insurers have been required to cover nicotine replacement medications. But other drugs, particularly one with a comparatively high success rate, have fallen outside the mandate because they do not depend on nicotine replacement.

Chantix, which blocks nicotine receptors in the brain, has a reported success rate of 40 to 50 percent, twice as high as nicotine replacement medications such as gum, skin patches, lozenges and nasal spray, Puerini said, although patients also need continuing support to achieve success.Wellbutrin, an antidepressant, also has had marked success as a smoking cessation medication. Neither Chantix nor Wellbutrin is part of the mandated coverage.

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Thomas C. Slater and Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, both Providence Democrats, would require insurers to include all cessation medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration, regardless of how they work. The bills also would increase the amount of counseling health insurers must cover, from 8 to 16 half-hour sessions.

Slater’s bill has passed the House. His bill and Perry’s are both to be heard Wednesday by the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.

Both Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and United Healthcare support the expanded coverage, with their respective spokeswomen saying it would be cost-effective in the long run.

Said United Healthcare’s Deborah Spano, “We believe that we won’t be paying as much for bronchitis, colds, asthma, or lung disease. Is it a one-for-one today? No, but we will realize it pretty quickly on the smaller items.”

The American Cancer Society estimates that Americans spend $506 million a year to treat smoking-related health problems, and Medicaid shells out an additional $179 million, said society volunteer Cheryl McKenney, of Smithfield.

McKenney said she has watched helplessly as her 76-year-old mother tried repeatedly to quit smoking, succeeding only when she was hospitalized. Her mother now requires supplemental oxygen 24 hours a day, and her quality of life is “not what I would have hoped,” she said.

Dr. Athena Poppas, a cardiologist at Rhode Island Hospital, says she welcomes every bit of support for her patients, some of whom cannot shake free of nicotine, even after they have had suffered heart attacks or undergone angioplasty.

“It’s hard for us,” she said, to see some people who cannot afford their regular cardiac medications, “and are still buying the cigarettes.”

“It’s a mark of how powerful an addiction it is,” said Poppas.

Poppas and other practitioners agree that the recent price hikes have motivated more die-hard smokers to try quitting.

“People are coming in and saying, ‘I can’t afford this any more,’ ” Puerini said.

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Graphic Warnings In Store For City Smokers

2009-07-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

In their push to get more New Yorkers to quit smoking, city health officials are looking to make an even bigger statement. NY1's Kafi Drexel filed the following report.

The pictures aren't pretty. Health officials say they want smokers to see graphic warning signs, like those of a rotting lung, every time they buy tobacco anywhere in the city -- whether it's at an upscale cigar shop or a corner deli.
"In the same way they see the tobacco industry's imagery, we want them to see our imagery which is the real imagery. You smoke a cigarette you are not going to end up in on a mountaintop in the snow," said Assistant City Health Department Commissioner Sarah Perl.
Health officials say they've already been able to cut city smoking rates by nearly 30 percent through aggressive tactics from implementing the smoking ban in most public spaces to their hard-hitting anti-smoking ad campaigns.
The new signs would include information on how to quit, but they wouldn't be subtle. The smallest sign would be a foot and a half by a foot and a half in size, with the largest being three feet square.
At the Civic Deli, just a few blocks away from the Health Department, shop owners say placing something in front of their register that could be as large as three feet by three feet might be a bit much. It could block off their candy and energy bar displays. They say they are not worried other prominent warnings would be a danger to their business. In fact, they say it could be a good thing.
"First of all, cigarettes are bad, everybody knows. If the poster makes everybody quit smoking then it is a good idea," said Civic Deli manager Jae Chung.
Health officials say they are already preparing for a legal battle with the tobacco industry -- one they say they think they can win.
"The most relevant issue here is can the department require disclosure of factual information that will protect health? And that issue was raised in the calorie labeling rule and it was brought to the appellate court and the department won," said New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley.
Winning the court of public opinion may be another matter. Smokers are already mixed on whether the warning signs, no matter how graphic, will get them to quit.
"It's hard to stop. It would probably make me think, and probably think about quitting," said one city smoker.
"The message has been out there probably for the last 25 to 30 years. I haven't stopped yet, so why stop now?" said another city smoker.
A public hearing on the warning rule is scheduled for July 30th. The Board of Health is expected to vote on the measure in September.
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Hope, but no change, for smoking habit

2009-07-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON -- President Obama admitted Tuesday that he still is an occasional smoker, but never in front of his family.
His pledge to quit smoking was a demand from now-first lady Michelle Obama before she gave her blessings for the then-Illinois senator to run for the White House. There is a national fascination with Obama's struggle to quit, brought back into the news the day after he signed an anti-smoking bill.
"Look, I've said before that as a former smoker, I constantly struggle with it. Have I fallen off the wagon sometimes? Yes. The -- am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No. I don't do it in front of my kids. I don't do it in front of my family. And you know, I would say that I am 95 percent cured. But there are times where -- there are times where I mess up."
". . . I get this question about once every month or so. And you know, I don't know what to tell you, other than the fact that, you know, like folks who go to AA, you know, once you've gone down this path, then you know, it's something you continually struggle with, which is precisely why the legislation we signed was so important, because what we don't want is kids going down that path in the first place."
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DKos Quit Smoking Day: The GUS Group

2009-07-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

he purpose of this diary is to announce a DKos quit smoking challenge. The day starts tomorrow (June 15th) and anyone is invited to join in the fun. For you current smokers, you now have an additional incentive to quit. This effort was inspired by a fellow Kossack (Rosebuddear) who has documented her recent efforts with the very difficult task of quitting smoking cigarettes. The effort can be followed here. Day 1, Day 2,Day 5. Let us now stop here for thunderous applause, screaming loud hoots and hollers in support of Rosebuddear.
A collection of people have decided to follow Rosebuddear's example, the GUS group (Gave Up Smoking). The initial announcement was made last night by bsmechanic here, bsmechanic's diary. Check it out, it's very good.
Anyway, here's the deal.

bgblcklab1's diary :: ::

Any current smokers are invited to join us in this attempt to give up this disgusting habit. A diary will be posted starting tomorrow and you are welcome to post your progress, your experiences, the tough times and the good times. The idea is we support each other and have some fun in the process. We will follow our progress on a daily basis, at least at first, and cheer our success at the end (when is the end ?). Former smokers and non-smokers are of course invited to chime in also.
This is short notice for sure. Let's just say someone is in the middle of some tough times...going through a divorce with the job layoff coming unless you work 96 hrs a week and your best dog is going down hill fast with your car breaking down and your house has a leaking roof with the septic system backing up and your hot water heater just blew up. Maybe it is not your best time for this. We hope to demonstrate by our success for anyone who can not join tomorrow, an example to repeat at a later date.
Here is a preview of what is to come.

Want to quit smoking and need some motivation? Cigarettes are now at around $ 7.00/pack depending on your your location. This is putting your drug habit in the range of having to hold up liquor stores to support your addiction. Both cigarette smoking and holding up liquor stores have the potential to have significant effects on your health as well as your social life. (snark warning for the sarcasm impaired) Let us list some more motives.
As a smoker:
You stink
Your house stinks
Your car stinks
Your clothes stink
Your breath stinks
You support big tobacco profits
bsmechanic referenced the beneficial effects of quiting smoking
*Within 20 minutes of the last cigarette, blood pressure drops to its baseline level. Pulse rate also drops, and the body temperature of the hands and feet increases to normal healthy levels.
*Within eight hours, carbon monoxide levels return to normal in your blood stream. Oxygen levels also increase back to normal.
*Within 24 hours, your chance of a heart attack decreases.
*Within 48 hours, nerve endings start regrowing, and your senses of taste and smell improve.
*Within 72 hours bronchial tubes relax, making breathing easier. Lung capacity increases a little, too.
*By two weeks to three months, circulation improves. Walking becomes easier, and lung function increases up to 30 percent.
*By one to nine months, coughing, sinus infections, fatigue, and shortness of breath decrease markedly. Cilia regrow in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs and reduce the risk of infection. Your energy level will also increase.
From U.S. Army Medical Department - Office of the Surgeon General
Go ahead and list some more reasons to quit smoking in your comments. If you want to join in, go out and stock up on fresh fruit, get your preferred nicotine substitute and smoke up your current stash. We'll start to quit Monday morning.
Update [2009-6-14 11:52:44 by bgblcklab1]:
The rec list...HOLY SMOKES!!
Here are some of the links I promised. They were posted in the earlier diaries of Rosebuddear. Thanks to all of the readers who posted them.
whyquit.com
Quit Smoking Online
Become an Ex
Quitnet
The Quit Library
finding a quit line
This is a very good news for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with the use of Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists.
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How I Quit Smoking | Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy

2009-07-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

In my support for the GUS movement here at DKos, I’d like to share my story of how I quit smoking about two years – two and a half, now really – ago. I’m not saying this is how you can quit smoking. Everyone does it in their own way. Hopefully, however, some idea or other here might help someone else along their way.
There will be some personal history given here – I hope that doesn’t put anyone off. It seems necessary, however, for how this worked for me.
A disclaimer: all of the actual facts and events described here are true. I might get a bit... creative... now and then in how I describe them, but the narrative itself is accurate, to the best of my knowledge.

theatre goon's diary :: ::

A bit of background to begin with – some other background will appear as is necessary – I was a smoker for about two decades. At the end, two packs a day, sometimes a bit more. My wife and I moved out of the big city back to the country, and I had already decided that there was no way I was going to try and quit during a move, that’s just insane. We were first moving into a small rental property until we could get a house moved onto my family land – owned by my family since just after the Civil War. About eighty acres are still in family hands, so I now live near my parents. Often, too near.
My self-imposed deadline was that I would quit when we moved into our own house. Do deadlines ever really work...? That’s rhetorical. They hardly ever do.
Before we found a house, the state of Texas, in its infinite wisdom, put another two dollars a pack tax on smokes. I was unemployed at the time. So, I bought one last carton before the tax went into effect, and that was it. I haven’t smoked since I finished those.
But, I hear you asking, how did I actually quit? Cold turkey. No patches, no gums, none of the new pills (that work pretty well, so I hear, even if I can’t remember the name off-hand).
That, and the support of my wonderful, wonderful wife.
I’m not a huge fan of sweets, so I didn’t do gum or candy. I ate piles and piles of raw carrots and celery. For some reason, the crunch was extremely satisfying.
And here’s where you find out more about me than you might have wanted to know. I was a stagehand by trade for fifteen years (hence the nick, I just never got rid of it). I’m also a performer, a self-trained stage combat choreographer and combatant, and a historical re-enactor (mainly, that means I dress up as a pirate for fun and profit).
With no smoking to do, I wrote three full scripts for short stage shows – all of which included a lot of swordplay. I choreographed the swordplay, and my wife and I both fight and perform the shows now and then – to thunderous applause, of course.
I was a grumpy, grumpy bastard. I knew I was, and tried to control it as best I could. Rather than actually snapping at people, I told them that they were annoying the hell out of me, but it was not their fault, but to stop doing whatever they were doing anyway. They mostly didn’t, but said they understood where I was coming from. I became outraged over politics. Well, I was usually already outraged, but I became outraged-er.
I wanted a cigarette every minute of every day that I was awake, for a while. Cravings slowly went away. After a couple of weeks, I still wanted one, but not for the same reason. There was no need. It was just want. After enough time passed, I didn’t even really want one. I still, now and then, would like to have one, but it’s not compelling in the slightest. I’m not even sure exactly when that changed, I just know that it has.
The money I would have spent on cigarettes, I put away for several months. Well, I didn’t actually have it, but I kept a running tally. When I had the money to spare, I put it away. All along my quitting, I told myself that if I stayed quit for six months, I’d go buy myself something really, really cool with that money. If I had even one smoke, all that would go to... well, I dunno. Something else.
I bought that really cool thing. I won’t volunteer what it is here unless people really clamor for it, ‘cuz it could possibly start a side-argument that is unproductive here.
My wife helped. A lot. She put up with me. She... how to put this delicately... distracted me, sometimes, when I really needed a smoke. Take that how you like. We will have been married for thirteen years at the end of this month.
We’re in our own house now, for about two years. We got incredibly lucky and found a frighteningly cheap house that we had moved onto the family place. It needed lots and lots of work, which we’ve done – but you never really finish working on a place. I basically have three jobs, none of them really full-time, but they add up to one. More than one, but less than two. Usually.
I haven’t had a single cigarette since I quit. I still eat a lot of carrots and celery.
People tend to put on weight when they quit smoking. I did, I’ll admit it. I’m also turning forty this year, so that could be adding to it, also. I went from around 190 pounds to 210, and I’m in relatively good shape, so I can live with that. I thought of blaming my hair falling out to the quitting, but no, I have to blame that on my mother’s father. Or mother. Or however the genetics work out on that...
So, is this a self-indulgent diary? Probably. I like to talk about myself, from time to time. I hope, though, that some little bit or idea here might help someone quitting to do so. Or maybe it just distracted you from actually having a cigarette for a few minutes. If it annoyed you in any way, hopefully that annoyance distracted you from wanting a cigarette for a few minutes.
Happy to answer any questions, and I’ll try to monitor the comments as well as I can...
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Success Story: Quitting smoking was case of mind over matter

2009-07-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Robin Goldman, 53, picked up the smoking habit when she was in high school. Since attending a hypnosis session at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital on Sept. 6, 2008, she has lost the urge.

Smokers and nonsmokers will usually agree that cigarettes are expensive, stain fingers and make hair smell bad.
More sobering, there are 443,000 tobacco-related deaths in America each year, according to the American Lung Association. This includes almost 50,000 deaths related to secondhand smoke (due to causes such as lung cancer and heart disease) and more than 700 residential fire deaths per year connected to cigarettes.
But kicking the habit can be nearly impossible for some; nicotine is more addictive even than cocaine and heroin, researchers have found.
The good news is, quitting is possible. Prescription medications, over-the-counter nicotine patches and nondrug interventions such as group therapy and hypnosis all have varying rates of success. What's clear is that the more support you have, the better your chances.
Robin Goldman, 53, from Sun City Center, had tried to quit many times.
Then last September, with her sister in tow, she attended a hospital seminar where she underwent group hypnosis and learned she had the power to quit all along.
Here is her success story.
When did you start smoking?
In high school. It was a peer pressure thing. My family didn't smoke or know I smoked.
What and how much did you smoke?
Nonmenthol Benson & Hedges, about a carton a week.
What motivated you to try to quit?
My uncle died of an aneurysm, and my father had one too. I was told that they were hereditary and as a female smoker, I had an even higher risk.
What methods did you try in the past?
I've gone cold turkey. I tried nicotine gum and patches, but the patches gave me a rash. Chantix, a prescription tablet, worked for me about a week. Thirty years ago, I underwent hypnosis, but left the office after the second session and bought a pack of cigarettes.
What finally worked and why?
On Sept. 6, 2008, I attended Rena Greenberg's stop smoking seminar at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital in Tarpon Springs. I had three things going for me. One, I was genuinely motivated to quit. Two, her program offered continual guidance and support. Third, I took my sister with me, because I knew if she didn't quit, I couldn't. She was reluctant, but agreed to go and ended up quitting too. Now, I know I won't smoke again — it's not an option.
What was it like?
It's a two-hour session. The first part is spent getting at the reasons you smoke and why you want to quit. The second part is the hypnosis. Her voice is so relaxing I could listen to it over and over. You don't go to sleep, but fall into a very relaxed state, a kind of euphoria.
Have you had the urge to smoke since?
Not at all. I can't stand the smell of smoke; it makes me sick.
So now that you are a nonsmoker, what are the benefits?
I feel better. My house and clothes are cleaner and fresher. Everything smells and tastes better. In fact, I've gained some weight — 25 pounds — but still feel much healthier than before.
I have more money to spend and bought myself some really nice jewelry from the money I've saved.

THE HYPNOTIST
Rena Greenberg, president of Wellness Seminars, has been helping people quit smoking and lose weight since 1990, when she gave her first seminar at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital in Tarpon Springs. The Sarasota resident is a graduate of Brooklyn College, was a biofeedback therapist at the Hospital of Joint Disease in New York City, and holds two certifications in hypnosis.
She counts her former clients at well over 100,000; most live in Florida, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
She said the seminar works well for those who want to tap into the power of their own thinking.
"It helps change us so that all of the sudden that cigarette or junk food we've been craving is no longer a source of pleasure," she said. "Essentially, we are turning off the 'want switch' and all the negative programming telling us to 'finish that plate' or 'have a cookie.'
"The key is to program a new response to eat healthier foods or exercise more. We have to be able to see ourselves as a nonsmoker or thin person."
The first part of the seminar is about 40 minutes long and explains the conflict between the conscious and subconscious mind. Hypnosis introduces a new image into the subconscious, she said.
Greenberg's next seminars will be June 27 at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital, 1395 S. Pinellas Avenue, Tarpon Springs. The Stop Smoking seminar is from 10 a.m. until noon; the Lose Weight Seminar is from 1 to 3 p.m.
The fee ($79.99 at the door or $69.99 online at www.easywillpower.com ) includes a CD to reinforce the hypnotherapy, a behavior modification booklet and Greenberg's 183-page book, The Right Weigh.
DO YOU HAVE A SUCCESS STORY?
If you've lost weight, shaped up, or overcome some other health obstacle you'd like to share with the readers of Personal Best, please send us your story. We need to know your name, age, hometown, what you achieved, how you did it, and how it has changed your life. "Before'' and "after'' photos are helpful, too. Please e-mail your information to Personal Best editor Charlotte Sutton: sutton@sptimes.com (write Success Story in the subject line).

THE HYPNOTIST
Rena Greenberg, president of Wellness Seminars, has been helping people quit smoking and lose weight since 1990, when she gave her first seminar at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital in Tarpon Springs. The Sarasota resident is a graduate of Brooklyn College, was a biofeedback therapist at the Hospital of Joint Disease in New York City, and holds two certifications in hypnosis.
She counts her former clients at well over 100,000; most live in Florida, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
She said the seminar works well for those who want to tap into the power of their own thinking.
"It helps change us so that all of the sudden that cigarette or junk food we've been craving is no longer a source of pleasure," she said. "Essentially, we are turning off the 'want switch' and all the negative programming telling us to 'finish that plate' or 'have a cookie.'
"The key is to program a new response to eat healthier foods or exercise more. We have to be able to see ourselves as a nonsmoker or thin person."
The first part of the seminar is about 40 minutes long and explains the conflict between the conscious and subconscious mind. Hypnosis introduces a new image into the subconscious, she said.
if you go
Greenberg's next seminars will be June 27 at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital, 1395 S. Pinellas Avenue, Tarpon Springs. The Stop Smoking seminar is from 10 a.m. until noon; the Lose Weight Seminar is from 1 to 3 p.m. The fee ($79.99 at the door or $69.99 online at www.easywillpower.com) includes a CD to reinforce the hypnotherapy, a behavior modification booklet and Greenberg's 183-page book, The Right Weigh.

DO YOU HAVE A SUCCESS STORY?
If you've lost weight, shaped up, or overcome some other health obstacle you'd like to share with Personal Best, please send us your story. We need to know your name, age, hometown, what you achieved, how you did it, and how it has changed your life. "Before'' and "after'' photos are helpful, too. Please e-mail your information to Personal Best editor Charlotte Sutton: sutton@sptimes.com (write Success Story in the subject line).
This is a very interesting story for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists.
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Iowa apartment complex makes some units smoke-free

2009-07-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa - One of Iowa's largest apartment complexes is clearing the air by making some its units smoke-free.

Sun Prairie and Vista Court Apartments in West Des Moines, which are next to each other, have 40 buildings and nearly 1,100 apartments.

Owner Keith Denner says nine buildings, or 25 percent of the units, will be smoke-free.

Denner says he starting thinking about it last year as the Legislature took up a no-smoking bill for all public buildings, including workplaces, bars and restaurants. The law took effect last summer.

Denner says residents who smoke will be given the option to quit smoking in their apartments or move to one of the other buildings where smoking is allowed.

Source

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Hypnotherapy For Quit Smoking becomes mainstream

2009-07-04T18:47:00.001-07:00

MONROE -- In an office off of East Phifer Street, the smell of Willow Breeze candles mixes with the sound of waterfalls and tranquil music. And overlooking a reclined leather chair sits Cathie Parker, a certified master hypnotherapist.

Read More: http://enquirerjournal.southernheadlines.com/index.cfm?section=62&story=19612

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Conn. quitting in helping its smokers?

2009-07-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

Hartford (WTNH) - Connecticut is ranked dead last in a program to stop smoking, spending less than two-percent of our tobacco revenue on smoking programs. Medicaid does not cover any programs to help stop smoking and the state's quit line was shut down.
Grace Bechard, of Waterbury, smoked at least a pack a day for over 50-years and started pretty early on.
"I was 12; back then that was the thing," said Bechard.
Over the years, she tried everything to quit. "I did hypnosis, acupuncture, you name it, whatever there was out there, I tried," she said.
But never, not once, did she get help from the state. In fact, she didn't know that was even a possibility. It was something the Attorney General said we should be ashamed of.
"We have missed a historic opportunity to save lives and save dollars," said Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
Connecticut was one of the first states to go after big tobacco companies. Attorney General Blumenthal was among the Attorney Generals who crafted the historic settlement bringing millions into the state. But, somehow that money has just gone elsewhere.
"We have failed to give smokers who are addicted to nicotine the kinds of tools and weapons they need to break that addiction," he said.
The numbers are certainly sobering.
Every year, Connecticut receives about $142 million from the tobacco companies. The cigarette tax brings in $335 million for a total of $477 million in revenue. But in health care costs directly related to smoking, the state spends $1.63 billion.
"It was not a requirement of the settlement or of the lawsuit that any of the money be spent on specific smoking prevention or cessation programs," said Jeffrey Beckham.
Beckham is the undersecretary of the State's Office of Policy & Management. And he's right; we're not required to spend any of that money on programs to stop smoking.
He also points out that we were one of the first state's to ban smoking in public places, we have one of the heaviest cigarette taxes and we have statistically fewer people who smoke than in other states.
"We don't live in a perfect world, we don't have unlimited resources but we believe we've put a substantial amount of resources out there," said Beckham.
But Connecticut spends less than one-percent on smoking programs. Medicaid does not cover any. And, we no longer even give out the nicotine patch through the quit line.
People like Bechard are still struggling. She said the desire is always there; she only has 50-percent of her lung capacity, 30-percent of her heart capacity and is on oxygen now for about 20 hours, though she's worked hard to improve her health in the last five years.
The only thing that worked for her was a worst-case scenario.
"We went to the pulmonary doctor, the heart doctor, they all said the same thing, quit smoking or die," Bechard said.
One of the major tobacco companies has been lobbying hard in-state, calling legislators and trying to get them to pull all the money from the stop smoking programs this year.
It is unclear what will be included in this year's final budget.
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Cafe smoking ban encourages more to stop

2009-07-04T18:46:00.001-07:00

Some 1.2 million people tried to stop smoking between April 2008 and this April - or one third of the total smoking population, according to Maastricht University research.

But before the smoking ban was introduced in July, some 900,000 people a year would attempt to quit the habit, the research showed.

Of the people who have tried to stop since last April, one-third managed to quit for good.

Source

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STOP SMOKING ONLINE: Houston Psychologists Develop Groundbreaking, Interactive Stop Smoking Program

2009-07-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

- Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the
United States

- More than 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco-related
disease

- Smoking causes more deaths than alcohol, AIDS, illegal drugs, car
crashes, fires, murders, and suicides combined.

- Someone dies from smoking every 72 seconds.

HOUSTON, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- DaretoQuit.com is the only online stop
smoking program that interacts daily with the user, providing specific
lessons and strategies to coach him/her through the quitting process. The
most unique thing about DaretoQuit.com is the video interface. Users are
greeted daily by a "quit coach" who gets to know them and their personal
smoking habits and "holds their hand" through the process.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090623/DA36446)

DaretoQuit.com is a 6 week smoking cessation program developed by
psychologists and based upon 30 years of scientific research. It is the
only interactive, individualized smoking cessation program that tailors
itself to individuals and their unique smoking habits

Each day when users log on to the DaretoQuit.com, they are directed to
their own personalized page, called "My Page". Here, they receive daily
lessons, coping strategies and feedback about how they are doing. This page
also contains personalized information, including a graph of all of the
subscribers' smoking episodes so they can easily track their progress over
time.

"Quitting smoking is HARD! DaretoQuit.com is designed to give the user
the tools they need to be successful. What is different about
DaretoQuit.com is that it is personal and interactive. No two people will
work the program quite the same way, because no two individuals are exactly
the same. It takes courage and effort to quit smoking, but we know you can
do it...go ahead, we dare you!" Suzanne Mouton-Odum, Ph.D. Developer of
DaretoQuit.com

Dare to Quit.com was developed by Suzanne Mouton-Odum, Ph.D. and Robin
Reamer, Ph.D. who are pioneers in the science of interactive, on-line
self-help on the Internet. They have combined their knowledge and wisdom of
interactive, self-help programming to the arena of smoking cessation with
the help of Joy Schmitz, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist and a professor in
the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of
Texas Health Science Center who specializes in developing smoking cessation
programs.

Source

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those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with the use of Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy Courses,
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Quit smoking course would have Sir Walter spinning in his grave

2009-07-04T18:40:00.000-07:00

A 17th century pub close to where Sir Walter Raleigh is reported to have smoked his first pipe of tobacco is to launch a stop smoking course for its customers.
The Longs Arms in South Wraxall, close to South Wraxall Manor, where tobacco was smoked for the first time, will run the course next month, with landlady Jacqui Price and chef Dan Hinds among the first to sign up.
The course, which has 20 more places, will be run by Tessa Kirby and will involve hypnosis and mind training techniques.
Smoker Mrs Price, who has run the Wadworth-owned pub for the past four years with her husband Bob, said: “It’s ironic that we are running a stop smoking course at a place that is so closely associated with the start of smoking in this country.
“But whatever the history of the pub, it’s certain that Sir Walter didn’t forsee the far reaching consequences of that first puff.”
South Wraxall Manor is where Sir Walter is reputed to have been doused with water by a maid who thought he was on fire as he sampled tobacco for the first time.

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Stop Smoking Tip | Effects Of Smoking

2009-07-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

So what if it is really that easy? What if all your beliefs about how hard it is going to be to quit are completely false? What if, after just one session of hypnotherapy or NLP you find it incredibly easy to become and remain a happy, confident non-smoker for life?

The reason why hypnotherapy & NLP are so successful is because both our beliefs about smoking and our habitual smoking behaviours reside within your unconscious mind. So whilst consciously we may wish to quit, all too often our all powerful unconscious mind simply would not let us.

You see when smokers first start; they buy into years of conditioning telling them that smoking made them feel somehow better, more confident and more relaxed. And as a result of lighting up those first few cigarettes, smokers permanently install these extremely unhelpful beliefs directly into their unconscious, beliefs that also included the concept that quitting was going to be really difficult.

At the same time, smokers make a conscious decision to choose those perceived benefits of feeling better, more relaxed and more confident, over the initial physical reactions of inhaling the poisonous fumes. So as time goes on and those uncomfortable physical reactions start to subside, as a result of their newly formed nicotine addiction, they started to mistake the relief of feeding that addiction with feelings of relaxation and confidence.

So many years later, after smoking tens of thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of cigarettes, they have re-enforced those unhelpful beliefs about smoking and how hard it is to quit and, they have also trained their unconscious minds to wrongly associate the process of lighting and smoking a cigarette with feeling good, confident and relaxed.

Hypnotherapy and NLP allow us to retrain the unconscious mind of a smoker to disregard those false beliefs about smoking and how hard it is to quit, and to swap those unconscious benefits for something altogether more exciting and fulfilling - feeling absolutely great!

So as a result, the all too familiar withdrawal pangs of irritability, mood swings and cravings, the primary reasons why people fail to permanently quit smoking, will be replaced with feelings of relaxation, improved self confidence and overall happiness.

If you would like to Quit Smoking with the easiest most successful system then visit Quit Smoking Expert now!

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Win 5,000 Holiday Euros With the European Smoke Free Awards 2009

2009-06-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

LONDON, June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Have you recently quit smoking and want to let everyone know about your achievement, or do you need an extra incentive to give up the cigarettes for good? Then why not enter the European Smoke Free Awards 2009?

Held for the first time in 2008, the awards are a chance to win a share of 7,000 Euros in holiday vouchers, with the Quitter of the Year scooping 5,000 holiday Euros and the runner up winning 2,000 holiday Euros.

A range of countries across Europe are participating in the awards, with each country putting forward one finalist who will win a trip to the awards ceremony in Barcelona in February 2010. You can also nominate a healthcare professional who has helped smokers quit and a public figure who has made an impact on smoking policy.

To enter or nominate, please contact your national Quitline:

  
  UK: 0800-00-22-00
  Sweden: 020-84-00-00
  Lithuania: 860595555
  Bulgaria: 0700-10-323
  Finland: 0800-148-484
  Latvia: 7037333
  Netherlands: 0900-9390
  Poland: 0-801-108-108
  Italy: 800-99-88-77
  Portugal: 808-20-88-88
  Cyprus: 22-448-000
  Spain: 902-111-444 (Catalan region only)
  Iceland: 800-6030

Last year's European Quitter of the Year was Milos Hlohovsky from the Czech Republic. Milos' story of how he stopped smoking up to 25 cigarettes a day to improve his health and free himself from the slavery of cigarettes, inspired the judges to award him top prize. Milos, who smoked for 48 years before quitting, said: "My life has been much better since. I have fresh breath and I do not smell of smoke. My wife is really pleased I have quit smoking too and I have encouraged several of my friends to stop or reduce their smoking. My doctor is also glad as my blood pressure is now like a young man!"

Steve Crone, chairman of the European Network of Quitlines, said: "Last year's first European Awards were a great success, and we are hoping for even more inspirational stories this year from people across Europe. We are looking for Europeans who have already quit or who are prepared to register and quit. There has never been a better time to quit with so many clinically proven treatments available and excellent support from a range of health care professionals including Quitline counsellors and GPs."

Smokers and ex-smokers must have quit on or since January 1, 2008 and have until December 31, 2009 to register or enter. They must have been smoke-free for at least six months to enter the competition. Only the most inspirational stories will be contacted to go through to the next stage.

All the winners will be announced after the award ceremony (February 2010) on each country's website. Rules of entry are also on the websites.

Notes to Editors:

Photographs and case studies are available on request

The European Smoke Free Awards 2009 are supported by Pfizer, which has provided financial assistance for the awards programme.

The European Network of Quitlines has full editorial control of all materials relating to the European Smoke Free Awards and full control over the selection criteria and selection of finalists and winners.

RULES OF ENTRY

Nominees must have stopped smoking on or after January 1, 2008 and must have been smoke free for six months before entering. The deadline for entries is December 31, 2009. Entries must include a recent photograph. Nominees must be aged above the legal age for smoking in their country of residence. Entrants from the 2008 Awards (excluding individual country winners) may enter if they meet the above criteria. No liability will be accepted for lost, damaged or delayed entries. Proof of posting cannot be accepted as proof of delivery. No cash prize available. Final choice of the awards is at the Selection Panel's discretion. The Selection Panel's decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into. Entrants must be prepared to co-operate in any media coverage. Entrants must agree to the use of their name and photograph in any materials produced by the European Network of Quitlines and/or Pfizer in relation to the awards. All nominees must consent to their country's Quitline contacting their doctor and agree to take part in a saliva test to confirm they are an ex-smoker. The contest is not open to employees and families of anyone connected with the organisation of the competition.

ENTRY IMPLIES ACCEPTANCE OF THESE RULES.

Source

This is a very great contest for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists in London.

Relax and Quit Smoking!

2009-06-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

Most smokers who have tried to kick the habit will agree to one thing — it is quite easy to get into the habit, but when it comes to quitting, it is not that simple to tell oneself to stop reaching for that pack on the store counter. For a lot of people who have successfully stopped smoking for good, it was most probably not a one-shot deal. It is common to try to start quitting and fail, once, twice or any number of times, before finally being able to quit.

An interesting feature on WebMD’s Stop Smoking Support and Tips by Gina Shaw, however, shares a few relaxation techniques that might help those who would like to quit smoking kick the habit for good. The article does mention that there are no hard-hitting scientific facts and observations – not yet, anyway – to back up how effective these techniques are in helping people stop smoking, but the American Cancer Society’s Vice Ppresident for Epidemiology and Surveillance Research, Michael Thun, M.D., concurs that these approaches might be of help.

yogaThese techniques are held together by a common factor: all involve deep breathing. The reason why these might help is that smokers are generally used to breathing deeply while puffing into a cigarette, and this might be a practice that they no longer do once they try to quit. Forgetting to practice deep breathing may lead to an increase in tension levels, which leads to that “fuzzy”, “grumpy” and “out of sorts” feeling that smokers who try to quit sometimes get.

Here are techniques that experts on quitting smoking as well as counselors on the American Cancer Society Quitline recommend.

Practice deep breathing. Whether one is trying to quit smoking or not, this is a good exercise to calm you down. It involves taking in a deep breath, filling your lungs with air as the stomach expands. Once the lungs are full, pause for a minute before exhaling, repeating this process with the eyes closed until one feels calm and relaxed.

Guided imagery. This technique was recommended by Trina Ita, a counseling supervisor for Quitline. It involves imagining how one would address difficult situations without resorting to smoking.

T’ai chi. This martial art looks more like dance than what most people perceive a martial art is, with its fluid movements and postures. There are researchers in the University of Miami who are reportedly studying its effectiveness for a smoking-cessation program.

Other recommended techniques are meditation and yoga. The concluding advice given by Shaw to those who would like to explore this technique is to choose a technique that suits one’s lifestyle and that one would enjoy.

Read more: http://hometestingblog.testcountry.com/?p=2806#ixzz0JPH7FaZC&C

This is a very great article for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists in London.

GUS for smoking Kossacks. This time, it's personal (w/WGN update)

2009-06-24T19:25:00.000-07:00

This is a flare diary for Kossacks who are interested in quitting smoking. Within a comments thread in Rosebuddear's recent diary Not smoking, day 2 came the idea to form a Kos quit-smoking challenge, or support group. One commenter posted a pre-intention to quit on Monday, July 15. Another came up with the acronym GUS (Gave Up Smoking).

And, will you look at that? From the fledgling seeds of a comment thread comes GUS (Gave Up Smoking), and the target date for quitting smoking is this Monday, June 15. Contact information for those who are interested can be found at the tail end of this diary.

"This time... it's personal" is a phrase that is commonly associated with sequels to Hollywood blockbuster action flicks. GUS is not a sequel, though Gus is the name of a bark-happy beagle, the first family pet that I remember. This is an example of making it personal, with more to follow.

bsmechanic's diary :: ::

Why make quitting smoking a personal matter? For chrissakes, where have you been the last fifty years? Health risks? (coff-coff) Is it not enough for you to simply decide "I don't want to die," and just put the coffin nails down? Anecdotally, some doctors and psychologists view smoking as a form of "covert suicide."

I mean, it's not like we haven't been informed, unlike those poor souls who were subject to some really examples of advertising-as-high-absurdity through much of the 20th century.

Gone are the days when cigarette brands lured a relatively more diverse cross-section of endorsees:

Actors

Professional sports figures

... feminists?

... doctors?

... puppies?

... babies??

... Santa Claus???

Fast forward to the present day, and what have we got?

We've come a long way, baby. A cartoon character. I won't rant over the aspect of Joe Camel, phallic nose and all, as subliminal drug pusher to youth culture (this can include 43 year-old Peter Pans like myself, as well). So here we go, into the heart of my current motivation to quit smoking.

I hate being lied to. Or, more pointedly, my level of disdain over being lied to is inversely proportionate to the creative effort being used to bullshit me. Those ads of the previous century? Having been born after most of them found print, I can't offer an accurate reaction, had I come across one while flipping through the pages of Life magazine. Like many, I see these ads, chuckle, and shrug my shoulders in ironic reaction to this display of kitsch, while secretly admiring the guts of these former marketing efforts. Santa Claus???

Now the cat is out of the bag. Smoking kills. On the side of what will hopefully be my last pack of cigarettes going into GUS day comes the following Surgeon General's Warning:

Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy.

So while Mickey Mantle, Ronald Reagan, and the Super Feminist may have been served some cloudy data as regards cigarette smoking, well... in the current day, we're now crystal clear on this information. That any such advertising exists for a known killer of 440,000 Americans per year, much less a goddamned cartoon character, is an insult to my intelligence.

Isn't this screwed up... on my part? To repeat: the logical consequences of smoking do not factor into my decision to quit as much as a vain perception that Big Tobacco is out to hump me. But then again, and I think I speak for many smokers, if common sense applied to this life style, then most of us would have given this shit up years ago.

Jacquelyn Rogers is the author of the book You Can Stop Smoking (Powell's Books link here), and the founder of the Smokenders program. In this book, she emphasizes the importance of coming up with highly personal, even selfish reasons to quit smoking, as a means of postive motivation:

Establish a positive attitude for your reasons to quit--not as a form of self-denial or sacrifice, but as an exchange for something that is of greater value. That's an interesting twist, particularly when most smokers are used to thinking of quitting as giving up something they consider worthwhile. (p.160)

Here is my own list of very personal reasons to quit smoking.

Physical benefits (it's not just lung cancer...)

*Eyes are bright and clear; no longer blood-shot or puffy.
*It's easy to ride my bike now--even up hills.
*No longer have to accommodate pocket space for a pack of smokes.
*No more late afternoon headaches.
*Better sex!
*My apartment is cleaner, and smells better.

Social benefits (where being shamed fails, these ideas win!)

*Sat through a two-hour film without squirming past my friends to have a smoke.
*The act of smoking is aesthetically silly.
*I can concentrate on your side of a conversation without being distracted by my cigarette.
*Doing my part to be a complete human being, and not some meaningless statistic on the data sheet of some Big Tobacco Exec.

Emotional benefits (... but what about the good feelings that I'll have when I quit?)

*I am able to get things done, without being stalled by a cigarette.
*No more "where did I leave my smokes?"
*I love the support from family and friends.
*Feeling more emotionally connected helps to greater facilitate my art work.
*I feel good about giving myself an annual $2400 raise.

In wrapping this up: my big flip-off at the tobacco companies is the booster fuel I am using as motivation. But to sustain my recovery from nicotine, I invite more postive and highly-personal things I stand to gain, once the tar starts to clear my system.

SallyCat will be heading up Monday's launching of GUS. Through this week, there will be diaries from fellow Kossacks (GUSsacks?) who will be documenting their ~~attempts to quit smoking~~ journeys into smoke-free living. Also, bgblcklab1 is in the GUS on-deck circle, slated to post a diary tomorrow. Your encouragement and participation is much appreciated.

Also, I couldn't resist this:

Airplane: The Movie!

***** ***** *****

UPDATE X1: While manning the comments section of this diary, I had been listening to the Nick Digilio show on WGN radio (AM 720, Chicago). At the top of the hour (9PM CST), Nick broached the subject of recent cigarette taxes that have driven the cost of a pack to $8 a pack, in these parts. I phoned in, and actually got on the air! While Nick focused on the sub-topic of taxes and the cost of smoking, I gracefully managed to ease into the conversation a mention of the Daily Kos smoke-out this Monday. I will update this diary with a podcast, as soon as it is available (if you're still here at that point, I am listener "Chris from Ukranian Village").

The downside of all this: while I've been geeking out on my laptop tonight, Nick gave mention to the World Naked Bike Ride, currently happening. In Chicago. This very moment. Folks... time for me to go out and get some fresh air!

***** ***** *****

UPDATE X2: Within some comments, the issue of physical discomfort from nicotine withdrawal is mentioned. I concede to having neglected this issue in my initial post.

As happens with alcohol and heroin withdrawal, be prepared for varying levels of discomfort when you put down the smokes. There are many products available to help you do this, nicotine substitute products (gums, patches) being the most popular.

This update is not an endorsement of any particular method. I do endorse checking with your doctor. If you do not have a doctor, then by all means, give it your best shot, but be easy on yourself if is too much for you to handle at this time. As a friend of mine, a ten-year recovered smoker, told me after one of my relapses: "Every failure brings you one step closer to success, if you keep trying."

This is a very great article for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists.

Source

More people opting for hypnosis to try to quit smoking

2009-06-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

SINGAPORE: More people are giving hypnosis a shot in their efforts to quit smoking. While this form of treatment has been available here for at least ten years now, more hospital professionals are being trained in it.

Some 30 health care professionals will complete a clinical hypnosis course conducted by London College of Clinical Hypnosis in collaboration with Tan Tock Seng Hospital in October.

The whole session will take about 1.5 hours and according to therapist Mdm Karen Ong from the London College of Clinical Hypnosis, the therapy is very safe.

Sheila Menon, principal, London College of Clinical Hypnosis, said: "What happens is when a smoker decides to quit smoking, they can go into a relaxed state and focus acutely on what it is they want to achieve and they can break the habit. In addition to that, they can also imagine themselves as a non-smoker in the future."

But does this method work for teenagers who do not want to quit smoking?

Ms Menon said: "When a parent brings a teenager who really doesn't want to quit, we quite often say, 'Why not give it a shot? Try out being a non-smoker and you can choose to remain a non-smoker, or go back to smoking.'"

The hope is that they will benefit from the attempt. - CNA/vm/ls

This is a very great article for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists.

Source

Stop Smoking with Hypnotherapy

2009-06-07T04:25:00.000-07:00

(NaturalNews) We have all heard how bad tobacco products are for our health. Smoking is an addiction that is very difficult to quit, but there are proven techniques that help increase your chances of not only quitting smoking, but never smoking a cigarette again. One of the most effective treatments in helping people to finally stop smoking is the alternative method of hypnotherapy.

According to the American Heart Association, 47.1 million people smoke in the United States. Of men in the United States, 23.5% smoke and out of women in the United States, 18.1% smoke. The statistics are even higher when looking at the worldwide statistics of cigarette smokers.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 4000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, 50 of which are known to cause cancer. According to WHO, half of the world's population of children (700 million children) are exposed to tobacco smoke. The International Labour Organization estimates that 200,000 people around the world die from second-hand smoke at work. These statistics show that not only is it important for an individual to quit smoking, but it is also important that they quit for the health of those around them as well.

Smoking is a physical and mental addiction. People become used to the feeling they get from a cigarette. They get used to having a cigarette in their hand and it occupies a great deal of time throughout their day; smokers become used to having an oral fixation with cigarettes. These are all physical aspects of their habit. The mental addiction can be more difficult to overcome. The actual addiction is mental and there is very little someone can do physically to help overcome the mental addiction to cigarettes.

Moses (1987) performed research on treating smoking with hypnotherapy. The researcher points out that smoking deals with habit, addiction, and willpower. All three of these aspects are difficult to treat alone, let alone all together, but hypnosis has shown to be effective in treating the habit, addiction, and one's willpower to quit. The suggestions used in this study were to get smokers to change the way they viewed smoking and also to become more aware of the negative health effects smoking was doing to their body and overall health. Hypnosis was used to target the smokers' habit, addiction, and willpower to effectively help them quit smoking. Results of the study showed that using hypnosis suggestions was very beneficial in helping people abstain from smoking tobacco.

Smoking has many negative effects on ones physical and mental health as well as the health of those around smokers. Quitting smoking has so many positive influences on one's health and a positive economic impact. It is important for people to look into alternative methods of quitting smoking. Hypnosis generally requires only a few sessions to help people quit smoking in the long-term having a huge positive impact on a person's life.

Sources

Moses, F. (1987). Treating smoking behavior by discussion and hypnosis: Destroying the myths of habit, addiction, and willpower. Psychology: A Quarterly Journal of Human Behavior, 24(1-2), 1-9.

"smoking statistics." American Heart Association. Retrieved June 1, 2009:
http://www.americanheart.org/presen...

World Health Organization. Retrieved June 1, 2009: http://www.who.int/features/qa/60/e...

This is a very great survey for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists.

	Yes, this was already in my scheduler.
7%	4 votes
	Yes, as a latecomer who is fired up!
8%	5 votes
	Yes, with some reservations.
7%	4 votes
	No, but I will stop by to enourage and learn (smoker).
28%	16 votes
	No, but I will stop by to encourage and learn (non-smoker).
14%	8 votes
	No, I have no intentions of quitting.
28%	16 votes
	Pie! Endorsed by babies, Mickey Mantle, and 4 out of 5 doctors.
5%	3 votes