Advice and information at hand for No Smoking Day
Shropshire Council’s Public Health team will be on hand with advice and information at Tesco Extra in Shrewsbury during No Smoking Day (Wednesday 11 March).
The team will be there from 10am onwards and will be offering hand out cards and information leaflets highlighting the support available for those wishing to kick the habit, that smokers can get help and advice from Shropshire’s local stop smoking service Help2Quit.
This No Smoking Day, the British Heart Foundation is calling on smokers to bust the common myths associated with smoking and commit to quitting on 11 March. The charity expects nearly one million smokers to attempt to quit on the day. New research released ahead of the British Heart Foundation’s No Smoking shows that smokers have a 70% increased risk of anxiety and depression when compared with non-smokers, despite the commonly held perception that lighting up is a stress reliever (1). Interestingly, levels of anxiety and depression reported by long-term ex-smokers were indistinguishable from people who have never smoked and much lower than current smokers (2). This suggests that quitting smoking could help people combat anxiety and depression and improve mental health.
If you or someone you know is trying to give up smoking, there is advice and help at hand. Help2Quit, the local NHS stop smoking service in Shropshire, offers free support delivered by stop smoking specialists – including practice nurses, midwives, pharmacists and school nurses – that really works. Help2Quit has been helping people to quit for the last 17 years and has seen around 85,000 clients in that time.
The service is available in almost all GP surgeries in Shropshire and is also provided in many pharmacies, community venues, hospitals and selected supermarkets.
For more information about quitting smoking in Shropshire call Help2Quit on 01743 453537 or visit www.healthyshropshire.co.uk. You can also visit nosmokingday.org.uk.
If you would prefer to have an online chat with an expert Stop Smoking Adviser, click here. You can also keep in touch via Facebook and twitter @Help2QuitShrops.
Further information
The research, carried out by world leading smoking cessation expert Professor Robert West of UCL (University College London), is the first of its kind to compare the prevalence of anxiety and depression in smokers, non-smokers, and long-term ex-smokers (smokers who have quit for over a year) at a population level. The study of nearly 6,500 people over the age of 40 found that 18.3% of smokers reported suffering depression and anxiety compared to 10% of non-smokers and 11.3% of ex-smokers. This counters the perception of more than a third (36%) of UK smokers who believe the habit is a stress buster (3).
Professor Robert West, Professor of Health Psychology at UCL and lead researcher, said:
“Our study found that long-term ex-smokers have similar prevalence of anxiety and depression to non-smokers and considerably lower levels than smokers. Quitting smoking could be the key to improving not only your physical health, but your mental health too.”
The findings support a recent review of 26 studies published in the British Medical Journal in 2014 that found that quitting smoking is associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress and improved positive mood and quality of life compared with continuing to smoke. The review also found that quitting smoking has the same or stronger effect on treating mood and anxiety disorders than antidepressants (4).
BHF are working in partnership with Public Health England to provide free support tools for those wanting to stop. The NHS One Day Quit Tool has been developed by experts to provide practical and tailored support to help you every step of the way. Smokers are being encouraged to search ‘One Day Quit’ online and make No Smoking Day the day they start to stop.
Nearly one in five UK adults smoke, increasing the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and a variety of cancers. The good news is that stopping smoking is the single best thing you can do for your heart health, and the risk to your health decreases significantly soon after stopping.
For more information contact the BHF newsdesk at 020 7554 0164 and email newsdesk@bhf.org.uk.
