Stopping smoking
Get help now with stopping smoking - Staffordshire Connects | Stop Smoking
Top tips
Set a date
Decide when you want to quit, write it down and stick to it.
Get prepared
If you usually smoke at certain times of the day such as after food, with a coffee, or after putting the kids to bed, plan ahead to do something different at these times.
Use stop smoking aids
Nicotine replacement therapies (NRT), prescription tablets and e-cigarettes increase your chances of quitting successfully compared to willpower alone.
The Benefits of Quitting Smoking
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- For example, if you smoke 10 cigarettes a day, you could save as much as £190.00 a month when you quit (based on £12.70 for a pack of 20 cigarettes). This could help towards your heating costs or food bills!
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It's never too late to stop smoking. As soon as you quit, your body will begin to repair itself. You’ll notice improvements in your breathing, sense of taste and smell just a few days after stopping. Within a year, you'll have reduced risk of cardiovascular and respiratory disease.
You’ll also improve the health of your family and friends by protecting them from second-hand smoke.
The NHS offers information about what happens when you quit.
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Not everyone who quits smoking will gain weight but some people do. This is because smoking can suppress your appetite and increases your metabolic rate so you burn calories faster.
If you quit smoking and replace it with unhealthy snacking then you're likely to put on a bit of weight. However, if you stop and keep to a healthy diet it's unlikely that you'll gain weight because you've stopped smoking.
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Tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, more than 70 of which are known carcinogens. Smoking will kill half of all long-term users. E-cigarettes do not contain tar or carbon monoxide, 2 of the most harmful elements in tobacco smoke. They may contain some chemicals also found in tobacco smoke, but at much lower levels.
Research has found that vaping poses only a fraction of the risks of smoking, and switching completely from smoking to vaping can offer substantial health benefits. You may have heard about an outbreak of serious lung disease in the US from vaping; the substances that are believed to have caused this are not allowed in e-cigarettes in the UK.
There is a strong agreement among health bodies including the Royal College of Physicians, British Medical Association, Cancer Research UK, UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies and others, that e-cigarettes support smokers to quit cigarettes.
Apps that can help!
There are an increasing number of health and wellbeing apps available. We are making it easier to help you find apps by using our trusted app finder library.
You can search a range of health and wellbeing apps across different areas, such as, stopping smoking, improving your mental wellbeing, keeping active and managing health conditions.
Further information
Everyone Health
A free stop smoking service for those over 18 and living in Staffordshire.
Your local stop smoking service, Everyone Health, is designed to help you not just give up in the short term, but to quit smoking for good. A team of specially-trained experts can provide:
- Free advice, support and encouragement on how best to go about quitting smoking for good
- A series of one-to-one support sessions over a 12-week period.
- A tailored programme, which includes; advice on choosing a suitable stop smoking medication and information on how to manage cravings and withdrawal symptoms, with support to make long term behaviour changes.
- Free stop smoking medication.
To book your first appointment and for more information:
Other services