Experts say that you should prepare yourself to quit in advance of smoking your last cigarette. Identify several strategies, such as relaxation exercises, that can help you cope with your cravings for tobacco. First try to establish one or two other new habits, such as regular exercise, so you will be giving up tobacco in the context of a complete lifestyle change. Exercise is important; it is the highest predictor of success when quitting tobacco use. When you are ready to quit, take the following steps to ensure success:

Step 1. Take a look at your smoking habits. Make a chart and mark down on it every cigarette you smoke in 24 hours, including the first cigarette you smoke in the morning, the one you automatically light up with a cup of coffee or a drink, and the ones you smoke while on break. Keep monitoring your cigarette use for 3 weeks.

Step 2. Write down all of the reasons why you want to stop smoking—for example, to get rid of your smoker’s cough and to stop exposing your family to secondhand smoke.

Step 3. Set a date by which you intend to quit smoking. Announce the date to all of the people you know and ask them to help you in your effort so they can support you if you lose your resolve.

Step 4. Ask your doctor about using nicotine gum, a nicotine patch, a prescription nicotine inhaler, or prescription medication to help you quit smoking. Try sucking on hard candy or chewing gum, munching on raw vegetables, or exercising more. Stay away from places and situations, such as having drinks with friends in a bar, that you associate with smoking. Sit in the nonsmoking section of restaurants. You may want to join a stop-smoking group; ask your doctor to recommend one.

Step 5. When you quit smoking, you probably will feel like eating more often and may gain a few pounds. Don’t stop yourself from eating when you feel tense during the first few weeks; it will be hard enough to stay away from cigarettes. Stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables, sugar-free candy and soda, and fat-free pretzels or crackers. Drink plenty of water. Your most intense cravings for nicotine will subside after about 8 weeks, when you can resume your usual eating pattern.

Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are a common source of psychiatric and physical morbidity among young women in Western societies. Eating disorders are often not detected and they have a reputation for being difficult to treat.

There are a number of reasons why women with eating disorders are reluctant to seek help.

• Chronic low self-esteem is very common: sufferers feel the disorder is self-inflicted and that they do not deserve help, or that it is not severe enough to warrant help.
• Feelings of shame and guilt often prevent people with binge eating problems from confiding in anyone.
• People often hope the problem will go away on its own.
• Many find it very difficult to tell doctors about their eating. They may have consulted with problems secondary to the eating disorder in the past and feel awkward about admitting to a problem that they had previously not disclosed.
• If they do tell the doctor they may come across obstructive attitudes, often because they does not know how to help.
• They are often fearful that treatment will involve weight gain.
• In some cases, particularly with anorexia nervosa, the sufferer does not view the eating disorder as a problem and does not want to change.

Secondhand smoke is the smoke given off by a burning cigarette, cigar, or pipe mixed with the smoke exhaled by the person smoking. This smoke contains the same 200 poisonous and 40 cancer causing chemicals contained in cigarettes. Because secondhand smoke is distributed throughout the air inhaled by everyone present in an enclosed space, exposure to it is called passive or involuntary smoking.

Secondhand smoke is an especially dangerous health threat to children. A child’s developing lungs are highly susceptible to irritants, producing a cough, wheezing, and excess mucus. Children exposed to secondhand smoke have an increased risk for pneumonia; bronchitis; accumulation of fluid in the ear; and irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. Children who have asthma and are exposed to secondhand smoke experience more severe symptoms and have asthma attacks more often than those who live in a smoke-free home. Passive smoking is thought to cause the development of asthma in thousands of children each year.

If you smoke, don’t smoke in your home, in your car with the windows closed, or around children. If the weather is too bad to smoke outside, smoke in a room with the windows open enough to provide cross ventilation. If you are a nonsmoker, don’t allow anyone to smoke in your house or car, especially around children. Find out about your employer’s smoking policy so you can protect yourself from secondhand smoke at work. In a restaurant, ask to sit in the nonsmoking section, as far away from the smoking area as possible. If your community does not have a smoking control ordinance, become active and urge your local government officials to enact one.

People are staying healthier and living longer now than in decades past. This gain in life expectancy can be credited in part to better nutrition, improved public health and sanitation, and the advent of vaccines and antibiotics. But medical science has also made great strides in understanding and treating debilitating, chronic conditions such as heart disease and stroke.

The stereotype of frailty in old age no longer applies as men take control of their own health by becoming better informed about health issues and their personal health risks. People today are also making better lifestyle choices, such as eating more healthfully, not smoking, and exercising regularly. Such healthy lifestyle choices have been shown to help prevent the development of heart disease and some cancers—the top two causes of death in the United States. These good health habits, along with regular medical checkups, can greatly increase your chances of living longer and healthier. Another way to reduce your risk of illness and early death is to avoid risky behaviors that could jeopardize your health.