TOBACCO AND YOU

Vance Ferrell

HOW TO QUIT TOBACCO 3 —EXPERIENCES OF OTHERS

Here are some experiences that others have had in overcoming the tobacco habit. You will find here not only encouragement, but also helpful hints—in­cluding some pointers not mentioned elsewhere in this book.

HOT WATER WITH LEMON JUICE

"I chewed and smoked for forty years. When I was 62 years old the M.D. was treating me for anemia, heart trouble, kidney trouble, bowel trouble, and then he told me my pros­tate gland was enlarged. By then I was down to skin and bones and weighed only 120 Ibs.; being barely able to drag around, told him I was going home to die without his help.

"Two years later I went back and he went all over me and said, 'What in the world have you been doing? There's not a thing wrong with you.' I weighed 160 Ibs. and was working hard every day. I am 69 years old now and got the best health I ever had.

"Here is how I got rid of tobacco. After a meal, craving for tobacco is worst,—so I decided to go hungry for a few days. The first thing in the morning I drank a quart of hot water with lemon juice and then I started eating very light for a few days, but kept up drinking a quart of hot water every morning one half hour before breakfast and still do. That is one habit I will never quit.

"I also quit tea, coffee and all soft drinks; also liquor of any kind; white bread and white sugar. "I don't think anybody could love tobacco any more than I did. I tried to quit several time, but had no luck until I tried washing it out with water." You will notice in the above experience, that the individual went on fruit juices alone for several days. About twenty years ago, the present writer read the story of a man who was hitching freight car rides across the country and was accidentally locked in a car containing oranges. For about three days, that was all he had to eat. When released, he found that he had no more taste or craving for tobacco.

FRUIT & VEGETABLE DIET

"I quit smoking quite by accident, after smoking for almost 30 years. About two years ago, I went on a fruit and vegetable diet. I go on one every year, but this time I stayed on it longer than ever before, and I noticed that I didn't care for the taste of cigarettes so very much. I found that I would light one and only take a few puffs of it and then lay it to one side. So one evening I said to my husband, that was the last one I was going to smoke. He laughed at me and made a bet that I couldn't go a week without smoking. I won the bet and it will be two years in September of this year that I quit. And I have no desire for them. In fact, I hate the smell of them." In several of the following experiences, you will note the importance of drinking water when the craving comes; also the importance of keeping the hands busy doing something. This is good. Keeping the hands busy keeps the mind busy. And soon the withdrawal days are past.

FOOD SUPPLEMENTS & KEEPING BUSY

"I think it is virtually impossible to quit smoking unless there is an attractive positive appeal in doing it. Fear of future ill health is nothing like almost-immediate improvement in present health as a stimulus. I think one must realize that it is a real pleasure to be a non-smoker. Not only do foods taste better, one's sense of smell is keener, and there is an absence of all the unpleasant minor irritations that smokers put up with. But one simply feels better in general tone. I don't know a better way to bring about an honest-to-goodness desire to quit smoking and feel better than by seriously entering upon, and believing in, a healthful diet, particularly rich in food supplements (extra vitamins and minerals); and under­standing what the benefits will be. In the light of this approach I gradually felt ashamed of smoking, began to dislike it, and finally was willing to hold myself to the task of quitting.

"I can offer a few pointers, based on my experience and my observations of a few others whom I've seen fail to carry through. The first few days were relatively easy. Then the crav­ings began. I staved them off by eating various things, partic­ularly sunflower seeds and dried apricots. Sometimes I found that doing some work with my hands took my mind off the craving. I remember that my throat, nasal passages, and mouth would involuntarily crave to go through inhaling motions, as if the muscles and tissues of these regions had developed a set of habits, which they insisted on repeating. I wonder if the tena­ciousness of the tobacco habit isn't centered in this area of the upper respiratory tract. The habit of inhaling becomes sooth­ing to these tissues and muscles because of the extreme repeti­tion, and gradually it is relied on to help overcome any tense­ness. This may be why people who try to quit smoking find that eating is a real aid—the swallowing tends to satisfy the habit—demands of the throat.

"Besides eating or using my hands, I found it beneficial, whenever I felt like having a cigarette, simply to postpone it, mentally, for several hours. For example, if I wanted a ciga­rette at one o'clock after lunch, I would tell myself, 'I won't seriously consider the problem until 4:00: This actually worked, and enough postponements of course will take one through many days. Two weeks seemed the length of time it took to get out of the stage of wanting a cigarette almost as often as I used to when smoking. After this, I felt it became increasingly easy to ignore the urges, and within a month I felt confidence in permanently having dropped the habit. In less than six months it was as though I had never smoked at all. I have noticed more than once that the period at the end of two weeks is critical. If one can hold out three weeks, I think his chances are good.

THREE—DAY FAST

"The more cigarettes I smoked the more addicted I became, like anyone else. After five years of this I began to realize my mistake and tried to quit the cigarette habit. No soap! I don't know whether you would call it lack of will power or not, but I tried everything. 'This went on for about 10 years. . . a fight against the slavery of tobacco. I began to lose weight as a result of loss of appetite. My ambition went along with it.

"Somehow an older friend persuaded me to forsake all food and tobacco for three days. Taking into my body only water. I did this. The first day was tough, no food or tobacco, just water and plenty of it. The second day I became weak and had to cut down on activity. The third day I was weaker and noticed quite a loss of weight, but drinking as much water as I could. Every time I began to hunger either for food or tobac­co, I would take a glass of water, then this would leave for a while. The morning of the fourth day I began to start back on regular diet, starting with juices, then soups, then vegetables. I attempted to smoke a cigarette but became nauseated even though my body craved it. I tried again and again but became nauseated. After I got back on regular diet the fifth day, I began to feel better and better. At the end of three months I weighed 15 pounds over my highest weight level before the fast. Today I feel better than I did at 16. My weight maintains a perfect normal level and my vitality is at its highest. 'I haven't smoked a cigarette in four years."

SCARED OUT OF IT

"I literally had smoking scared out of me. I was enter­taining over the weekend just three years ago, and my guest, observant of my chain smoking, told me of a friend of hers who had been a smoker and had been bothered, with pounding of the heart—she gave up the smoking and the pounding disappeared. This sounded good to me because, as it happened, I had been plagued with a pounding, racing heart for about a year and a half.. I quietly took my last cigarette that weekend ­have had no pounding of the heart ever since, and what a relief! "

LOTS OF SUGGESTIONS

"Tapering off is usually disappointing. I tried it many times and the effect is demoralizing. Decide quickly with do­-and-die determination, is the way to do it. Many another per­son has succeeded, and it is one of the educational experiences of life I'm glad I did not miss.

"Do not drive yourself wild by throwing away the pack. Keep it handy so that you will know at all hours that you can help yourself, but don't. After a year that pack will be a nice souvenir. Nothing can make a smoker as frantic as knowing he is miles or hours from relief. Keep you next smoke nearby, but be stubborn enough not to touch it.

"During the first few days the reactions will amaze you. Keep alert and record the symptoms of your cure. Be amused by the strange changes taking place within you. Your appetite will be ravenous. Give way to it. Keep an ample supply of nuts, fresh fruit, juices and various favorite snacks on hand. Don't force yourself to wait until meal time arrives, for by then you will be famished. Each time you need an increase in your blood sugar (which tobacco gives) try a snack. Surely you will gain weight but in a few months it will be gone again. I went from 181 to 196 during the first six weeks but at the end of the first year I was again at 185. The change was not serious, nor did I diet to lose the excess. When my body was entirely adjusted, it disposed of the excess weight.

"A good time to stop smoking is during the summer months. When I felt the need for another smoke, I ate a bunch of grapes, a peach, half a cantaloupe, a pear or some plums. For variety one can have nut meats or sunflower seeds. Eat plenty of green salad prepared with sprouts which supply much vitamin C. Keep your body in top-notch condition while you are quitting by using complete vitamin dietary supple­ments. The greater your vitality the easier it will be for your body to take the changes that are taking place, and rid itself of nicotine and coal tar which has accumulated in every cell.

"You will have trying times. A little noise will have you on edge nervously. You may want to gulp your food if it is too long between meals. There may be some nicotine fits. Often you will want to sleep during the middle of the day, but those symptoms will pass as your body adjusts to its new unpoisoned freedom. You will sleep like a baby, a good baby, and an extra hour or two a night will help. You will rise refreshed as you have not been since you started your smoking career.

"Another good technique is to keep yourself busy, especially during the first weeks. Lean heavily on your favor­ite forms of recreation, and choose a few jobs, such as paint­ing the house, which can keep you occupied until bedtime. You'll get rid of much nervous energy in that way. Keep your mind as well as your body occupied and you will have less time to feel sorry for yourself and be tempted to have another smoke.

"If you have smoked for many years you have forgotten how good food can taste. After a few days away from tobacco your taste buds will revive and thrill to the delicious flavor of foods you thought were tasteless. You'll chew them well and savor them, for they have gentle bouquets which you have missed if you are a lifetime smoker.

"You'll be amazed when you no longer have to drag yourself from bed in the morning. With zest you will meet the new days. You can chase busses without panting and your heart won't pound when you climb a flight of stairs. You will enjoy a new feeling of freedom, of accomplishment, and of mental alertness. Your ideas will flow more easily and your keenness of perception will please you.

"After almost four years the desire for tobacco will not return again. The smell of it has no appeal, I am simply in­different to it. I do know that those who smoke can not know the feeling of well-being the non-smoker has.

"As much as anything, smoking is the need for some­thing to do. If your hands need something to occupy them, take up knitting, or doodling, drawing or whittling. If you need an injection of sugar in your blood, try snacking on vitamin-rich fruit. You'll get the lift which will carry you through. As soon as possible, forget that you quit smoking, forget that you ever tasted tobacco, and your mind will coop­erate. In a few months you will not give it a thought.

"Better health will be yours after the experiment. Your stamina will improve. You will find you can work harder and play harder without tiring. Since tobacco depresses the blood vessels and restricts circulation, after you stop smoking you will note that you are warm on those cold days when you used to freeze. Your breath will not offend as many people as when you were smoking. Your eyes will clear when you have taken from them irritating tobacco smoke.

"More power to all who have the will to stop. Life is more pleasant and exciting without the weed."

A WORD ABOUT OVERWEIGHT-

Several times in this book we have discussed the relationship of weight to tobacco. In summary, it gen­erally works this way:

1. Smoking will keep your weight somewhat lower. But smoking must be stopped or you will ex­perience far worse troubles than weight.

2. When you quit tobacco, your weight will tend to go up a few pounds for several weeks. But you will have so much more energy available to you, that it will not be difficult to have added only a fairly small amount—and perhaps be able to take off that extra that was added.

Here, briefly, is some additional information on this topic:

Body metabolism works at a slower rate when you cut out the use of nicotine. This means that you will not bum up your food so rapidly. On the other hand, the food will begin to taste better. Also, be­cause you have had something in your mouth for years, you will be tempted to eat between meals.

So on one hand we have a better taste for food and a temptation to eat between meals. And on the other, we have a slower, steadier metabolism coupled with a decided increase in energy and capacity for more exercise than before.

The solution is (1) a careful, nourishing diet; (2) resisting the temptation to overeat; (3) increase the amount of exercise you are obtaining each day.

"The obese state in its simplest form represents an imbalance between caloric intake and caloric ex­penditure. The available evidence suggests that most obesity in most instances represents a combination of increased food intake and decreased energy expen­diture."—Dr. George Bray, "Postgraduate Medicine," May, 1972.

The obvious solution is less food in and/or more energy out. "In my clinical experience the most strik­ing examples of prolonged weight loss have been seen in grossly obese patients who voluntarily undertook regular and vigorous exercises."—Ibid.

Another factor that should be considered is that of low blood sugar. Some people have a tendency to eat too much, and that drives their blood sugar up; then it takes a nosedive and falls too low—and they, feeling that starvation faces them, eat some more.

The solution here is to eat a careful diet, and only at regular mealtimes. Each meal should be moderate in sugar intake. Part of the problem is de­veloping a habit of eating too much food and/or too many sweet things at a meal. The answer is to keep each meal moderate. And then after the meal, walk, work, exercise. Don't just sit around.

At mealtime, you want to eat the most nourish­ing food that will satisfy with the smallest amount, provide few refined sugars and starches, and yet pro­vide you with the most energy for the exercise you need after eating.

Eat a good breakfast, and let your evening meal be the lightest. But if you have a weight problem, one of the simplest solutions is to skip the evening meal. Follow the other suggestions in this chapter, and skip suppers, and you will probably do as best as you are able to do, given your particular physical and employ­ment conditions.

Eliminate or reduce free sugars, such as com­mercial sweetened cereals, sugar on breakfast foods (sprinkle with raisins instead), regular deserts (such as ice cream, cake, pie, candy), soft drinks (use fruit juices instead—but not commercial fruit drinks). Use fresh fruit rather than canned fruit.

Eliminate or drastically reduce intake of animal fat, including meat, grease, dairy fat, cheese, and but­ter. Avoid the use of margarine, vegetable oils, and oily salad dressings. Be selective about spreads for breads, and use them only in small quantities. Olives and avocado in small amounts are excellent.

Avoid refined cereals and white bread. Instead use unrefined cereals, brown rice, and whole-wheat bread. Use cooked cereals rather than dry cereals.

Most baked goods are high in fat and/or sugar. Be cautious about their use.

Use only three eggs, or less, a week.

Do not use any alcoholic beverages.

Get adequate rest, sleep, fresh air, sunshine, and pure water. Maintain a regular and moderate exercise pro­gram.

GIVE YOUR CHILDREN THE FACTS-

Every day nearly 4,500 boys and girls light their first cigarette. And you know what happens after that! They are so eager to light up, for they think that somehow it will help them grow up.

Roger Babson, the famous statistician, made this comment: "When America's keenest minds are using the newspapers, magazines, movies, and radios to en­tice youth to drink whisky, smoke cigarettes, and make heroes of criminals, those youths should have the other side of the argument from someone."

You are the best person to tell them what is ahead if they begin smoking.

One tobacco company used this slogan: "When tempted to reach for a sweet, reach for a cigarette instead." Tell your girls that, whereas sweets cause pimples,—cigarettes will powerfully age their youth­ful skin so that by the time they are twenty, they will look thirty-five. Tell them to reach for oranges and fresh fruits instead.

One news editor, writing in a music and drama journal, deplored the fact that famous artists receive thousands of dollars to let their picture be shown on a cigarette ad. "I know of some endorsers of cigar­ettes who have never smoked in all their lives," he added.

When the tobacco advertiser came to Sonja Henie, at that time the world's champion figure skater, he told her: "You don't have to put one in your mouth, but we will publish your picture and give you $2,500." Her response was: "I don't smoke. I won't take your $2,500. I am ashamed of women who smoke."

A United States Surgeon-General said this:

"If American women contract the [tobacco] habit, as reports now indicate they are doing, the en­tire American nation will suffer. The physical tone of the nation will be lowered. This is one of the most evil influences in American life today. The habit harms a woman more than it does a man."—U.S. Sur­geon-General, Hugh S. Cummings.

Joseph Byrne, Managing Director of the Na­tional Beauty Shop Owners Convention, made this comment: "The features of women who smoke grow sharper [courser] as the nicotine habit fastens on them. Their skin becomes taut and sallow. The lips lose their rosy color. The comers of the mouth show wrinkles. The lower lip shows a tendency to project beyond the upper lip. The eyes acquire a stare, and the lids rise and fall slowly."

Tell us of the last time a cigarette-smoking girl won the "Miss America" contest. You can't, because it doesn't happen.

Smoking also tends to make young women coarse and mannish, and it injures the voice. Madame Schumann-Heink was considered to have one of the most marvelous singing voices in her time. At the close of a concert at a women's college (Smith Col­lege), she was asked for an encore —another song. In­stead she gave them something better:

"Now listen, girls, don't be disappointed, for I am going to talk to you now, not sing. I have some­thing very important to say, and it will do you far more good than another song. I don't want to talk to your mothers or your fathers or your grandfathers. I just want to talk to you young girls. It is about cigar­ette smoking. I want you to know that I never smoked in all my life and I never will. I think and say it with all my heart that it is a crime that you child­ren are poisoning your young bodies by smoking cigarettes. Why do you do it? What the men are doing is none of my business. I am speaking to you girls as a woman, a mother."

Daniel H. Kress, M.D., tells of a boy who was brought to his Detroit medical clinic. He had the appearance of a lad of nine years of age. Defective both physically and mentally, he was asked by the nurse, "How old are you?" "Fourteen," he replied. To her next question, "How long have you smoked?" he replied, "Since I was two years old. " "Who taught You to smoke?" "My brother." Horrified, the nurse said, "Your brother! Your brother ought to be in jail." The boy replied, "He is."

Boys idolize sports athletes. But any athlete that would sell his name or picture to the tobacco companies for their advertising—is a traitor to those boys. W.W. (Bill) Roper, former football couch at Princeton University, said, "I know of nothing that has exas­perated me more in my entire twenty-five years' ex­perience with football than the flaming billboards with the pictures of several ex-football players, coaches, and officials advertising cigarettes! "

A tobacco company sent their advertising agent over to see John Wagner, a veteran Pittsburgh short­stop. The man was very eager to obtain permission from Wagner to print his autographed photograph on little cards that could be inserted in cigarette packs. He offered Wagner five hundred for the use of his name; then a thousand dollars. Finally he handed him a blank check—and told him to write in his own amount.

"No," said Wagner. "Why not?" asked the amazed tobacco agent. "I thought all ballplayers were money crazy." Wagner replied: "I'll tell you. It isn't worth the money to me to encourage any boy to smoke cigarettes. If my name and picture on a card will have that result, I am not going to sign up, no matter how high you go with your offer."

Do you want to become a great athlete? Ask "Red" Grange, the famous football player. He has some advice for you. This is what it is: "You cannot drink and smoke, and expect to succeed as an athlete." The cigarette agents came to Jack Dempsey with an offer of quite a bit of money if he would only give his endorsement to their brand of cigarettes. "You could not get me to sign that for ten times what you offer," he replied. "I do not smoke cigarettes, and never did. Do you think I am going to ask the thou­sands of young boys who read about me to take up cigarette smoking?"

Speaking about tobacco advertising, Lieutenant Commander Gene Tunney, former heavyweight box­ing champion of the world, at that time in charge of the U.S. Navy physical training and athletics program, said this: "I've always opposed the pernicious adver­tising that extols the 'benefits' of tobacco using. Such misleading advertising I cannot rap too hard. It is dan­gerous, particularly to our 35 million young people. To contract the tobacco habit when the growth fac­tors of the body are exerting themselves to their maximum is to handicap oneself physically and men­tally for life."

At the time when Gene Tunney gave the above comment, Joe Louis was the world heavyweight box­ing champion. Gene then said this: "It's many years since I retired from the heavyweight championship. But here's a challenge: If Joe Louis will start smoking, and promise to inhale a couple of packages of cigar­ettes every day for six months,—I'll engage to lick him in fifteen rounds."

And then he added, "Of course, Joe wouldn't be foolish enough to meet my terms. No boxer, no ath­lete in training smokes. He knows that whenever nerves, muscles, heart, and brain are called upon for a supreme effort, the tobacco user is the first to fold." When the writer of this booklet was a boy, there were only about twenty poisonous chemicals known to be in nicotine. Years later, about 200 had been dis­covered. At the present time over 3,000 chemicals have been found by scientific researchers—and hun­dreds of them are strong poisons.

Consider just one of them: furfural. This chem­ical acts upon the undeveloped brain cells and nerve tissues of young people who use tobacco in any form. It degenerates their brain and nerve cells. Furfural is found in liquor as well as in cigarettes, but the "Lan­cet," a British medical journal, says that there is more furfural in one cigarette than in two fluid ounces of whiskey.

Thomas Edison, the famous inventor, analyzed cigarette paper and found that, when burned, it pro­duced a substance called acrolein. As a result of care­ful research, Edison said this: "It [acrolein] has a vio­lent action on the nerve centers, producing degenera­tion of the cells of the brain, which is quite rapid among boys. Unlike most narcotics, this degeneration is permanent and uncontrollable [unreversable]. I employ no person who smokes cigarettes."

Arnfinn Bergmann, an Olympic ski-jumping champion, said this of tobacco: "Jumping is a sport of concentration. The jump itself only lasts a few se­conds. It is therefore necessary that the ability to concentrate is not weakened and dulled by tobacco and other bad habits."

Australian tennis star Frank Sedgman gave this comment on his path to success: "When I took up tennis I decided definitely not to smoke. I sincerely believe that if a young person wants to achieve, he should not indulge in this hurtful practice."

Henry Ford, inventor of mass production methods, and one of the two largest automobile firms, said this: "The world of today needs men, not those whose minds and will power have been weakened or destroyed by the desire and craving for alcohol and tobacco, but instead men with initiative and vigor, whose mentality is untainted by habits which are oft ­times uncontrollable."

At the turn of the century, America only con­sumed the equivalent of 50 cigarettes a year per capita; now it is about 4,500. A farmer was asked how he succeeded in having such a fine flock of sheep. He replied: "I take care of my lambs." It is time that we take better care of the lambs in America. And the place to start is with the children and youth in your own home.

The most important influence in your child's life is you. Your personal attitude toward smoking has a powerful influence on him.

We need to change the air of permissiveness and acceptability that surrounds smoking; we need to change the common view of the cigarette smoker.

Cigarette advertising plays heavily on adoles­cent minds. They see the ads about healthy young men splashing out of seaplanes onto Alaskan shores, strong men and beautiful women with cigarettes be­tween their fingers. —Quietly rib the commercials and the ads. Show the fakery. No one is quicker to sense phoniness, when pointed out to him, than a teenager. The fact is that beautiful women do not smoke cigar­ettes; only the others do. The fact is that strong, un­usually healthy men don't either. Once a person be­gins the nicotine route, he starts heading downward. The pre-teeners and teenagers in your home are quick to catch things. —Believe in their intelligence and don't talk down to them. Describe smoking as the health menace that it really is. The adult world —of smokers and non-smokers alike —is well aware of the immense problem that tobacco is in personal life; but the teenagers need to be told before they acquire the habit. Together, with them, look through some articles and publications that show what nicotine does to the human body. One mother brought home a set of mugs, and then painted on each the name of a different poison: arsenic, cyanide, hemlock, cocaine, opium, and nicotine. Sure, it was something to laugh at each time they used these cups, but her teenagers got the point.

Your young boy, longing for manhood, may tend to look up to smoking as the mark of the suave man of the world. —Casually point out to him that some psychologists maintain that male smokers are actually less masculine and more neurotic than non­smokers. They compare the habit to thumb—sucking, a regression to infancy. Explain what happens to sports heroes who smoke. Outstanding athletes know that they cannot keep fit and smoke, too.

Your young girl may see a cigarette as a symbol of glamorous womanhood and a way to attract the opposite sex. —Gently ask what's the use of perfume and primping if her breath smells like tobacco and her teeth are stained with nicotine. Explain to her how nicotine rapidly ages the appearance of the skin. Does she really want to look 38 by the time she is 25?

Most girls want to get married later and become mothers. Tell your girl the facts given earlier in this book about the effects of smoking on fetuses and infants of smoking mothers.

And to both, tell them that their bodies belong to God. Only as they 'keep their body temples clean and pure, can they fulfill His will for their lives. This life is only part of eternity. We must accept Jesus as our Saviour and obey the Ten Commandments. Bible religion is our only passport from this life to eternity in heaven.

Perhaps, as you talk to your child or teenager, he may ask why you started smoking years before. Find your own way of saying, "Be smarter than I was. Don't start!" He knows that you have quit, or are trying to do so. He will understand. Push the action button against teenage tobacco. It is one of the deadliest threats to the future health and long life of our children and youth. Begin at home. Talk frankly and earnestly to your children and teenagers. Quit the habit yourself. What you do right now about tobacco may affect their entire future.

CONTINUE PART 5