Living a healthy lifestyle includes NO smoking.  But what if you don’t smoke but others around you do?!?

The facts are Secondhand smoke causes cancer

Secondhand smoke is classified as a “known human carcinogen” (cancer-causing agent) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization.

Secondhand smoke causes other kinds of diseases and deaths

Secondhand smoke can cause harm in many ways. In the United States alone, each year it is responsible for:

• an estimated 46,000 deaths from heart disease in non-smokers who live with smokers
• about 3,400 lung cancer deaths in non-smoking adults
• other breathing problems in non-smokers, including coughing, mucus, chest discomfort, and reduced lung function
• 150,000 to 300,000 lung infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis) in children younger than 18 months of age, which result in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations annually
• increases in the number and severity of asthma attacks in about 200,000 to 1 million children who have asthma
• more than 750,000 middle ear infections in children
• Pregnant women exposed to secondhand smoke are also at increased risk of having low birth- weight babies.

(Source: American Cancer Society)

If you are conscious about your health – you don’t want to be exposed to second-hand smoke but I’m sure you also don’t want to be stuck at home because people smoke in most bars and night clubs.  That is why you need to check-out Let’s Be Totally Clear.

As a consumer, you have a lot of power – you should exercise that power to support Smoke-Free Establishments and encourage stronger smoke-free air laws that protect all Louisianans from secondhand smoke and help others in your community understand the dangers of secondhand smoke exposure.

You are at risk when exposed to secondhand smoke but the people constantly at risk are those who work in bars and casinos that can still allow smoking due to current local and state laws – bartenders, waiters, casino dealers, maintenance workers, entertainers, DJs and musicians. Let’s be totally clear: all Louisiana employees deserve protection from secondhand smoke

Join Let’s Be Totally Clear on Facebook

Questions:
* Do you prefer breathing clean, smoke-free air versus toxic secondhand smoke?
* Do you hate going to bars or going out to hear live music because of all the secondhand smoke?
* Are you a musician, bar or casino worker who wishes Louisiana would protect all workers from secondhand smoke exposure?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Let’s Be Totally Clear is for you and your involvement can change things!

I’m not that old and I didn’t grow up on a farm…yet I remember the saying “If you don’t have your health; you don’t have nothing at all.”  I remember my dad telling me that. He wasn’t or isn’t a sick man but he is a self-employed man; he owns a construction company. His health is very important to him because without his health/ability to put in a hard day’s work – he doesn’t make money.

The saying also definitely applied more in the old days – when most people did some sort of physical labor as the primary way to earn a living. If people were sick or injured, they couldn’t perform their work duties and they didn’t get paid.  The incentives to be healthy were far greater (survival) and by default of performing physical/manual labor people were more active.  Times have changed.  Technology has changed the way we earn a living and most people in developed countries can perform their job while being overweight, out-of-shape, and plagued with chronic diseases, etc. Most people don’t care about their health.  It’s obvious when looking at the results of studies. Louisiana ranked 41 out 50 on the 2009 Well Being State Ranking. #1 being the best – 50 the worst. From Gallup and Healthways Well Being Index (Click on the image for larger image)

Merging decades of social and clinical research, development expertise, health leadership and behavioral economics, Gallup and Healthways collaborated to develop the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (WBI) – the first and largest survey of its kind, aggregating data from 1,000 calls a day, 350 days a year. The Well-Being Index is already the largest behavioral economic database ever created and, over the next quarter century, will generate more than nine million individual responses.

The Well-Being Index and associated City, State and Congressional District Reports provide the only measurement today for total well-being. Beyond medical condition and access to healthcare coverage and services, the Index also questions respondents about economic, professional, emotional and social circumstances. With Well-Being Index data, it’s possible to quantify and establish a correlation between the places where people work and the communities in which they live and their well-being.

Some more results were released today.

The County Health Rankings—the first set of reports to rank the overall health of every county in all 50 states—were released today by the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at a briefing in Washington, D.C.  The 50 state reports help public health and community leaders, policy-makers, consumers and others to see how healthy their county is, compare it with others within their state and find ways to improve the health of their community.

Each county is ranked within the state on how healthy people are and how long they live. They also are ranked on key factors that affect health such as: smoking, obesity, binge drinking, access to primary care providers, rates of high school graduation, rates of violent crime, air pollution levels, liquor store density, unemployment rates and number of children living in poverty.

Poorly ranked counties often had multiple challenges to overcome, including:

• Two- and three-fold higher rates of premature death, often from preventable conditions.
• High smoking rates that lead to cancer, heart disease, bronchitis and emphysema.
• High rates of obesity which can put people at risk for diabetes, disability and heart disease.
• High unemployment and poverty rates.
• High numbers of liquor stores and fast-food outlets but few places to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

Read More from the Press Release

Now, if only Gov. Bobby Jindal would have a look at this study and stop his plans for cuts to health care…

Here’s a look at the results for Health Outcomes.  For the Greater New Orleans area St. Tammany Parish was #1, Jefferson #16 and Orleans and St Bernard 59 and 62 respectively.  Interesting disparity between those…any thoughts of why? (Click on the map for larger image)

And the results for Health Factors: For the Greater New Orleans area St. Tammany Parish was #1, Jefferson #5 and Orleans and St Bernard 47 and 59 respectively. (Click on the map for larger image)

For greater details of the overall rankings and finer details check this out.

I normally don’t write posts this long…but this is serious – we have to start going to back to the mentality: If you don’t have your health; you don’t have anything at all.

The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living is looking for supporters of smoke-free air to come out and be a part of its next statewide media campaign. Film crews will be on site in four cities across the state this week to film to conduct on-camera interviews with volunteers who want to speak up for smoke-free air in Louisiana. Some interviews may be used for the statewide television ad campaign, while others will be featured in a short documentary.

Film producers are looking for supporters of smoke-free environments, especially:

• Office workers
• Restaurant wait staff
• Casino dealers
• Bartenders
• Musicians
• Cocktail waitresses
• Citizens who support smoke-free bars and casinos

While walk-ins are welcome, we encourage those interested in participating in the shoot to RSVP by emailing kdabdoub@lphi.org. Since this film project is being conducted in multiple cities across the state, please specify the city you are in. (The New Orleans shoot is Friday)

Shoot schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, January 27
Randol’s
2320 Kaliste Saloom Rd
Lafayette, LA
12:30 – 3 p.m.

Thursday, January 28
Vincent’s City Club
7132 Florida Boulevard
Baton Rouge, LA
1 – 5:30 p.m.

Friday, January 29
The Republic
828 South Peters Street
New Orleans, LA
1-4:30pm

You may or may not have already read my previous post: “Some Things are Worth Quitting: Like Smoking,” which talked about how I quit and some of the things that I found particularly helpful.

What I didn’t explain in that post was why I made the decision to quit smoking. Naturally, most smokers say they want to quit or even try to quit several times. I had “tried” to quit multiple times before, but it was never a conscious decision until 2009 – after five years of being a smoker.

I got the swine (H1N1) flu in April 2009 – which left me barely able to move, vomiting out of control and extremely short of breath for seven days. The difficulty breathing was the worst part. I was miserable for 24 hours a day during those seven days. At one point, during a moment of consciousness, I realized that to the shortness of breath I was experiencing was probably comparable to that of someone who had been smoking for 20 or 30 years and had developed lung problems because of it. I stopped smoking for 2 weeks after I finally got better, but as soon as I felt completely better, and out with friends, I forgot about how I had felt and thought about…my old habits prevailed. Still, in the back of my mind I WANTED to quit; I just hadn’t yet DECIDED to quit.

The turning point was when I met a woman through a business project, who (for anonymity’s sake) I’ll call “Sandy.” I swore she was nearing 60, only to find out after talking to her; she was only in her 40’s. She had yellow teeth, dry, wrinkled skin and she would do that awful smoker’s cough thing pretty frequently. She told me that she had been smoking since college – which is when I started. Call me vain, but Sandy was my big epiphany. I could not keep on hurting my body like this. I needed to start taking better care of myself; I did NOT want to end up like Sandy. I decided I wanted to live as long and as comfortable of a life, as is in my control – and hey, I want to look good, too!

I’m happy to report that several months later, (I’ve already lost count), I am officially a non-smoker! Not only that, but this success has led to me making several other positive, healthy lifestyle changes, including eating fresher, local produce, jogging for 15 minutes three times a week (baby steps!) and YOGA! I’ll tell you more about my newfound love of yoga and why I’m doing it next post.

Have you quit smoking? What finally made you decide to quit?  Would love to hear about it.

If on the other hand, you are in the process of quitting or making the decision to quit smoking and want a cheerleader, feel free to email me at mhargroder@gmail.com or message me on twitter @heyitsmegan.

Telling people they need to quit smoking is pointless.  The questions is: Do you really want to quit smoking? If you can answer “yes” without hesitation, then congratulations – you’re already on your way to being a healthier, happier you with some extra money in your pocket!

I smoked for five years and was nearly at a pack a day. But believe it or not, for me, personally, cold turkey was the way to go. One day, I had my last cigarette and that was it. Not even a “puff.” I’m not going to sugar coat this; the first three weeks were pretty awful. I was very moody and short tempered. To make matters worse…I already deal with an anxiety disorder so when I just up and quit smoking; my panic attacks started happening every day for a couple of weeks. Note: someone without an anxiety disorder does not experience this volume of anxiety. However, I think that these side effects really worked to my advantage in the long run. Every time I’m in a bar and think it would be nice to have a cigarette, I think about how hard it was to quit and how I never ever want to go through that again.

The key to your journey to quit smoking is willpower.  Your willpower to resist and to say no is number one in overcoming a nicotine addiction. There are several different programs that can assist you in quitting, such as nicotine patches which allow you to gradually decrease your nicotine intake, nicotine gum that can help calm cravings or prescriptions such as Chantix. I think that no one road is right for everyone and it never hurts to consult a physician – especially if you’ve been smoking for over 10 years.

There’s even a website dedicated to helping you quit smoking

Here are some tips that worked for me:

Things that help with oral fixation/needing something to do with your hands:

* Chewing Gum
* Holding Chopsticks (sounds weird, but takes concentration and really works!)
* Chewing on/holding straws (if you’re in a bar) or pens (if you’re at work)

Find something productive/healthy to do with your former smoke breaks

* Call your parents or significant other and let them know you are thinking about them
* Find a quiet place to just stand and take a few deep breaths of CLEAN AIR!
* Have a healthy snack break:apples, nuts or loose granola

My advice to anyone who’s serious about quitting: BE STRONG – second to your willpower is your determination. How determine are you to kick this nasty habit and save your life??  Only you can decide to quit and actually go through with it.

Another important thing to know; one moment of weakness will lead to another – the only way to quit is to quit completely. This means no “occasional cigarette when I’m drinking,” no “I’ll only take a drag here and there.” You’re either a smoker or you’re not.

Need a cheerleader? Email me at mhargroder@gmail.com or message me on twitter @heyitsmegan