“A cigarette after a meal is better than a living fairy” – this is a phrase familiar to many smokers. As everyone knows, tobacco, the “chronic killer”, makes smokers pay the price of health and even life. Research shows that about 180 million smokers in my country suffer from tobacco dependence, and tobacco dependence is essentially a fatal chronic disease.
The reporter learned at the theme event “Tobacco Threats Environment: Promote Smoking Cessation, Doctors First” sponsored by the National Respiratory Medicine Center and other units a few days ago. The study based on the results of the 2018 National Resident Health Literacy Monitoring Survey was recently published online in The Lancet. Wang Chen, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, interpreted the study.
“Tobacco Threats the Environment: Promoting Smoking Cessation, Doctors First” theme event scene. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
Tobacco dependence, commonly known as “tobacco addiction”, mainly refers to the dependence on nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco. Wang Chen introduced that tobacco dependence is significantly related to smoking behavior. The more daily smoking and the earlier the age of starting smoking, the greater the risk of tobacco dependence.
“It is an indisputable medical conclusion that smoking is harmful to health.” Wang Chen said that every year in my country, more than one million people lose their lives due to tobacco, and half of the smokers will die prematurely due to smoking.
Smoking is not good for your health. “China Smoking Harmful Health Report 2020” shows that tobacco smoke contains at least 69 carcinogens. There is sufficient evidence that smoking can lead to lung cancer, throat cancer, bladder cancer and other cancers, as well as a variety of respiratory diseases, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
However, tobacco dependence increases the difficulty of quitting smoking. Studies have shown that non-tobacco addicts are 2.88 times more likely to quit smoking than tobacco addicts.
Wang Chen, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
How to judge whether a smoker is tobacco dependent? According to Wang Chen, if you have experienced or exhibited at least 3 of the following 6 items in the past 1 year, you can be diagnosed as tobacco dependence: strong craving to smoke; difficult to control smoking behavior; withdrawal symptoms appear when you stop smoking or reduce the amount of smoking ; The appearance of tobacco tolerance, that is, the need to increase the amount of smoking to obtain the smoking experience that can be obtained by smoking less cigarettes in the past; to give up or reduce other activities and preferences for smoking; to persist in smoking regardless of the harm of smoking.
“Tobacco dependence is a chronic disease that requires treatment.” Wang Chen suggested that smoking cessation clinics are a simple and effective method for smokers suffering from tobacco dependence; smokers who have not been diagnosed with tobacco dependence You can try to quit smoking on your own or go to a smoking cessation clinic to quit smoking. (Reporter Xu Penghang)