Does quitting smoking make me sick?
Dear Dr. Fritz,
Good day. I am Divo of Samar. I really wanted to stop smoking. But, my friends would tell me that if quit, I would get sick. This made me doubtful about quitting smoking. How true is this?
Thanks a lot for your response
-Divo of Samar
Dear Divo of Samar,
Don’t believe your friends. They don’t know anything about health. Surely, your friends are people close to you and are probably concerned about your health. But, since, they are not health experts, I hope you will not entrust with them your health – which could mean your life.
I am glad that you turned to me about your health.
Remember that health experts, like physicians, still know what’s best for you. So, if hundreds of scientific studies have confirmed that smoking is not healthy, then, that’s the truth and nothing but the naked truth. Generally, tobacco smoking causes about 20 times the number of deaths in the United States than all other addictive drugs combined.
Speaking of studies, there are a lot of them that confirmed that the risk of dying of former smokers from smoking-related disease decreases with each year of abstinence from puffing cigarettes. As a matter of fact, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), smokers
who quit smoking before the age of 50 would reduce their risk of life-threatening disease by half after just one year, compared with those who continue smoking.
So, I hope you get what you needed to know and you know now what to do. Please act FAST! Don’t wait for the day when you will be struck by the lightning before you do something good for yourself.
Good luck!
-Dr. Fritz
(Dr. Fritz Legarde Espedilla is an aesthetic dermatologist and surgeon and a clinical sexologist. She is also trained in hypnotherapy and Medical Acupuncture. She has been in the broadcast media for more than a decade and has written a book based on her 15 year stint with her radio program, “Healthy is Sexy Secrets ni Dr. Fritz.”. For your questions, you may send them to Dear Dr. Fritz, c/o Sunstar-Davao Publishing Inc., Door 11, Ebro-Pelayo Building 1, Juan Luna St., Barangay 29-C, Davao City, or you e-mail them to dokatlaw@gmail.com. If you don’t wish your letter to be published, we regret that we cannot answer them. Thank you for your understanding.)