Jennifer Smith
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Want to try hypnosis to quit smoking? Science shows that it may be an effective tool to help you kick the habit for good. Many people find it extremely difficult to stop smoking—so difficult, in fact, that recent research suggests it can take around 30 attempts to successfully quit.
Giving up cigarettes is one of the best things you can do for your health. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States; smoking can cause cancer almost anywhere in your body and harms nearly every one of your organs.
Hypnosis can help you quit cigarettes by addressing the psychological aspects of your addiction and looking into your underlying motivations for smoking. Quitting may be hard but it can improve your health and lower your risk of disease and premature death, even if you’ve smoked for many years.
Let’s dive into some of the dangers of smoking, explore the benefits of quitting, and discover how hypnotherapy can help people quit for good.
The dangers of smoking
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 1.1 billion people smoke worldwide. While this may seem like a shockingly large number—and it is—, the amount of people smoking is actually decreasing worldwide - with 29 million fewer smokers today than in 2000.
Smoking is incredibly harmful. Smoking is the single leading cause of cancer worldwide, is responsible for 70% of all cases of lung cancer, and has even been shown to accelerate aging.
The CDC estimates that 1 in 5 deaths in the United States each year is caused by smoking. This means that smoking causes more deaths than HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol use, car accidents, and firearm-related incidents combined.
Smoking has been linked to cancer in almost every part of the body, including:
- Bladder
- Blood (acute myeloid leukemia)
- Cervix
- Colon and rectum (colorectal)
- Esophagus
- Kidney and ureter
- Larynx
- Liver
- Oropharynx (includes parts of the throat, tongue, soft palate, and the tonsils)
- Pancreas
- Stomach
- Trachea, bronchus, and lung