Health Service New Hope for Smokers

National Health Service (NHS) became a very important service for people who wish to quit. For example more than 35,000 people in Norfolk have quit smoking with help from the NHS in the past decade.

Scientists showed in the recent study that from 63,933 people that have used the NHS Norfolk stop smoking service, 31,524 had successfully quit. In 2009 NHS stop smoking services celebrated their 10-year anniversary. According to the Department of Health, they have recorded two million successful quit attempts and saved 70,000 lives.

Researchers found that thanks to NHS the prevalence of smoking has fallen from 28 percent to below 21percent of the general population. Norfolk, however, has one of the lowest rates in the county, 18.9percent. Vicki Snelgrove, tobacco control commissioning advisor for NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney, said: "Fifty percent of smokers die from their habit and 50 pc of the smokers we help will quit - so we are saving hundreds of lives every year through our smoking cessation programs."

Many more lives are saved from one person quitting because the enlarge effects of a smoker are extensive: the second-hand smoke people inhale, the biological impacts on unborn children, and children who are raised in smoking households are far more likely to start themselves. As it is known smoking affects not just that individual but the whole family and even the community and environment in which that person lives, that’s why many smokers think to quit smoking even for their family health.

Clive Slater, NHS Norfolk's tobacco control manager, said: "Stopping smoking is one of the most beneficial measures known to improve health." He added that stop smoking services are a key element of the government's universal tobacco control strategy and the provision of an integrated, high quality stop smoking service continues to be a high priority for NHS Norfolk.

Some people claim that alternative approaches such as hypnosis, acupuncture, acupressure, laser therapy, or electro stimulation may help reduce the symptoms associated with nicotine withdrawal. However, researchers concluded that NHS is a new way of saving smokers health.