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Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Quit smoking guru Allen Carr: 'I have nine months to live'
By MOIRA PETTY, Daily Mail - Last updated at 11:07am on 14th August 2006
Allen Carr is philosophical. ‘I estimate I’ve cured 25 million smokers over the years,’ he says. ‘And if my illness is the price for that, it’s worth paying.’
Last month, Allen learned that he has squamous cell carcinoma, a form of lung cancer linked to nicotine intake.
The cancer has spread to his lymph nodes and ribs, and although Allen had hoped to keep the prognosis secret, he now admits it is ‘inoperable’.Publish Post
‘I have been given around nine months to live,’ he says. He plans to spend his last days promoting himself as an example of the foolhardiness of smoking — and the benefits of giving up the habit even relatively late in life.
‘It was a shock to start with, but the surprising thing was that I didn’t feel too upset,’ he says.
‘Smoking was virtually killing me 20-odd years ago. If I hadn’t given it up, I’m certain I would have died long ago. I see those extra years as the most marvellous bonus.’
He’s been told the tumour is the size of a bowling ball, but says he is not in any pain. ‘Suffering pain is my only fear, and if the illness gets to the stage where the pain cannot be controlled, I’ll nip over to Holland for euthanasia.’
For many years Allen, who will be 72 next month, has enjoyed reasonable health, apart from the occasional chest infection, the legacy of the 30-year habit that began when he was 18.
In February this year, while staying at his home in Spain (he also has a house in Surrey), he had a bad fall.
‘I don’t know how it happened, but I had been feeling a bit low. I landed flat on my back and found myself bleeding from the head. I was checked over at hospital, but then I began suffering excruciating headaches.’
Allen, who has been married to Joyce, his second wife, for 25 years, waited until he was back in the UK before seeking more treatment.
His GP referred him to Epsom General Hospital, where tests picked up a large shadow on his lungs. ‘I was aching all over the place, but the one thing that didn’t hurt was my lungs. Doctors found I had a very high calcium level in my body.’
Allen was suffering from hyper-calcaemia, or excess calcium, which was another clue that he had lung cancer. If the cancer has spread to the bones, the secondary tumours begin eroding bone mass, releasing calcium into the body.
In 30 per cent of patients with squamous cell carcinoma, the cancer produces a hormone, parathormone, which affects the body’s calcium levels.
After treating the hyper-calcaemia, the medical team turned to the tumour. It was, indeed, malignant.
‘In this case, there was no point operating. We had missed the boat,’ says Allen’s consultant, Dr Peter Mitchell-Heggs.
Instead, it was decided Allen would benefit from chemo-therapy. ‘If we can bring down the tumour’s size, it will produce fewer undesirable side effects,’ says Dr Mitchell-Heggs.
Allen’s father died of lung cancer in the Seventies, at the age of 56, when Allen was in his 30s. ‘When I was told I had lung cancer I felt so stupid, having watched my father die of the same disease. I thought back to the way he had suffered.’
Allen was at his father’s bedside as his six-month battle against lung cancer neared its end. ‘He was so brave and didn’t complain at all. He tried to say something to me. I put my ear close to him. He could hardly speak, but the message came through loud and clear: he wanted me to promise I would stop smoking.
‘I was so ashamed because I made that promise, and the minute I left the hospital I broke it by lighting up.’
Years later, his older sister, Marion, died of breast cancer at 56 — the same age as their father when he died.
‘She was ill for three years. I was in denial and couldn’t believe it was happening, so it came as a great shock to me when she died. She was such a robust person, I thought she’d get over it.’
By then, Allen was an evangelistic non-smoker, and the loss of his only sister — which he believes may have been hastened by her own smoking — spurred him on to spread the anti-nicotine message.
He had given up the habit on July 15, 1983, at 48, following many failed attempts.
‘The miracle is that I have survived as long as I have. I was smoking 100 cigarettes a day. The first thing I did in the morning was light up. A cigarette would be stuck to my lips all day.
‘I couldn’t understand why my friends could control it to ten or 20 a day while I smoked 100. The reason was the body becomes immune to all that nicotine, so you need more and more to get the same effect.
'I was a physical fitness addict when young, but my lungs got into such a state that I suffered regular bouts of bronchitis, asthma and smoker’s cough. I probably also had emphysema.’
On the morning Allen finally gave up smoking, a coughing fit brought on a nosebleed. ‘I was having them nearly every day.
‘That morning, the bleeding stopped and I reached for a cigarette. It started up again, and Joyce came to see why I hadn’t gone to work. I was a pathetic spectacle, blood pouring onto a cigarette that dangled from my lips.’
His wife persuaded him to see a hypnotherapist that day, but he found the session embarrassing. ‘We use hypnotherapy to relax people at our clinics, but they don’t do any of the exhibitionist stuff they used in that session.’
Later that evening, he began perusing a medical book with a chapter on the biochemistry of smoking. ‘At first it was all meaningless medical jargon. Then I reread it, and like one of those patterns you can’t see first time round, my eyes seemed to refocus and suddenly it made sense.
‘What I understood was that when nicotine leaves your body, it creates an empty, insecure feeling, and when you light a cigarette again, you feel confident. From that moment, I knew why I’d been addicted to smoking — and I knew I’d never do it again.’
Allen says what smokers need to understand is the fallacy behind their habit. He says that as nicotine leaves the body, it produces feelings of edginess and insecurity that smokers think can only be assuaged by another cigarette.
But rather than producing the feelgood factor that smokers claim, it is actually promoting the opposite. Once smokers have this confidence trick explained to them and accept it, most find it relatively easy to quit.
Allen says he felt almost instantly better after giving up.
‘Most of my smoking-related illnesses cleared up after six weeks, and within six months I ran two half-marathons in the same week. When I was smoking, I couldn’t even run around the block.’
Soon, he was preaching what he practised, teaching his method to smokers in one-to-one sessions. Initially, this was in tandem with his other work (he originally trained as a chartered accountant then went into business). But in 1984 he decided to concentrate on Easyway.
Last year, his clinics worldwide treated 45,000 smokers. Among the celebrities he has helped are Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Richard Branson, Charlotte Church, Martin Clunes and Ruby Wax.
His clinics charge £150-£200 for a four-hour session, and subsequent classes if necessary, with a three-month money-back guarantee if smokers fail to quit.
Allen had his first chemotherapy session last Thursday and was up bright and early the next day working on his new book, which traces the web that allegedly connects the nicotine and pharmaceutical industries as well as successive governments and the NHS.
‘When I have finished my book, I want to enjoy whatever time is left. We can continue my treatment in Spain, so we may spend time there as well. I also might have a few celebrations of my life while I’m still alive.’
He says that during his smoking years, he thought the habit ‘gave me courage’. In his final battle, he is proving he has plenty of courage without the need of a cigarette.
For more information on Allen Carr’s Easyway methods, go to www.allencarr.com. Allen Carr’s Easy Way To Stop Smoking is published by Penguin at £8.99.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
American Cancer Society: Tobacco-Related Cancers Fact Sheet
* Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States for both men and women. (Source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2007)
* Lung cancer is the most preventable form of cancer death in our society. (Source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2007)
* 87% of lung cancer deaths can be attributed to tobacco use. (Source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2007)
* Lung cancer estimates for 2004 (Source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2007):
o New cases: 213,380
Males: 114,760
Females: 98,620
o Deaths: 160,390
Males: 89,510
Females: 70,880
* Besides lung cancer, tobacco use also causes increased risk for cancer of the mouth, nasal cavities, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney, bladder, uterine cervix, and myeloid leukemia. (Source: Cancer Prevention and Early Detection 2005)
* In the United States, tobacco use is responsible for nearly 1 in 5 deaths or an estimated 440,000 deaths per year during 1995-1999. (Source: MMWR, CDC, Annual smoking-attributable mortality and years of potential life lost and economic costs-United States, 1995-1999. 2002: 51:300-303.)
* In 2006, more than 170,000 cancer deaths will be caused by tobacco use. (Source: Cancer Prevention and Early Detection 2006)
* Tobacco use accounts for at least 30% of all cancer deaths and 87% of lung cancer deaths. (Source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2007)
* Per capita cigarette consumption is currently lower than at any point since the start of World War II. Nonetheless, an estimated 25% of men and 20% of women still smoke cigarettes, with approximately 82% of these individuals smoking daily. (Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Facts and Figures 2005)
* Cigarette smoking among adults aged 18 and older declined 48% between 1965 and 2005—from 42% to 21%; nevertheless, an estimated 45 million Americans are current smokers. (Source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2007)
* In 1997, nearly one-half (48%) of male high school students and more than one-third (36%) of female students reported using some form of tobacco—cigarettes, cigars, or oral tobacco products—in the past month. The percentages declined to 32% for male students and 25% for female students in 2005. (Source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2007)
* Each year, about 3,000 nonsmoking adults die of lung cancer as a result of breathing secondhand smoke and causes an estimated 35,000 deaths from heart disease in people who are not current smokers. (Source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2007)
* Cigars contain many of the same carcinogens that are found in cigarettes. Cigar smoking increased 146% from 1993 to 2004. Cigar smoking causes cancer of the lung, oral cavity, larynx, esophagus, and possibly the pancreas. (Source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2006 and Cancer Facts and Figures 2007)
* Among adults age 18 and older, national data showed 6% of men and 1% of women were current users of chewing tobacco or snuff. Nationwide, 14% of US male high school students and 2% of female high school students were currently using chewing tobacco, snuff or dip in 2005.(Source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2007)
* Oral tobacco products contain 28 cancer-causing agents (carcinogens). It is a known cause of human cancer, as it increases the risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity. (Source: CDC Website, Smokeless Tobacco Fact Sheet, 2005)
* Smokeless tobacco use can lead to nicotine addiction and dependence.
* Smoking caused more than $167 billion in annual health-related economic costs, including adult mortality-related productivity costs, adult medical expenditures, and medical expenditures for newborns (Source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2007)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
World Health Organisation - why is tobacco a public health priority
Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world. It is currently responsible for the death of one in ten adults worldwide (about 5 million deaths each year). If current smoking patterns continue, it will cause some 10 million deaths each year by 2020. Half the people that smoke today -that is about 650 million people- will eventually be killed by tobacco.
Tobacco is the fourth most common risk factor for disease worldwide. The economic costs of tobacco use are equally devastating. In addition to the high public health costs of treating tobacco-caused diseases, tobacco kills people at the height of their productivity, depriving families of breadwinners and nations of a healthy workforce. Tobacco users are also less productive while they are alive due to increased sickness. A 1994 report estimated that the use of tobacco resulted in an annual global net loss of US$ 200 thousand million, a third of this loss being in developing countries.
Tobacco and poverty are inextricably linked. Many studies have shown that in the poorest households in some low-income countries as much as 10% of total household expenditure is on tobacco. This means that these families have less money to spend on basic items such as food, education and health care. In addition to its direct health effects, tobacco leads to malnutrition, increased health care costs and premature death. It also contributes to a higher illiteracy rate, since money that could have been used for education is spent on tobacco instead. Tobacco's role in exacerbating poverty has been largely ignored by researchers in both fields.
Experience has shown that there are many cost-effective tobacco control measures that can be used in different settings and that can have a significant impact on tobacco consumption. The most cost-effective strategies are population-wide public policies, like bans on direct and indirect tobacco advertising, tobacco tax and price increases, smoke-free environments in all public and workplaces, and large clear graphic health messages on tobacco packaging. All these measures are discussed on the provisions of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Anti-smoking guru Allen Carr dies from lung cancer, aged 72
Independent, The (London), Nov 30, 2006 by Matthew Beard
Allen Carr, an anti-smoking campaigner who helped millions quit by showing how he kicked a 100-a-day habit, has died from lung cancer.
The 72-year-old claimed to have helped 25 million people to give up, including leading figures such as the Virgin boss Sir Richard Bran-son, the actor Sir Anthony Hopkins and the footballer Gianluca Vialli. He sold millions of books on giving up smoking and opened 70 clinics in 30 countries. He was diagnosed with inoperable cancer in July and died in his sleep at his home near Malaga, Spain, with his wife and daughters at his bedside, his spokesman said yesterday.
"Our hearts go out to Allen's family and the millions of former smokers who will be saddened by his passing," said John Dicey, Worldwide Director of Mr Carr's Easyway group. "He was an iconic figure and a real inspiration. His refreshingly different approach to stopping smoking earned him the position as the world's leading expert on helping smokers to quit."
Doctors were unable to say whether the disease was linked to his habit or his clients, who were allowed to continue smoking during their treatment. "I estimate I've cured 25 million smokers over the years," Mr Carr said in a recent interview. "And if my illness is the price for that, it's worth paying."
The former accountant claimed a 90 per cent success rate. He told smokers to focus on their addiction to nicotine rather than relying on willpower.
He said smokers were locked in a cycle of replacing the nicotine in their system. The pleasure they felt after each cigarette came from feeding the craving for nicotine. He further asserted that smoking was less addictive than is commonly assumed, that withdrawal symptoms are actually created by doubt in the mind of the former smoker, and that stopping smoking was not as traumatic as commonly assumed if that doubt can be circumvented. His contention was that fear of giving up was what causes people to continue smoking.
"I never wanted to be a smoker," Mr Carr said. "No one actually chose to become a smoker and there's not one smoker on the planet who wants their children to smoke. Basically, we are in it because we fall into a trap that we just don't know how to get out of."
When he read a medical book given to him by his son, he learnt that when nicotine leaves your body it creates an empty, insecure feeling. "When I was without cigarettes I got the panicky feeling, but when I lit up, the panicky feeling left so I was fooled into thinking that each cigarette was giving me some sort of crutch or benefit," he said. "Once I knew that it wasn't a weakness in me, which I'd believed before, I knew I would never smoke again."
Sir Anthony Hopkins described his method for giving up "not only easy but unbelievably enjoyable".
Mr Carr said he would have died 20 years ago if he had kept smoking. He smoked for more than 30 years, starting aged 18.
He also wrote a number of other "How To" books, on subjects such as losing weight and controlling alcohol consumption. He also wrote instructions on how to stop worrying, how to enjoy flying and how to be successful in business.
But he will be best remember for the book that started it all off; Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking, sold more than seven million copies and has been widely praised by smokers who have used the self-help book to finally kick the nicotine habit.
He is survived by his wife, Joyce, four children, two stepchildren, 11 grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.
Copyright 2006 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
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