[Sanjay Gupta, Cnn:] Good morning, welcome to HOUSE CALL, the show that helps you live longer and stronger. Keep in mind this is a show about you, not about me. How about starting your new year by increasing your life span? That's my gift to you. If you're a smoker or you live with one, you're going to want to watch the show today. And alternative medicine for kids. What you need to know about what works and what doesn't. Then, this is a season to be sick. But when is it too much? When should you be concerned that you're getting sick too often? First up, though, we're learning more and more about the dangers of smoking and what can happen to your body and to the ones you love as well. Studies just in the last couple of weeks show smokers both current and former may be at 50 percent higher risk at developing a heart arrhythmia known as atrial fibrillation. And they also highlighted something you may not have heard of, thirdhand smoke. Those invisible fumes and toxins that cling to clothing and fabric of smokers, well, they could be harmful to children. Now, we all know that smoking is bad for your health. I think you got to know that by now if you watch the show. So instead today, we're going to focus on how great quitting would be for living a longer and stronger life. That's our goal on HOUSE CALL. Take a look.
[Gupta:] Quitting smoking isn't easy, but the good news is once you stop, the health benefits begin almost immediately.
[Otis Brawley, Dr., American Cancer Society:] Within 20 minutes of one's stopping smoking, one's heart rate and blood pressure actually go down. 12 hours after one stops smoking, the carbon monoxide levels in one's blood decrease. About two weeks after one stops smoking, one's lung function actually improves. So one is going to be less short of breath and have more exercise tolerance.
[Gupta:] But there is a down side, because nicotine works very much like other addictive drugs, altering the chemistry of the brain and the nervous system. A smoker is likely going to experience some withdrawals.
[Brawley:] They have shaking, you can have nervousness, even have some depression, increased appetite.
[Gupta:] But experts urge people to hang in there, because the benefits of quitting only get more noticeable and could save your life.
[Brawley:] Nine months after one stops smoking, the cough goes away. About a year after one stops smoking, one's risk of heart disease goes down. Five years after one stops smoking, one's risk of stroke decreases.
[Gupta:] Brawley says ten years after quitting, the lung cancer death rate is about half that of a current smoker. Well, now is the time to quit. You know that. And we know that 70 percent of smokers want to quit. We know this year 40 percent will try, but here's the problem. Only 5 percent are going to succeed. That's because, you guessed it, nicotine is addictive. It would have to be for people that continue inhaling all the other components of cigarette smoke. Almost 4,000 chemicals in all, including cyanide, and the fuel used in welding torches as well. All these chemicals combined to make you sick, with heart disease, with cancer, diseases of the lung. So now you know why quitting is essential. Let's get some help to get us there. Joining us is director of the nicotine dependence center at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Richard Hurt. Thanks so much for joining us all the way from London I should point out.
[Richard Hurt, Dr., Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence:] Yes, great to be here.
[Gupta:] Thank you very much. You know, this is an important topic for the show, something we've been talking about for some time. We want to inspire our viewers. And I think one way to do that is to point out a little of your past history. You're director of this nicotine dependence program, but you were also a three pack a day smoker. You started in college. Is that right?
[Hurt:] That's correct. And I stopped in 1975.
[Gupta:] Well, you know, the big question that we get is, well, first of all, how did you quit? And what is the best way to quit? Is there such a thing?
[Hurt:] Well, back in 1975, there was no medications. So I stopped using a group program. So the best way to stop in these days, this day in time, is to use counseling and medication. And you can get counseling through telephone quick lines or through your health care provider. And the medications, we now have seven different medications that can help people to stop. So we've got more things now than ever before.
[Gupta:] Let's dissect that down a little. We received a lot of questions on this topic. Let's jump right into an e-mail from our inbox. Michael from California asks this. "I'm 26 and smoking close to five years. I want to quit, but I get major anxiety when I stop. Do you have advice?" Doctor, both anxiety, depression I've heard as well can be a problem, when people initially stop smoking. What's your advice for them?
[Hurt:] Well, anxiety is one of the withdrawal symptoms we very frequently see when people stop smoking. Irritability, anxiety, frustration, those are all common withdrawal systems. And they're very easily controlled by using some of the medications that help to control nicotine withdrawal. The nicotine medications can do that. And also, the other medications called Bipropreon and Brenoclean can help with withdrawal symptoms.
[Gupta:] Did you have some of those problems when you tried to quit?
[Hurt:] Well, it was one of the worst time of my life. In fact, people at work were begging me to start smoking again because I was so irritable that I was really hard to work with.
[Gupta:] You know, I should point out, Dr. Hurt, you'll appreciate this. There's a new way people can reach us. It's a social networking site called Twitter. We're at twitter.comCNNhealth. On Twitter, we had this question. And it says this, "I'm going quit in two days. I'm going to do it cold turkey. Should I uses the patches or should I use the gum or wait to see if cold turkey works?" So here you have a specific case, doctor.
[Hurt:] Well, I yes, I don't any cold turkey is a good idea. In this day and time, medications are very helpful in helping people to stop smoking. Counseling is very helpful to stop smoking as well. And you can get counseling again through the telephone quick lines by calling 1-800-quit-now or going to a new Web site. Call become an ex-dot.org, which is an American legacy Web site, which is also very interactive and very helpful.
[Gupta:] All right, let's keep going. We got a question now from our roving camera. Take a listen to this.
[Unidentified Male:] Is there a true connection between smoking cigarettes and cancer? We hear all of these stories, yes, no. It's genetic. It's is it?
[Gupta:] You know, it's interesting, doctor, because I think a lot of people understand there's a connection between cigarette smoking and cancer, but there are people who get lung cancer who are not smokers. People who smoked their entire lives, they never get lung cancer. Are there people who are more predisposed to having problems?
[Hurt:] Well, that's true. But we must be clear about this. Cigarettes were not a common product before the turn of the last century, 1900. So lung cancer was very uncommon before 1900. And it's now the most common cause of cancer deaths in both American men and American women. In fact, 30 percent of cancers in the United States are caused by cigarette smoking. If it were not for tobacco- caused cancers, we would be winning the war on cancer.
[Gupta:] We're talking to Dr. Richard Hurt, all the way from London. We got to take a quick break now. But when we come back, we're going to have more of your questions with Dr. Hurt. Plus, millions of United States adults are turning to alternative therapies like supplements. But are they safe for your kids? We're going to deep dive into that. HOUSE CALL's going to be back in 60 seconds.