Lesson video

Welcome to the RSHE - Drugs and alcohol.

My name is Mr. Duffy, I'm really glad you joined me today.

We are going to look at stopping smoking.

This lesson covers issues about smoking.

If this is a sensitive topic to you, we recommend checking with the trusted adult before starting or doing the lesson with trusted adult nearby.

So for this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper.

You're going to need to write some things down.

In which case you will need a pen or pencil.

So you can hopefully you've done your intro quiz.

We're going to look at benefits of stopping smoking, where to seek help and advice and you'll do your exit quiz at the end of the lesson.

So let's take a look at some key words then.

So prevention, the action of stopping something from happening or arising and withdrawal, the combination of physical and mental effects that a person experiences after they stopped using or reduce their intake of a substance such as nicotine.

So let's just remind ourselves of the law then.

You must be over 18 to buy cigarettes in the UK.

If you are under 16, the police have the right to confiscate your cigarettes.

It is illegal for shops to sell you cigarettes, if you are under age.

But for an adult to buy you cigarettes if you are under 18 and it is also illegal to smoke in the car with a child and a child is classified as someone who is under the age of 18.

So why should people stop smoking? Pause the video, write some ideas down.

I'll see you in a second.

So lets remind ourselves of the effects of tobacco.

And this is really why people need to stop smoking.

If you remember back to other lessons, we've looked at the reasons and the health problems associated with smoking.

So tar causes cancer of the lungs, mouth and throat.

It coats inside of the lungs including the alveoli causing coughing.

It damages the alveoli making it more difficult for gaseous exchange to happen.

What that means is that the body can't absorb all the oxygen nor can it exhale all the carbon monoxide.

Smoke, cells in the lining of the trachea, bronchi and bronchioles produces sticky mucus.

This is within the lungs, the bronchiolar and the bronchioles are all within the lungs.

It's the air pockets that store your oxygen.

And it unfortunately, produces what we call a sticky mucus.

This traps dirt and microbes.

Cells with tiny hair-like particles called cilia, then move the mucus out of the lungs.

However, the hot smoke and tar actually damages this cilia.

And as a result, this smokers cough to move mucus and more likely to get bronchitis.

So nicotine is, as we know, highly addictive.

However, it also causes blood vessels to narrow.

What that means is if you imagine a big pipe with a liquid going through it.

If we want that liquid to pass freely without any problems, we want that pipe to be quite big.

Well, what nicotine does is, it actually makes those narrow increases and now increases the blood pressure and heart rate because it's working even harder to get the liquid through it.

The liquid is your blood.

Because it has to work harder and it's really struggling to get through your blood vessels, it can cause heart disease.

Primarily heart attack and stroke.

Carbon monoxide is a gas that takes place that takes the place of oxygen.

So as I said with the gas exchange with tar, this can't take place.

Unfortunately, within the red blood cells, there's more carbon monoxide than oxygen and obvious as we know we need oxygen to function.

It means that the circulatory system is having to work even harder.

So as I said, the heart is having to work really hard to push and force the blood through the blood vessels.

In which case, this then causes heart attack or a stroke.

So knowing the effects of smoke.

What do you think the benefits to stop in smoke are? Pause the video and write some ideas down and I'll see you in a minute.

So what I want you to do is, now you've got your ideas, pause the video again and put the benefits in the left-hand column and write a brief description of why that benefit is important.

So pause the video again.

I'll see you soon.

So here's some ideas for you then.

So stopping smoking lets you breathe more easily.

Of course it does.

We know that tar causes a blockage within the lungs.

And we know that the nicotine causes the blood vessels to shrink and become smaller making it harder.

We know that carbon monoxide stays within the body because that gas exchange can't take place because of the tar.

So people breathe more easily and cough less, when they give up smoking.

Because their lung capacity improves by up to 10% within nine months.

It's absolutely amazing.

And we know just from stopping that literally within 48 hours improvements are made, but within breathing up to nine months.

After nine months, you've got 10% more lung capacity which is absolutely brilliant.

Stopping smoking gives you more energy within two to 12 weeks of stopping smoking, your blood circulation improves.

This makes all physical activity including walking and running much easier.

As you know, we need oxygen and nutrients to be supplied to our work in muscles.

Our work in muscles then don't fatigue or get tired as quickly and therefore, we're fit to do whatever the activity may well be.

So we might be fit enough to go to the shops, fit enough to do some gardening or from a sports point of view, fit enough to last 90 minutes during a football match.

Stopping smoking improve, smell and taste.

When you stop smoking, your senses of smell and taste gets a big boost.

You may notice that food tastes and smells different as your mouth and nose recover from being dulled by the hundreds of toxic chemicals found in cigarettes.

So those toxic chemicals obviously, it's the first thing that generally the smoke touches, is the mouth and it does affect the senses of smell and the taste buds on the top.

And as a result, literally within a few hours, a few days, that tastes and smells starts to return.

So now that we know what the effects of smoke are, now we know why it's important to stop.

Where can someone go to help them to stop smoking? Pause the video so my day is now and I'll see you soon.

So how can advise? The first thing to do if someone wants to stop smoking, is that they need to go see their GP or their doctor.

Okay.

So the first piece of advice if anybody says, well, I'm thinking of stopping smoking.

My first piece of advice is go and see your GP because they will help.

They'll put them in touch with all the services that can help.

So they might join a local stop smoking service.

We can download the free NHS stop smoking app, have an emergency phone number to hand, much really important that's really useful.

When a smoker tries to stop smoking and they join that stop smoking services, they can buddy up or make friends with people who are in a similar situation.

And what that means is, they can support each other when times are difficult.

And they're thinking, I need a cigarette because the brain essentially, is craving that nicotine.

When does that issue of relapse and think it and not solve withdrawal, that's why you need that support.

And having that emergency phone number best friend who is in exactly the same situation as them.

That's where that could be really part of just texts.

It's actually, one of the things is it's basically giving them something to do other than and refocusing the brain on a different activity or other than smoking.

But having that conversation is really helpful.

And also consider using a nicotine content in product.

This could include an e-cigarette.

Now we've identified the dangers of an e-cigarette.

However, the thing with an e-cigarette over smoking is that you can reduce the dose.

And that's the idea of an e-cigarette.

It's not just to smoke it and replace the tobacco of the price.

The smoking element from a cigarette is actually to help you reduce.

And over about eight to 12 weeks, you wean yourself off it.

And then by sort of eight, 12 weeks, you're pretty much not using it anymore.

They all need to last for about three months really.

And that's the idea with those nicotine-containing products.

Like I said, it can be an e-cigarette could be parched, chewing gum just something just to wean them off slowly.

So kind of e-cigarettes help you quit.

So if someone's a smoke you know someone's smoking.

Can an e-cigarette help them? Is that true or false? Of course its true.

Like I said, it's the idea is that it's helping them wean them off it.

So an e-cigarette is far less harmful because they're not using it over hopefully over a long time about eight to 12 weeks hopefully.

And the idea is that over a few days, over a few weeks they just reduce the amount of nicotine that they're having.

So eventually, it's at zero and then in which case they no longer need the e-cigarette.

So yes, it can help them quit.

So nicotine-containing products like I've mentioned, are patches.

Okay, but like the one in the picture here and it's known as nicotine replacement therapy and this can double someone's chances of success.

As well as the patches, there are tablets, lozenges, gums and nasal spray.

And if you like holding a cigarette, there are handheld products like an inhaler or e-cigarette.

So if someone lies holding a cigarette, someone some people will actually enjoy the feeling of holding a cigarette and actually physically smoking.

In which case the patches in nicotine and the gumbo necessarily work for them.

But using an e-cigarette will help with that because one, it stops that sort of almost kind of dependency on physically smoking.

But one of the things with these nicotine replacement therapy treatments is that it's bespoke to the individual.

Okay, so it's bespoke to the person specifically for them.

What they enjoy, what the don't like and products and things are tailored to that person because that's going to give them the ultimate chance of success.

So the top 10 tips then that I would recommend to anybody who's thinking of stopping smoking, is think positive.

Cleaning pulse be really positive, isn't it? Yeah, I'm going to be able to do this, make a plan.

Sometimes a lot of people tend to give up because there's not plan really.

It's well, I'll do this, I'll do that and not really a stick to a rigid plan as it is.

I'm going to reduce my dose every week.

I'm going to reduce it by.

Yeah, they need to have a clear plan.

Consider diet, diet's really important.

The healthy diet, the more energy they'll getting from that diet, the more energised they're going to fail, the more positive they're going to fail.

And hopefully that will help as well.

Change your drinks.

What the what smokers tend to find is that if that drink it particularly alcohol, which is that those inhibitions, and they're, I'll just have a safe route stop wall, and it doesn't matter, but that's not going to help.

So changing their diet, changing what the drink will make a massive difference.

Identify when the craving starts.

What smokers will be able to do is go well, actually when I'm stressed, I find it really difficult.

I tend to want a cigarette.

You can try and reduce the stress, manage their workload, manage their life a little bit more in a healthy way.

Hopefully those cravings are identified and that's when they could maybe do something different to try retread those habits.

Get some smoking support.

As I said, join a local smoking support group, get moving, get active, get physically active increases energy releases endorphins, our feel good chemical.

Getting on non-smoking friends.

It really pop for a smoker.

If they were round smoking in they were around other people who smoke, if you're trying to stop that commitment very difficult.

And actually sometimes it's helpful particularly people, adults working in an office and maybe they've got a friend who smokes and they've got up that cigarette break together, is actually stop to gather.

Its rather than having the cigarette break, I'd have a walk.

Keep the hands and mouth busy.

As I said, some people like the feeling of smoking like having a cigarette in the hand.

So try and do something else, make a list of reasons to put why, make why am I going to quit? There needs to be something that you can when you're thinking trying to be positive? We think I'm just going to have one.

What are the reasons it's because you know I've got grandchildren or my daughter's getting married or whatever or any of these reasons are really important.

So thinking about those top 10 tips, thinking about the effects of smoking and the dangers of smoking.

Chelsea's mum is a smoker and she doesn't know if she wants to quit.

So she don't really, she kind of I'm smoking too many hours on the day with quitting rarely.

As and part of the issue, she doesn't really know how to she's on and I realised about it and it needs to stop.

I'm not really sure how to.

We need to write a letter to Chelsea's mum explaining the benefits of quitting and how she could go about doing it.

So that might include the top 10 tips and also maybe some of the services that are out there to help her.

So pause the video, and write your letter and I'll see you soon.

So what tips would you give to someone to help them to stop smoking? Fantastic.

I hope you got some really good ideas that have obviously those top 10 tips are, absolutely fantastic.

Think positive and getting the person to really have a reason to stop smoking and then coming up with that plan of how they actually go to stop smoking.

So the following organisations should be able to provide help and advice for certain people.

And also provide you guys with more information.

If you want to know more about smoking, talk to Frank and the NHS website.

I said I've been missing off.

I really hope you've enjoyed this lesson today.

And I hope you've learned something that's really important.

Now I'd love to say your letters that you wrote to Chelsea and one of those tasks.

So if you liked it, please ask your parents or carer to share your work on Twitter tagging @OakNational and hashtag LearnwithOak.

I said, I've been missing off.

I'm really glad you've joined me to that.

I can't wait to see your letters.

Goodbye.