Quit Smoking -Your Road to a Healthier Life
Ready to quit smoking or looking for support? If you use tobacco, giving up smoking is the single most important step you can take to improve your own health, and safeguard the well-being of those around you. It is never too late to stop.
A New Service from Cooleman Court Pharmacy!
Cooleman Court Pharmacy now partners with Hola Health to offer convenient nicotine-cessation consultations. You can speak with an Australian-registered telehealth doctor in as little as 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for personalised advice on managing nicotine dependence.
Why Quitting Matters
Smoking is highly addictive and carries serious, often fatal, health consequences. Two out of every three lifelong smokers die prematurely from smoking-related disease. Although Australia’s smoking rate has dropped from 25 % of adults in 1991 to about 11.6 % in 2019, roughly 2.7 million Australians still smoke. Because smoking remains the leading cause of preventable illness and death worldwide, and because Australia is among the most expensive countries in which to buy cigarettes, there are powerful reasons to give it up.
Immediate and Long-Term Benefits
| First month | • Excess carbon monoxide clears in 12 h • Most nicotine exits within 5 days • Taste & smell sharpen in 1 week • Skin often looks healthier by 1 month | | --- | --- | | First year | • Extra lung phlegm stops in 2 months • Lung function & circulation improve by 3 months • Heart-disease risk halves at 12 months | | --- | --- | | Long term | • Stroke risk plunges after 5 years • Lung-cancer risk is < ½ that of a smoker after 10 years • At 15 years, heart-attack & stroke risk nearly matches someone who never smoked | | --- | --- | Other perks include lower overall cancer risk, better oral health, improved fertility, and a healthier pregnancy for mother and baby.
Health Risks of Smoking
Smoking is still one of Australia’s most common causes of disease and death. It contributes to:
- Cancer
- Asthma & emphysema
- Heart disease & stroke
- Eye & kidney disorders
- Diabetes
- Greater severity of COVID-19
Second-hand smoke also harms family, friends, and coworkers, even if they never smoke themselves.
Ways to Quit
Success often requires several attempts and varied strategies. Your GP or Cooleman Court Pharmacy pharmacist may suggest:
- Cold turkey or gradual reduction
- Quitline (13 78 48) or quit.org.au for counselling
- Nicotine-replacement products, gums, patches, lozenges, sprays
- Prescription medicines
- Nicotine vaping products (with a doctor’s prescription) when other methods fail
Vaping and Patient Care
Cooleman Court Pharmacy focuses on evidence-based therapies. Because long-term effects of therapeutic vaping remain unclear and nicotine vapes are not registered on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, we do not sell vaping products over the counter. We do, however, help patients whose doctors prescribe low-dose (≤ 20 mg/ml) nicotine vapes, dispensing them or referring patients for further care according to professional judgment.