October is the month dedicated to helping smokers to quit – for good!
Dubbed ‘Stoptober’, the month is aimed at helping people who smoke give up the habit for 28 days, which is said to help them be a whopping FIVE times more likely to quit full stop (1).
There are many health and financial rewards to quitting smoking, from saving £250 a month to removing the risk of second-hand smoke on your family and loved ones (which can contribute to health issues such as cancer, asthma and meningitis).
In 2017, a research conducted in a University College of London showed the quitting success rates at their highest for at least a decade, up to 19.8% for the first six months of the year (2) – significantly higher than the average for the last 10 years (15.7%). Smoking…
• Is a leading cause of cancer
• Increases the risk of heart attack and lung disease
• Causes nearly 100,000 people to die from smoking-related illnesses each year
• Decreases the average life expectancy by ten years, compared to a non-smoker
As part of Stoptober, the NHS promotes a variety of methods to help you quit smoking successfully. These include e-cigarettes, medicines such as nicotine patches, and face-to-face ‘Quit Together’ support groups.
One of the alternative ways people use to quit smoking is hypnotherapy, a professional alternative service that helps to establish negative associations around the practice of smoking, whether it’s the taste and smell, or the financial spend and damage to your health.
It tends to focus on three core beliefs – that smoking is poisonous to the body, you need your body to live, and you should protect and respect your body.
Hypnotherapy can be used for several addictive habits and can also help with weight loss and insomnia. If you would like to find out more about the ways in which you might benefit from using a health cash plan for professional services such as hypnotherapy, do contact us.
Or, if you’re an existing policyholder, don’t forget that you can access hypnotherapy as part of your plan (the limit of which is dependent on the level of cover you have). To find out more, login to your Paycare account, or contact a member of the Paycare team.
1 | https://www.gov.uk/government/news/highest-smoking-quit-success-rates-on-record
2 | https://www.gov.uk/government/news/highest-smoking-quit-success-rates-on-record