Smoking is one the major causes of a variety of diseases including cancer, lung disease and cardiovascular. If you are a smoker, one of the biggest impact you can make to improve your health is to stop smoking. If you are a long term smoker, you can start by first reducing the amount you smoke. Start by INCREASING the interval between cigarettes.

There are many way to quite and you do not just have to go "cold turkey" (though it is always an option for some). The research evidence shows that people are 4 times as likely to quit with some form of support. The support can take the form of prescriptions such as nicotine replacement and tablets like Champix (also known as Varenicline).

But people will often do best with the help of some behavioural support and this can be accessed by clicking the link above to take you to the Lambeth stop smoking specialist team. Please don't hesitate to discuss this with any healthcare professional at the practice. You can also advise us of your hope to quit via an online form.

Finally, some people will have found benefit using electronic cigarettes. Although we know that it is safest to not inhale any chemicals, we know that the vast majority of electronic cigarettes are a lot safer than inhaling smoke. Therefore, we would advocate people who have struggled to give up via all the other means to consider trying electronic cigarettes. Unfortunately, it is still largely an unregulated arena, therefore we cannot give advice on which ones would be safest but we hope to be able to provide a steer once there is more effective and structured regulation in place.