Your Heart, Your Life: A Community Health Worker's Manual for the Hispanic Community

Session 10 Handout Help Your Heart – Don't Smoke

Download Help Your Heart – Don't Smoke (28k) handout.

Smoking cigarettes is harmful. It becomes an addiction that leads to serious health problems. Quitting smoking will lower your risk of heart attack, stroke, and lung disease. It will help you breathe easier and have more energy. In addition, your clothes, hair, and breath will smell fresher, and you will save money by not buying cigarettes. Most important, when you quit smoking, your children won't be exposed to your secondhand smoke. They will have your good example to follow.

Even if you don't smoke, it is important that you learn about the best ways to quit. Help those around you, and keep your children smoke free. Quit smoking and add years to your life!

Mariano and Néstor decided to quit smoking. Néstor made a firm pledge one morning, threw away his cigarettes, and used his willpower to quit for good. Mariano used the following three tips and also quit.

1. Learn how to handle urges to smoke.
   “Every time I felt stressed, I wanted to smoke. Instead of smoking, I said a prayer to ask for courage and strength, talked to a friend, or walked around the neighborhood.”
2. Get support.
   “I also attended a quit-smoking program in the clinic every Thursday night, and I got a lot of help from my family and the support group.”
3. Use the nicotine patch or gum.
   “The doctor at the clinic suggested that I use the patch. The patch helped me control the urge to smoke.”

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Information on this page is taken from the English print version of “Your Heart, Your Life, A Community Health Worker's Manual.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, NIH Publication No. 08-3674, Originally Printed 1999, Revised May 2008.

Last Updated March 2012