Hypnosis can prevent Respiratory Disease

Introduction
It is estimated that smoking causes some 114,000 premature deaths every year, of which about a quarter are from lung cancer and around one fifth are from chronic obstructive lung disease bronchitis and emphysema. The respiratory system is vital to life and anything which prevents it functioning can result in death. Often cancers of these organs are not discovered until it is too late to cure them: 93% of lung cancer patients die within five years of diagnosis and 75% die within the first year.

Hypnotherapy for prevention of lung cancer
Lung cancer kills more people than any other type of cancer and around 90% of these deaths are caused by smoking. Around 33,600 people die each year in the UK from lung cancer, accounting for 6% of all deaths and 22% of all cancer deaths in the UK. The risk of lung cancer increases directly with the number of cigarettes smoked. In a study of male British doctors, deaths from lung cancer in smokers and non smokers were as follows:

Number of cigarettes smoked per day	Annual death rate per 100,000 men
0	10
1-14	78 (8 times that of non-smokers)
15-25	127 (13 times that of non-smokers)
25 or more	251 (25 times that of non-smokers) Increased risk of developing lung cancer

Increased risk of developing lung cancer

Age at time of starting to smoke is important. The younger a person is when he or she starts smoking, the greater the risk of developing lung cancer. A US study found that smoking during the teenage years causes permanent genetic changes in the lungs and forever increases the risk of lung cancer, even if the smoker subsequently stops.

In smokers, the most important parameter of smoking that affects lung cancer risk is the duration of smoking, although, as noted above, risk also increases with the number of cigarettes smoked per day.

Hypnotherapy for the prevention of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Chronic obstructive pulmonary (lung) disease (including chronic bronchitis and emphysema) is a progressively disabling disease. It can cause prolonged suffering due to difficulty in breathing because of the obstruction or narrowing of the small airways in the lung and the destruction of the air sacs in the lung due to smoking. These are essential for the exchange of oxygen in the blood: when they break down, the lung loses its elasticity and there is less surface in the lung to absorb oxygen. The onset of the disease is very gradual and breathlessness only becomes troublesome when about half of the lung has been destroyed. The disease is rarely reversible once established.

Smoking is the main cause of chronic obstructive lung disease: it is very rare in non-smokers and at least 80% of the deaths from this disease can be attributed to cigarette smoking. In 2002, 23,878 people in the UK died from this disease as a result of smoking. The risk of death due to the disease increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. In the last 20 years, the death rate from chronic bronchitis in the UK seems to have been declining steadily. This has been attributed to cleaner air, social improvements, fewer male smokers, a reduction in the tar yields of cigarettes and advances in treatment. Nevertheless, there is some indication that this decline may be less marked than at first appears due to changes in the nomenclature of the diseases involved. Recent evidence shows that prevalence rates of the disease in men in the UK seem to have peaked. However, they continue to rise in women. The findings of a retrospective cohort study of adult smokers suggest that women are particularly at risk of COPD if they start to smoke before the age of 16.

Hypnosis for the prevention of Pneumonia
Pneumonia is not only more common amongst smokers, but is also much more likely to be fatal. In 2002, 6,062 deaths from pneumonia were attributable to smoking.

Hypnotherapy for the prevention of Asthma
Secondhand smoke is an established trigger for the onset of asthma in children (see below) and there is growing evidence that it is also a causal factor in adult non-smokers exposed to tobacco smoke

Morbidity in the young
Children of smoking parents have more respiratory illnesses than those of non-smokers and children who smoke have more chest illnesses than non-smokers.

The benefits of stopping smoking through Hypnotherapy
The risk of lung cancer, like all other cancers, increases steeply with advancing age. When smokers give up, their risk of getting lung cancer starts decreasing so that after 10 years an ex smoker's risk is about a third to half that of continuing smokers. A longitudinal study of British doctors found that if people stop smoking, even well into middle age, they avoid most of their subsequent risk of lung cancer. Stopping smoking before the age of 30 avoids more than 90% of the risk attributable to smoking.

Pulmonary function is a strong predictor of mortality and smoking reduces pulmonary function. A Finnish study found that middle aged smokers across the entire range of pulmonary function may increase their expectation of lifespan by giving up smoking. Smokers with chronic obstructive lung disease who stop smoking while still young can expect their lung function to improve. However, in older people, such improvement is not possible although after cessation further deterioration will run parallel to that of non-smokers.

Unless otherwise stated, the above information is taken from: http://www.ash.org.uk