Lifestyle Changes

Lifestyle Changes

Smokers and former smokers should immediately begin to implement a healthier lifestyle and change any other behaviors that might be damaging their health.

Healthy Diet

Everyone should maintain a healthy diet, with foods rich in whole grains and fruits and vegetables (particularly dark colored ones). Avoid saturated fats and instead choose monounsaturated fats, which are found in olive oil, or fats from oily fish. Eating fish more than twice a week might help limit the tobacco damage in people who do not smoke more than a pack-and-a-half a day.

Vitamins and Supplements

Women who are pregnant and continue to smoke must be sure to take appropriate vitamins, particularly folic acid. In this way, they might reduce the increased risk of fetal injury and death, although they will not eliminate the risk.

---

---

Exercise

Regular exercise reduces a smoker's risk of heart disease (although still not to the level of a nonsmoker). Exercise does not lower a smoker's risk for lung cancer or emphysema.

Regular Check-Ups

If you smoke, you should be screened for any smoking-related disorders. Have your cholesterol and blood pressure checked regularly. Women should have regular Pap smears to detect cervical cancer (the required frequency of the Pap smear varies by age and medical history, such as exposure to the human papillomavirus). All older adults should be screened for colon cancer.

A note about computed tomography: Computed tomography (CT) screening programs are becoming increasingly available. These programs may claim that they can successfully detect lung cancer early. However, to date, these programs are experimental at best, and in controlled studies they offer no survival benefits for lung cancer patients.

Review Date: 09/08/2010
Reviewed By: Reviewed by: Harvey Simon, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org).