{"id":2614,"date":"2025-04-28T00:59:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T00:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/?p=2614"},"modified":"2025-04-28T01:08:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T01:08:48","slug":"misconceptions-and-truths-about-tobacco-consumptiondr-vaishali-shelar-senior-clinical-psychologist-mumbai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/?p=2614","title":{"rendered":"Misconceptions and Truths About Tobacco Consumption**Dr. Vaishali Shelar (Senior Clinical Psychologist), Mumbai"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mumbai (Gurudutta Wakdekar): Every step taken for one’s health is important. Quitting tobacco is not just about quitting the addiction, but also about living a healthy life with renewed hope. Even today, there are many misconceptions about tobacco in the society, which create obstacles in the way of becoming free from addiction. Only after understanding the true dangers of tobacco, the path to a healthy life becomes clear. So, let’s put these misconceptions aside and move on to reality.*Misconceptions and Truths*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*Misconception 1: Tobacco is not a drug.**Truth:* Nicotine in tobacco is a very addictive drug. Its addiction is compared to dangerous drugs like cocaine and heroin. *Misconception 2: Light or low-tar cigarettes are safe.**Truth:* People who smoke “light” or “low-tar” cigarettes inhale more deeply and smoke more cigarettes to get their nicotine fix. This results in higher levels of tar and carbon monoxide in the body.*Misconception 3: Quitting smoking can worsen mental illness.**Truth:* Quitting smoking can cause irritability, restlessness, anxiety, and sleep problems, but these are just symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. They are not signs of worsening mental illness.*Misconception 4: Whether you quit or not, the damage is done.**Truth:* The body begins to recover immediately after quitting smoking:Within hours, blood carbon monoxide levels return to normal and oxygen levels increase.Lung function improves within a week.The risk of heart disease is about halfed within a year. *Misconception 5: Smoking relaxes.**Truth:* In fact, smoking increases blood pressure and heart rate, which puts more stress on the body. Instead of relaxing, the body suffers additional harm.*Misconception 6: Smokeless tobacco (gutkha, mawa, etc.) is safer than cigarettes.**Truth:* Smokeless tobacco also contains nicotine and many carcinogenic (cancer-causing) ingredients, which increase the risk of mouth, throat and pancreatic cancer.*Effective treatment methods for quitting tobacco**1. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)*Helps identify thoughts, feelings and situations that increase tobacco use. Increases the chances of quitting addiction by creating the right strategy.*2. Motivational interviewing*Explores the reasons that hinder quitting and helps create motivation for health.*3. Mindfulness (mindfulness practice)*Teaching to separate oneself from negative thoughts and feelings. Increases the ability to handle stress and uncomfortable emotions, which helps to stay away from tobacco.*”Start today \u2014 take the first step towards a healthy life without tobacco!”*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mumbai (Gurudutta Wakdekar): Every step taken for one’s health is important. Quitting tobacco is not just about quitting the addiction, but also about living a healthy life with renewed hope. Even today, there are many misconceptions about tobacco in the society, which create obstacles in the way of becoming free from addiction. Only after understanding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-1"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2618,"href":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614\/revisions\/2618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gantantranews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}