We can understand that the decision to quit smoking is hard. The addictive habit takes a toll on you, as you go about enjoying the process through time. Although this addiction gives you a particular type of pleasure, through time, you won’t be alive to enjoy. Due to this, many people make their best efforts in quitting the habit and leading a healthy life. So, if you are one of those individuals who tried and failed, then don’t give up hope because we are right here to help you. Hence, here are five ways that will help you stop smoking.

1. The Day

The first part about quitting is choosing a day that you are going to stop smoking forever. Although it may sound to be unrealistic, the habit can be controlled with a lot of effort. But there are plenty of ways through which you can make this day a reality. At first, you need to inform everyone about this decision and make them understand that you mean business. This brings in many expectations on you, as people do not want you to disappoint. Apart from that, you also need to get rid of all those packets and cartons of cigarettes that you own, so that they might not seem to be interesting when the day of quitting arrives.

2. NRT and Non-Nicotine Medications

Medications and therapy are some of the ideal ways to quit smoking, as the habit can be controlled in the right manner. NRT can help you fight against your nicotine dependency, as the medication is beneficial. Non-nicotine medications, on the other hand, are also helpful in these circumstances. All you need to do is to follow simple rules, and you might end up quitting this dangerous habit. Although many people go ahead to try and stop the habit without the help of medication, their rate of success is extremely low.

3. Behavioural Support

The urge that arises within you to smoke is something that deals with your emotional and physical dependence. This particular dependence is something that drives you to smoke and makes you an addict. So this dependency is one of the most important things that you need to prevent, and the best way to do this is by joining specific programmes about behavioural support. The kind of help that you get here will help you understand your dependency and prevent it to a large extent. Apart from this, people also seek alternative therapy. Regardless of the various attempts that you take towards quitting, the ultimate decision has to come from within you, and there is nobody who can force that out of you. This medications and sessions are a way of helping you bring that decision out of you, and you need to take them seriously.

We have been living in a world where there are some situations that are so perilous, and it can literally happen to anybody. Our safety is certainly not guaranteed, and there is actually nothing we can do about it. No matter how careful we are, we could literally face trouble by just walking down a dark street. There is little to nothing we can do about facing these situations. Well, granted we can be prepared for such situations, and we can try and get out of them with some special skills indeed. You could literally be on your way home from work, and something or someone could pose a situation which would put you in harm’s way, you should certainly be prepared for such situations.

Because of those pieces of metal and glass that we have in our pockets, they would indeed provide an out for us; they could indeed save us from any serious harm that may befall us. Here is a list of some applications that will actually contact our listed emergency contact and also emergency services as soon as it is triggered or when it knows that we are in trouble.

• There is an application on the Apple Watch that always detects if you have had a fall or if you are facing a perilous situation. It displays an option on the screen, and if you do not hit the “I am okay” option, it will immediately contact emergency services and also your emergency contacts. Well, the Apple Watch actually has a lot of medical features that we should be aware about. It can take an ECG and also give you accurate information relating to your heartbeat and blood oxygen and whatnot.
• The Medical ID and Medical app on the iPhone will help you get immediate medical attention in emergency situations. You can even press the power button and the volume up button 5 times, and when you do that, it triggers a loud sound, and it counts down, when the countdown is done, it will contact emergency services and your emergency contacts as well. It will also send them a ping of your last known location and some more things that you can choose.

• Guardly is literally a life-saving app which poses as an amazing life saving tool which will help you a lot. Security operators, administrators and even dispatchers can indeed rely on Guardily top send emergency alerts and even messages to members who are in critical situations.
• Disaster Alert is an app which is brought in by the Pacific Disaster Center’s world disaster alerts. It gives you real-time access to things happening around the world.

In the western world, we think ourselves lucky that we can access water whenever we want. And don’t get me wrong, no-one’s going to argue that having H2O on tap is anything but a good thing. However, the safety of our tap water has come under question on numerous occasions.

Impurities and Contaminants in our Drinking Water

A recent Reuters examination of lead testing results across America found almost 3,000 areas with poisoning rates higher than Flint, Michigan. The city of Flint made headlines worldwide in 2015 due to reports of lead in its drinking water – but it turns out there are cities battling far greater problems. Incidentally, residents of Flint are still advised to use filtered water, two years after the crisis flared.

It should be noted that the lead doesn’t always come from water. Legacy lead is present in paint and plumbing, in yards and playgrounds – but the danger of lead leaching from pipes and into the water supply is a very real one. What’s more, all sorts of impurities and contaminants can crop up in our tap water without us knowing. Like Flint, the small community of San Lucas is currently enduring water restrictions after wells supplying drinking water were shown to have elevated levels of nitrates. Nitrate contamination is mainly attributed to fertilizers leaching through the soil into groundwater. For now, the citizens of San Lucas are hydrating with bottled water.

In the UK, It’s a £30 Billion Problem

In the UK, the problem isn’t any less severe. Major types of oestrogen have been found in the water supply including estradiol, estriol, estrone and the synthetic alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2). These unwanted hormones find their way into the public water supply from medications such as the oral contraceptive pill, and severely disrupt the human endocrine system.

The internet has made it easier than ever to improve your lifestyle with nutrition, fitness, health and wellness advice from wherever you’re located in the world with the click of a few buttons.

However, even though the information is supposed to be easy to access, some governments around the world have placed restrictions on the types of content their citizens can access.

Governments have implemented harsh content restrictions, censorship and surveillance programs that are designed to keep their citizens safe.

However, the real agenda behind these types of programs have been argued. Most people believe that the government implement these types of programs to protect their own agendas, rather than protect their citizens.

By controlling what their citizens have access to, the governments have an easier time pushing their propaganda and agendas without receiving pushback from the public.

This presents problems for people looking to live a healthy lifestyle and retrieve information that will help them do it.

It’s undeniable that mental illness has become an increasingly prominent topic over the past decade. It seems as if endless social media users plaster their pages with articles and posts about these issues. Many sufferers are finding the online world can empathize with their condition, and the official diagnosis statistics are at an all-time high.

This sudden prominence may be due to our increased understanding of mental health problems and ability to access information, or rather because on an inherent increase in the conditions themselves. While a definitive answer to this question is impossible to know, it’s undeniable that the discussions around mental health are going to become increasingly important in the upcoming years.

What Is Mental Health?

Up until very recently, the intricate workings of our brain were relatively unknown. What it meant to be in good mental health, and the repercussions if things went wrong, were so falsely interpreted that it led to extreme medical interventions. Some of the most controversial hospital cases surround those suffering from “insanity,” and the dreaded historical lunatic asylums are still a well-known horror to this day.

Fortunately, when we now talk about mental health, we can understand it more pragmatically. As neuroscientists have begun to map our consciousness, we are better able to recognize and define normal brain processes. Subsequently, if any of these systems go awry—such as the fight/flight response regarding anxiety disorders—then the symptomatic result falls under a diagnosis of mental illness.

Whenever you connect to the internet, you are given an address that servers use to identify your computer, and where you are connecting from.

They use your IP address to send and receive information to your computer whenever you connect to the server, whether that is a website or a health care network server.

This IP address is comparable to your home address, in that it is used to make sure the data you’re requesting from the server you’re connected to ends up at the proper destination.

Online health care resources, such as health care networks, utilize servers that allow you to submit your personal information to claim benefits, schedule appointments, sign up for insurance and more.

This is a problem because as your information is being sent and received, hackers can spy on your connection and intercept the information to steal your personal identity.

Most people that are connected to the internet do not give their personal security a second thought and will submit highly sensitive information without realizing they’re at risk.

Often, health care services will require you to submit all the information a hacker needs to steal your identity and usually require you to submit it more than one time.

The more you’re entering your personal information while you’re connected to the internet means you’re giving hackers even more opportunities to steal your identity.

If you want to easily make sure that you are anonymous and your connection is encrypted and secure while you’re online, you will want to connect through a Virtual Private Network service.

One of the toxic chemicals that is known for it’s strong smell is Formaldehyde.

Formaldehyde is a colorless but strong-smelling chemical used to manufacture household products and building materials.

Other uses of formaldehyde are as a preservative in mortuaries, industrial disinfectant, and paper coating products.

What makes it toxic and what are its adverse effects on our health?

Let’s find out.

The Dangers of Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde poses danger to health in a number of ways. Its presence in the air exceeding 0.1 parts per million can cause watery eyes, burning sensation in the throat, nose, and eyes, nausea, coughing, and skin irritation.

While formaldehyde may cause serious health conditions in some people, it might not affect others as such at the same level of exposure.

Formaldehyde is also thought of as a potential carcinogen. In November 2016 the Obama Administration categorized it as a carcinogen.

Reports by the International Agency for Research on Cancer have warned about formaldehyde being a cause of leukemia in animals and nasal cancer in humans.

It is also believed that a range of beauty care products that are frequently used by women, by men to a lesser extent, and children, contains eight ingredients that constitute of formaldehyde. These break down after being absorbed into the skin and release formaldehyde, posing a risk of skin cancer.

How to Be Safe

Formaldehyde may be present in a number of things we use daily in varying quantities, and your exposure to it may slowly be causing your health to deteriorate.

Some common products that contain this toxic chemical are furniture, hair care products, plastic grocery bags, skin creams with quarternarium-15, paint, nail polish, curtains, clothes, cigarette smoke, cleaning products, children’s bath products, bed mattresses, and foam insulation.

It is also a natural byproduct of combustion, which means your unventilated gas stove and kerosene space heaters also pose risk.

While you cannot stop using these products, you can limit the exposure by doing the following:

Open Your Windows

If you’re like me you remember your mom opening the windows for fresh air. That’s actually very wise. Keeping our home closed tight can result in accumulation of many toxic substances.  If it’s a nice day be sure to open your window and let the fresh in.

Don’t Let Your Home Get Too Hot

Have you ever walked into a house that had been closed tight with no air conditioning in the summer? Could you smell the carpet smell? Or how about your new car after it sits in the heat all day? That smell is called off-gassing.  High temperature and humidity cause chemicals (good and bad) to be emitted into the air.  The best thing to do when entering a home or car that has been shut up for a while is to open the windows and let it air out.

Use Non-Toxic Cleaners In Your Home

Instead of using commercial home cleaners try finding less toxic cleaners.  Sometimes we can breathe in toxins and not even know we are. It’s better not to take the chance with your health. Especially if you let your kids clean like I do.

Keep Indoor Plants

Plants naturally filter the air of toxins.  I have plants in my kitchen and bedrooms. My favorite house plants are Ivy’s because they are easy to keep alive.  Ferns and chrysanthemums are especially good in a new house for removing formaldehyde in the air from new carpet.

Wash New Curtains and Clothing

Wash anything that can be washed before you use it. If you can’t wash it let it sit out in the hot sun for the day. Allow the chemicals to off-gas.

Consider What Your Baby Sleeps On

When my girls were babies I learned about the toxins in the mattress. Yikes. I was a little freaked out for a few weeks until I learned about an easy solution. Mattress Wrapping. I highly suggest you read about this product and do some research. It’s an easy fix.

Ten years ago I couldn’t get it on Amazon and they were about $60 but now only $23. Yes, the bed may be a little plastic sounding when you lay your baby down but babies don’t care. Mine never even noticed.

Consider What You Sleep On

Since I learned about the off-gassing of the baby mattress, that led me to researching my mattress. Yikes. Of course, traditional mattresses off-gas, too.

I spent many hours researching organic beds for my girls to move into after their cribs. I ended up getting a “green ” mattress that wasn’t totally organic but it was what I could afford at the time. I added a layer of protection by purchasing a mattress cover that prevents off-gassing and dust mites.

Do What You Can but Don’t Stress

Taking these measured steps can help reduce your exposure of formaldehyde and reduce your chances of getting sick by it. Remember, sometimes we won’t feel the effect of toxins until they have had a chance to accumulate in our body.

I always recommend nutritional cleansing and detoxing on a regular basis to help your body naturally release the toxins we are exposed to.

Do what you can to reduce toxins but don’t stress about it. The last thing you need to add is stress to your life. Just be proactive and make little tweaks every day.

About the Author: As a mother of 2, Stacy Russell started her journey to reduce toxins when her daughters were born 11 years ago. The information she learned to help her family live less toxic she now shares on her website.  Read more of her work at Alesstoxiclife.com.  Follow her on Facebook and on Pinterest.