The photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

There is an alternative way to detox one’s self of life stressors.  It is called “breathworks,”demonstrated a bit on Thursday in Dubai, ahead of the “World No Tobacco Day” on May 31.

This breathing technique and process is one of the components of the May 31 to June 30 “Break-The-Smoke” campaign of health-minded individuals, including Family Medicine specialist/du-Happiness & Tolerance head Dr Mansoor Anwar Habib who told Gulf Today: “Happiness is a combination of positivity and purpose in life (which differs from one person to another) and how one looks at these two.”

In relation to health and the cessation to the habit of tobacco use and for which he emphasised in his brief opening talk includes shisha, Habib said happiness “has to be holistic in such a way that (whatever one does), does it impact on himself, society and the environment.”

Breathworks come into play as on Thursday, the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHaP) released a statement on the extent of the “Smoking Cessation Programme” completed in the last two years from 2016.

Attributed to MoHaP-Health Centres and Clinics-Assistant Health Sector undersecretary Dr Hussein Abdel Rahman, the statement reads: “The number of those who visited (the 16 Smoking Cessation Clinics of the MoHaP) in 2018 (rose) by 47 per cent compared to 2016. The number of people who quit tobacco products in 2018 (increased) by 122 per cent compared to 2016.”

Al Rand said the government is keen on combating tobacco and related products addiction: “MoHaP has adopted the best international practices in this regard including the establishment of 16 Smoking Cessation Clinics in addition to a plan for expanding and further supporting those services in the coming years.”

Based on the MoHaP “National Health Survey 2018,” smoking among the adult male population dropped to 15.6 per cent from 21 per cent in 2010 with “the smoking percentage among adult female at 2.4 per cent.”

Interviewed from the launch of the “Break-The-Smoke” of The Retreat Palm Dubai-Medeor Hospital-Burjeel Hospital-Tranzend, among other entities, breathworks practitioner and teacher Dela Catudal said: “I had a brother (who smoked since age nine and died at age 31 because of being sick from the habit). I saw him unable to breathe each day and his breaths (diminished) every moment. It was traumatic.” Catudal came to know and learn breathworks back in Switzerland.

She explained breathworks is a process by which through proper breathing technique, all the garbage within the body which includes evil thoughts are trashed out; as the mind, body and whole being become properly aligned that even the urge to smoke will be gone.

“It has helped me a lot, too,” she said.

In an earlier interview, Aster Hospital-Al Qusais (Dubai) Respiratory Medicine specialist Dr Sunil Vyas said: “Smoking is a major health problem. Doctors and paramedical staff are not excluded from this plague. Smoking ban in hospitals originated from government effort to reduce passive smoking. But still some health workers continue to smoke because of the night shifts, work-related stress, not considering nicotine addiction as a risk factor for diseases and the same reason as normal public faces in quitting. Though the responsibility of the health worker is more compared to the general public, the prevalence of smoking in healthcare workers is a worrying trend. Probably that could be attributable to overall stress in everybody’s life, with the healthcare professional not left behind.”

Vyas had a sexagenarian patient who smoked for 20 years from age 40. This patient died of severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease of the lungs a year after having found to have sustained it.

He also had a “young patient” who eventually developed oral cavity cancer due to “significant tobacco chewing history.”

Vyas said: “I was (unsuccessful) in my counselling for de-activation from tobacco.”

On Thursday, visitors and patients at all Medcare Hospitals in Dubai and Sharjah had the chance to learn or re-learn the dangers and harmful effects of tobacco use through specialised kiosks.

“Every year, more than 2,900 people in the UAE are killed by a tobacco-caused disease, according to one study,” according to a statement released to the media.