Smoking is the number one cause of preventable disease and death in our country and yet people continue to smoke. Some say they're cutting back. Does that really help? In today's Health Matters John Biffar finds out.

Looking back on his smoking habit, Eric Krause says it really just started because "everyone else was doing it." He soon realized what started out as a social habit, has become much more. "I first started smoking cigarettes when I was a freshman in college. It was way to break the stress, we'd go out, have a cigarette and come back in, it was a nice way to break the monotony of studying and then eventually just an addictive habit. I became addicted to nicotine."

But Cardiologist David Bailey says that help is available for you to quit. One of the most recent prescription medications available is Chantix. And it helps you give up smoking in two ways. First it provides some nicotine effects to ease the withdrawal symptoms while it also helps block the satisfaction effects of nicotine. "So it is good to stop smoking and it seems to have some effect on trying to keep them away the cigarettes down the road."

Dr. Bailey also says that cutting back alone won't help. Recent research reveals halving the number of cigarettes you smoke everyday makes no difference in your risk of dying from a smoke related disease. So giving it up altogether can help save your life. "When you look at people who smoke, you're going to probably die on average about 13 or 14 years earlier if you are a smoker if you are a man on woman. So it's a really complete nightmare."

It's never too late to quit smoking and work on rebuilding your health.

Stop smoking support groups are also available in your local area; call 239- 454-8766 for more information.