Refined Solution a Solution Refinement for Individual

Refined Solution A Solution Refinement for Individual Smoking Cessation Original Issue: Cigarette-smoking, tobacco addiction and nicotine dependency are widespread and permeating public health concerns. Indeed, the combination of the high rate of addiction to tobacco products and the clear empirical relationship between these products and a number of critical negative and even fatal health outcomes qualifies this is a substantial problem requiring a direct solution. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), "smoking is a leading cause of cancer and death from cancer.

It causes cancers of the lung, esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach, and cervix, as well as acute myeloid leukemia. Smoking also causes heart disease, stroke, aortic aneurysm (a balloon-like bulge in an artery in the chest), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (chronic bronchitis and emphysema), asthma, hip fractures, and cataracts." (NCI, p.1) This constitutes a very compelling motive for pursuing resolution of the problem in question through the subject's total cessation of smoking.

For the scale of the present Solution-Refinement, the goal of smoking cessation will be applied to a test sample of one. In this case, a close personal acquaintance who has struggled with cigarette addiction for many years is the subject of an intervention effort.

Thus, the original issue is this individual's longstanding addiction to cigarettes and the refinement engaged hereafter is designed to identify the ways in which the subject has historically attempted to resolve this addiction, to outline improved alternative methods and to design a plan for implementation of the selected alternative. Initial Solutions: Here, we consider a number of the solutions which the subject had reported to attempting on his own in the years prior to the intervention proposed here.

According to the subject, his first attempts at cessation involved the method known as 'cold turkey.' Here, the individual ceased all smoking at a determined point with the intention of withholding from smoking from that point forward. The subject reports that with varying degrees of short-term success, this method had been attempted multiple times. At no point did this approach result in a permanent cessation of the smoking addiction. Moreover, this attempted initial solution would place the subject in the largest category of current tobacco users.

According to the CDC Online Newsroom (2011), "The report says 68.8% of current American adult smokers say they want to quit and 52.4% of adult smokers tried to quit within the past year. The report says 48.3% of smokers who saw a health professional in the past year recalled getting advice to quit." (CDC Online News Room, p. 1) This places the personal acquaintance at the center of this Solution Refinement in common demographic of smokers who have demonstrated clear interest in quitting but who have been unable to do so without the proper support.

In addition to the cold turkey method, the subject would attempt to use such over-the-counter methods of cessation as nicotine gum and the nicotine patch. However, these independent methods of withdrawing from usage would provide difficult and fruitless. Critical Examination of Best Solution: Thus, we must consider for the subject in question an approach that diverges from these independent approaches and that relies on certain measures of outside support.

As the critical examination here indicates, smokers who engage some of these support channels tend to exhibit far better outcomes than those who attempt cessation independently. According to the CDC Online News Room, "31.7% used counseling and/or medications in the past year. The use of these effective treatments can almost double to triple rates of successfully quitting.." (CDC Online News Room, p. 1) The article goes on to indicate that smokers who employ the assistance of physicians, therapists and medications can double or triple their chances of cessation success.

Evaluation of the Argument: This finding is given further support in the text by Jaslow (2011), which reports that there is an extremely limited rate of success documented for those who attempt to quit without these external support groups and methods. Jaslow indicates that experts argue "it might take more than relying on 'cold turkey and sheer willpower.' 'The best data is that about 5% of people succeed,' Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer at the American Lung Association, told HealthDay.

But there are several smoking cessation techniques that can help break bad habits and ease withdrawal, such as nicotine-replacement therapy (patches or gums), medication, therapy, and even telephone hotlines." (Jaslow, p. 1) This is to indicate that the degree of success experienced by those attempting to quit is not just aided by the external assistance solutions proposed above but that a failure to appeal to these additional supports is highly likely to result in a resumption of smoking habits.

Revised Argument: With this dynamic stated above, it is clear that the original argument in favor of smoking cessation for the subject is revised now to include the recommendation that this cessation effort be supplemented by outside assistance. Therefore, a new argument is proposed that for the purposes of the subject's long-term health prospects, smoking cessation efforts should be engaged along with the enlistment of the proper support from members of the medical community. Refined Solution with Implementation Plan: Therefore,.