For many years, he would bring me fresh vegetables from his garden along with samples of a medicine that I used to take for one of my many sports injuries. He also frequently brings various dishes that he loves to cook and enjoys sharing with others.

Like me, he grew up in Brooklyn. He and I love to reminisce about Coney Island, Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, Italian Restaurants, and the good old days in the neighborhood. We both continue our searches for the best pizza and the finest pastries.

We have both been members of Oritani Tennis Club in Hackensack, and like a lot of old athletes, we share some of our best stories in the locker room. We talk about baseball, old girl friends, interesting patients, problems with the health care system, the stock market, and good places to eat in Bergen County.

Recently, we were talking about treating patients who smoke and who overeat. This discussion got us onto the larger issue of addictions and addictive behavior.

I told him that I had treated some cocaine addicts and heroin addicts who claimed that it was harder to give up tobacco than it was to give up than other kinds of addictions. Rudy then explained how, when, and why he quit smoking. About 40 years ago, he used to smoke Lucky Strikes. While he was working at a hospital, he had to pronounce a man in his 30s as being deceased. The man died of cancer.

Even though he had been sick for quite some time, his wife became hysterical when Rudy had to give her the bad news. She was quite distraught and emotional.

Her strong reaction had a powerful impact on my old pal. He reasoned, "I did not go to high school, college and medical school, and all this trouble, so that I could die."

After he tended to the deceased man’s wife, he walked down the hallway in the hospital. When he passed the nurses’ station, he threw his pack of Lucky Strikes in the garbage and he hasn’t smoked ever since this memorable experience.

"The first two weeks were pretty tough. I was kind of jittery. But then, I was fine," Rudy recalls.

I have known a number of doctors and health care providers who are addicted to nicotine. All of them are well aware of the dangers of this habit. Some believe that smoking is the single worse thing you can do to your body, yet they continue to smoke cigarettes.

Rudy’s story about quitting shows that sometimes a life experience can serve as a powerful motivator for changing an undesirable or behavior for breaking a bad habit.