Feb
9
2010
Articles By FactsAboutSmoking | No comments yet

Stop Smoking Aids

On the 19th of November, 2009, the Great American Smokeout Day was held, and now with the New Year upon us, there has never been a better time to quit smoking. The facts about smoking are overwhelming and in disfavor of anyone choosing to smoke cigarettes. Smoking facts like increased risk of lung cancer and heart disease should not be overlooked, but acted upon as soon as possible. Luckily, there are several stop smoking aids on the market that can help you through what for many is a difficult period of cessation.

Before you try any of these methods, drugs, or nicotine replacement therapies, you should consult with your doctor to see if you have any preexisting conditions that might hinder you from using the product. You doctor might also serve as a “cheerleader” for you in your efforts to stop smoking, so keep a good dialogue with him or her.

Stop smoking aids: Medication

Zyban

Made by Glaxo, Zyban is a FDA-approved stop smoking aid drug that’s purpose is to help you quit smoking. While there are people who have used Zyban and successfully quit smoking, it did get some bad press in the 80s related to seizure side-effects that were reported to be caused by the drug. This turned out to be a problem with dosage, and should not be an issue if you take the drug as prescribed by your physician. Approximately three in one hundred people who try smoke cessation solely based on self-motivation end up succeeding, and at that for only three months. Ten times that number succeeds when on Zyban, though after the 3 month mark Zyban has been reported to start losing its effect.

Chantix

The second drug, Chantix, can also help you quit smoking. While Zyban was initially developed for depression related treatment, Chantix was created specifically to combat smoking addiction and function as a stop smoking aid. It helps you by both making smoking less pleasurable and satisfying, and making quitting less painful. As for the statistics, it looks like Chantix is the clear winner. Over the long term, one in every five who try Chantix succeeds in quitting smoking. I even read that in a double-blind study conducted on the drug, that 23% of those on Chantix were successful at 1 year after the beginning of the study.

Reluctance to use Chantix or Zyban

There are definitely people that have used Chantix or Zyban and been able to quit smoking. But, there are many people that are reluctant to try these products because they are afraid to gain weight. It is difficult to pin point why some gain weight when they use stop smoking aids. Is it the aid or is it a side effect of quitting smoking all together? When you quit smoking you might feel an unconscious urge to substitute the cigarette with something else that can give you a high. Sugar is such substance, and is often used excessively, and a weight gains is therefore guaranteed to follow if your activity isn’t picked up in pace with the added calories. As they say, Chocolate can be soothing, and in the same way you used smoke to sooth yourself, candy and unhealthy food can be used for the same.

Stop smoking aids: Nicotine replacement therapy

Nicotine replacement therapy is a suite of products that are meant to replace the cigarette as the means to get nicotine in your body. There are several different products available, which all try to decrease the cravings you will have when you quit smoking.

Nicotine patch

These look like and work like a normal band-aid, but with the added effect that they transfer nicotine from the band-aid surface to your skin. You skin then absorbs the nicotine through the skin and in to your blood. The effects of these types of stop smoking aids have been debated, and some studies indicate that the efficacy was comparable with not using anything at all. However, the official word from The American Cancer Society is that they recommend nicotine patches to help decrease the severity of withdrawal symptom while on smoking cessation.

Nicotine gum

Nicotine gum is made like a chewing gum, but with the added effect of delivering nicotine to your body as you chew. The first gum made as a nicotine replacement therapy hit the market in the early 1990’s and have been a popular substitute for cigarettes ever since, especially the last 10 years where many countries have allowed over-the-counter sales of these products.

Nicotine inhaler and nasal spray

Works like the gum and patches, except that the nicotine spray is either inhaled through your mouth or nose.

Stop smoking aids: Alternative methods

These are alternative methods that really don’t have the data and research behind them to claim a good effect on people who try to quit smoking. Non the less, they are listed for your own consideration.

Hypnosis to quit smoking

As the title implies, this method uses hypnosis to quit smoking. There is some research that suggests that hypnosis can be effective as a stop smoking aid, but there are also those that doubt its effect. In any event, if your doctor says it’s safe to try, than why not?

Acupuncture to quit smoking

The evidence that acupuncture can help you quit smoking is very thin or non existent. But as with hypnosis for quitting smoking, if it isn’t harmful then why not try it?

Consult your doctor or physician

Even though science has come far in reducing side-effects of drugs, there still are some possible side effects you need to know about. Please discuss the common, and un-common, side-effects of all these stop smoking aids with your doctor or physician.
 

Smoking facts

The negative facts about smoking are just too many and too serious to not act upon. Make yourself a goal today to stop smoking, and start your path to a new life without cigarettes!

Feb
8
2010
Articles By FactsAboutSmoking | 1 comment

What happens when you stop smoking

There is a great tool on a government website called womenshealth.gov where you can see what happens when you quit smoking. The site lets you choose between different periods of time after you have quit, and tell you what you can expect. Starting already 20 minutes after you put down a smoke, your heart rate drops. From then on a lot of positive things happen to your body, and many of the negative smoking facts and its side-effects start to reside. Let’s have a look at some of them.

First day of quitting smoking

The first day you quit smoking there are two important events that happen. As mentioned above your heart rate will start to drop to normal after the 20 minute mark. And after approximately 12 hours your blood should have normal levels of carbon monoxide, which is a toxic gas.

2 weeks to 9 months of smoke cessation

What happens when you quit smoking after 2 weeks to 9 months? Your risk of having a heart attack starts to drop. You will also feel that your lungs start to work better, especially if you are in to sports, and the risk of lung infections have decreased as a result of not smoking. The famous “smokers cough” will probably be gone as well.

1 year after putting down the cigarettes

At the one year mark you will receive a great payday. Not only have you saved a lot of money not smoking that you now can use for something like a nice vacation, you will also have halved you risk of getting a heart disease compared to the person that didn’t stop smoking. Happy you quit?

5-15 years after stopping smoking

When you go 5-15 years without smoking you will be at around the same risk of having a stroke than the average person that doesn’t smoke. After 10 years your risk of lung cancer will also be the same as for an average person that doesn’t smoke. The risk of cancer in other body parts as a result of past smoking will also have decreased.

After 15 years you will finally have the same risk of heart disease as someone who hasn’t smoked, and that should be a nice and comforting fact about smoking.

Timeline source: http://www.womenshealth.gov/quit-smoking/tools/calendar.cfm
 

What happens when you quit smoking on a practical level?

When you quit smoking there will be several physical symptoms as well as physiological side-effects. None of these are impossible to overcome, not at all, but you need to prepare yourself.

You will of course have to battle your daily urge just to have a stick between your fingers. A lot of this urge is based on the social aspect of smoking, and you will probably feel like you are left out when you don’t take your normal smoking breaks with your buddies and colleagues. And just to be clear, you probably should stop being around them when they smoke in the first period of your smoking cessation. The people you normally smoked with might even encourage you, unconsciously or deliberately, to smoke with them, just because THEY miss having the social time together with you. It is important that you practice you ability to say know to both them and yourself. You might even need to make a plan that helps you stay away from situations that might spark your desperation for a smoke.

Plan to stay away for smoke and cigarettes

You might want to sit down and make a list of all the places, settings, and experiences you might have in life that have a potential to hit you off your cessation. These could be breaks at work where you usually went out smoking, parties or a night out on the town with your friends or setbacks like a bad day at work or a fight with your partner. You need to be conscious in these situations and remind yourself that you only want a smoke for the soothing benefits. Eat a chocolate instead, as the smoking facts are just to grave to not take this seriously.

Stop smoking aids

Look at what is available on the market, as there are many stop smoking aids that might help you on your quest to stop smoking. You have the medications that you will need a doctors opinion on before starting up, and you have the nicotine replacement therapies that can be purchased over the counter.

Ask for help

Even though your fellow smokers were painted a bit egoistical in the above paragraph, they probably want what’s best for you. So ask them for help. In fact, ask everyone for help, including your family, friends, partner, co-workers, even the old lady at the buss stop with a nasty smoker’s cough that is smoking in your face. Ask her to put it out or go away.

Keep trying, don’t give up

Even if your fall of the horse so to speak at your first attempt to quit smoking you have to get back on as soon as possible. Many people need several tries before they are able to quit, and there is no shame in that. What happens when you stop smoking is that several forces act upon you to start again, and perhaps you need to try 2, 3, 4, 50, 100 times before you are able to put down cigarettes for good. But when you succeed, you have a list of happy things that will happen to you and your body!

Feb
1
2010
Articles By FactsAboutSmoking | No comments yet

Acupuncture to Quit Smoking

The Cochrane Collaboration, based in Oxford, England, is dedicated to testing different medical concepts in a scientific, and thus provable, fashion without any bias or misinformation. After investigating whether acupuncture can help those who are wanting to quit smoking, they were not impressed with the results.
 

Acupuncture background

Acupuncture originated in the Far East. It is the practice whereby pins are inserted into the body along certain energy pathways, in the hope that it will cure whatever is ailing the person. Some have turned to acupuncture to quit smoking. Acupuncture to quit smoking is supposed to help you be able to go through it without experiencing side effects or withdrawals, which is common when a body is deprived of a chemical that it has been used to having.
 

Acupuncture to stop smoking

acupuncture to quit smoking photoUsing acupuncture to quit smoking is not a new idea by any means, it has been around for years.  Acupuncture does indeed help lessen pain, thus it was surmised that it would or at least should also help lessen the pain of withdrawal. With acupuncture, energy channels that run just under the skin and lead to the organs are inserted with needles.  Needles that are inserted at specific points along these energy channels are supposed to be able to repair and strengthen the body, to detoxify the body and to help heal the body.  NADA (The National Acupuncture Detoxification Association)has declared that they have a withdrawal treatment system that has been proven by studies at different universities, including Yale University.
 

Smoking cessation group therapy

For those who are using acupuncture to quite smoking, they often go for group therapy. Treatment last for around forty minutes at a time. Everyone receiving treatment sits together, while acupuncture treatment is given.  The main energy points that are targeted in this case are those behind and around the ear. This is supposedly where the nerve endings that help with detoxification are located. The points are stimulated with tiny needles, and the detoxification process begins.
 

Cochrane Collaboration finding on acupuncture

As stated above, the Cochrane Collaboration does not think that acupuncture is effective in helping people stop smoking. In fact, from the few studies made, it seems that it does not have much effect at all and that people react the same whether they receive acupuncture treatment or not. While some short-term benefits were seen,these were not sufficient to prove the success of acupuncture treatments. They feel that tests were not performed on a large enough group of people to say either way whether it could be of any help or not.
 

Is it worth a try to help  you quit smoking

However, the same could be said in reverse of course. That is, that not enough tests have been made to actually prove that it does not work. In fact, some individuals have been helped remarkably by being treated with acupuncture. Many people still believe there must be some substance to the claims that acupuncture works, otherwise there would not have been any claims about it at all.  There is certainly no harm from trying it at least, with all the negative facts about smoking. If it works you are better off for it. If it does not work, you did not suffer any harm.

Jan
27
2010
Articles By FactsAboutSmoking | No comments yet

Hypnosis to Quit Smoking

There are many methods and products that can help you to quit smoking. You don’t have to go many years back to find an era when there wasn’t much help at all, let alone anyone that thought smoking was harmful. Countless people started smoking thinking that it was harmless, often learning from their parents or friends that is was ok. These days there are plenty of warnings wherever you turn, in the newspapers, on billboards, on TV, and on the Internet. Cancer and asthma aren’t the only dangers either, as scientists have been able to link a number of disorders to smoking cigarettes and the usage of other products made of tobacco. On the other hand, there are now a wide range of products and methods you can use to help you quit smoking, including new-age methods. Hypnosis to quit smoking is one of them. Continue reading Hypnosis to Quit Smoking →

Jan
9
2010
Articles By FactsAboutSmoking | No comments yet

Top 10 Reasons to quit smoking

One of the best ways to motivate yourself to quit smoking is to look at the smoking facts and reasons why you should lay down your cigarettes. Reasons to quit smoking are numurous, so numorous that when writing a top 10 list like this many important reasons have to be left out. Ranking is difficult, so drop me a note through the commen box at the end of this post if you want to vote a reason higher on the list. Continue reading Top 10 Reasons to quit smoking →