Rethinking Tobacco Addiction - If You Want to Stop Smoking Medication Can Be Just the Thing

When you start smoking, where would you place your chances for success at quitting one day? If you put your faith in statistics, you'd have a 5% chance at success. What happens to the rest of us is a potent mixture of extreme craving, unbearable headaches, and irritable twitchiness. The brain wants its nicotine the stimulants in tobacco that make receptors in the brain release pleasure-making dopamine. Do you realize that in a world where smokers for 40 years have endlessly seen smoking bans, dire cancer warnings from the Surgeon General, pressure from friends and family, that 19 out of 20 people fail to quit even once they try? That is the power that chemicals like nicotine have over us; but if you want to quit, it does make sense to try to fight chemical with chemical, does it not? If you want to stop smoking, medication could be your way out.



When you have medicines pulling for you, what do those statistics say for your chances at success then? The improvement isn't dramatic, but you do stand a fair chance now. That is what the US Public Health Service says - if you wish to stop smoking medication can improve your odds by three times. It all depends on what kind of smoking habit you carry actually. If you take in more than 20 cigarettes a day, antidepressants like Wellbutrin and smoker-specific drugs like Chantix the most important drugs to really help you. Anything less than 10 cigarettes a day or so, and you need no help from drugs - you're probably not addicted.



People realize that tobacco addiction is a pretty tenacious thing; and they understand that the drugs that you take for it would have to be particularly strong. They wonder if they'll just end up substituting one addiction for another, or face up to some pretty serious side effects or organ damage these medicines can bring to the heart. Of course, you have to understand that tobacco smoke isn't exactly the greatest thing for your heart either. None of the side effects actually have anything on nicotine when it comes to hurting your heart. But if you want to stop smoking medication is never going to cure you.. Think of it more as a way to treat your condition for as long as you live. The best thing to do would be to never let the habit in your life.



Let's see then how the best stop-smoking medication can help. Wellbutrin happens to be your top-of-the-line drug choice. It's actually an antidepressant that's been discovered to help with nicotine cravings. Antidepressants are well known for the way they deal with the production of dopamine in the brain (you've heard of dopamine, haven't you? It's the chemical that helps brain cells communicate one with the other, and it also helps you feel pleasure and craving). Wellbutrin masses up the way nicotine jump starts dopamine production, and you stop getting your nicotine high. Chantix does great with heavy smokers who do two packs a day and have done so for decades. What it does is, it keeps the nicotine receptors busy in the brain so that you don't feel the cravings at all. And if you happen to weaken midway and get a cigarette, Chantix makes sure that you don't enjoy it at all.



The worst that you have with Wellbutrin is that you don't just lose your interest in cigarettes; you lose your interest in food and sex too. And when you add into the mix some problems you might have with sleeping, your weight, and keeping your mouth properly moistened, it can get a little difficult. Chantix doesn't make it any easier. You have constant suicidal thoughts when you take it, and you have trouble sleeping to boot. And with both drugs, you become less than friendly, and you're likely to lose your cool rather often. Doctors use Wellbutrin with a tobacco patch sometimes too, and that's a pretty successful approach. You need to ask your doctor. If all these side effects are beginning to scare you off, you need to think of this - when you quit, you stand to gain an additional 13 years in your life. That should be worth a few measly bucks now shouldn't it?

Best Way To Quit Smoking - Does Such A Thing Exist?

A question that most smokers hoping to quit would like to know the answer to is "what is the best way to quit smoking?" - and with good reason. The average smoker who quits will take seven attempts over several years to achieve their goal of becoming smoke free. During that time, they will suffer many bouts of low self-esteem as they normally fail time and time again. It can be a soul destroying objective.



When I was a smoker I tried to quit smoking about three times a year. Once every New Year and then again at my birthday in May and again while on my summer vacation. I tried cold turkey more times than I care to remember and never got past 9pm the same day I quit.



I was convinced that Nicotine Replacement Therapy was the key. The mass advertising and the swathe of public opinion that surrounded NRT made me think it was going to be the best way to quit smoking. It all took me in.



I tried nicotine patches about ten times. I never managed more than a couple of days before I quit 'the quit'. I tried lozenges - disgusting. I tried the microtabs which left a 'lump' in my throat which was foul. I tried the inhalator which did the same as the microtabs. I tried silver acetate which is supposed to makes cigarettes taste horrible. It does but it also makes everything else taste horrible.



For me, Nicotine Replacement Therapy was not the best way to quit smoking. But, studies suggest that between 1 in 10 and 1 in 20 people who would not have quit using just will-power alone, manage to quit with NRT.



I heard about Zyban (wellbutrin or bupropion) and though that was it. The 'cure-all' pill I had been longing for. The bad news was that when my doctor checked my blood pressure before prescribing it to me, my BP was through the roof. You see, smokers suffer from high blood pressure because they smoke so much. It is a catch-22. You want to use the smoking cessation aid but you can't because you have health problems from smoking. That's irony for you!



Studies have shown that Zyban can help about 1 in 10 people quit smoking over and above those that would have quit anyway but for me it didn't matter, it wasn't the best way for me to quit smoking.



Now we have Chantix (or Champix in the UK or varenicline) available and Pfizer, its manufacturer, are claiming up to 44% of smokers quit using it. The truth of the matter though is that these claims are highly exaggerated. It is thought to help 1 in 7 initial quit attempts succeed over and above the ones that would have succeeded anyway. However, the long term success rate is only about 15-20% which is a long way off the 44% claimed by Pfizer.



Quitting smoking for a short period of time is a good thing for your body, but smokers don't want breaks from smoking, they want to quit smoking for good. To this end, I don't think that Chantix is the best way to quit smoking either.



What other methods are available? Well there is hypnosis, cognitive behavioural therapy, acupuncture, laser treatment, herbal remedies and the old favourite - will-power!



Hypnosis is a proven method for quitting smoking and can be used in many areas of ones life to change ones approach to things. Although statistical evidence is hard to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests that hypnosis can be a very good method for quitting smoking. To this end, I cannot say hypnosis is the best way to quit smoking.



Cognitive behavioural therapy means "think-behave" therapy. It is a process of changing the way you think about something to enable you to change the way you behave towards it. It is the method I use in my own book on quitting smoking.



People who quit using this method often report 'knowing' that they will never smoke another cigarette again. In terms of long-term success, if you quit using this method, you usually stay quit for good. But does that make cognitive behavioural therapy the best way to quit smoking? I'll answer that later.



As for herbal treatment, acupuncture and laser treatment, there is no evidence what so ever that these methods are effective. It is impossible for anyone to say whether any of these methods are the best way to quit smoking.



Finally, there is cold turkey. This is clearly one of the least effective methods for getting you to quit smoking, but if you do quit smoking using a method without the support of drugs such as NRT, Zyban on Chantix, the evidence suggests you will be a happier long-term non-smoker.



In answer to the initial question, I believe the best way to quit smoking is by overcoming your addiction to nicotine through the strength of your character and using the focus of your mind. Absolutely everyone has the will power within them to beat smoking but they don't believe in themselves and so they think they need 'chemical' support.



In broader terms, the best way to quit smoking is simply any method that works for you. Everyone is different and will find a different solution for them.



I know people who have simply walked away from cigarettes at a moments notice and never touched them again. I also know people who have succeeded with hypnotherapy and I know that only 4% of my own customers take me up on my guarantee. I know the statistical evidence for the other methods. The point is, the best way to quit smoking is by using the method that works for you and you can only know which method that is if you have tried it. So keep trying all the methods until you find the one that works.



As ever, never quit trying to quit smoking.

Make Your Chain Smoking A Thing of The Past

Quit smoking drugs have come along way since Zyban was introduced 10 years ago. There is a quit smoking drug out now called Chantix. It is considered one of the finest in the quit smoking drug market out there today. Chantix was introduced at the time when the nicotine related deaths from the WHO reports concerned the doctors of medicine.



Chantix contains the ingredient Varenicline which is a trademark drug and won FDA approval on May 11, 2006 for the treatment of smoking addiction in adults. Chantix is said to be a far greater quit smoking drug on the market today to help smokers deal with their smoking habits. The drug helps the smoker taper off from the nicotine to help them stop smoking so that they won't have the withdrawal symptoms.



Varenicline is the main ingredient of Chantix and it works differently than the other quit smoking meds in the past. With the varenicline ingredient it works similar to how the nicotine works. For example, as the smoker smokes, the nicotine goes right to the brain and binds itself to the nicotine receptor cells and it makes the pleasure cells react. Chantix acts the same way as the nicotine acts. The varenicline attaches itself with great intensity to the a4B2 neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.



Chantix gives the smoker the same good feeling as the nicotine does, but the difference is that Chantix blocks the nicotine from binding with the receptors and aggravating the cells even more. The good thing about Chantix is that it does not have the nicotine additives in the drug. It is able to get the smoker away from their nicotine addiction gradually by withdrawing the smoker from it, but leaving them with the feel-good sense as does the nicotine. It makes quitting so much easier.



Chantix is much different from the rest of the quit smoking drugs out there because it takes away the zip that the nicotine has in cigarettes and smokers no longer enjoy smoking after they start using Chantix because Chantix stops the pleasure of smoking. When using this new smoking cessation method, the withdrawal symptoms becomes less of a problem with the smoker and makes it easier to quit. This is the anti-Smoking pill that works and gives great results.

Quitting smoking benefits suspended – most important thing that you should know

Benefits begin after your last cigarette quit smoking. Non-smokers have a significantly lower probability of dozens of smoking related diseases such as lung cancer and heart disease. In addition, you save money through buying cigarettes and not lower insurance premiums to be paid. As a result, the most popular are smoking benefits:



1. increase disposable income you can have greater purchasing power. People have the money to go on vacation, to finance a new car, entertainment and local associations. This is an improved lifestyle. Non-smokers may be back more money in a weak economy. You have the money to pay off your debts faster. This means that home years ago that you might have.



2. Smoking takes time away from people they love. The most important advantages for smoking cessation are the days of quality to win back. Instead of spending each day for smoking 45-1 hour, you can use this time to workout or spend with your loved ones.



3. There is evidence that improve energy levels, when a person stops smoking. This means that you have more energy for the activities, which is otherwise would pass. For example, you can merge the sports teams and other clubs. Maybe take dance, sing or what is whatever your hobby.



4. How do I pay lower insurance premiums with their insurance companies an easier time. You will be able to improve your work and with stress better work around. Do you feel more confident in himself even when compared to your colleagues. Because you could quit smoking, your peers to stop trouble will look.



5. Stop smoking benefits relate to your health. People who have left have reduced their chances on several life-threatening illnesses. In addition, your love will not suffer any second hand smoke. May your life to increase and create a healthy environment for people who are around you.