There is a new generation of smoking cessation drugs on the market today. What I am about to tell you will blow away everything you thought you knew about them. The most prominent new drug of choice is Chantix, or Champix in Europe. If you are thinking of quitting smoking, and are tempted to use this drug, you are wasting your time.
Champix or Chantix is made by Pfizer and they claim that 1 in 5 users quit smoking for a year.Yet sadly, Pfizer is today marketing varenicline (the main chemical in Chantix) as having a 44% success rate at 12 weeks, when that figure is really rather meaningless. In clinical trials the treatment period was 12 weeks and users were still under the chemical's rather amazing influence.
It is time for a little bit of science. Nicotine works by attaching itself to receptors in the brain cells, to stimulate part of the brain and release dopamine. Varenicline acts in the same way, it steals 35-60% of the dopamine that nicotine would stimulate. It also partially blocks the receptors and prevents nicotine attaching to them. After 4 to 5 days of taking Varenicline all the receptors are occupied with it. So if you do smoke a cigarette you will not get any dopamine rush from the nicotine. One user under the influence of the drug claimed smoking a cigarette was like smoking a carrot.
The real problems begin when users stop taking the drug after the 12 week course. Because once the effects of the drug have worn off, just one puff on a cigarette will now produce a dopamine explosion in your brain as the Varenicline is no longer blocking those receptors. This dopamine avalanche will render the Chantix experience worthless. Your brain will be begging for more nicotine.
What Pfizer fail to mention is that within a year, half of Varenicline clinical trial users who successfully quit for 12 weeks while using it, relapsed to smoking after ending its use. Another problem is that the people in the clinical trials received enormous support and counselling, upto 26 sessions with a physician as well as taking the drug. In the real world, people do not receive this support, and yet despite all this help the subjects in the study still had a 78% failure rate using Chantixafter one year. The chances are that the failure rate will be even higher when people use Chantix without this level of support.
Chantix also produces side effects. The FDA is aware that Chantix has been implicated in at least 55 suicides reported to the FDA within a one week period. By January 18, 2008, concerns over agitation, depression and suicide attempts had grown so great that Pfizer announced that labelling had been changed to warn users.
The shocking truth is that this new smoking cessation drug has a 78% failure rate, and it costs around $320-$500 for a 12 week course. You can forget all the fancy adverts you see on the television and on the internet, please don't waste your money. You now know the real truth.
Champix or Chantix is made by Pfizer and they claim that 1 in 5 users quit smoking for a year.Yet sadly, Pfizer is today marketing varenicline (the main chemical in Chantix) as having a 44% success rate at 12 weeks, when that figure is really rather meaningless. In clinical trials the treatment period was 12 weeks and users were still under the chemical's rather amazing influence.
It is time for a little bit of science. Nicotine works by attaching itself to receptors in the brain cells, to stimulate part of the brain and release dopamine. Varenicline acts in the same way, it steals 35-60% of the dopamine that nicotine would stimulate. It also partially blocks the receptors and prevents nicotine attaching to them. After 4 to 5 days of taking Varenicline all the receptors are occupied with it. So if you do smoke a cigarette you will not get any dopamine rush from the nicotine. One user under the influence of the drug claimed smoking a cigarette was like smoking a carrot.
The real problems begin when users stop taking the drug after the 12 week course. Because once the effects of the drug have worn off, just one puff on a cigarette will now produce a dopamine explosion in your brain as the Varenicline is no longer blocking those receptors. This dopamine avalanche will render the Chantix experience worthless. Your brain will be begging for more nicotine.
What Pfizer fail to mention is that within a year, half of Varenicline clinical trial users who successfully quit for 12 weeks while using it, relapsed to smoking after ending its use. Another problem is that the people in the clinical trials received enormous support and counselling, upto 26 sessions with a physician as well as taking the drug. In the real world, people do not receive this support, and yet despite all this help the subjects in the study still had a 78% failure rate using Chantixafter one year. The chances are that the failure rate will be even higher when people use Chantix without this level of support.
Chantix also produces side effects. The FDA is aware that Chantix has been implicated in at least 55 suicides reported to the FDA within a one week period. By January 18, 2008, concerns over agitation, depression and suicide attempts had grown so great that Pfizer announced that labelling had been changed to warn users.
The shocking truth is that this new smoking cessation drug has a 78% failure rate, and it costs around $320-$500 for a 12 week course. You can forget all the fancy adverts you see on the television and on the internet, please don't waste your money. You now know the real truth.
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