Welcome to quit smoking
Chantix (varenicline) is used to help people stop smoking. Chantix is in a class of medications called smoking cessation aids. It works by blocking the pleasant effects of nicotine (from smoking) on the brain.
50 Reasons To Quit Smoking Article
This is a selection made from among articles on 50 Reasons To Quit Smoking. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for future reading, click here.
from:
How to Quit Smoking - The Nicotine Patch
Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known. Study after study shows that one can get addicted to nicotine as quickly as cocaine and other illegal drugs that we generally associate with crippling addictions. It is for this reason, of course, that is can be so difficult to quit smoking. One top of this physical addiction - that is, the body's craving of nicotine - there is a psychological component: because smoking is both legal and socially acceptable in many situations, it can be difficult to avoid it completely. Any attempt to quit smoking, therefore, should involve a comprehensive plan that deals with both the physical and psychological side of the addiction. One way to address the physical addition to nicotine, to leave yourself free to concentrate on the psychological aspects of your addiction, is to use a nicotine patch.
The nicotine patch is one of the oldest, and certainly best-known, medical aids to quitting smoking. Patches are placed on the skin, and work by releasing a slow and steady supply of nicotine into the bloodstream. The idea is that the patch helps wean your body off nicotine - instead of nicotine being immediately absent from your system when you quit smoking, it is gradually reduced.
The way the patch works is to break your body's desire for nicotine "spikes." When you smoke a cigarette, your body receives an immidiete spike in its nicotine levels. As the level of nicotine slowly dissipates after the spike, it will eventually drop to a point where you desire to have it "topped up" again - the need for another cigarette. If you picture a graph of your body's nicotine levels when you smoke, you would see a steady series of peaks and valleys - the peaks corresponding to the spike in nicotine levels when you smoke a cigarette. A graph of your nicotine levels when wearing the patch, on the other hand, would show a steady line: the line wouldn't be as high as your peaks, but it wouldn't be as low as your valleys either. The idea is that the patch goes for the middle ground, and your body slowly adjusts to not having spikes in its nicotine levels.
As you become more and more used to lower levels of nicotine in your system, you can reduce the dosage of the patches you wear, until eventually your body is nicotine free. Another good thing about the patch is that it is an extremely strong deterrent against smoking: if you smoke while you're on the patch, your levels of nicotine will become too high and you could suffer from a nicotine overdose, which can result in sickness and even death.
The patch is a very effective stop smoking aid. It does, however, have some disadvantages: it is fairly expensive, and at the early stages of quitting it can often cost more than cigarettes did. The patch can also cause problems with sleeping if you wear it to bed - and at the same time if you don't you will wake up with no nicotine in your system, and feel pretty bad until you put on a morning patch and it starts working. Despite these drawbacks, the patch remains the medical aid of choice for people dealing with serious nicotine addictions.
50 Reasons To Quit Smoking News
Mum backs stop smoking scheme - New Post Leader
Mum backs stop smoking scheme New Post Leader Now the nurse – who quit smoking a year ago – is urging others to give up the habit, not only for the health benefits but also financial reasons. Dawn, who smoked between 40 to 60 cigarettes a day, saw her father, who was a heavy smoker, die at the age ... Community High Spitfire: Teen Smoking: An Inconvenient Truth |
Smoking Linked to Cognitive Decline in Men - Medscape
 HealthJockey.com | Smoking Linked to Cognitive Decline in Men Medscape Men who had recently quit smoking also showed some cognitive decline, especially in executive functioning tasks. In long-term ex-smokers, the degree of cognitive decline was similar to the decline seen in those who had never smoked. Male Smoking Leads To Faster Cognitive Decline |
bc-ed-tobaccoban08(sh) - PennLive.com
bc-ed-tobaccoban08(sh) PennLive.com What's bothersome about those edicts is they will do little to curb smoking in the long run. People quit smoking for all sorts of reasons, most often because of health concerns, either their own or those of loved ones. Smokers know their habit isn't ... |
Adele's Grammy Comeback After Vocal Cord Surgery - WebMD
Adele's Grammy Comeback After Vocal Cord Surgery WebMD To better understand the procedure she underwent and the reasons for it, WebMD spoke with Gerald Berke, MD, director of the UCLA Voice Center for Medicine and the Arts. Berke, a head and neck surgeon, did not treat Adele. "First, people do not get ... |
Confused about stop-smoking advice? Read on - The State Journal-Register
Confused about stop-smoking advice? Read on The State Journal-Register 1 important thing that people need to quit smoking is motivation,” Ellison says. “ … My motivation was purely based on health reasons and a family history of lung cancer. I was extremely motivated by the fact that I had family members that were dying ... |