Quit-pot-smoking

Is there anyone nowadays who doesn't know that smoking is bad for you? I doubt it, which is why I think that ads about the dangers of smoking are a waste of time and money. The emphasis should be on getting information out to people about how they can quit if they want to. There are 4 basic approaches to quitting smoking.

1) Cold Turkey. Going "cold turkey" means to just quit smoking. This approach usually has about a 10% success rate because it requires willpower: the will to quit has to be greater than the will to smoke. If it isn't, this approach will fail. Quitting cold turkey is how I quit smoking many years ago. The key ingredient for my own success was that I started a running program at the same time. I didn't know it then, but smokers who exercise while they are trying to quit have a much higher rate of success than those who don't, and the more vigorous the exercise, the higher the success rate. In fact, one study found the success rate to be twice as high for the exercisers as the non-exercisers.

2) Nicotine replacement therapy. Nicotine replacement therapy or NRT gives the body nicotine via a patch or gum. It prevents the unpleasant physical symptoms associated with quitting and delivers nicotine without the tars, carbon monoxide and other toxic chemicals. After eight weeks of use, 25% to 30% of people remain smoke free at six months. One drawback to this approach is that when users quit using NRT, they're likely to experience the same withdrawal they would have encountered by quitting smoking. Studies also have shown that long-term use of NRT, which is not recommended, can cause unwanted side effects.

3) Antidepressants. Wellbutrin, formerly known as Zyban, is a non-nicotine-based, prescription antidepressant . It has about a 35% or better success rate in the short term, helping reduce nicotine withdrawal symptoms and the urge to smoke. A new prescription medication, Chantix, works by reducing a smoker's craving and withdrawal. If a person smokes while taking Chantix, it can potentially diminish the sense of satisfaction. It's already been shown to have a 44% success rate after three months. At the one-year mark, Chantix reportedly has a 22% success rate, versus 16% for Wellbutrin.

4) Alternative therapies. While everyone seems to know someone who successfully used hypnosis, acupuncture or laser therapy to quit smoking, doctors say research hasn't shown they work. However, that's also what doctors say about taking dietary supplements and herbs. Pharmaceutical companies don't fund research on alternative therapies. The advantage of alternative methods is that they are generally cheaper and seldom have side effects.

Smokers don't quit because the pain of smoking-related diseases is in the future while the pain of quitting smoking is right now. That's why many smokers need some sort of help to reduce withdrawal symptoms if they're going to be successful. There's also no reason that several approaches couldn't be combined: exercise, NRT, and hypnosis, for example. Whatever you have to do to quit, though, is worth it. The intense pain of suffering and dying from emphysema, heart disease, or lung cancer will make you wish you had endured the milder pain of quitting smoking.

Michael Paladin writes about the topics of health and fitness at his blog Health & Fitness Solutions. To learn about a stop smoking method that might have you quitting smoking within three hours, visit his website Astounding Discoveries