Stop Smoking

Archive for the ‘Nicotine Therapy’ Category

The dependency on nicotine is the chief problem for people who want to stop smoking without using nicotine replacement (NRT). Mark Twain did not know that he had a nicotine addiction by he was cheeky enough to say that it was easy to stop smoking as he had done it a thousand times. Smokers are able to find a large amount of self help material, they can use drugs or NRT to try and stop, but no matter what you try, it is just not a simple thing to do.

Nicotine dependency has to be dealt with in the right way. Not every one has the will-power to stop this addiction cold turkey and on their own. The addiction to nicotine has emotional, psychological and physical affect on the smoker and these all need to be dealt with when they stop this habit. An addiction such as this is not something that is easy to control and people around you will always still smoke. You can’t go changing your entire circle of friends just because they are smokers.

Making use of free government telephone counseling services is a good route to take to stop smoking without using NRT. These services have shown excellent results in the states that operate them and they have seen smokers able to stop twice as fast as others who do not make use of these services.

Nicotine just happens to be one of the most habit forming substances we know of. It is for this reason that support is vital for the smoker who is trying to stop. This support starts at home with his family and extends, through friends, so-workers, employers and obviously the counseling service they are making use of. Encouragement is vital in this attempt to break the habit and ex-smokers swear that the support they receive is one of the chief reasons for achieving success.

Information for the smoker who wants to stop is available from many resources. Health insurance companies, your local gym, hospitals, support groups and even your employer. However these just make some of the resources available, and the most efficient assistance does come from a trained counselor.

Group or individual counseling may be sought, and as we said before this is available free in some US states, over the phone. These counselors know that there is more to stopping smoking than just stopping, they realize an addiction of this type also has its physical, emotional and psychological side-effects.

The thing to remember is that once you stop smoking, the nicotine remains in the body for as long as three to four days and it is when this period is over that the withdrawal symptoms begin to manifest. These are liable to last just a couple of days or in some instances even weeks. It is this time when the support is needed most so that the smoker has someone to turn to rather than back to the cigarettes.

Counseling is far more effective than NRT, because with NRT you are still putting this addictive drug into your body. You don’t need to do this, nor do you have to use other dangerous drugs if you have the right people on your side in your quest to stop smoking. Medical research has shown that individuals who receive counseling are 4 times more likely succeed than by using any other method to quit smoking.

Before selecting a stop smoking system, be sure to visit SmokingReviews.org to find out about the best methods around to help you quit smoking today!

quit smoking efforts can often be put on the back burner with the fear of gaining weight, that goes especially for young women. That’s why exercise is frequently professed as not only a way to help combat cravings, but also to keep the unwanted kilograms at bay. But is it the best approach?

Perhaps not. According to a new study young women were asked about their smoking habits. Through this study two smoking cessation programs were developed to find out which of them was more effective.

The first phase of the study consisted of setting up five focus groups with 43 college-age women to better understand their behavior in connection with smoking. Researchers found that the women smoked for social and body image reasons and to cope with stress, and wanted information relayed electronically as part of their treatment.

In the second phase, 24 female college-age students were randomly divided into two groups: a supervised group exercise program, or group counseling sessions focusing on body image. Women in both groups also received a nicotine patch. After eight weeks, the counseling group had more than twice the rate of smoking cessation as the exercise group, 18% versus 8%. The counseling group also lost more weight — 3.3 pounds versus less than a pound for the exercise group. Information was sent to the study participants via e-mail and text messages, as the women preferred.

To read how these quit smoking groups got on – visit LAT for the full story.

Trying to quit smoking may almost seem like you are walking into a burning fire. It certainly is not simple, and with the attitudes that many people have, you are looking at a lot of complicated issues trying to ensure that you get started on the right foot to quit successfully. Read the rest of this entry »