Tag: Quitting Smoking

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The Best Quit Smoking Aids


The best quit smoking aids will help you to stop smoking by reducing your withdrawal symptoms when you stop. Some work by replacing the nicotine that you get when you smoke, others address the psychological side of cigarette dependency, and some are prescription meds that you can get from a doctor. We’ll look at many of these in this article to help you figure out what would be the best quit smoking aids for you.

Nicotine Replacement

When we smoke cigarettes or cigars, the substance that we become physically addicted to is the nicotine in them. Nicotine is a poison, but in small quantities it gives us a mild ‘rush’ like many other drugs. Our body becomes accustomed to it and quickly begins to depend on it. Quitting can give us symptoms like irritability and cravings which can be reduced or even avoided completely by the use of nicotine replacement therapies.

The best quit smoking aids using nicotine replacement include nicotine patches, nasal spray, inhalers or tubes, gum and nasal spray. These all work but they may suit different people. Patches release nicotine in a slow, steady dose. The others give you a burst of nicotine when you most need it, more like having a cigarette. Gum and lozenges may be a good choice for somebody who is concerned about a tendency to overeat.

Prescription Meds

In consultation with your doctor you might decide to take medication to reduce the withdrawal symptoms and help you quit. There a now a couple of meds available that have been shown to be among the best quit smoking aids.

Buproprion hydrochloride is an anti-depressant that has been approved for use for people who are quitting smoking. It helps with the irritability and depression that are often associated with quitting. Buproprion hydrochloride is marketed under the names Zyban and Wellbutrin in the USA.


Varenicline tartrate is marketed as Chantix. It has been shown to mimic the effects of nicotine in the brain, reducing cravings. It also stops a person from getting a nicotine rush if they smoke while they are taking it, by blocking the nicotine receptors in the brain, so you are less likely to continue smoking.

Other Stop Smoking Aids

If you prefer to choose natural remedies, then acupuncture or hypnosis may be the best quit smoking aids for you. It is not known exactly how acupuncture works, but many people have found that it does. Hypnosis can help strengthen your determination to quit – which is probably the most important factor when you are trying to stop smoking.

You may also want to investigate herbal tobacco replacements including herbal cigarettes. These should not be used long term because any kind of smoke is thought to be bad for the lungs, but they can help you through those times in the early days of quitting when you feel that you must inhale something.


Imagine if you could easily use the same method that allowed Paul Peyton, a heavy smoker for more than 14 years, ? to permanently quit overnight… Wouldn’t that be wonderful?Well, guess what – you can. In fact, ANYONE can do it.

But first, you need to understand where you’ve gone wrong in the past… Treating just the physical addiction to smoking. But it can only be removed completely by using targeted psychotherapeutic techniques. NOT by ignoring it and hoping it will go away. And CERTAINLY NOT by throwing even more nicotine at it, in the form of patches or gum. You MUST deal with BOTH parts of your addiction the right way, or you will keep getting those cravings forever…

Specific, step by step instructions ? we show you exactly what to do, so nothing is left to chance. You choose the timeframe ? implement the method at your own pace, as you feel comfortable. Tried and tested method ? this cutting-edge method has been successfully used to cure thousands of happy ex-smokers. Permanently removes your mental dependence at the subconscious level ? resulting in a permanent end to mental cravings.
Check out PermaQuit now.

There are many kinds of help that you can get when you have made the decision to stop smoking but the most important question is whether you are really determined to quit. It has to matter to you. So the first thing to do right now is to sit down and write a list of all the reasons that you want to quit. Think of at least 10-15, more if you can. The best quit smoking aids in the world cannot help somebody who is only quitting because somebody else wants them to.


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Quit Smoking – Gain Weight – Still Better Off




I found this article about weight gain after you quit smoking over at the CBC Canada website and thought it was an interesting study. As I have written before, I smoked for many years and would actually put out my cigarette on my way into the gym but once I tackled my smoking habit over and over again I found that I finally quit smoking and have been more healthy now than ever.

I think that the excuse that you can gain weight after quitting smoking is a bit of a red herring but is always brought up. Tobacco is both an appetite suppressant and and a stimulant and so it can keep your weight down…But at a HUGE cost to your health.

The bold notes below are my comments on this article.

—————————————————————————————————

Quit smoking leads to an average weight gain of up to five kilograms in the first year, significantly more than previously thought, according to a new study.

Most of the kilos are piled on in the first three months, a team of medical researchers write in the online journal British Medical Journal, as another group stresses that the health benefits of quit smoking far outweigh the risks of putting on weight.

Quit Smoking Leads to Weight Gain

For quitters who did not use nicotine replacement therapy, the average weight gain was 1.1 kilograms at one month, 2.3 at two, 2.9 at three, 4.2 at six months and 4.7 after a year, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said.

*Notice that the weight gain is front loaded as people are trying to fight nicotine cravings with food? I bet almost every ex-smoker will agree this is the case

This was “substantially higher than the 2.9 kilograms often quoted in smoking cessation advice leaflets,” write the team from France and Britain.

“Moreover, this mean weight gain is greater than the 2.3 kilograms gain that female smokers report being willing to tolerate, on average, before embarking on a quit attempt.”

Quit Smoking Gain Weight Still Better OffEarlier research showed that nicotine is an appetite suppressant and may increase the metabolic rate.

For the latest paper, the researchers collated data from earlier studies conducted between 1989 and 2011 in the United States, Europe, Australia and east Asia to assess weight changes among successful smoking quitters.

The researchers stressed that changes in body weight varied greatly, with about 16 per cent of those that quit smoking losing weight and 13 per cent gaining more than 10 kilograms in the first year.

*You would expect that these ex-smokers that lost weight made bigger lifestyle changes and smoking was one of the changes. Exercise and diet changes will turn your whole lifestyle around and are tough, but on the other side you feel like a new person just a few months later

Smoking riskier than weight gain

In an editorial accompanying the paper, Associate Professor Esteve Fernández of the Universitat de Barcelona and Professor Simon Chapman of the University of Sydney say modest weight gain is far less life-threatening than smoking.

“Tobacco is the main cause of premature death worldwide, being responsible for 5.1 million deaths each year. Obesity, together with overweight, causes 2.8 million deaths,” they write.

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I am more than happy to me an ex-smoker. I did not personally gain weight, I proved to myself that it is possible, and I became more serious about my other health habits. So I can say personally that I would urge anyone to quit smoking even if they are worried about a bit of weight gain. This is a large part of your health issues that you have control over and then you can use your quitting to accelerate yourself to better health.

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A Quitting Smoking Timeline


This quitting smoking timeline will be of interest to anybody who has just quit or is planning to quit and wants to know how long they are likely to have to put up with the symptoms of withdrawal. Symptoms can vary from person to person but in this article we will show an example quitting smoking timeline that the average person might expect when they stop smoking ‘cold turkey’.

If you use any kind of nicotine replacement therapies then symptoms are likely to last longer (although they may not be so severe) because the body is still getting nicotine and the addiction continues. If you use certain other therapies such as acupuncture or prescribed medications, you may escape experiencing some of the symptoms. So this quitting smoking timeline can only be an approximate guide and will not apply to every individual.

Quitting Smoking Timeline

20 minutes after finishing your last cigarette, your pulse, blood pressure and the temperature of your hands and feet will be back to your normal.

After 8 hours, the nicotine in your bloodstream will have fallen to around 6% of its maximum. Blood oxygen and carbon monoxide levels will be normal.

After 24 hours, anxiety will peak. On the positive side, your risk of a heart attack is already beginning to fall.

After 2 days, irritability is at its highest, but damaged nerves are beginning to heal and your senses of smell and taste will be improving. Already your body is experiencing significant benefits from quitting.

After 3 days, cravings will peak. This is not the end of cravings by any means but they will start to become less frequent and less intense after today. The lungs begin to heal and breathing starts to become easier. Your body would now test 100% nicotine free.

After 1 week, you are probably experiencing craving around three times a day. If you time your cravings, you will find that they only last two to three minutes, though it probably feels a lot longer. Keep telling yourself that you only have to hold out a couple of minutes each time.

After 2 weeks, cravings have dropped to an average of once per day.

After 3 weeks, receptors in the brain have returned to normal. Craving episodes will be rare after this. You may still think about smoking often, but that is not the same as craving. Being an ex-smoker is much easier from here.

After 3 months, the risk of smoking-related heart attack will be significantly less. Circulation has improved. If you catch a cold, you will be less congested and symptoms should clear up faster than they did when you smoked. Lung function is better and physical activity like climbing stairs will be much easier. If you had a smoking-related cough, it should have cleared (if not, see a doctor).

After 1 year, the extra risk that smokers have of suffering heart attack and stroke has reduced to half what it was when you smoked.

After this, the rate that things improve will depend even more on individual factors like how long you smoked, the age you were when you started, and how many cigarettes you smoked per day. As a very rough guide for the average person:

10 years: your risks of developing stroke, diabetes or pancreatic cancer are the same as for a person who never smoked. Lung cancer risk has reduced by up to 50% of the extra risk that applies to a smoker.

15 years: your risk of developing coronary heart disease is the same as that of a person who never smoked.

20 years: your risk of all smoking-related diseases is virtually back to what it would be if you had never smoked.


Imagine if you could easily use the same method that allowed Paul Peyton, a heavy smoker for more than 14 years, ? to permanently quit overnight… Wouldn’t that be wonderful?Well, guess what – you can. In fact, ANYONE can do it.

But first, you need to understand where you’ve gone wrong in the past… Treating just the physical addiction to smoking. But it can only be removed completely by using targeted psychotherapeutic techniques. NOT by ignoring it and hoping it will go away. And CERTAINLY NOT by throwing even more nicotine at it, in the form of patches or gum. You MUST deal with BOTH parts of your addiction the right way, or you will keep getting those cravings forever…

Specific, step by step instructions ? we show you exactly what to do, so nothing is left to chance. You choose the timeframe ? implement the method at your own pace, as you feel comfortable. Tried and tested method ? this cutting-edge method has been successfully used to cure thousands of happy ex-smokers. Permanently removes your mental dependence at the subconscious level ? resulting in a permanent end to mental cravings.
Check out PermaQuit now.

Remember that these are rough averages and cannot be assumed to apply to individual cases. Non-smokers can suffer from lung cancer and other diseases too. We are not medically qualified and neither this quitting smoking timeline nor any of the other information on this site is intended to provide health advice of any nature.


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