Nicotine Replacement Therapy to Help You Quit Smoking
Nicotine Replacement Therapy, or NRT, refers to the use of nicotine-containing products that are not cigarettes. These products, such as chewing gum, inhalers, or patches, are said to help you quit smoking. Generally, all of these therapies work by gradually reducing the amount of nicotine you take in. Here are some of the better-known NRT methods and how they work.
Gum
Some smokers prefer gum because it gives their mouths something to do. It is also available without a prescription, and is sugarless. Those who are concerned about the possibility that weight gain might accompany their quitting efforts may prefer this method.
Gum comes in at least two different strengths, and if you wish you could chew half a piece as well. The nicotine is absorbed through the mucous membranes of the mouth, so professionals recommend that you not eat or drink for 15-30 minutes before and after chewing a piece.
Lozenge
Another orally-delivered type of NRT, lozenges release a gradual amount of nicotine into your system through your mouth’s mucous membranes. The goal is to ease nicotine cravings gently. The larger the lozenge the slower the nicotine release. Nicotine-containing lozenges are available over the counter.
Inhaler
Nicotine inhalers work by delivering a nicotine-containing mist into the mouth and throat when the user “puffs” on it. Sources say that less than five percent of the nicotine ends up in your lungs. The inhaler itself is usually a plastic tube, and has about the same amount of nicotine as a cigarette. You need a prescription for a nicotine inhaler.
Patch
This is said to be the most popular form of NRT. It looks a bit like a bandage, and adheres to the skin. It delivers a set amount of nicotine slowly and steadily into your bloodstream, which is supposed to relieve cravings. You gradually reduce the amount of nicotine released by the patch.
Concerns and Precautions
It should probably be mentioned that smoking a cigarette while simultaneously using some sort of NRT is a definite no-no. Using multiple forms of NRT at the same time is also not a good idea (don’t chew nicotine gum while wearing a patch, for example). Also, success rates are mixed; there is no guarantee that NRT will work.
Pros
Advocates of NRT say it is very effective. NRT gives the smoker some sort of control over his or her nicotine intake, and prevents the stress of going “cold turkey.”
Understanding Nicotine Before You Quit Smoking
Then, the nicotine substance causes chemical reactions which result in the smoker having feelings of temporary pleasure. However, this is extremely short-term as this temporary pleasure will only last for minutes.
Smokers will begin to feel agitated and irritated from withdrawal symptoms as soon as the level of nicotine drops in the blood stream. Thus, in order to have a sense of relief from this agitation, there is a need to feed the body again with more nicotine. This goes on and on into a vicious cycle. What’s more, larger and larger of amount of nicotine is needed to feed the relief as your body adapts making you cravings grow as time grows by.
Before you can succeed in quitting smoking for good, you need to understand what nicotine can do to you both short and long term as nicotine can affect your physical body in different ways.
Quitting smoking involves both psychological and physical challenges. Most smokers make the mistake when they think it’s just a psychological challenge and they can quit at any point of time they want to. More than that, the addiction is because of a highly addictive substance – nicotine.
Let’s take a look on how nicotine can affect your body…
How Nicotine Affects Adrenaline
When nicotine is in your brain, it causes the release of adrenaline. Adrenaline in general causes your heart’s rate to increase. This will cause higher blood pressure which also at the same time limits blood flow to the heart. Because of the blockage, you will then experience difficulty breathing and result in always having short breath as well as having rapid heartbeat rate.
How Nicotine Affects Dopamine
Nicotine causes the increase of the level of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that causes the brain to feel pleasure. Other substances abuse such as drugs like cocaine have the same effect, which is to increase the level of dopamine in your brain. As the effect of this “pleasure” wears down, the smoker must then keep smoking to maintain the effect and at the same time avoiding withdrawal symptoms.
How Nicotine Affects Insulin
Nicotine also restrains insulin from releasing from your pancreas. Insulin is a hormone that helps remove surplus sugar from your blood. Thus, nicotine causes a smoker to have extra than normal sugar in his blood. Since sugar suppresses appetite, this is why most smokers lose their appetite when smoking.
Besides nicotine, research has shown that cigarettes have 4000 other toxic chemicals including tar. Tar increases the chances to get lung cancer. Apart from that, carbon monoxide released from cigarettes increases the risk respiratory diseases greatly as well as cardiovascular illnesses.
Because nicotine addiction is a substance abuse, time is needed to recover from this addiction. With perseverance, anybody can overcome this gradual process of being free from nicotine.
Nicotine Shot To Stop Smoking
Quitting smoking is a full time job, and not a job that you retire from for as long as you live. People who have succeeded in achieving it will testify to the fact, but not quite as loud as those who are still in the process of breaking their smoking habit.
The reason is simply because drug dependence is not something that you really grow out of; even if you are successfully able to break the physical dependence on nicotine, you may still be psychologically linked to it. The only way you can be entirely certain that you are not going to relapse to smoking again is to take each day as it comes.
But before you get to the point of taking each day as it comes though, you may want to try breaking your physical dependence on nicotine first. There are a lot of stop smoking techniques that focus on precisely that, as you will find when you talk with a number of therapists about it; what you want to do is determine all that you can about them, and get to using them in your own personal struggles to kick the habit.
You may not need every last smoking cessation method or nicotine replacement product under the sun as you try to break the habit on your own; and then again, you may need every last one of them. Statistics show that the highest success rates of people trying to stop smoking have been realized in patients who try as many as three quit smoking techniques all at once. In the next few lines, you will find out about the products that can help you break your addiction to nicotine – products that will finally free you from your smoking habit.
The first and the most common smoking cessation product in the United States these days is the nicotine chewing gum. This is just like any other chewing gum that you buy out on the street, except that instead of sugar or glucose, the product is laced with nicotine.
Therefore, as you chew on it, traces of nicotine are released into your mouth and from there into your system and bloodstream. The amount of the substance that you are consuming in this manner is substantially less than that which you inhale by direct smoking, and this way you gradually wean yourself from the bad habit.
The nicotine patch is also commercially available in most drugstores and you can get it without a prescription. The working principle of this stop smoking treatment is similar to the previous one, but the process is a bit different.
In this instance, you have to place the patch on your skin – usually on your arm – so that it continues to release traces of the substance into your bloodstream throughout the day. As you gradually become less dependent on nicotine, you will use patches with smaller and smaller doses each day until you no longer need it.
You need a prescription for the nicotine inhaler, and doctors only recommend it for the most severe cases of smokers trying to break their smoking habits. It is a small tube that looks practically the same as a stick of cigarette.
Each time you feel like smoking, you can just suck on the stick and you get your dose of nicotine that way. Often, you may have to stay on the inhaler for a while but eventually if you want to really stop smoking, you will graduate to either of the other nicotine replacement products.
Quit Smoking By Using Nicotine Gum
Addiction to nicotine is a very serious and strong one. Many studies have shown that it’s one of the most addictive substances and has been compared to cocaine. When you smoke, your body gets an instant shot of nicotine which effect dissipates with the time and when your level of nicotine decreases, your body will crave for another shot by getting another cigarette.
If you are a smoker, you should know that the most important factor that will help you to quit this addiction is your willpower. However if you rely only in your willpower you’ll find it very difficult to succeed. For that reason, looking for other alternatives or support to your willpower is very important; and one of the most popular aids that can help are those that give certain regulated doses of nicotine to your bloodstream.
The most popular one is the nicotine gum. This is exactly like a regular chewing gum which of course includes nicotine. What makes nicotine gum a good option is that they emulate those nicotine shots that your body craves without the need of a cigarette. The difference between nicotine gum and nicotine patches, which is another popular method, is that the second one doesn’t emulate that shot of nicotine that your body is used to. This patches release a steady doses of nicotine when your body is already used to and carves shots or spikes in the levels of nicotine released into your blood.
The use of nicotine gum is similar but not exactly as the regular chewing gum. What you do with this nicotine gum is that you hold it in your mouth without chewing it for long periods of time and then you give a few chews when you crave for a nicotine shot, just like when you crave a cigarette, so the gum releases that spike of nicotine that your body needs. Just make sure that you don’t chew this gum just like regular gum because too much nicotine can be releases into your bloodstream.
Nicotine gum can be very effective in combination with your own willpower. The only advice is that you have to follow the directions and use it as indicated. You’ll see that quit smoking is possible and if you get the support of your family and friends, the chances of success is even greater.
Quitting Smoking With the Nicotine Patch
The pain of withdrawal is just too great for most to endure. Besides, why would anyone want to, or even need to, put themselves through the wringer or withdrawal when they can remove that phenomenon of craving and simply quit smoking with Nicotine Patches. They really do take the sting out of stopping!
Some of the more evident symptoms of nicotine withdrawal are mood swings, anxiety, depression, forgetfulness, and nausea (less common). What this means is that if you live or work with others, your irritations can have a negative impact on relationships with your fellows, and that’s just plain unfair. Quitting smoking with nicotine patches, or other nicotine replacement therapies, will take away the physical craving and relentless withdrawal by feeding controlled doses of nicotine into the blood stream without the necessity to smoke. This is surely a much better option for you and those around you!
Why Quitting Smoking with Nicotine Patches is so Successful?
The main reason why quitting smoking using nicotine patches is so successful is simply because the dosage is very controlled and consistent. All the quitter needs to do is remember to place one patch on an area of skin once a day over duration of 3 months. This is a somewhat different approach to say gums or inhalers where you are free to chew or inhale as often as you like.
In other words, you control your nicotine intake. The main problem with running the show yourself is that you may not be able to wean off your stop-smoking aids and consequently continue to be addicted to nicotine. I’m sure most reading this know someone, or of someone, who has been chewing nicotine gum for years.
A typical course in Nicotine patches usually goes for 3 months starting with a lager patch for the whole of month 1, and reducing in sizes, and therefore nicotine, for the 2 months that follow. By the end of the 3 months, the now ex-smoker should be able to continue life ‘patch-free’, and relieved of any withdrawal symptoms. The lifelong ‘habit’ of smoking though, May still lurks for some time to come, but is far less enticing to a reformed smoker than a physical craving.
Guidelines for Quitting with the Nicotine Patch
1. Apply the nicotine patch immediately before going to bed, and right after taking a shower.
The shower washes some of the smoke smell away, and sleeping gives your body time to adjust to the new levels of nicotine. As you’re quitting, changing nicotine levels are what will cause you to chemically want a cigarette.
2. Find something to placate your oral fixation.
Toothpicks, hard candy, or any other than these things work. It’s important that you have something to do with both your hands and your mouth, since missing this action is what causes many people to go back to smoking.
3. There’s no such thing as ‘Just One’ cigarette.
That one cigarette leads to another, and another, and before you know it you’re right back into the same deal all over again. It’s not worth it. You’ll notice after the first few days that your mood and alertness has improved drastically, which brings us to our final point: 4. If possible, give yourself three days away from stimuli that make you want to smoke.
This gives you time to readjust to not smoking. Right now, as a smoker, you’re used to having the crutch of smoking available at all times. Distance yourself from situations that invoke that need, just for a few days, and you’ll begin to realize just how much better life can be without cigarettes!
Non-Nicotine Based Tools to Quit Smoking
If one is using nicotine replacements like Nicotine Gums or Inhalers, then it may not be enough. You may require other medications to get rid of the habit. These medications, along with the nicotine replacements, will enhance your chances of quitting smoking successfully.
Zyban
Zyban (Bupropion) is a popular medication used my smokers. The reduction in Nicotine intake or its partial withdrawal from body often causes one depression. In this depressed mind, he/she is likely to again go for a cigarette. Zyban helps one fight this depression. It is an antidepressant drug that helps brain fight those nicotine-craving chemicals in the body.
Some studies show that Zyban used along with a nicotine replacement greatly helps one to quit smoking. If you are suffering from seizures, eating disorder or are heavily alcoholic, then studies suggest that one should not take Zyban. Pregnant women or breast-feeding mothers should also avoid taking Zyban. Such women should be careful while using any smoking quitting methods. In any case, you should consult your doctor before starting to take it.
Telephone based help
Many government organizations and non-profit institutions run Quit Smoking telephone services often called as Quitline. Specialists, on how to quit smoking, talk to smokers counselling them on way of quitting smoking. They help people avoid doing common mistakes while quitting smoking. These lines provide that critical human support often required boosting the confidence of the depressed smoker.
Telephone specialists can also help someone locate the right medical help or the right medication. Often this lines guide smokers to join support groups where one can freely talk to fellow mates looking to quit smoking.
Acupuncture
Some experts suggest using acupuncture technique to quit smoking. Acupuncture involved inserting needles in certain specific spots on the body. This, as claimed by the acupuncture practitioners, help body regain its natural balance and enhance its self-healing capacity. This in turn helps one to resist the craving for smoking.
However, there is no guarantee that this therapy would always be successful. It is pretty safe with no side effects. Some people may feel pain when the needles are inserted. But this is often temporary pain and subsides with time.
Smoking Deterrents
The market of quit smoking medication is filled with products, which claim to change the taste of tobacco thereby helping people to quit smoking. There are also available diets, which claim to curb the craving for smoking. However their effectiveness is not guaranteed and the effect could be different from person to person.
Smoking Electric Cigarettes For Your Nicotine Kicks
For smokers, the need for any nicotine fix is so strong, they are willing to risk acquiring lung cancer and/or aerobic diseases. With the invention of electric cigarettes, however, users can get their dose of nicotine without compromising their health or that of the family.
Smokeless cigarettes incorporate no tobacco, tar, along with the thousands of other carcinogenic chemicals which are found in regular cigarette smoking products. They are nicotine-deliver devices that work in quite similar way as a nebulizer or even a humidifier does. The computer uses heat to vaporize any nicotine solution, producing a mist or vapour that is certainly then inhaled.
Smokeless smokes simulate the act of smoking: the electronic device offers the nicotine vapour once the user takes a drag on the mouthpiece. A smoker will tell you that being able to go through the movements of smoking, in inclusion to satisfying their urges for nicotine; make smokeless electronic cigarettes an authentic and enjoyable cigarette substitute.
Due to the absence of the other harmful chemicals which can make up regular cigarettes, electronic cigarettes are a relatively better option. As the name implies, no smoke is produced by these electronic gadgets. This implies users can get the nicotine hit they desire anywhere, including places where by smoking is prohibited, and without worrying about exposing people, especially family members, for you to second-hand smoke.
While smokeless cigarettes come in a variety of styles, all electronic cigarette models follow manufacturing standards so that the components are interchangeable.
The three primary aspects of a smokeless cigarette usually are: the cartridge, which contains the may be solution and the section of the device which has the actual mouthpiece; the vaporizer will be the heating component that converts the liquid nicotine solution in to a vapour when the user has a drag from the mouthpiece; along with the lithium-ion rechargeable battery, and this can be plugged into a retaining wall outlet, a computer’s UNIVERSAL SERIES BUS, a car’s cigarette brighter, or a portable asking for case (PCC) which is provided by some producers.
Although, many health agencies and experts dispute the health and safety claims made by electric cigarette manufacturers, smokers who want to quit for good still choose to get an electronic cigarette as an alternative to chew a nicotine gum or slap with a nicotine patch.
In addition for you to get a satisfying dose associated with nicotine, using a smokeless cigarette also allows the crooks to enjoy the physical take action of smoking – a component that plays an essential part within the habit of smoking.
Smokeless cigarettes come in a range of forms. The most popular are those who look like actual smokes, cigars, or pipes. Some also come as screwdrivers or even pens. The nicotine solution is available in several flavours, including menthol, mint, vanilla, chocolate, apple, strawberry, and a great many others.
Users can choose the effectiveness of the nicotine solution of their smokeless cigarettes. This implies that they control, and even gradually reduce, their nicotine intake until they might completely wean themselves from the addictive substance. Although the USA Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t allow electronic cigarettes reviews being marketed as smoking cessation products, the product has on the other hand helped numerous smokers are living a nicotine-free life for good.
Kick Your Nicotine Addiction And Quit Smoking With These Easy Tips
Many people will mention how difficult it is to give up smoking, so you will hear lots of negative feedback about the difficulties of stopping smoking. As with anything, the more educated you are about quitting, the less confusing it becomes. The tips in this article will get you started on the path to quitting.
If you’re trying to stop smoking, stop thinking about forever. When you are close to giving in to your cravings for a cigarette, you need to think of a delay before you are allowed to indulge. Take a long walk or watch a television program to get your mind off smoking.
Try eating more veggies in fruits to avoid gaining the weight which results from quitting smoking. This will prevent the characteristic weight gain that comes with quitting.TIP! Create a list of ideas on how quitting smoking can be achieved. Sit down and make a list of things that will work for your personality.
For instance, if you tend to smoke while driving or while drinking, you must change this behaviour while performing these tasks, so that do not automatically prompt you to smoke. Try to find something to take your mind off of distraction that will serve as a substitute.
The first step in quitting cigarettes is to fully commit oneself to the commitment to see it through. Most people who quit do so because of a negative thought process. You can strengthen your resolve by remembering the reasons on why you to quit.
Talk to your doctor if he can help you plan to quit smoking. Your family doctor may be able to suggest quitting resources of which you were previously unaware.TIP! Many report gaining weight during or after the time that they quit smoking, so you may want to start eating those fruits and vegetables now. This will help curb any weight gain that you might experience.
Find support through different online forms and message boards. There are quite a plethora of websites entirely focused on helping smokers give up their habit. You may find it helpful to compare some techniques with others.
Exercising after quitting smoking will be easier, so start a regular exercise routine as soon as you stop smoking. Regular activity will also help you to keep your body weight gain. The natural endorphins exercise produces will also boost your nicotine cravings to a certain extent.TIP! Talk to your loved ones, in order to garner their support in quitting smoking. Also, make sure that they know not to be judgmental and are as optimistic as possible to improve your chance for success.
Get rid of any ashtrays and lighters in your home. Wash all your clothes and remember to clean your house in order to remove the smell of smoke. This can ensure that you will be reminded or triggered to smoke.
Exercise releases endorphins, natural high that is very effective at fighting nicotine cravings. Exercise also helps to compensate for your metabolism slowing down as you quit, which can help keep the extra weight gain at bay that people who quit sometimes experience.TIP! One of the best methods to stop smoking is to use a nicotine replacement therapy to aid in your quitting. Withdrawal symptoms include depression, lethargy, and irritability.
Discuss with your doctor. There are several products on the market now available to help you quit for good. Ask your doctor what they’d recommend so you can quit.