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Is NRT enough to stop smoking? |
By Mira Williams
 The latter, combined with intensive counseling appears to be the most efficient. The most common used method is that of cold turkey a method that only involves willpower. Going Cold Turkey means that the smoker gives up without any chemical or psychological assistance and he or she deals with cravings and withdrawal symptoms by ignoring or enduring them, until after a while, when those symptoms and cravings disappear altogether. This method is difficult, it frequently leads to mental hardship and considerable mood swings and few people manage to succeed. It tends often to be a domestic or work crisis that is difficult to cope with, that makes people go back to cigarettes, which then brings about a vicious circle of stopping and starting which is, if anything, even more difficult to break out of.
Nicotine replacement therapy provides the smoker with a source of nicotine, which is normally delivered to the bloodstream and to the brain through smoking. There is a wide range of products available via chemists, drug stores and health clinics. Some supermarkets also store these products. In Britain as well
as many other countries, government funded advertising campaigns warn people against smoking and promote nicotine replacement products in the process. By offering nicotine via patches, chewing gum and inhalers, the idea is to help those who want to stop cope better with the withdrawal symptoms that may occur when giving up. When quitting smoking, the craving for nicotine becomes apparent through showing irritability and severe pangs similar to hunger pangs combined with strong urges to give up the stopping smoking and have just one. According to the manufacturers of NRT products, (nicotine replacement therapy), all these urges can be better controlled.
In addition to patches and gum, there are other NRT products that include nasal sprays, tablets and lozenges, all containing nicotine. Stop smoking tablets are seen to be quite beneficial for a person who decides that he or she wants to become a non-smoker and lives his or her life without having to spend money on tobacco products that do not give the smoker any benefits, but is known poisons the user. The nicotine patch is perhaps one of the most popular products among the group of NRT products. Applied to the skin, the patch releases a variable quantity of nicotine, depending on your previous usage. Heavy smokers start by using a 21 mg patch that delivers nicotine to their brain, reducing the quantity to 14 mg and then to 7 mg (after several weeks). Patient-controlled studies have shown a better quitting rate among those who have also took part in psychological support group sessions. Nicotine patches are recommended to be taken off before going to bed, as they have been known to produce nightmares and vivid dreams. They should be placed each time in a different location on the skin, reducing the chances of itching and soreness.
Statistics prove that, unfortunately, many NRT product users revert back to cigarettes within months as NRT does not cater for the habit part of the addiction.
You may wonder why is so important to give up smoking. Each year, millions of people are diagnosed with cancer and other diseases caused by smoking tobacco products in general and smoking cigarettes in particular. As a direct result of smoking, 5.5 million people die every year from smoking related diseases. That is one tragic and unnecessary death every 6 seconds, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. Paradoxically, the nicotine to which smokers are addicted is harmless because of the relatively small amount necessary to enter the bloodstream in order to satisfy the brains addiction. What causes the diseases is a mix of toxic substances such as cyanide and carbon monoxide, which are contained in and mixed with tobacco. Burning those toxic substances quickly releases nicotine, but unfortunately, inhaling those substances slowly poisons the smoker. The paradox is that it is not these toxic chemicals that keeps the smoker addicted but the harmless nicotine. That is why the NRT products are only harmless vessels that deliver the same nicotine to the bloodstream and a gradual reduction of the NRT products, in theory, slowly reduces the brains dependency and thus craving for nicotine and weaning the smoker slowly off the nicotine helps him or her to eventually reduce his need for nicotine altogether so that neither NRT products nor cigarettes are needed again.
Again, in theory, nicotine replacement therapy will not keep the smoker as hooked on nicotine as cigarettes do. The difference lies in the fact that the need to inhale smoke is initially reduced and the perceived pleasure of smoking that cigarette is missed. Combined with counseling, there is a good chance that initially the smoking habit and eventually the nicotine addiction are conquered.
Advertising campaigns carry messages to warn pregnant women that smoking can affect the health of their unborn child. Young people and teenagers are advised to give up or better never to start smoking. The adverts also highlight the importance of renouncing the smoking habit and asking for help to quit.
There is of course no 100% sure method to stop smoking easily and without craving problems and withdrawal symptoms. Clinical Hypnotherapy is a frequently applied method to give up smoking. It is proven that within one hour, the smoker receives hypnosis and has suggestions planted in his or her brain. Also, a rewiring takes place whereby new neural pathways are created that make the smoker forget about cigarettes. If hypnotherapy is delivered by a qualified hypnotherapist who fully understands the stop smoking problem is then combined with some forms of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) the chances are that within one hour the smoker has become a non-smoker and does not suffer in the slightest from cravings, mood swings or withdrawal symptoms. It is a fact that anybody with normal intelligence and at least minimal powers of imagination can be hypnotized and therefore immediately cured from smoking.
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