Giving Up Smoking

No one denies that tobacco is bad for your health. Certainly not the industry that make the substitutes, chewing gums, nicotine patches and pills. They claim that their products will help you get rid of that nasty smoking habit.

This might seem like a noble cause on its surface. According to a study from Oxford University, 0.5 billion of the world population of today will die prematurely because of tobacco use. It is for sure a very good idea to stop smoking but are patches and chewing gums the help you need?

It is no secret that nicotine substitutes is a billion-dollar industry. The products are expensive, in most cases you will spend as much money on the substitutes as you would on cigarettes. The price is justified by the claim that you will be using the products for a limited period of time.

However, many studies indicate that the substitutes does not help much. Originally the nicotine substitutes where only meant as supplements to help along with behavioral therapies to help people quit smoking. But when used by the general population, little or none long-term advantage was found.

Growing concerns about the effectiveness of nicotine substitutes raises the question, are nicotine substitutes really the best way to stop smoking? It is known that smoking addiction is more psychological than physical, replacing the nicotine from cigarettes with nicotine from substitutes wont change the mental state that causes the cravings.

The tv commercials for patches and chewing gums are often designed to make you believe that it is difficult to quit smoking (as long as you dont use those products, that is). This is unfortunate because it makes the psychological barrier even more difficult to surmount.

It seems like the companies behind the substitutes might have a secret agenda. If you want to quit smoking, it might be a good idea to consider help that is not based on patches, gums or pills.

Anders Hedlund is a former smoker that tries to help others quit smoking. You can subscribe to his newsletter at http://www-StopSmokingtoday.com

Note from admin

Stopping smoking is difficult and I believe that you should consider very method available until yo find the method that works for you. I stopped by using electronic cigarettes and 2 weeks worth of patches after tryig to stop many times over the years so not a false god for me.