Quit Smoking: With the help of useful tips

Smoking is a common habit and a difficult one to quit for majority of regular smokers. If you have been smoking for a long time and suddenly decide to quit the cold turkey way, then you are likely to suffer withdrawal symptoms and strong cravings for nicotine. But with the help of some quit smoking tips and additional help, it can be possible to increase the chances of any smoker to quit successfully.

Quitting smoking may be a difficult thing to achieve for many but certainly not impossible. Given below are some useful quit smoking tips that can help you kick the butt successfully.

Think about quitting smoking

According to the World Health Organization, Smoking has become the leading cause of premature deaths and diseases among people worldwide. It is related to many serious diseases. Taking it as a warning, many smokers want to quit smoking and search for aids or drugs that can help to kick the butt.

Serious effects of smoking

Smoking can increase your risks for conditions like diabetes, lung cancer, heart disease, strokes, and so on. These are the effects of active smoking but, passive smoking or second hand can also cause health problems for those who don't smoke. It can greatly affect pregnant women and children if they inhale second hand smoke. The recent research has shown that there is another effect of smoking called as third hand smoke. It contains all the toxins that are spread into the air after the cigarette is extinguished.

Make a plan to quit

If you have made up your mind to quit, then you should start with a plan. Prepare your mind for a life as a non-smoker. It's a well known saying that half of the battle is won in the mind. So, prepare your mind with all types of positive benefits of quitting smoking.

Quit smoking timeline

After quitting smoking, you may experience some of the instant health benefits. Your blood pressure level and pulse rate drops to normal. The temperature of your hand and feet increases to normal. These effects can be felt in a timeline of 20 minutes.

After 8 hours, oxygen level increases and carbon dioxide decreases. Within 24 hours of "quitting smoking", your chances of suffering a heart attack decreases greatly. If you continue with the quit smoking timeline, then within three months you may see changes like increased blood circulation in the body, and improved lung functioning. This continuous quit smoking timeline can produce numerous health benefits that can improve the quality of your life.

Methods for quitting smoking

There are many methods and techniques that can help you quit smoking successfully. Some of these methods include cold turkey, nicotine replacement therapies and anti-depressants such as Zyban. The success rates of quitting with the help of these methods may vary from person to person. You have one more quit smoking aid in the form of Chantix, which taken orally.

Chantix helps to reduce nicotine cravings and withdrawal symptoms that occur naturally after you quit smoking. Its main active ingredient is Varenicline tartrate and also contains some inactive ingredients. Chantix is a proven treatment and is generally prescribed for a period of 12 weeks. If you are unable to quit smoking successfully during this period, then the doctor may ask you to repeat the treatment after a thorough medical check up again.

Ways to quit smoking

Mark Twain has said, "Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a thousand times." One of the reasons why smokers find it difficult to kick off the habit is because of the strong nicotine addiction. It may be difficult to quit smoking cigarettes, which contain nicotine as their main ingredient, but certainly not impossible. There are many quit smoking aids out there to help you. We have listed quit smoking aids below:

1. Get counseling

Counseling is probably one of the most sought after quit smoking aids. When it becomes hard to overcome smoking, you can seek help from a counselor. There are many quit smoking aids out there that provide adequate support in smoking cessation, provided you are serious about becoming a non-smoker. Some of the counselors even provide telephone-based counseling to help you avoid common mistakes and firm up your resolve not to smoke again.

2. Seek support from your family and friends

An active support from your family members and friends can also be one of the effective ways to quit, in addition to other quit smoking aids. Your family members and friends can offer constant support and encouragement during your quit smoking program. It has helped many former smokers who felt that having a strong support system comprising of family and friends, helped them gradually wean away from smoking to make a complete break.

3. Quit smoking medicines

Zyban
It’s a prescription drug that helps reduce the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. The main active ingredient in Zyban is bupropion, which acts on chemicals in the brain that are responsible for nicotine cravings. Zyban does not contain nicotine.

Chantix
It is one of the effective quit smoking aids for smokers who wish to kick their smoking habit. Champix helps in reducing withdrawal symptoms as well as the strong nicotine cravings. Free from nicotine, Chantix can however cause some undesirable side effects that are well tolerated by a majority of the people.

Quitting smoking can be easy with the help of quit smoking aids, provided you choose an effective one. We suggest you to seek the help of a counselor, get emotional support from your family and friends, and then combine these with one of the quit smoking aids like Chantix for complete smoking cessation.

4. Nicotine replacement therapy or NRT

It’s the most common method of quitting smoking. The Food and Drug Administration or the FDA has approved 5 types of nicotine replacement therapies that can be used as effective quit smoking aids for people who wish to stop smoking over the long-term. These include nicotine patches, nicotine gum, nicotine nasal spray, nicotine inhalers, and nicotine lozenges. Out of these NRTs, you should choose the one that will best fit your lifestyle and smoking pattern.