Smoking Cessation

What is Smoking Cessation?

Smoking cessation is when a person stops smoking tobacco and then chooses to avoid cigarettes or other tobacco products. This is done with an understanding that smoking is a major health risk and will typically lead to debilitation or early death for those who continue to smoke. The reason it is such a challenge for so many people is because they must overcome a nicotine addiction, as the substance in tobacco is known to be one of the most addictive substances on earth.

This is the reason people tend to have more success with quitting smoking when they wean themselves off cigarettes slowly rather than trying to quit entirely at once. This means smoking fewer cigarettes per day each week and setting an end date where they will then stop completely. This is the most effective way to quit smoking for most people as it gives them a better chance of overcoming nicotine addiction, and this will be especially true if they have been a heavy smoker or have smoked for a long time.

What is the Most Successful Smoking Cessation Program?

There is no shortage of smoking cessation programs made available to people, and there is not a single quit smoking program that is better than all others. Programs that have received favorable reviews are the CBQ method for quitting smoking, the Freedom from Smoking Program offered by the American Lung Association, and the American Cancer Society’s Empowered to Quit.

Smoking cessation programs involving some degree of counseling or psychotherapy are often more effective than ones forcing people to rely on their own willpower to stop smoking. Doing it with the support and interaction between others who are also trying to quit can be very helpful and increase a person’s chance of being successful with this.

Thought field therapy can also be effective for quitting smoking, and there are books and apps available for getting started with this stop smoking treatment too.

Smoking Cessation Medications

The most conventional approach to smoking cessation is to have the person start on medications like Chantix and Wellbutrin. The effectiveness of these medications may be improved if they’re paired with NRT (nicotine replacement therapy). NRT will usually involve the use of a transdermal nicotine patch on the skin that will deliver low doses of nicotine periodically so that the powerful cravings that come with a nicotine addiction are lessened.

There are OTC stop smoking medications that people may want to consider too – nicotine gum and lozenges most notably. But for most smokers, these products are only marginally effective.

Smoking Cessation Benefits

People who are able to quit smoking quickly experience the benefits of stopping smoking. The biggest of them are improved lung function and increased cardiovascular capacity, improved skin quality and appearance, better breath, and much more. Plus, more energy and endurance due to blood vessels not being constricted by nicotine anymore.

At a deeper physiological level, the greatest of smoking cessation benefits is that the lungs and entire pulmonary system will start healing, and alveoli in the lungs will slowly regenerate and start to work more thoroughly as they should. Within 5 to 7 years of quitting, a person’s chance of developing cancer from smoking is greatly reduced.