How To Stop Smoking

You’ve decided to lose your cigarette habit, and know that the prospect of nicotine withdrawal is not a pleasant one. The good news is that stop smoking medication is available to ease your transition back to the world on non-smokers. If, however, you think you’d like to incorporate a stop smoking medication into your plan to quit, there are a few things you should consider.

There are two varieties of stop smoking medication; those which contain small amounts of nicotine and those which simply fool the brain into thinking it is getting nicotine by blocking its nicotine receptors.

Nicotine-Based Stop Smoking Medication

A stop smoking medication with nicotine, likes nicotine gum, lozenge, spray, or
patch, offer nicotine, but with a lower concentration and a rate of absorption than the nicotine in cigarettes. And nicotine-based stops smoking medication is, of course from a much safer source than toxin-loaded cigarettes. A nicotine-based medication contains nicotine in a variety of strengths, so that you can move to a lower dosage as you gradually wean yourself away from smoking.

The point of using a nicotine-based stop smoking medication is to quit cigarettes one and for all. So if you intend to use a nicotine-based stop smoking medication, start it on the day you stop smoking; if the nicotine you are getting from the stop smoking medication is insufficient to get you through your cravings, consult your doctor to see if an alternative stop smoking medication would be more appropriate for you.

Chantix And Zyban

There are only two FDA-approved prescription stop smoking medications; Chantix and Zyban. Chantix was FDA-approved in May of 2006 after being fast-tracked by the FDA, meaning that the period of FDA testing done on it was significantly shortened. Chantix works by attaching to the nicotine receptors in the brain and stimulating them to tell the brain to release dopamine, the ”pleasure” neurotransmitter.

By blocking those receptors, Chantix reduces your nicotine cravings at the same time it is giving you the dopamine release which smoking provides. Chantix, unlike a nicotine-based stop smoking medication, should be started a week before you stop smoking.

The second FDA-approves stop smoking medication, Zyban, was originally marketed as the anti-depressant buproprion, or Wellbutrin. Some smokers being treated for depression with Wellbutrin reported that they lost their desire for cigarettes, so Wellbutrin’s maker Glaxo Kline tested it as a stop smoking medication, found that it did have some effectiveness, and had it FDA-approved for that purpose.

Most experts on addiction agree that using a stop smoking medication, while it may get you through the withdrawal period and remove your physical addiction to nicotine, will do nothing to eliminate the emotional attachment you had to smoking. Undergoing behavioral modification therapy, which enables you to get at the psychological causes underlying your cigarette use, is always a good idea.

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