Many studies have been done to find out if insurace coverage of quit smoking products would encourage smoking cessation.  In general, it’s been found that about half of smokers would be more likely to quit were there medication covered.

When you consider the cost of smoking itself, though, even without your aids being covered, it would be financially wise to quit.  Also, think of the medical bills you’ll be avoiding!

Someone sent me a note recently, saying that they had tried the nicotine patch with no luck.  They’re on the market for a new quit smoking product, one to help them quit by New Year’s.

As the patch didn’t have any effect, I’m thinking maybe will power is an issue here.

No product can make you quit smoking if you don’t have the determination to do it. I quit years ago cold turkey. Not all of these “crutch” products were around then but some were. The first few days were miserable but then things got better. Physical addiction is said to last only 24-48 hours so slapping on a patch simply prolongs this.

What finally got me over the hump was the realization that smoking is a ridiculous habit from a dollars and cents standpoint. For example, If you smoke a $7.00 pack per day and quit you’ve got an extra $7.00 that day or $49.00 by the end of the week and almost $215 by the end of the month. After a year you’ve got $2500 as a result of the simple act of not lighting a piece of weed and sucking the smoke into your lungs.

If you are 25 years old when you quit and you can earn 6% after taxes on your money you’ll have about $385,000 at age 65. Do you know how few people have this kind of cash when they retire? All you have to do to get it is to stop smoking! Keep your eye on the prize.

There are a lot of ways to quit smoking, user a quit smoking product or not, and it also depends on how long you’ve been smoking. The best ways are slowly lowering your dose (takes a long time sometimes), or going cold turkey (which is faster, but harder). Either way, the last thing is making the decision to quit, so you’ll eventually have to deal with the withdrawal.

For the most part, when you deal with withdrawal, you’ll just have to tough it out, but there are some things that can help cleanse out the toxins and may help to minimize some of the effects of withdrawal…
Drinking water will help to detox, and taking some supplements that work as cleansers may help as well. Specifically, Apple Cider Vinegar, Green Tea (decaffeinated), Chlorophyll (fantastic cleanser), and even good amounts of fiber and water helps some people (although it’s not very comfortable for the lower level of detoxification you get).

All that being said, it’s likely that the symptoms should stop relatively shortly after your last pill (it’s never as long as it feels like it is). Your neurotransmitters don’t take too terribly long to scream for something they are addicted to after you stop.

Another important thing to note is that no matter how bad it gets, taking more of the drug (and yes, nicotine is a drug) will only make the withdrawal last longer and will be harder on you in the long run. Good luck, and congrats again!

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Here’s a comment I received recently and thought it would be of interest:

Without a doubt, the new miracle drug Chantix is the best of the quit smoking products. It is available by prescription only. The cost without insurance is about $115.00 which for me was less than what I spent on cigarettes every month.

The reason I loved it was because IT IS NOT a nicotine replacement drug. I think that’s the reason the other drugs like patches fail. (Because you’re still pumping some form of nicotine into your body so you never detox.) The drugs work by blocking the transmitters in your brain that crave nicotine. Just check out the website which I believe is chantix.com The FDA is getting ready to prescribe this drug for alcohol abuse as well because it is the same transmitters in the brain that makes smokers want to smoke.

I smoked for 25 years a pack a day. I took the medicine EXACTLY as prescribed for 8 days and on the 9th day I laid then down and have never touched them again. Never even had withdrawals either even though I understand some people do. Anyway, it’s one of the best things that has ever happened for/to me. PLEASE check it out with your doctor.

Oh and btw, it is a 3 month/12 week prescription. If you feel you still need it after 12 weeks and would like to continue, your doctor can prescribe a 2nd 12 week program.

Good luck to all!

There are so many different quit smoking products on the market today - more than every before, and so many of them are safe and have minimal side-effects.  There is an aid out there for every lifestyle, from a convenient patch to taking  a pill once a day.  What could be easier than that?

The trick is to really want to quit.  When you have your mind set on not being dependent on cigarettes anymore, when you’ve decided you don’t want to waste your money, damage your body, stink up your clothes, when you know you really want to become a non-smoker, an aid can help you deal with cravings and the subsequent mood swings caused by such.

Talk to your doctor about how to go about quitting.  Make a plan.  Decide to follow it.  Do it!

This was an encouraging letter from someone who used hypnosis as a ‘quit smoking product’:

I quit smoking but I am having cravings - stress - and I want something to take the edge off - mentally.

I believe it was Samuel Clemens who said, “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.”

For me, when I was a smoker, this wit-full insight struck home. I had tried almost every conceivable means of relieving myself of this horrid addiction. Medication, nicotine gum, “cold-turkey”, “tapering off”, herbal remedies, etc, etc. Nothing worked! Oh sure, I would be free of “the weed” for a short time… I believe I managed for almost 3-weeks once. I was at my wits end. Difficulty breathing, chest pains, horrid breath, bad taste in my mouth, … I don’t need to go on…. you know what it’s like.

A co-worker suggested that I try hypnosis. After researching and questioning those who promised relief through hypnosis I decided to give it a try. I logically reasoned that the cost of the therapy session was equal to the cost of smoking for 2-weeks. Therefore if I could be smoke free for 2-weeks I would break even.. any longer and I would be a winner.

I went! One session is all it took. I went in a smoker and came out a non-smoker. That was 17-years ago. I remember being a smoker before that day, but since then all “attachment” to tobacco has been removed. No emotional attachment, no cravings, and no addiction. Hypnosis works!

Got this letter:

“I have tried so many quit smoking aids in the past and have had such terrible luck.  Smoking to me now tastes terrible and I have begun to hate it but I still get the craving to light up. I have Chantix and many other aids and I seem to have a bad reaction to them all. I have to do this without the aid of patches, pills, gum and I have even had hypnosis and that didn’t work as well. Any advice on what might help me. Please Help!!!!!!!!”

Well, it’s fairly common for many types of quit smoking products to have negative side-effects associated with them, especially Chantix, which seems to cause nightmares and panic attacs in sensitive people.  If you’re really ready to quit, and smoking already tastes bad to you, toughing it out might just be your best option.  Give cold turkey a chance!  Suck on hard candy, drink lots of water and practice some deep breathing.  In time, the cravings will subside.

Although there are so many innovative quit smoking products on the market, sometimes you just need to hear something really motivational.  The other day someone sent in this bit:

The simplest way to quit is to just STOP. However ,this is easier said than done, as nicotine is a very powerful and habit forming drug. I gave up smoking many years ago and, fortunately, had no after effects or cravings. I just ‘chose’ not to smoke rather than give up. Not everyone can do it though so here’s a few tips.

If you need support get nicotine patches. You can get them on prescription from your doctor, so it’s cheaper, and they come in three strengths. You use them over three months, strongest first, weakest last.

Tell yourself that you have made the decision not to smoke. No-one has forced you or told you. This is what happens:-

After an hour you will feel like having a cigarette.  Don’t do it. Make the choice. Your body, being dependent on nicotine, is asking to be topped up. Think of something else to take your mind off it and tell yourself that you could smoke if you wanted to but have chosen not to. Later the craving may come back. Do the same and continue in this fashion. As time goes by you may feel worse as your body starts to rid itself of all the toxins (There are more than 1200 poisons in tobacco smoke.) You may have a bad taste in your mouth or feel sick. Persevere. It doesn’t last long. After three days you have beat the craving. Your food will taste better as all the poisons start to go so don’t make the mistake of substituting food for cigarettes, that just makes you fat. Your sense of smell will improve and you’ll start to realize just how foul cigarette smoke really is. Your breathing will improve and you’ll start to feel fitter and better. Each day will increase your feeling of well-being as your body starts to recover from the damage it has sustained.

After three or four weeks you’ll wonder what the fuss was about. You are now a non-smoker. Other smokers may try to persuade you to have a cigarette. Refuse saying ‘I don’t smoke’ NOT ‘ I’m giving up.’ Otherwise they’ll tell you that just one won’t hurt. Yes it will. Once you have one you’re a smoker again. If it helps put the money you would have spent on cigarettes in a jar and see how it mounts up. It will take years for your body to get back to how it was, up to ten, but it’s worth it. Think of the benefits:

Your health is better
You save money. (20 a day costs, in England, about £1600.00 a year.)
Your clothes don’t smell bad.
Your bad breath disappears
Your hair smells clean again
Your house won’t be as dirty
Your food tastes better
Your sense of smell improves
Your breathing is easier
You get fewer colds and flu
You live longer
You get fewer illnesses
Your friends respect you
Non-smokers no longer avoid you or start to invite you to their homes again.
Your car doesn’t smell and is cleaner.

Finally remember this, and I have personal experience. Prior to my retirement I was the manager of a bank. One of my duties was to provide life insurance and pensions to customers. As part of the application there was a question asking if the applicant was a smoker and, if so, how many cigarettes a day were smoked. The client had to be truthful as he was reminded that in the event of death from a smoking related disease the insurance people could ask for a post mortem report before paying out to determine the extent of cigarette damage and whether it was consistent with the claim on the application. So, knowing the amount of cigatettes smoked, we deducted 6 minutes from the life expectancy of the client for each cigarette smoked. So if he smoked ten cigarettes a day he was losing an hour’s life expectancy each day. That means that for every twenty four days a day’s life was lost. Every twenty four years a year was lost. Smoke 20 a day and you can double the loss. Not only that but it is probable that the smoker will suffer more illness during his life. Because of this we loaded the premiums for the life cover as the smoker would die sooner and we would have to pay out earlier. If you were given the choice at,say, 70 years of age in dying today or in three year’s time which would you choose?

You will always find someone whose Great Uncle Joe smoked 100 a day from being 10 years old and died when he was 105. That may be so but there are two things to remember. If he didn’t smoke he may have reached 120 and the other thing is that the cemeteries are packed with people who smoked but didn’t last anywhere near as long as Joe. Smokers will also defend their habit by saying ‘I could be knocked down by a bus tiomorrow.’ Maybe, but they wouldn’t die voluntarily would they?  Smokers do all the time.

Hope that inspired someone!

I looked up this interesting quot smoking product and found this:

ZEROSMOKE is a self treatment product designed to help you quit smoking without patches, gum or pills. Become SMOKE-FREE in as little as 30 days. This product has sold over 2 million in Europe and has just been approved by the FDA and launched in the US. Zerosmoke features two small magnets that are placed opposite each other on a determined point on the left ear. The inherit property of the magnets keep them in place by attraction and there is no risk of them falling off. The treatment is similar to auricular therapy or the stimulation of acupuncture points in the ear (Triggers the release of endorphins, produce good chemicals in the brain.), without the use of needles. The electromagnetic therapy activates the production of neurotransmitters in the brain, removing the desire to smoke. The magnets are composed of 24K gold, both for its highest conduction properties and to eliminate allergic reactions. According to the manufacture guideline: Treatment use of Zerosmoke for three to four hours daily for six days, while continuing to smoke as normal. On the seventh day or sooner, users quit smoking without the cravings, while wearing the magnets for an additional 20 - 25 days to complete the cycle. Zerosmoke costs less than conventional use of nicotine chewing gum, patches or pills. In 2003, according to study conducted by European Smoking Prevention Centre, 650 individuals (340 women / 310 men), utilized the Zerosmoke method to attempt to quit smoking over a four week period. Conclusion of the study, more than 84% (550 smokers) had quit the addiction to smoke. Participants that used Zerosmoke, overcome the strongest withdrawal symptoms.

Anyone have any stories about this one?

There are so many different quit smoking products out on the market today, from pills to shots, but more than anything you’re going to need a serious desire to kick the habit.  Without the want to be smoke free, your struggle will be fruitless!