How To Quit Smoking For Good

Aug 25

How To Quit Smoking For Good

If you’re serious about learning how to quit smoking for good, you need to be aware of some of the stop smoking programs and products out there that perhaps aren’t as effective at helping you quit as they make out to be.

Organic cigarettes

Organic cigarettes do not help. You may lose the lead and arsenic from fertilizers, but you still get the nitrosamines (that cause cancer in practically everything they touch) and carbon monoxide at maybe 75 times the dose that is any good for you, seven times the acceptable dose of formaldehyde, and about 130 times the acceptable dose of the carcinogen acroleine.

Low-tar cigarettes

Similar research conclusions have been reached about low- tar cigarettes, which are not substantially less hazardous than the high yield type. A study published by the American Cancer Society said that low-tar cigarettes offered less potential for cancer, but in fact were responsible for a type of cancer that reaches deeper into lung tissue.

Filters

Filters, likewise, do not remove enough tar to make cigarettes less dangerous. They are just a marketing ploy to trick you into thinking you are smoking a safer cigarette.

Acupuncture

Whilst a New Scientist article showed acupuncture as giving a 24 per cent success rate (more than twice that of nicotine gum), some recent research concluded that it gave no better results than a placebo control group, a similar level to willpower.

Cutting down gradually

What about cutting down on cigarettes gradually? All the evidence suggests that this is far less likely to work in the long run than simply quitting smoking altogether. The last few cigarettes are the hardest to give up and a smoker usually puffs on these harder and longer, so there is no real health gain and the craving may intensify. In most cases, even if you cut down the numbers will creep up again. There is obviously less constraint involved in smoking that extra cigarette than starting up all over again after a period of abstinence. So whatever logic might apply to gradually cutting down, psychologically you are probably on to a loser.

Willpower

Willpower ranks very low in the smoking cessation success stakes. The addictive aspect of smoking certainly does not respond to willpower. More importantly, the various psychological factors tend to operate unconsciously and on a different mental level. At the same time, we exercise our will in quite different ways. For example, you exercise your will when making a decision to quit, but you also need to exercise it repeatedly when faced with the temptation to light up, when saying no to a social invitation that may weaken your resistance, when disposing of ash trays and so on.