Quit smoking: A new case for going cold turkey

Fox News via Wall Street Journal ^ | January 10, 2012 | Grant Junkie

[Eric Blair 2084]

A new study suggests cigarette smokers who quit after using over-the-counter medication such as nicotine patches are just as likely to relapse as smokers who go "cold turkey," casting fresh doubt on the effectiveness of such products.

The finding, from a survey of several hundred smokers, could heighten U.S. smoking-policy debates at a time when the federal health-care overhaul is widening eligibility for cessation medication but states are slashing funding for public-service announcements and telephone quit lines.

The study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and University of Massachusetts Boston also coincides with slowing progress to get Americans to kick the cigarette habit, which the U.S. government says is linked to 443,000 deaths and $96 billion in medical costs each year. An estimated 19.3 percent of adults still smoked cigarettes in 2010, little changed from 20.9 percent in 2004.

In research published Monday in the online edition of Tobacco Control, a peer-reviewed journal, the authors said they surveyed 787 smokers in 2001-2002 who had recently quit in Massachusetts. Nearly one-third who participated in a follow-up interview in 2003-2004 reported having relapsed and almost one-third again reported relapsing in a third interview in 2005-2006.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Chantix falls under the category of “let’s kill them for their own good”. It shuts down the pleasure receptors in your brain and there have been many cases of suicide and depression. Full disclosure...

My mother in law quit using Chantix. She is still nuts. Now she just runs around the house chasing my kids for dropping cracker crumbs. She has OCD.

[Question Liberal Authority]

I disagree with your conclusion. It seems to me that if you have an equal chance of long-term success with either method, that you should choose whichever method is most effective for you, personally. If you want to quit smoking and cold turkey works for you, then go for it. But if you relapse with a cold turkey approach, you have the option of either trying it again or trying one of those products.

[Question Liberal Authority]

Considering the taxes we pay, we smokers should soon become the darlings of the government- and therefore of the media.

Just like they do with "The Rich".

[D-fendr]

Yep, another way to look at the results is: “over-the-counter medication such as nicotine patches are just as effective as cold turkey.”

So use whichever you wish.

But no federal funding either way.

[Eric Blair 2084]

It’s not my conclusion. I’m just a dumbass with an internet connection.

My only point is that intelligent grown adults with life experience know enough to ask when it comes to any dealings in life is...

“What is their motive”?

“Why would they lie?”

Conflict of interest.

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

I am not advocating any pill but it has been said that it is as hard to quit smoking as it is to get off heroine.

[mrsmith]

LOL! Yeah, you’re right.

The government wants any taxpayers demonized- to justify taxing them more. And the media obliges.

[Eric Blair 2084]

I’ve gone through 100 plus batteries and atomizers that crap out. It’s still in the Commodore 64 stage of development.

But it’s just another example of statists pushing a central planning agenda, only to have human inventiveness kick their ass up and down the sidewalk for public amusement.

[Question Liberal Authority]

Right, but if 1/3 of the participants relapsed, it means that 2/3 of the participants did not relapse.

I've never smoked, but I have successfully lost 40 pounds and kept it off. My experience has been that different approaches work for different people, but some people will be very zealous about an approach that worked for them.

For instance, our First Lady keeps fit and trim by ordering people around and demanding that they reorder their lives to fit her personal world view, while our President keeps fit and trim by smoking cigarettes and eating cheeseburgers when his wife is out of town.

[Mr. K]

Quitting smpkling is miuch easier if ou realize that for the first week you will have WITDRAWAL SYMPTOMS

Insomnia, nervousnes, yes- you will be crawling the walls

Prepare for it with some sleeping pills at night and valium during the day and in ONE WEEK they go away

(but you have to go 100% cold turkey- no cheating or it is worse)

[OSHA]

The idea that there is a pill that will help you quit smoking is just plain STUPID. Quiting smoking is sheer will power. Someone convinced you that pills, gum whatever would help?? They don't keep you from picking up a cigarette, you do...all by yourself.

BS! I smoked for 30 years. I had no real desire to quit even though I knew I should. I loved to smoke. Doing without cigs was not an option.

I tried Chantix just out of curiosity. It totally took away the need for cigarettes. I kept smoking but it was less and less until I realized that my prescription was up in 3 weeks. At that point I just quit buying cigs.

No withdrawal. No craving. No temptation. If you can take Chantix DO IT! (Not every one can.)

[From The Deer Stand]

Best way to quit smoking is to change your mindset. Smokers want to quit but fear trying for a variety of reasons. Erase those thoughts and focus on the positive things and the benefits of quitting. Then, just quit for tomorrow only. Once tomorrow is over, quit for tomorrow again. And repeat the process. Take it a day at a time, don’t brag to family, friends, and co-workers, and note the day you quit. Each day that passes is one more day away from that day and one more huge feather in your cap. And, finally, be proud of your daily accomplishment. Feel good about yourself!

[mupcat]

I quit about 15 years ago using a program called Lifesigns. Probably the most painless way to do it, at least in my case. The gist of it, is you continue to smoke as you are quitting. I know that sounds strange, but it's a program where you smoke as much as you want for a couple of weeks, but each time you smoke you click a little computer that you carry in your pocket. At the end of the time period the computer then tells you when to smoke. Long story short, at the end of whatever period the computer decides you have that's it. I know the last day I smoked I didn't even want that cigarette. It was a fabulous program for me, and I've never relapsed.

I see they no longer have a website, but Amazon.com has it. Amazon

[Eric Blair 2084]

Very funny, I like it.

fyi...The success rate of NRT is about 5-10%. If there was any other pharmaceutical product or medicine on the market that failed 90% of the time, what do you think would happen to it?

[musicman]

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[Question Liberal Authority]

If there was any other pharmaceutical product or medicine on the market that failed 90% of the time, what do you think would happen to it?

Well, Lipitor only reduces total mortality by something like 1%, so I imagine that the drug you describe could be the most prescribed medicine on the face of the Earth.

[Georgia Girl 2]

I quit cold turkey the first time and it lasted for 3 years then I started back smoking but never smoked heavily again. Then I quit cold turkey the 2nd time 13 years ago and I can’t imagine I would ever start up again.

If you are really addicted like I was I would advise waiting until you are sick with a bad cold and don’t smoke for a week or so due to illness. By the time you feel well enough to smoke again you are past the worst part of the withdrawal already. Then its just a mental decision not to start up again. Thats what I did.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Pfizer just lost their Lipitor patent protection. We're all gonna die!!!!!

[Washi]

I quit on April 1st, 2009; The day that Barack

"I can make a firm pledge, under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

Obama's new tobacco tax went into effect.

It was a better quitting tool than nicotine replacement.

[Mears]

God,will this ridiculous topic(smoking) ever end?

Aren’t there other more important things that these geniuses could research?