Posted on 01/11/2012 5:36:35 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Laura Bush is no longer First Lady.
Great pic,and I’m heading there.
For those that say kicking the smoking habit (Note: habit, NOT addiction) is as hard as stopping herion I say BULL!
Believe me, stopping a hard drug addiction (pain meds, herion, meth, cocain, etc) is magnitudes of difference harder than breaking the smoking habit.
I know from experience.
“A good support group is the best help you can get.”
Perhaps for some, but I found that just having the will to quit was enough for me after fifty years of smoking.
The Democrats approved taxing my smokes for some insurance program I disagreed with, and I said eff you, and quit cold turkey.
I guess that is called motivation.
Coming up on seven years as an ex-smoker.
One morning I got up, threw away my caigs and ashtrays, put the lighters in the toolbox and camping gear, and was very nervous and testy for about a week.
No gum, no “mints”, no nothin’.
Got into a fight on FR within the past couple years about whether it is possible to break an addiction through sheer willpower.
I maintain that either (a) it is possible, or (b) enjoyment of tobacco and distress at its absence don’t indicate an addiciton.
This book worked for me and several friends. The key is to understand that you are not depriving yourself of a pleasure. If you don’t accept this, you will always crave a cig and eventually break down and fail. This book makes it all click and it was written by a 4-pack a day smoker.
A pill called Chantix worked for me and I have had no desire for a cigarette in more than 4 years. I smoked and took Chantix until I realized the nicotene was doing nothing for me and that was it, never another desire. I loved the dreams. Great entertainment.
Maybe they can get money from the dept of energy to come up with some scheme to try to control the temperature of a tiny planet in a vast solar system like a thermostat.
Some people committed suicide after taking Chantix.
Others had weird dreams about an America hating Marxist with no experience or ability getting elected POTUS.
Speaking of Chantix, there was a funny SNL skit about Chantix.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/317024/saturday-night-live-chantix
Anyone that can’t quit doesn’t want to or is just plain stupid.
I never tried to quit smoking but knew for years I had to one day soon. My dad died of COPD in 2001 so I was aware of the illnesses smoking caused. I came down with the flu two years ago this March and couldn’t even think about food or smoking. After 3 days I figured the nicotine was out of my system so I kept at it, one day at a time. I read online how one’s stomach would be upset the first 2 weeks of not smoking so that was great for me - I could never smoke on an upset stomach. So far so good but I have no more vices to give up.
I quit “cold turkey” many years ago.
When I did, I finally recognized something that had been happening in my thinking, each previous time I had attempted to quit. I was convinced I would not be able to.
In other words, the thought that I was not capable of “beating it” was greater than my desire to quit.
I realized (or I decided) that I could control that thinking and “turn a switch” in my mind, in favor of quitting as well as in believing I could.
I convinced myself (or decided) that I could just decide that I could control my own behavior no matter what the addiction was asking for or how it was making me feel.
That was it.
I believed so much in the idea that “I am in control” that I carried with me at all times my last unfinished pack of cigarettes, for a number of months; making the option to smoke always available and handy, and never taking it.
It was part of my process of admitting and reinforcing that it was essentially NOT the cigarettes, and not even my mind’s or my body’s “feeling” but my own choice, as to my failure or success in quitting.
Thanks for that link-—I’ll check it out.
I wanted to thank you, Eric. Your post about Big Pharma and the State inspired me to try out electronic cigarettes, and now personal vaporizers. It started out as a simple substitution in the car for myself and my wife, as we were chain smoking on the way to and from work. We’ve not intended to stop smoking, but as of this morning, we’re both still on the same cigarette packs from Friday.
For me, the path started with one of the 21st Century e-cig kits from the local gas station, for my wife, a fancier kit from the local tobacco shop, though we’re both now using eGo-T’s, neither of which looks anything like a cigarette (nor does it smell anything like a cigarette.. Red hots anyone?)
But wow, what started as a substitution for a limited situation has pretty much overwhelmed and replaced the smoking addiction.
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