Forum Topic

Giving up smoking

Sorry but the front page seems to have an advert for this and it is better to go the NHS way rather than the quackery route.  Champix is the new drug on the block and it has a 78 per cent success rate and therefore you can get it on the NHS approved - and yes it works, I have given up, I did it for years and like a chimney. Go to the NHS quit site to do it to, no pain.

Jo Smith ● 6837d16 Comments

You Sure??Pfizer's studies indicate that eighty to ninety percent of varenicline study participants had attempted quitting at least once previously and failed. In the case of both NRT and varenicline, the expectations of withdrawal syndrome reduction were frustrated by assignment to the placebo group, or fulfilled by assignment to the active group, with the arrival of nicotine or varenicline in the brain.

Hugh Telford ● 6837d

Looking at the literature available on the web regarding Champix it seems there is a 78% success rate of failure to stop smoking after one year...

Alan Brainsby ● 6836d

Anecdotal evidence. My customers like it.

Graham Weeks ● 6836d

I tried with nicotine replacement and will power - none of it worked until I read Alan Carr's book - "Stop Smokling the easy way" - it worked and I am still a non smoker.I guess people are different and therefore a variety of different methods to assist in stopping should be used.

Ian Green ● 6836d

I really want to give up (after 20+ years) my GP doesn't like patches (actually I don't either) and won't give me Zyban - her best advice is "cut down gradually and then stop" - hardly the exciting help the TV marketing campaign offers!  I read Alan Carr's book years ago too - I believe he actually started again tho' ....

Viv Ellis ● 6836d

Nicotine replacement is not limited to patches. There is gom, patches,lozenges, sub=lingual tablets, inhalators and nasal sprays.

Graham Weeks ● 6835d

What replaces the nicotine replacement?

Alan Brainsby ● 6835d

You are meant to be gradually weaned off it.

Graham Weeks ● 6835d

Yes...

Alan Brainsby ● 6835d

At one stage I regularly chewed nicotine gum whilst smoking a cigarette - I am afraid there is no easy way - you just have to stop and let the cravings go which they eventually do.

Ian Green ● 6835d

Ian, I had the same problem, gum and smoking.I gave up the gum..., it tasted like sh*t anyway!

Alan Brainsby ● 6835d

I smoked heavily for years. Eventually I rang the local NHS 'quit smoking' number. I registered, and was sent a pack telling me exactly what day I would give up, and the start date of a six weekly group meeting at Ealing Hospital. They discussed nicotine replacement, and gave us each a letter to take to the GP for a prescription. Virtually all went for patches, two of us (including me) opted for Zyban. Of the thirty who started, fifteen gave up. How many continued to be non-smokers after the end of the course I don't know, but I have not smoked for the four years since. The group sessions really helped, and gave a weekly target to meet. I would recommend this method to anyone.They can be contacted at 0845 1110155 http://www.ealingpct.nhs.uk/stopsmokingservice/

Adrian Orchard ● 6835d

I stopped cold turkey the day I found out I was pregnant - radical solution  I know and only suitable for 50% of the population, but it worked... 14 years later still off the fags.

M. Anderson ● 6835d

Viv Ellis wrote "I read Alan Carr's book years ago too - I believe he actually started again tho' ...."Probably a rumour put about by the smoking industry.

Francis House ● 6835d

Those with a vested interest would like you to believe it is impossible to give up smoking.I smoked twenty to thirty a day between 1972 and 1981 then I gave it up. Then when I was subjected to a really smoky atmosphere at work I took it up again for a couple of years (which is why I'm for the smoking ban) but I haven't smoked since 1992.My parents smoked through the war years, but haven't smoked since.My sister was a smoker and she doesn't smoke any more.

Francis House ● 6835d

The most important thing, in my opinion, is that if you do give in to the cravings is not to look at it as failure but as a set back.Just get back on the wagon.

Francis House ● 6835d