Welcome to the Quit Smoking Doctor Website for Help in Quitting Cigarettes Quit Smoking Doctor contributes towards improving health around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable smoking cessation information. If you have decided that now is the time for you to quit smoking - whether for health, social or other reasons - the question often asked is "how do I stop" Quitting is often seen as difficult and challenging, but many smokers are doing it, and are now quitting in greater and greater numbers. In fact, half of all living North Americans who ever smoked have now stopped smoking. Many people are able to quit on their own. But if you want help in quitting smoking, there are many options available, some of them free, some modestly priced and some quite expensive ways of quitting. They include self-help quitting materials, such as books or videotapes; nicotine patches or gum; group quitting programs, which may last anywhere from one night to many weeks or months; quitting by hypnotism, acupuncture or laser therapy; and even quitting smoking by aversion therapies, which make smoking extremely unpleasant.

No one can say which quit smoking method works best for each individual. Different people will respond to different quit smoking strategies. But deciding on a course of action - committing time and money and setting a date to quit smoking - is an excellent first step.

Quitting smoking takes effort, perseverance and, often, some kind of help. But it's worth the effort for a number of reasons.

 

Quitting smoking greatly reduces your risk of contracting lung cancer and many other cancers.

Quitting smoking makes a difference right away - you can taste and smell food better. Your breath smells better. Your cough goes away. This happens for men and women of all ages, even those who are older. It happens for healthy people as well as those who already have a disease or condition caused by smoking.

You started smoking cigarettes gradually one at a time - then nicotine took hold and you were hooked. Nicotine is more addictive than crack cocaine - so what choice did you have!

Nicotine is delivered in a simple but deadly vehicle like cigarette smoke mixed with over 400 other chemicals the manufacturers add to the cigarette. By becoming addicted to this deadly brew of chemicals nicotine contributes to 400,000 deaths per year in the United States alone.

But cigarette addiction is more than just nicotine addiction. It is also a very intense habit. A habit you have had for 10, 20, or 30 years puffing 200 times a day is very difficult to stop, even without any chemical dependence on nicotine.

Smoking is also associated with taking a break, eating and even sex. These factors can be as important as the nicotine addiction. So as a smoker you can take all the nicotine patches you want, but until you deal with this other addiction, you are not going to quit smoking.

So why do smokers just like you find it so difficult to quit smoking?

Making the decision to quit smoking isn't easy and it is even harder to put it into practice. So, only smokers with great willpower manage to beat the Nicotine habit without any kind of help.

Statistics show that every year about 70% of the smokers want to quit smoking, but, sadly, less than 5% actually quit. In general, it takes 3 or 4 attempts to quit smoking permanently*.

This is because cigarettes create both a physical dependence (on nicotine) and a behavioral (or habit-based) dependence

Until now, the various methods to quit smoking only contributed towards overcoming the physical dependence by administering anti-depressive treatments, or by replacing the nicotine inputs by patches or chewing gum.

Even a major nicotine gum manufacturer is now recognizing this fact by telling smokers that if they want to quit smoking they should cut down on the number of cigarettes they smoke at the same time as using their product - they suggest that it can take anything up to 9 months to quit smoking completely!

Overcoming the behavioral dependence connected with the physical act of smoking is an important part of quitting the "Habit".

We all know that the "habit" of smoking cigarettes is associated with a whole series of rituals that cannot be easily abandoned overnight, which makes getting help with the willpower to quit smoking cigarettes even more important.

More than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. each year are smoking related. Smoking cigarettes increases your risk of lung cancer. You know that smoking is bad for your health, yet at the same time you also know how hard it is to quit smoking. You have probably tried to quit smoking several times. Nobody has said that quitting is easy. nicotine exerts a physical and mental hold on you that is a major barrier to quitting smoking.

So a small percentage of smokers have found it easy to quit smoking without some form of help. The cravings for a cigarette when you quit smoking cold turkey can be intolerable. The immediate withdrawal symptoms of quitting like irritability, anxiety, headache, depression, lack of concentration and restlessness can overcome your will power and next thing - you are back to being a smoker.

Some smokers have found nicotine replacement therapies like Nicorette, Nicoderm, Nicotrol or Nicquitin have been a help, but for many who have tried them and failed there has to be another approach to quitting smoking.

NicoBloc simply allows you to continue smoking while you are quitting but control the amount of nicotine you take into your system.

You can quit smoking - millions of people around the world have successfully quit smoking. It doesn't matter how long you have smoked, you can quit!

You will be delighted with the quality of life you will have when you become an ex-smoker. First though, you must commit to want to become an ex-smoker. It is only a matter of time, wean yourself of cigarettes, slowly, remember the tortoise and the hare. You can do it!

So start today - tell yourself you are going to quit today, once you have made that decision you will have won half the battle and you may find yourself on the road to becoming a healthy Non-Smoker today.