Stop Smoking Tips

You initially become addicted to cigarettes because of the fast action of nicotine on the pleasure centers of your brain. When you puff on a cigarette, the nicotine in your lungs enters your blood stream and within 15 to 20 seconds begins to work on your brain.

Once in your brain, nicotine binds to receptors that are intended for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This binding causes a change in the cell walls that allow calcium or sodium ions to enter the cell. After that, a number of additional brain neurotransmitters are released.

These neurotransmitters affect your mood and behavior. The neurotransmitter dopamine affects the reward center that causes feelings of pleasure and enjoyment. Serotonin helps moderate your mood and controls your appetite. GABA produces a calming effect that reduces anxiety.

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Does anyone have a kind word anymore for smokers? If you smoke, you are maligned by strangers, ostracized from public places and taxed beyond belief by local and state governments. Social workers accuse you of child abuse.

Environmentalists blame you for pollution. Doctors harp about your health. And the simple act of buying a pack of cigarettes can consign you to the poorhouse.

In the United States, an estimated 24 percent of men and 19 percent of women are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke.

Smoking is a ball and chain, imprisoning you as surely as though you were behind bars. You are inexorably tied to your cigarette pack and lighter. You can never leave the house, the office, the car without checking to make sure your ball and chain are with you.

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Nicotine replacement therapy uses gums or patches that will help to reduce the withdrawal symptoms. The theory behind the use of these products is that the nicotine absorption is low enough that it doesn’t provide the same pleasure as smoking an actual cigarette but it does help to alleviate the symptoms of withdrawal from the drug.

It’s important that the gum or patches aren’t used when a person is actually smoking because it can easily lead to an overdose of nicotine. An overdose or toxicity will lead to heart arrhythmias, nausea, headache and dangerous complications that will require immediate medical attention.

There are other nicotine delivery systems that include inhalers or nasal sprays that more closely mimic the delivery and impact of nicotine that’s obtained by smoking.

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