What is Smoking Cessation?

Smoking cessation is the act of stopping tobacco smoking and then permanently avoiding cigarettes or other tobacco products based on the understanding that smoking is a major health risk and will often lead to major health debilitation or early death if the individual continues to smoke into older age. For most smokers this is done against the challenge of a nicotine addiction, with nicotine in tobacco and known to be one of the most addictive substances on earth. 

As such the most common approach to this is for the person to wean themselves off cigarettes slowly as compared to quitting entirely at once. They will smoke fewer cigarettes per day each week and move towards an end date where they will then begin having none of them. For most people this is the most effective way to quit smoking because it gives them a better chance of overcoming the nicotine addiction, especially if they have been a heavy smoker or have smoked for a long time. 

What is the Most Successful Smoking Cessation Program?

There are many smoking cessation programs made available to people, and it is fair to say there isn’t just one quit smoking program that is better than all others. Ones that have received favorable reviews are the Freedom from Smoking Program offered by the American Lung Association, the CBQ method for quitting smoking, and Empowered to Quit from the American Cancer society. 

More generally, smoking cessation programs that involve some degree of counselling or psychotherapy tend to be more effective than ones that have people rely on their own willpower to quit smoking. Doing it with the support and interaction between others who are also trying to quit can be very helpful and increase a person’s chance of success with quitting.

Some people also claim to have had success with Thought Field Therapy for quitting smoking, and there are books and apps you can find that can get you started with this stop smoking treatment too. 

Smoking Cessation Medications

Physicians will always be very keen to help their patients stop smoking, and the most commonly prescribed smoking cessation medications are Chantix and Wellbutrin. The effectiveness of these medications may be enhanced when paired with NRT (nicotine replacement therapy), which most commonly involves the use of a transdermal nicotine patch on the skin that will deliver low doses of nicotine periodically to suppress the powerful cravings that come with a nicotine addiction.

There are OTC stop smoking meds that people may want to consider too – nicotine gum and lozenges most notably. However, most smokers who want to quit will tell you that these products on their own have limited effectiveness.

Smoking Cessation Benefits

People who are able to quit smoking quickly see smoking cessation benefits for themselves. The foremost ones are improved lung function and increased cardiovascular capacity, improved skin quality and appearance, more energy and endurance due to blood vessels no longer being constricted by nicotine, better breath, and much more.

At a deeper physiological level the greatest benefit of quitting smoking is that the lungs and entire pulmonary system will begin to heal, and alveoli in the lungs will begin to regenerate and work more thoroughly in the way they should. Within 5 to 7 years of quitting a person’s chance of developing cancer from smoking is greatly reduced.