Quit Smoking Advisory

If you’re looking for free patches to stop smoking then where can you find them, be it online or offline?

Online

The first thing that you should do is be more creative with your search criteria and look for variations and enclose them in quotation marks, such as “free nicotine patches”. Ultimately though, you are likely to be disappointed. I have looked in many places for free nicotine patches but have not found a single site. There’s a huge reason why the drug companies don’t want to give away vast amounts of patches for free and it has nothing to do with the cost to them.

Offline

Your best bet is to try to get nicotine patches in the real world. Start with your doctor. Many doctors are given free samples by visiting sales representatives from the drugs companies. Ask your doc and see if you can give you at least a week or two for free. In some countries, you may even be able to get an entire course of patches for free, courtesy of the state healthcare system. In most countries though, these NRT products such as patches, inhalers and gum are considered over the counter consumer products and are hard to come across for free.

Why Are Free Patches So Hard To Find?

You have to think about the motivations of the drug companies for you to try patches. The drug companies are not charities, they want to make a lot of money and they know that they have a huge captive audience because most smokers, at some point in their lives, will try patches as a method of quitting cigarettes. Sure, they could entice you with a freebie but it’s not like getting a free sample of a new type of juice at your local supermarket. Like I said, they know that one day you will move to the patches anyway and you will only do it when you’re ready. They know that when you’re ready to try patches, you will look for them and buy them anyway.

Have You Ever Questioned If Patches Work At All?

Probably you were like me when I was a smoker - you never question the credibility of patches. You just assume that they must help people to quit smoking. You’ve probably heard the science behind them - you change from cigarettes to patches, cut down on the strength of patches and then eventually quit. Have you ever questioned the so-called “science” behind patches? Do they really work as intended? Does cutting down on nicotine make you more likely to succeed in your quit attempt? Have you seen any raw data?

Patches Don’t Work!

Many studies have been done on patches. More often than not, you also need to question the credibility of the authors of such studies as, quite often, the research is funded by the drug companies themselves. Even when you find independent studies, you will struggle to find many conclusions showing anything more than a minor improvement over what is already a terribly low success rate due to willpower.

The simple truth is that patches don’t work. When you move to patches you are just replacing an addiction to cigarettes with an addiction to patches (minus the tar in cigarettes). You are still hooked in one form or another. And do you really think that cutting down on patch strength is a great strategy? Then why not just cut down on cigarettes instead? If you use a cutting down strategy then whether you cut down on patches or on cigarettes will make nearly zero difference in the long term on your health - either you will still be a smoker (most likely) or you will be a non-smoker.

Patches are an invention of the drug companies designed to make lots of money. Have you ever wondered why they are so darned expensive? They are backed by a kind of pseudo-science that is designed to make you believe that they are a credible medical product when in fact, they are not.

Is There A Better Alternative?

Yes there is. Let me tell you a little about myself. I used to be a smoker just like you and I also tried the patches, I tried willpower alone too. The patches did not help me at all, they were no different to cutting down on cigarettes and that strategy failed time and time again for me.

Then I got lucky and stumbled across a little known method that allows you to quit smoking without willpower and without ever having a single craving for a cigarette. 8 years later and you could say that I am a picture of a success story. If you want to know more about this method then click here.

Are you trying to quit smoking but just need a big list of reasons to quit to help you to succeed? Then you’ve come to the right place - here are just 18 out of thousands of great reasons to quit smoking today.

• Non-smokers will want to date you again.
• You’ll have a lower risk of mouth, lip, tongue, lung and throat cancer.
• Infants whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are at higher risk from sudden infant death syndrome compared to infants whose mothers did not.
• You’ll make new friends.
• There is a strong link between smoking and erectile dysfunction. Would you rather keep your normal functions or rely on medicines?
• Your teeth will stop turning a yellow-brown colour.
• Smokers are more likely to suffer from acid reflux which is a chronic heartburn that occurs every day.
• You’ll most likely live longer.
• Smokers have worse skin and more wrinkles compared to non-smokers.
• You’ll have better smelling clothes, hair, breath and even pets!
• Smoking is harmful to the brain and can leader to faster onset of Alzheimer’s Disease.
• You’ll be able to participate in team sports and keep up with everyone else.
• Smokers are more likely to be snorers. In fact, even second hand smoke can cause a greater risk of snoring in non-smokers.
• You’ll have more control of your life.
• Women who smoke heavily have up to a 30% higher risk of suffering from breast cancer.
• You’ll be able to taste and smell your food once again.
• Within 10 years your risk of heart attack will fall to the same as someone who has never smoked.
• You’ll save HUGE amounts of money!

Want More Help Quitting Smoking?

Let me give you my own take on using “reasons” to quit smoking. They are a great way to focus the mind on your new goal, your new life and future ahead of you. It is always worth remembering why you are doing something and helps to achieve any goal, in general.

However, most people use reasons to quit smoking because they rely on willpower to stop smoking. I’ve been there myself so I can understand - the more reasons you have then you think the more likely you are to succeed. You’ll have a stronger willpower and each reason will give you even more power to say “no” to cigarettes and not give up your quit attempt after just a few days. But is there a better way?

Yes There Is!

I used to smoke over a pack a day for a number of years but I’ve been clean now for 8 years. How did I do it? What if I told you that I did it without willpower and without any cravings whatsoever? It was nice to have a list of reasons like the one above but I didn’t need it to quit. I’m sure that you probably knew most of these reasons already anyway, right?

If you want to learn more about how I did it and stop smoking using the same, 100% painless method, then please check out a guide that I wrote based on my own experiences of using this method to quit successfully after countless wasted attempts using willpower and patches. Click here to find out more.

The quit smoking pill is a relatively new invention. For decades, pharmacists and drug companies have looked for a way to help people quit smoking with the convenience of a pill form. Until recently, the only available remedies were of the herbal variety but these are considered by most smokers to be of little use.

Chantix - The Most Well Known Pill Available

You may have heard of Chantix and it is probably the most widely known quit smoking pill that there is. It is also called Champix outside the US and was released in 2006.

How Does It Work?

Chantix works by acting against the effect of nicotine on the brain. In doing this, it means that you will get less cravings and less effects from smoking cigarettes. The FDA has approved it for a 12 week course for most patients. In fact, the FDA even fast tracked it and it only underwent 6 months testing instead of 10 because it was demonstrated to be highly effective and safe.

How Effective Is It?

There is no doubt that Chantix is effective at removing cravings for cigarettes. However, it is not yet clear whether there is any difference in the long term (say one or two or more years) in the success rate of ex-smokers staying off cigarettes.

I have checked out a few studies and some show marginal improvement over willpower alone, whereas others show no improvement at all.

In many ways, taking Chantix is equivalent to using nicotine replacement therapies such as patches. Both get you off cigarettes and both reduce cravings. Take both away however, and the cravings may well return.

Side Effects

Much has been made in the media recently about the bad side effects of Chantix. For instance, nausea is fairly common with around 30% of people taking the drug suffering it. There are also other less common side effects as you would expect with any drug.

Unfortunately, much more serious side effects have also been reported. After reports of psychiatric problems in some patients, the FDA issued an alert in February 2008 noting “it appears increasingly likely that there is an association between Chantix and serious neuropsychiatric symptoms.” The Federal Aviation Administration has also banned pilots from using Chantix.

Why I Don’t Agree With Taking Chantix

On the face of it, Chantix looks like a good thing to try. Even with the alleged side effects, if it could help you to stop smoking for good then it would still be worth it, in my opinion.

However, I don’t personally believe that any of these well known cures, be they pills, patches, lasers, are effective in stopping smoking in the long term. They all work by reducing the cravings but they only work temporarily. Remove them and the cravings will return. None of these methods remove the desire for a cigarette for the rest of your life - your cravings will return, your desire for a cigarette will never truly disappear and you run the risk of starting again as studies prove time and time again that these methods are barely at all better than using willpower alone (which has such a low success rate to start with anyway).

Is There Another Way Out?

Yes there is. There is only one way out of addiction and that is by truly understanding your addiction. The drug companies, your family doctor, the pharmacy, universities and the entire medical establishment do not understand addiction. They just try to temporarily stop the symptoms of addiction. In fact, they don’t want to cure addiction - with a third of the world adult population being smokers, it is far more lucrative to profit from an ongoing addiction than to cure it.

I used to smoke myself over a pack a day for several years. Since I stopped I have been clean for 8 years. I stopped smoking without needing any willpower and with zero cravings to deal with. I did not use any pills, patches, magnets, herbal remedies or any other products! The true path to quitting smoking permanently without willpower and becoming like you were when you were a non-smoker - the true path is to understand your addiction for what it is.

This might sound all “new age” to you but, trust me, it is not. I’m just an ordinary guy with an ordinary job who happened to stumble across the real secret to stopping smoking. I wrote a guide based on my own experiences that can help you to quit the same way too - if you want to know more, click here.

There are 2 types of stop smoking products out there. 99% of smokers will try one type and their chances of success (stopping smoking for the rest of their lives) are minimal, perhaps 5% at most.

The other type of stop smoking products are unlike the others. They don’t rely on reducing the cravings or strengthening willpower - with these types of product you can learn to quit smoking easily and without willpower. You may think this is nonsensical but I can talk from personal experience as I used the principles of this second type of product and I haven’t smoked a cigarette in 8 years.

Stop Smoking Product Type 1

Here I am talking about all the usual “cures” that TV and written commercials influence us to buy - have you ever questioned why you think that patches work? Have you ever actually looked at the studies and statistical data to find out what their long term success rates are? I can save you the trouble and tell you they they are no better than willpower alone.

All these types of products work by attempting to stop your cravings. Patches work by substituting cigarettes for patches - you are still addicted. Lasers and accupuncture work by stimulating and producing a response in the body - to stop cravings - but the effect is only temporary. Even hypnosis, which people seem to think works miracles, is no more effective than willpower alone at the 6 month mark. With hypnosis, as the weeks and months roll by, the patient’s own experience of smoking and knowledge that it is addictive counteracts the suggestions made to them during the hypnosis session. Eventually, your own experience wins and the cravings come back.

All these products have only a temporary effect and work only on the symptoms, the cravings. None of them have a permanent effect if you take them away and none of them address the underlying addiction.

Stop Smoking Product Type 2

Type 2 products are completely different. They don’t work on the symptoms, they work to cure the addiction itself. They are less popular than type 1 products simply because big companies can’t make much money out of them. What do you think makes more money for a company - an addict who cannot cure himself and is dependent on products for much of his life or an addict who can use a method and be free of his addiction forever from that point forward?

I’m not saying that there is a conspiracy involved here. All I am saying is that the market for stop smoking products has evolved in this way.

Type 2 products do not need you to take any kind of drug. They work by allowing you to truly understand your addiction. What is an addiction, when all is said and done. Whether you believe that an addiction is caused or involves a physical substance, a chemical, like nicotine, ultimately addiction occurs in the brain and affects the mind. The only true way to unlocking and conquering addiction is to understand exactly what it is and how it works. This is how type 2 products work.

Sound too good to be true? I stopped smoking 8 years ago using the principles of a type 2 product. I tried type 1 products and they never worked for me. I always had cravings that I had to get rid of and the only way was to start smoking again. When I tried this other way of stopping smoking, I did not need any willpower and I had no cravings.

I’m no special case and you too can stop smoking using these products that actually work. I wrote a book based on my own experiences to teach others how to quit smoking too. To find out more and discover the secret to quitting smoking permanently, click here.

This is perhaps one of the biggest fears and obstacles preventing smokers from deciding to quit. Is it a reason or an excuse? Regardless, it is a large fear.

But why should gaining weight be considered bad? It’s not just women smokers who are afraid of gaining weight but also men too. In this modern day and age, self image is very important to most people.

Which Is Worse? Smoking Or Being Overweight?

This is a difficult choice if you were forced to choose between them. Both smoking and being overweight increase the chances of premature death from cancer and heart disease. But at least there is less of a social stigma from being a smoker, the signs are apparently not so outwardly visible. A lot of smokers choose to contine smoking and to delay their quit attempts for fear of becoming overweight.

Why Do People Gain Weight When They Stop Smoking?

When most people stop smoking they feel a void in their life that was previously filled by cigarettes. Going straight back onto cigarettes is a way to feel “normal” again, and a lot of people “break” and this often happens. But some people have a lot of willpower and can resist starting to smoke again. The problem is that most people still feel this void and many will try to fill it in some other way.

The easiest thing to reach for is food. Eating food for comfort, eating junk food, eating more food that you need to maintain your weight - this can develop into another addiction, an addiction to food, and obesity can be the result of this.

How Can I Quit Smoking Without Gaining Weight? Is There A Way Out?

The problem with the way that most people stop smoking is that they use willpower to fight against the cravings. Even if they use patches, pills injections or anything else, these are only temporary measures to fight the symptoms, the cravings, which will come back after treatment is discontinued. The problem is in the cravings but the real solution is to stop them occuring in the first place.

If you get cravings, you are basically still an addict. When I stopped smoking (and I haven’t smoked cigarettes for 8 years now), I did it with no willpower because I had no cravings to deal with.

Is this really possible? Yes it is. I tried the patches and the willpower but I could not get rid of the cravings. In the end, I got really lucky. I stumbled across the secret to unlocking and conquering my addiction. By understanding my addiction - something that medical science still cannot claim to have done - I was able to leave it behind and quitting was actually very easy, like turning out the lights.

If you want to know more about how I went from over a pack a day to zero cigarettes for 8 years, click here.

Seeing a loved one destroying their health, seemingly willingly, by smoking cigarettes can be one of the saddest sights in life. In many ways, you can’t think about it too much because there is only so much that you can do to help - or is there actually more that you could try?

Smoking is an addiction and helping people who have an addiction is notoriously difficult. Under most circumstances, there is very little that you can do unless they come to you and ask for help. Otherwise, you can drop some hints from time to time, give a few pointers, but unfortunately the way that addiction works means that many smokers just ignore your advice because the addiction tells them to.

Who Can You Help?

When someone you know asks for your help or is trying to quit then these are the ideal times to help them. On the other hand, if this has never even made a single quit attempt in all the years that you have known them then it is probably almost a lost cause. A huge event like a brush with death or something happening to one of their loved ones is the only thing that will snap them into “I’m thinking of quitting” mode.

Why Do They Need Help?

Most smokers expect a very hard struggle to quit cigarettes. Someone in this situation needs all the help that they can get. A smoker has a much greater chance of succeeding if they have a good support group around them.

What Kind Of Help Do People Offer To Smokers?

First of all, you should give them great moral support and tell them that they ARE capable of achieving the goal of being smoke free. Ask them to visualise themselves as a non-smoker, this is a powerful technique used by many successful people such as sportsmen.

Many smokers also suffer if they have a lot of distractions that might cause them to start again. If you live with a person, for instance, make sure that visitors to the house do not smoke indoors anymore and definitely do not offer your friend or loved one any cigarettes whatsoever, even as a joke.

It can also be a good idea to refer smokers to smoking support websites including forums, of which there are quite a few that can be accessed for free. Beware though, you will see the whole spectrum of opinions here and the advice is both good and bad.

Does Support Really Help To Succeed At Quitting?

There is no doubt that support groups can help people to quit smoking. The statistics show a marginal improvement at least in the ability to remain smoke free for a few weeks. As the months roll by though, the success rate of people who are still non-smokers is quite low generally (e.g. at 6 months) and with only minor improvement with a support group. So we can see that help and support works but only to a degree.

Is There Another Way?

The core problem with the way that most people stop smoking is that it centers around the cravings. If you get cravings then you need willpower. If you need willpower then you need mental strength and toughness. If you need to be strong then any help and support that you can get will be of great assistance. If there were a way to tackle the cravings then less help would be needed.

The Wrong Way

Society’s approach to the cravings is to use temporary fixes like patches, pills, injections, lasers and more. All of these are temporary and the cravings return afterwards. So these people still need help but a little later than normal - maybe 3 months after quitting.

The Right Way

I used to smoke over 20 cigarettes a day but I was able to quit smoking without need any further help than I already had. I stumbled across a way to quit smoking without willpower and without cravings and this was all the help that I needed. I even went out to bars after quitting, where the air was chock full of smoke. All of my friends were smokers but I still hung out with them. I couldn’t throw out the “distracting” ashtrays because everyone in the house needed them - but that’s the point - ashtrays, lighters, cigarettes, smoker friends - none of these tested my will or resolve because I simply had no desire for cigarettes anymore.

If you really want to help someone quit smoking then steer clear of traditional remedies like patches and pills. To find out more about how I quit smoking without willpower, click here.

If you’re reading this then quite frankly, you should already know why. You should already know that smoking is the biggest cause of premature death around the world. With one third of adults worldwide being addicted to cigarettes, the damage done is incredible.

But maybe it will help to summarise the reasons why you should quit smoking into a kind of handy list? Here are some great reasons to quit smoking:

• Smoking causes tooth loss.
• When you quit, you won’t have to freeze outside smoking in countries where indoor smoking is banned.
• Smokers can rarely get dates with non-smokers. There are a lot of non-smokers (the majority) who refuse kiss smokers.
• Smoking contributes to degenerating sight.
• Pregnant women who smoke can increase the chance of sudden infant death syndrome.
• Smoking reduces your sense of taste and smell.
• When you quit, you will sleep better.
• Smokers get wrinkles more quickly than non-smokers, and more of them too!
• When you quit, you will have better sex.
• Smokers are much more likely to get lung cancer than non-smokers. Did you know that more women die of lung cancer each year in the US than do of breast cancer?
• When you quit, your life insurance will be cheaper.
• You’ll save hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.

Well, these are just 12 of literally thousands of reasons to quit smoking! I’m sure that you can think of many more.

So Why Would Someone Need Reasons To Quit Smoking?

Many smokers feel the need to have a list of reasons to quit smoking to provide a reminder. We all know that smoking is one of the worst things that we can do to our bodies so why a reminder?

Cigarette addiction causes quite major mood swings - one minute a person can be cavalier about their smoking addiction and the next they can get very depressed. Having a list of reminders is a great way to get the mind in order and try to stay in that positive “smoking is bad for me and quitting is the right thing” mode.

Why Do Smokers Get Mood Swings?

Smokers get mood swings because this is what happens with an addiction. Addiction has an incredible grip and the reason that so few smokers quit for good is because addiction makes the victim behave in a way that will support the addiction. So, each time a smoker gets in a positive frame of mind about smoking, the addiction may fool them into thinking that “smokes aren’t that bad after all”.

Is There A Way Out Of This Vicious Circle?

I used to smoke over a pack a day but I stopped and have been smoke free for 8 years now. I managed to break the cycle of addiction by truly understanding it and being able to second guess it, unlike most smokers who just succumb to it and rely on tremendously unsuccessful methods such as willpower and patches. If you’re interested to know more about how I did it then click here.

Can herbs be a potential way to help you to stop smoking? According to some people, they can be of great benefit. There are 2 ways of using herbs to help you to quit.

Smoking And Inhaling Herbs

The first way is to swap cigarettes for something else. Many people feel that they can’t just stop smoking immediately and they fear the consequences. Maybe by smoking something that isn’t addictive and doesn’t contain nicotine then this will get them off cigarettes.

Beadies are a type of herbal cigarette that are made from an Indian herb that is then wrapped up in a leaf which is stitched together. My roommate once bought some of these and tried one in front of me. Within a couple of puffs, I saw gooey black tar pouring out of the seams! In my opinion, you should stay away from these as they are not worth it! However, other herbs like siena or menthol can also be smoked instead.

Tinctures

Tinctures are a very popular herbal method to quit smoking - you simply put a few drops of an extract onto your tongue. The Ayurvedic herbalist, Anand, tried giving oat tincture to people to help them quit and versus a control group, it was shown to be effective at the 2 month after stopping mark. Other tinctures that people have tried are hops, skullcap, slippery elm and valerian.

Teas

Another method of ingesting herbs to help to stop smoking is to take it in a tea. Echinacea is said to reduce cravings whereas peppermint has a soothing and relaxing effect which counteracts stress from using willpower to quit. Mimosa tea is made from the bark of a South American bush and has a natural anti-depressant effect.

Benefits Of Herbs vs. Modern Medicine

Herbs, if they are effective, are preferable to modern drugs which tend to be only somewhat effective and have a wide range of side effects. Especially when it comes to smoking cessation drugs, the commonly available ones such as patches, pills and injections only have a temporary effect that is lost when treatment stops. The same can be argued with herbs although they are generally safer to take for longer periods.

The major problem with both types of treatment is that they only treat the symptoms of stopping smoking but do not address the cause of why people get symptoms when they are trying to get rid of an addiction.

The Better Way To Stop Smoking

In my opinion, there is only one good way to stop smoking and that is by understanding your addiction. You can try to escape your addiction but your mind will always have a desire to smoke, even 20 years after stopping. There are numerous tales of people who have stopped for years but then start again.

I stopped smoking 8 years ago and I did not have a single craving for a cigarette when I quit. It sounds too good to be true and sometimes even I wonder how it is possible. But I realise that it is because I truly understood my addiction that I was able to conquer it, once and for all. If you want to know more about how I quit smoking, click here.

Lots of smokers are flocking to find any new cure to help them quit and one of them is quit smoking acupuncture. Can this Eastern medicine really help you to overcome cigarette addiction?

What Is Acupuncture?

We’ve all seen TV clips of people with pins in their ears and laughed and joked with each other in a kind of safe horror at people who try acupuncture but the days when it had no credibility in the west are over. In some countries, acupunture treatment for various ailments is even paid for by the state, such is the apparent confidence in the method.

Acupuncture is the insertion of needles into parts of the body which then stimulate a response. Quite why this happens, no one really knows. Chinese medicine specialists say it is due to the “energy” about the body but there is no credible evidence of how it works yet it is clear that “something” in the body does happen.

How Can Acupuncture Help Smokers?

Acupuncture to cure smoking involves inserting a number of needles into the ear at specific points. They are left there for around 20 minutes and this is sufficient to provoke the response in the body. The theory is that using acupuncture will reduce the cravings for cigarettes and hence the smoker will need less or no willpower to stop. Apparently, the particular combination of points on the ear have been used for some time in the East to treat all manner of addictions. The other advantage with this method is that cigarettes are said to taste awful after this treatment thus reducing further the desire for a cigarette.

Does It Really Work?

I have never tried accupuncture and I don’t know anyone who has so I can’t comment. Whilst many people support acupuncture, when it comes to looking at studies, the evidence is far from promising. Take a look for yourself here:
http://besttreatments.bmj.com/btuk/conditions/13973.html
http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/band72/b72-5.html

What Are The Alternatives?

Personally, when you look at all the methods: accupuncture, patches, pills or anything else - none of them are a roaring success or there would be practically no smokers left, right?

However, I do think there is a better method than most, and that is only because I stopped successfully using it, and these are the pure, natural methods using no aids whatsoever. These methods are just about you and your addiction - discovering what makes the addiction tick and using it against it. If you want to learn more about these methods that I used to quit, click here.