However, nortriptyline has been found to offer other advantages such as being effective against bedwetting, for migraines and chronic fatigue syndrome (also known as “ME”).

It has also been used as a way to help people quit smoking. Typically, your doctor will not know of this and only a few ever prescribe nortriptyline. We can learn a lot more from looking at clinical studies.

Nortriptyline and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in the Treatment of Cigarette Smoking

This most widely cited study conducted in 1998 and published in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that nortriptyline was effective when combined with CBT on patients with a history of depression and showed greater abstinence rates after quitting. It appears that this drug is helpful in countering the immediate effects after quitting.

A Randomized Trial of Nortriptyline for Smoking Cessation

The second most cited study was one published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, also from 1998. This study approached the drug from a different angle. It sought to determine, via randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials - whether tricyclic antidepressants, in particular nortripyline, could be used to increase rates of smoking cessation amongst those otherwise healthy members of the public without symptoms of depression.

They concluded that there was an increased short-term cessation rate versus placebo and additionally reductions in withdrawal symptoms although at the expense of side effects such as dry mouth. At 6 months, 14% of those taking the drug were not smoking, compared to 3% of placebo.

Stopping Smoking: A Prospective, Randomized, Double-Blind Study Comparing Nortriptyline to Placebo

Another study conducted in 2002 and published by the American College of Chest Physicians also tested nortriptyline in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. It found similarly - that “nortriptyline significantly increases the smoking cessation rate in chronic smokers” (55.9% vs 23.3% - time duration unknown).

However, no “significant side effects” were reported in this particular study.

Conclusion

It appears that nortriptyline is effective till at least the “gold standard” of most studies - the 6 month smoking cessation rates. Although the 14% quoted in one study appears low, it is much higher than the 3% quoted for the placebo group, which is typical.

Given the few or relatively minor side effects, I am surprised that this drug is not prescribed more often for smokers who wish to quit. Compared to drugs like varenicline or bupropion, the side effects are much less and the success rate similar.

If you are considering smoking then you will do well to compare the effectiveness of nortriptyline against not just other drugs but also against other smoking cessation methods such as counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy, injections, nicotine replacement therapy and others.

The Benefits

Of course, the only aim is to quit smoking, but it’s about how you get there that matters.

Take a look at the list of benefits offered by each quit smoking program. Is this what you are looking for? Do any of the benefits ring true with you? Do you feel that you can trust this person to guide you to becoming an ex-smoker?

Does It Solve Your Problems?

We know that smoking can be difficult. What has the author of the program done to address your biggest concerns, such as whether you will gain weight, how you will deal with the sense of loss, how to not fall victim to your willpower breaking etc.

Testimonials

Check out the testimonials. These are comments by people who have used the program before. No matter what the author has to say about the program, what is really important is what previous customers have had to say.

Of course, the author is not going to show comments from unhappy customers so this will be biased. However, you can still read a lot into comments from the most happy customers.

Book Or Audio?

The best quit smoking programs are in book form because this way you can internalize what you read. But if you have a big need for audio, something that you could play in the car, then there are some programs in audio only or in both book and adio form.

Guarantee?

Is there a money back guarantee? Never, ever choose a program that does not put the money where their mouth is. Never go with a program that won’t offer you your money back if you are not satisfied.

The Top 3 Best Rated Quit Smoking Programs

For your convenience, I’ve created a table and my own personal ratings (I successfully quit over 8 years ago) for the 3 most successful quit smoking programs available online. Click the link below to check them out:

Top 3 Quit Smoking Products Reviewed

Additives In Cigarettes

There are 599 known chemicals in cigarettes. These are from a voluntary list provided by 5 tobacco companies.

On first glance, these substances appear to be quite harmless. They’re in two categories.

The first appear to contribute to flavour. I’m talking about honey, anise, apricot extract, bergamot oil, mandarin oil, parsley seed oil and other fruit or herb derived ingredients,

The second set appear to be a whole host of strange chemical compounds. Phenethyl Isobutyrate, 4-Ethylbenzaldehyde, Diethyl Sebacate, Butyl phenylacetate, Anisyl Phenylacetate etc. These sure don’t sound good, do they?

You can get a full list here: Wikipedia: List of additives in cigarettes

After Burning

This is when we can see the exact chemicals that you are exposed to. And guess what, most of them are harmful.

Benzene - a known carcinogen.

Formaldehyde - toxic.

Lead - a neurotoxin that accumulates in the body.

Arsenic - poisonous.

Cadmium - damages the kidneys, liver and the brain.

Now you know just a small fraction of the bad chemicals in cigarettes. Do you really need to know anymore to convince you to quit smoking?

Then take a look at my top 3 recommended solutions for quitting smoking: Top 3 Quit Smoking Programs.

The great news is that it is definitely possible to quit smoking on your own - in fact, it has the highest success rate!

Why The “Professionals” Are Wrong

If you speak to your doctor, or a hypnotist or an accupuncturist and ask them to cure you of smoking but if you don’t then you want your money back, do you think they would agree to it?

If you buy a product from the store and it doesn’t work, wouldn’t you expect your money back?

If you bought a new TV and nothing happened when you turned it on, you’d expect your money back wouldn’t you? Or how about a new toy for your kid that is broken? You’d definitely want your money back!

Why is your quitting smoking any different?

The Best Way To Quit Is On Your Own

The patches, pills, gum, hypnosis and all the other methods don’t come with guarantees because they don’t work. They leave you hooked on cigarettes and relying on your willpower which will fail.

The onlay way to quit is on your own. Pete, Howells, creator of the world famous EasyQuit System, has created a book that you can read on your own and has a 96% success rate.

Guaranteed Or Your Money Back

Pete has nothing to hide from his customers. If you’re not satisfied then you can get your money back, no questions asked within 8 weeks of buying. You can have every confidence in this because the guarantee is underwritten by Clickbank, a US based internet retailer who process over 20,000 orders every day.

You are the master of your destiny - do you want to be a smoker or a non-smoker for the rest of your life? Don’t delay.

Click Here to check out Easyquit System for yourself.

Quit Success Rate

This is the key stat for any quit smoking product.

EasyQuit System - 96%
Quit Smoking Today - 97.2%

Bonuses

EasyQuit System - none
Quit Smoking Today - 5 bonuses

Clickbank Gravity

This is a weight sum and indicator of popularity:

EasyQuit System - 22.39
Quit Smoking Today - 13.18

Alexa Ranking

This is a traffic indicator. The more reputable and popular a book, the greater traffic its website receives:

EasyQuit System - 342,526
Quit Smoking Today - 376,087

No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee

EasyQuit System - Yes, 8 weeks
Quit Smoking Today - Yes, 60 days

Check them out for yourself and quit smoking today by clicking the links:

EasyQuit System
Quit Smoking Today

How Do You Smoke It?

This is quite relevant. You see, in many parts of the world, people smoke cannabis in a mixture of weed and tobacco. If you also smoke tobacco then you may find it very hard to stop smoking cannabis because of what you may see as the necessary tobacco.

If I were you, I would separate these two addictions and only smoke pure weed and see if you still feel addicted. If you are no longer addicted to weed then I would suggest that you are addicted to cigarettes instead. Find out more about how to quit smoking cigarettes by clicking here.

Addiction To Cannabis

On the other hand, if this does not work or if you don’t smoke cigarettes anyway, and only smoke your weed “pure” then you are addicted only to the cannabis. So are cannabis and cigarette addiction similar?

Different Psychological Effect

Cannabis and tobacco addictions are very different. Cigarette smokers have conditioned themselves to believe that they need cigarettes and nicotine. The only true way to cure them is to address this conditioning.

On the other hand, people who smoke cannabis daily and find it hard to stop are addicted for a different reason. They have developed a dependency on the “high” that they get from cannabis, from the therapeutic narcotic effects.

How Do I Know If I’m Addicted?

Let’s say that you take away the harmful effects of smoking cannabis. For instance, you could inhale from a vaporizer which means no harmful combustion products as in smoke. But if you smoke every day, does this mean you are addicted?

Many professionals say that you are addicted when something becomes a problem. So, if you find yourself becoming very lazy or too paranoid or unable to get through the day without cannabis then you are addicted and need to address it and get your life back on track.

How To Stop Smoking Weed

Finding help to stop smoking weed compared with tobacco is very difficult. However, there is an audio course by Gary Evans that I can highly recommend. Check it out here by clicking the link: Cannabis Coach

Not Like Other Stop Smoking Aids

First of all, this is not like other stop smoking aids or programs. Maybe you’ve tried the patches or even other methods such as hypnosis or accupuncture. As program creator Pete Howells will tell you, if you try to cut down using patches, gum or sprays then you are almost guaranteed to fail and never become a non-smoker.

The Benefits

After checking out the EasyQuit System for myself, I was able to glean some of the key benefits that make it stand out from the crowd. Here are just some of them:

• Willpower is not necessary.
• You won’t miss smoking whatsoever.
• No need to motivate yourself daily.
• Planning will not be necessary.
• Medicines, patches and other products are not needed.

How Does EasyQuit Work?

I personally stopped smoking myself around 10 years ago. I know from my own experience that most quit smoking products do not work because they only temporarily mask the cravings.

The difference with a system like EasyQuit is that it helps you to reprogram yourself. Remember when you used to be a non-smoker, how you never craved cigarettes like you do now? This system allows you to become like your old self so that you don’t actually crave tobacco and therefore you don’t need willpower to quit.

This system will explain and also prove to you things such as:

• Why most smokers are never able to quit and how you can easily overcome this.
• The key reasons why you have failed until now and how this system will avoid those mistakes.
• Examining the 22 popular beliefs held by smokers and completely destroying these myths.
• Why patches, gum and other methods only increase your chances of never quitting and why you must avoid them.
• How to quit smoking with gaining any weight!

Money Back Guarantee

Obviously I know that this program works because I have seen it for myself. Yet the creator, Pete Howells, is so confident that you can quit smoking with his help that he offers an 8 week money back guarantee, backed and underwritten by Clickbank, a US payment processor who guarantee over 20,000 orders daily.

Don’t delay any longer - you know in your heart that you need to quit smoking. Get access to EasyQuit right now by clicking here.

Irritability

Most people will suffer from a feeling of irritability. It can be described as similar to having a constant itch that you cannot scratch, although perhaps not as extreme. But in the same way that the only way to cure an itch is to scratch it, the ex-smoker can feel that the only way to cure the irritability is to smoke a cigarette. Luckily, these feelings soon pass with time and the days immediately after stopping smoking are said to be the worst.

Cravings

More specifically, most ex-smokers will experience large cravings for cigarettes in the immediate days after quitting. These are similar to a feeling of hunger that cannot be satisifed. Again, these soon pass with time. Effectively, cigarettes are needed to make the ex-smoker feel normal again, let alone for pleasure.

Increased Appetite

Following on, many smokers will get feelings of an increased appetite. From a scientific point of view, no one can say for sure whether this genuine is an increased appetite or whether ex-smokers are simply confusing cravings for hunger but would gladly eat food or smoke cigarettes to fill this “void” in their life. If you are using these willpower methods to stop smoking, then it’s very important in the first few days not to “break” by eating more food than you need. Some ex-smokers put on weight and what they are really doing is swapping one addiction for another - smoking for excess food - both fill a void in their lives.

Anxiety

It is normal to feel some anxiety after quitting cigarettes. Anxiety is simply a form of stress, and stress is common when making such a huge change to your life that requires strength of mind in the form of willpower. Many ex-smokers will also be anxious about whether they will be successful this time in their quitting attempt, especially given what we know about the low success rates for stopping smoking.

Nausea and Shakes

A minority of people quitting smoking will experience almost violent reactions that cannot be explained scientifically. Are they genetically predisposed to suffering more from nicotine withdrawal or is this just psychological? Whatever the reason, the symptoms pass extremely quickly.

Insomnia

Inability to sleep is a common symptom amongst ex-smokers. This is usually due to irritability as mentioned earlier. It is extremely helpful to increase the amount of exercise that you do if you are suffering from insomnia. A thorough workout in the afternoon or early evening will help to relax both the body and the mind. Working out with weights is preferable to cardio because it will leave the muscles feeling slightly sore - this is a sign of a good workout and the body will find sleep easily because it wants it in order to repair the muscles and help them grow.

Are Any Of These Symptoms Necessary?

To the non-smoker, the ordeal of quitting smoking seems similar to coming off crack or heroin. But does it need to be this way?

I used to smoke 25 high tar cigarettes a day and I tried all the usual methods such as patches and willpower. It was only when I discovered a little known method that I was able to stop successfully and I have been clean now for 8 years. Added to this, this method did not require me to use any willpower and I have never had any cravings for a cigarette since, no desire at all.

Can This Really Be Possible?

Yes it can, and I am not the only one. Anyone can do this if they know the method. The method is all about understanding what your addiction is and how it works, because there is much more than meets the eye.

I have given you some clues above - think about the void that exists when a smoker quits smoking. This void was never there before, when they were a non-smoker. Can a chemical like nicotine really have such a powerful effect that it can cause people to start smoking gain 5 years down the line? Has medical science ever given an explanation for this apparent amazing “memory” effect? Does medical science have an explanation for how addiction really works?

And how about the smokers who quit smoking but then become overweight? How is it that you can replace this cigarette caused void with food instead? Are cigarettes and food related? Where did that void come from and does it just exist in the mind? If it does, how do you get rid of it?

I hope I have given you food for thought (no pun intended!). If you want to learn more about addiction, my own experiences and how I personally stopped smoking, then click here.

Tip 1 - open your mind. When it comes to stopping smoking, question everything around you. Look at the drug companies, they are making as much money from cigarette addiction as the tobacco companies and yet no one attacks them. Now look at the numbers of people addicted. It may have gone down a little but it’s still huge. Ask yourself if there is more than meets the eye.

Tip 2 - don’t just accept your smoking for what it is. You have probably never sat back and decided to actually look into your addiction, have you? Next time you smoke a cigarette, think to yourself “what is cigarette addiction?” and “why an I addicted to cigarettes?”. If it’s really just down to the nicotine then how come so many people can smoke just 4 or 5 cigars a year and yet they never feel the urge to smoke cigarettes in between?

Tip 3 - throw out the nicotine replacement products. I’m talking about the patches and gum that contain nicotine. In the long term, these methods are no better than willpower alone. If you buy them then you will still be hooked on something - wouldn’t it be better to free yourself of your addiction rather than simply replace it with another one?

Tip 4 - think about how you think. Let’s consider a crack or a heroin addict. Have you ever met one or seen one on TV? Then you will know that they will do bad things in the name of feeding their addiction and yet they won’t realise they are wrong. Stealing from and lying to friends or anything else to feed their addiction. Now think about your own cigarette addiction. You may think that you have the same powers of logic as when you were a non-smoker. Think again and be big enough to admit that you could be wrong. Cigarettes DO influence the way a smoker thinks. They did when I was a smoker, even though I did not believe it at the time. Don’t let cigarettes get the better of you.

Have these tips given you food for thought? If they haven’t, then carry on using what the establishment tell you and hope that your willpower is strong enough that you can maybe become one of the 10% or so that give up smoking forever using this method. Or, trust in what I am saying as an ex-smoker of 8 years now, and if you want to find out more about the methods that I used to stop smoking, click here.

This is supposed to be a far superior method to using willpower alone or especially nicotine replacement therapy, the latter being simply a substitute for cigarettes.

How Does It Work?

Stop smoking laser treatments does not involve the use of medications, patches or other traditional means. It works by directing a low level laser on parts of the body and uses the same principles as accupressure or accupuncture.

Accupressure and accupuncture were for many years derided by the West due to a lack of understanding of how they work. However, as clinical trials have shown the success of what the East has known for centuries, even government health services will now fund many such treatments.

Although the laser is relatively new, it uses very similar concepts. What happens is that when the laser is focussed on the skin, it provokes a response in the body. One of these responses is to create endorphins which are the body’s “pleasure chemicals”. They have a calming and relaxing effect and some people even report euphoric feelings after leaving treatment.

No one truly understands how the laser works on the body to produce the response but the endorphins and other physical responses result in cravings disappearing for the smoker. Hence, after a few sessions, they can make a decision to quit smoking and not have to deal with the really bad cravings that usually happen in the first few days.

Does The Laser Work?

So, what do I think of this so-called revolutionary stop smoking laser? First of all, there have been alternatives such as accupressure and accupuncture available for centuries. If I were to use this method then I would probably prefer to use the “real deal” and go direct to a Chinese specialist in accupuncture/accupressure. The stop smoking laser seems to be to be a 21st century marketing gimmick designed to make this old practice more acceptable by consumers.

Secondly, I decided to look into some studies to judge the value of lasers in helping people to quit smoking. Here is one such study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16437420) where smokers were followed up after a year of trying lasers. If you look at the authors’ conclusions then you will be able to read:

“There is no consistent evidence that acupuncture, acupressure, laser therapy or electrostimulation are effective for smoking cessation, but methodological problems mean that no firm conclusions can be drawn. Further research using frequent or continuous stimulation is justified.”

This is just as I thought. You see, in a similar way to hypnosis, lasers can help you with the cravings when you quit, but ultimately over time, your mind will ask - “how can I have suddenly lost the cravings?”. It will not make sense to you that your experience tells you that you want a cigarette but a couple of laser sessions tell you otherwise.

Eventually, your powers of logic will value your experience more than any sessions of therapy and you will start smoking again. The effect of these therapies on killing the cravings is only temporary. So, you will be back at square one again within a few weeks to months.