Quit Smoking Advisory

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.