Smoking Cessation Devices

Worldwide more than 1.5 billion people smoke.  In America, smoking causes one in five deaths.   The deaths of those exposed to chronic second smoke accounts for another 600,000 lives lost per year.  There is no doubt that smoking is lethal and has a range of other ramifications including environmental as well as economic impact.  

Every year millions of smokers attempt to quit.  The intense level of addiction most experience to nicotine prevents more than 95% of those who attempt to quit without help to succeed.  

There are many methods, resources and tools available for those wanting to quit smoking.  This includes medical intervention such as pharmaceuticals that reduce the craving for nicotine.  Other solutions focus on replacing nicotine in methods that do not include tobacco in the delivery process.  This may include patches or gum.  

Others are looking for alternatives to smoking.  While some have switched to smokeless tobacco such as snuff and chewing tobacco, there are serious dangers from those choices as the concentration of nicotine goes into the system in a different process, and the concentration is often much higher.  The risk for mouth, tongue and jaw cancers is much higher as the nicotine, carcinogens and toxins are in direct contact with the mouth and tongue.  

Others have switched to alternatives like the electronic cigarette, which delivers nicotine without the tobacco.  While it still is delivering the dangerously addictive substance of nicotine, the electronic cigarette provides a similar experience to smoking with none of the smoke or health hazards of tobacco.  The electronic cigarette is not considered in the US or UK to be a therapeutic or smoke cessation device, but rather a harm reduction alternative to tobacco cigarettes.  

In addition to the patches, gums, prescriptions and electronic cigarettes there are other approaches to stop smoking.  Tried and true smoke cessation plans say that if you focus on the reason you want to stop smoking it increases the success rate.  Others recommend meditation and exercise.  Exercise mimics some of the same sensations as nicotine in the system when it generates the production of endorphins.  

Other recommendations include the use of hypnotherapy or group and individual counseling to deal with the management of stress and the addiction issues that may perpetuate the use of cigarettes.  There are smoke cessation seminars all over the country and support resources in nearly every community as well as online.  

The benefits to smoking cessation begin to happen instantly.  The full effects take years to realize but improvement in cardiovascular health and respiratory health happen very quickly.  

The risks to your health, the high cost of cigarettes in terms of the immediate costs, loss of life and productivity and the environmental impact of smoking are high costs to pay for smoking habit.  The gains and benefits are both immediate and lasting for those able to stop smoking.