Quit Smoking The Easy Way

October 23, 2008

Like with any addiction, quitting smoking is not an easy thing to do and nobody should ever try and kid you otherwise. Nevertheless it is probably easier to quit smoking now than at any time before, with more help available than ever before combining with fewer opportunities to smoke (i.e. no more smoking in public places).

Again, as with any addiction, the most important things in quitting are realising that you want to quit in the first place and not being afraid to use the help available to do it. The fact is if you try to quit smoking by yourself without any help, your chances of success are less than 3%. Make things easier on yourself and use the resources available.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) is the obvious place to start with various remedies available in the form of chewing gum, patches, inhalators, tablets and prescription-only nasal spray. The common goal of these is to help you quit smoking by reducing the withdrawal effects of nicotine, weaning you off gradually.

Even better has been the emergence of natural quit smoking remedies that use natural herbs as a substitute for nicotine. There are many such effective remedies on the market such as the NicoTonic herbal remedy which is an excellent and very effective aid in reducing emotional ability and restlessness associated with withdrawal from nicotine.

TIP: A great way to supplement NRT is something that all of you can do from home. Take a regular soak in an Epsom-salt or sea-salt bath. The salts help to remove nicotine through the pores and you can enhance this with a bit of skin brushing as well. The thing to do with NRT is to try a few out and see what works best for you.

Smoking support groups are another great way to get help with people who are going through the same thing as you. There are private clinics and NHS run clinics that are freely available for you to enrol. The NHS is making a big push in this area and there is really no excuse for you not to at least have a look - take a look at NHS.uk for more information on these free clinics. If you prefer there are also a couple of charity organisations as well which could be of interest - ASH (0207 739 5902) and QUIT (0800 00 2200) are two such groups that spring to mind.

starting on a course of NRT and joining a support clinic are probably the two biggest ways you can get started in quitting. But it doesn’t have to end there and there are lots of little lifestyle changes you can make to make these programmes even more effective:

Cut down on foods that you usually enjoy with or just before a cigarette - e.g. alcohol and coffee
As smoking increases acid in your body eat plenty of food to re-alkalise such as fruits and vegetables.
Eat porridge in the morning - oats are a nerve tonic and help with addictions.
Take up an exercise regime - this is popular among many people who are recovering addicts as the high of exercise can replace that of the drug.
Avoid the temptation - try to be smart for the first month or two in where you go and who you hang around with. Take the temptation away.
Hypnotherapy - there are many hypnotherapy CDs available to help you mentally prepare to quit smoking.

No-one ever said quitting was easy but as you can see there is plenty of help available and you ca make it easier on yourself by not trying to do it alone. Heart disease, cancer, strokes, high blood pressure and numerous other chronic diseases are linked to smoking. Do yourself a favour and start giving up today!

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