It is a common fact nowadays that quitting smoking dramatically reduces your chances of having serious health problems. But quitting is a difficult and arduous process, especially if you have smoked for many years. Thankfully, today's market offers various tools to assist smokers in ending their habit. These include both pills and gum to help combat nicotine cravings and reduce dependency on cigarettes.

Gums

FDA-approved gum helps people quit smoking by allowing them to get their nicotine fix without having a cigarette. Many, if not all, of these chewing gums are available over the counter. They work by releasing a small amount of nicotine into your system. Usually when you chew on one of these types of gum, you get a tingling sensation in your mouth. This is nicotine being absorbed into the blood stream through your mouth. Resting the chewing gum underneath your tongue or between your teeth and check can allow it to send steady doses of nicotine into your blood stream. This nicotine replacement therapy allows you to feel the relief of smoking without having to touch a cigarette. It is important to keep in mind, however, that nicotine gum is not a long-term substitute for cigarettes. Nicotine gum helps you fight the cravings for cigarettes, and since it has a lower nicotine amount than the average cigarette, it slowly lessens one's physical addition to the chief component of cigarettes. As time goes by, the cravings become less and less, and it becomes much easier to completely quit nicotine.

Types of Gum

The three most common types of nicotine gum on the market are Thrive, Nicorette and Nicotrol. Thrive gum comes in six different mint-like flavors and also has specific teeth-whitening and sugar-free gums. Nicorette is a widely known nicotine gum that comes in seven different flavors and two strengths, 2 mg or 4 mg. Likewise, Nicotrol comes in two similar strengths, but only in two different flavors.

Pills

If you are not a fan of chewing gum or want to quit smoking faster, taking pills may be the answer. Unlike nicotine gum, these products must be acquired through a doctor and are prescription only. There are several advantages to taking pills over chewing gum. For example, since there are many types of pills available, pill therapy can attack both your physical and emotional cravings at the same time, making it easier for you to refrain from smoking. Also pills allow people to quit faster because, unlike nicotine gum, they force people to quit cold turkey by inhibiting nicotine sensation in the brain.

Types of Pills

To combat your nicotine cravings, there are generally two types of pills that you can take. One helps with the physical withdrawal from nicotine, while the other helps with the emotional distress that smokers face after they decide to quit Antidepressant pills are usually prescribed to smokers trying to quit. These pills, like Zyban, for example, make sure that your serotonin level is balanced. In doing so, these pills prevent you from feeling high anxiety and stress while you deal with the normal cravings associated with cigarette withdrawal. Nicotine inhibitors are pills that block your brain from feeling the pleasure that it normally associates with taking in nicotine. These pills, such as Varenicline or Chantix, make it so that even if you slip up and have a cigarette, that cigarette won't have the same effect on you anymore. By allowing you to detach from the pleasurable feelings associated with smoking, these types of pills train your brain to work without needing nicotine.

Combination Program

There are upsides and downsides to taking either pills or nicotine gum. However, there is a higher chance of success in quitting smoking when both methods are used. Because quit-smoking pills inhibit nicotine sensation, many find that it is too harsh a treatment, as it is too difficult to go cold turkey. Therefore, chewing nicotine gum to decrease your dependency on nicotine before taking pills can greatly increase your chances of ridding yourself of cigarettes. Furthermore, taking antidepressants while weaning yourself off of cigarettes with nicotine gum will further prepare you to start using the nicotine inhibitor pills.

Source:

Quit Smoking Hub