Smoking Deterrence: Get Rid of Your Smoking Habits

The word ‘deterrent’ implies anything that discourages some, usually undesirable, action. Smoking deterrents are the drugs helping a person in smoking cessation. Depending upon the gravity of the smoking habits, quitting may be extremely difficult. Often, there may be severe withdrawal symptoms associated with the process. According to The World Health Organization (WHO), “Smoking is the greatest preventable cause of death in the world, causing more health problems than obesity and alcoholism”.

The benefits of giving up smoking: The habit of smoking is approximately equivalent to slow poisoning. Each cigarette consumed reduces the lifespan of the subject by a certain amount. Apart from the obvious overall health benefits, abandoning tobacco can help a person in the following ways:

• Returning senses of smell and taste
• Regularization of breathing patterns
• Lowered risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer, and lung diseases
• Protecting people from passive smoking
• Saved money

Withdrawal symptoms: While trying to quit smoking, you may face a number of physiological issues. Some of them may be immediate and some may develop over a couple of days. This is the stage, where most people give up. Remember the famous saying, “No pain no gain.” Therefore, stay put as most of these symptoms are temporary and your success is assured. Some of the common problems include:

• Weight gain
• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Tiredness

Smoking deterrents: The drugs that help in nicotine addiction cases are administered as smoking deterrents. These medicines also help in reducing some of the withdrawal symptoms. They are available in various forms, such as chewing gums, pills, inhaler, nasal sprays, etc. Primarily, there are following types of pharmacological solution:

• Antidepressants
• Nicotine replacement agents. These medicines are designed for controlled release of nicotine directly in the bloodstream. This method keeps the amount of the addictive substance at such levels that reduce craving.
• Nicotinic receptor agonists

However, none of these solutions can be adopted, except under the supervision of a registered medical practitioner.