FDA Approved Medications to Help You Quit Smoking.

Author: Roger Chaumont

We've all seen those TV ads for the nicotine patch, and you may
have heard of other options like nicotine gum. But do they
really work? And are they safe?

Many would-be quitters get nervous about the idea of replacing
one addictive substance—cigarettes—with another. They view
nicotine gum and patches skeptically, preferring to quit "cold
turkey," with no medical help whatsoever.

Unfortunately, many of the people who quit cold turkey wind up
smoking again within a few weeks or months. Why? Well, as you
know, nicotine addiction isn't just a mental problem or a state
of mind. It's an actual physical disease that affects your
body's chemical makeup. Quitting isn't necessarily just a matter
of mind over matter—it's also a process of making your body less
physically dependent on its drug of choice and returning
yourself to a pure, natural state.

There's no shame in using nicotine replacement products to help
you do this. Items like the patch don't just become replacements
for cigarettes. Rather, they are temporarily support devices
that help wean you away from cigarettes gradually, and thus much
more effectively than stopping all at once.

Instead of shocking your body by depriving it entirely of
nicotine all of a sudden (which can result in uncomfortable
withdrawal symptoms), these nicotine replacement products help
"step you down." They deliver increasingly smaller doses of
nicotine, enabling your body to readjust over time. As a result,
you become addiction-free without a lot of the pain, discomfort
and stress often associated with the "cold turkey" route.

Now this is not to say that you shouldn't stop all at once. If
you want to do it that way, and you think you can do it
effectively, then by all means go ahead! But if you think you
might need a bit of a chemical support system to help you along
the way, then consider speaking to your doctor about the
following options, all approved by the F.D.A. to help people
like you and me stop smoking for good:

Nicotine patch (prescription or OTC)

Nicotine gum (OTC)

Nicotine inhaler (prescription)

Nicotine nasal spray (prescription)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/quit-smoking-articles/fda-approved-medications-to-help-you-quit-smoking-1570.html

About the Author
For additional information as well as other articles to help you
quit smoking please visit the web site below. Copyright 2005 http://free-stop-smoking-guide.com/