Sunday, January 14, 2007

New Stop Smoking Aids | A New Medication And A Meditation Book

Nicotine addiction is a chronic, relapsing condition. In recent scientific studies, it was found that a specific nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in the brain is responsible for the addictive properties of nicotine.

A new medication, varenicline(Chantix) from Pfizer, looks promising. It's mechanism of action is to prevent nicotine binding to the receptor mentioned above. Since it is so new, time will tell how effective it will be.

More than70% of cigarette smokers want to quit. Most smokers try to quit 6-9 times during their lifetime. Initial quitting is tough but to stay quitting is even tougher.

Besides medication, other smoking cessation aids should be explored and tried.

I have found a book: Keep Quit by Terry A. Rustin,M.D. This is a meditation book providing readers with the motivation and support they need to stop smoking, and the encouragement to stay smoke free each day. Passages give readers insight to the subtle causes for their smoking and ways to deal with those causes without smoking. Learn to break rituals and patterns associated with smoking, such as ways to avoid behaviors, attitudes, and situations that could trigger relapse.

I have put a link on the "books" page of my website.

To go to this page click url: www.competentdoctor.com/Books/html

This is it for now. I will touch other smoking cessation aids in the future.

For my patients who want to quit smoking, this will be my additional weapons to combat their nicotine addiction.

For others: you should mention this to your healthcare providers. You can also find out more information about Chantix at http://www.chantix.com/