It’s Okay To Inhale To Stop Smoking
17 Sep 2004
An economist, analyzing financial disasters, remarked that "If you keep going to hell you’ll eventually get there". This warning equally applies to the millions of people who still smoke and eventually die from this addiction. Today, there is no greater madness than smoking when research proves that smoking kills. Fortunately, there’s a new treatment that can help to save these needless deaths. In this case it’s okay to inhale to quit smoking, with the newest smoking cessation, the Nicorette inhaler.
Sir Walter Raleigh, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, introduced tobacco into England. But if he tried this today, authorities would hang him from the yardarm for even suggesting its use. Tobacco would be immediately banned as a hazardous substance. Now we know tobacco contains 4,000 chemicals of which 40 are known to cause cancer in humans. It’s ironic that no one would swallow a pill that has this lethal mixture yet some willingly smoke cigarettes that contain it!
The facts are appalling. Every year tobacco kills at least three million people worldwide. Today, 90 per cent of lung cancer deaths, 30 per cent of all cancers, 80 per cent of chronic bronchitis and emphysema and 25 per cent of heart disease and stroke are due to tobacco. You might think it’s safer to give mouth to mouth resuscitation to Dracula than light up a toxic cigarette.
Doctors have finally absorbed the message. A generation ago 50 per cent of doctors smoked. Today just 7.9 per cent of physicians smoke. They treat first-hand the smokers who eventually need an oxygen tank to breathe, or suffer a slow painful death from cancer.
However, since smoking can take 20 years or more to either kill or cause chronic disease prevention has always been a hard sell.
Although smoking used to be more common in men than women today more women are smoking and also dying like men. It’s a public health tragedy. Lung cancer has surpassed breast cancer as the number one killer of women. Since 1991 tobacco-related deaths have increased eight per cent. Of these two-thirds were women.
I often tell patients to get their priorities straight. Women worry about the minuscule risk of taking the birth control pill. Yet they continue to suck in the poisonous vapours of cigarettes. I routinely suggest to these patients that they don’t need me for their doctor. They need a reality check.
So how can inhaling help to stop smoking? I often say to patients, "Why don’t you suck your thumb instead of smoking." It’s known that part of the rationale of smoking is to satisfy the hand-to-mouth ritual. Studies show that smokers repeat this ritual 200 times a day or 73,000 times a year. That’s a lot of ritual! It’s one of the prime reasons why so many types of treatment fail.
Knowing this fact, Pfizer’s Consumer Health Care has come up with an innovative idea, "The Nicorette Inhaler", to combat both addiction and ritual.
The Nicorette Inhaler provides users with lower overall nicotine levels. This replaces some of the nicotine smokers crave when they stop smoking and helps relieve withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, lack of concentration, restlessness, anxiety and anger.
Users fill the Nicorette Inhaler mouthpiece with a nicotine-impregnated cartridge. The smoker then places the tapered end of the Nicotine Inhaler in the mouth and inhales deeply into the back of the throat or puffs in short breaths. The nicotine in the inhaler turns into a vapour which is absorbed through the lining of the user’s mouth and throat and not into the lungs.
Studies show that smokers using this treatment are twice as likely to succeed in quitting smoking as those who are given a placebo. The initial treatment lasts up to 12 weeks followed by a gradual reduction for 6 to 12 weeks if needed.
The Nicorette Inhaler is also a great way to save money. Since most smokers spend $2,100 a year on cigarettes the Nicorette inhaler will help smokers break the habit so they can spend their money on something useful. A saving of this amount early in life means a significant amount of money for retirement. Besides, more important, it will help smokers improve their quality and likely quantity of life.
