What makes nicotine substitute effective

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Taming your cravings for nicotine is a huge part of quitting smoking. There are many products, both over-the-counter and prescription, that can help. Learn more about the patches, lozenges, gum, pills, inhalers and nasal sprays, that can ease your transition to a smoke-free life. Smoking causes a real physical addiction that can be tough to shake. Nicotine is the addictive ingredient in tobacco. Nicotine replacement therapy may help you curb cravings and wean you off tobacco. Tobacco use accounts for about one-third of all cancers.

It also contributes to heart disease, stroke and lung disease. Your local drug store stocks several nicotine replacement products over the counter. These include patches, lozenges and gum. The patch: Once a day, you apply a small, latex patch on your upper body skin.

It delivers a steady dose of nicotine. This makes it a good choice for heavy smokers. Lozenges: Candy-like lozenges are great for a quick fix of nicotine. You place the lozenge in your mouth.

It may take five to 10 minutes to feel the effect. Lozenges should dissolve within 30 minutes. Nicotine replacement therapy NRT only deals with the physical dependence. Use these support systems during treatment with NRT and for at least a few months after you quit.

Studies have shown that this approach — pairing NRT with a program that helps to change behavior — can improve your chances of quitting and staying quit compared to approaches that use only one method. The best time to start NRT is when you first quit. Often people first try to quit tobacco on their own then decide to try NRT a day or more into quitting. There are many options for quitting and staying quit.

Just remember that it often takes many tries. None of these products has been FDA-approved specifically to help people quit smokeless tobacco. Still, studies are being done, and some have shown the lozenge form may help. The US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality states that nicotine replacement therapy NRT is safe for all adults who want to quit smoking except pregnant women and teens. You may have medical problems that should be considered.

When deciding whether to use NRT, the benefits of quitting tobacco must outweigh the potential health risks of NRT for each person. People who are still smoking or using any other form of tobacco should not use NRT. Get the advice of a health care provider if you want to use NRT while continuing to smoke or chew. NRT has not yet been proven to help people who smoke fewer than 10 cigarettes a day. But many tobacco treatment centers do use NRT for people who are "light smokers.

Note that the patch, gum, and lozenge can be purchased over the counter, while the nasal spray and inhaler require a prescription. The most important thing to do with any form of NRT is read and follow the package instructions very carefully.

Patches give a measured dose of nicotine through the skin. Many different types and strengths of patches are available, including hour and hour patches. Which patch you should use depends on how many cigarettes you smoke each day.

Package instructions tell you how to use them, and list special considerations and possible side effects. How to use nicotine patches: Depending on body size and smoking habits, most people who smoke should start using a full-strength patch mg of nicotine daily for several weeks, and then use a weaker patch mg of nicotine for another several weeks.

The patch is changed every day. It should be put on in the morning on a clean, dry area of the skin without much hair. It should be placed below the neck and above the waist — for instance, on the upper arm or chest. The FDA has approved using the patch for a total of 3 to 5 months, but using it longer is better than going back to smoking.

No one has all of the side effects, and some people have none. Some side effects, such as racing heart, may mean the dose of nicotine is too high for you. Stop using the patch and talk to your health care provider if this happens.

You could also have nicotine withdrawal symptoms if your NRT dose is too low. Nicotine gum is a fast-acting form of replacement. Nicotine is taken in through the mucous membrane of the mouth.

You can buy it over the counter without a prescription. It comes in 2 mg and 4 mg strengths. For best results, follow the instructions in the package. Nicotine gum is not meant to be used like regular gum. Chew the gum slowly until you get a peppery taste or tingle.

Then tuck it inside your cheek until the taste fades. Chew it to get the peppery taste back, and hold it again. Do this off and on for 20 to 30 minutes. This is important because many people misuse the nicotine gum and chew it like regular gum instead of how it should be used. An advantage of nicotine gum is that it allows you to control the amount of nicotine you get.

The gum can be used as needed or on a fixed schedule during the day. The most recent research has shown that scheduled dosing works better.

A schedule of 1 to 2 pieces per hour is common. Not enough is known about the health effects of vaping. And e-cigarettes are not proven to be effective in helping people give up smoking. But this does not guarantee all e-cigarettes sold legally are nicotine-free.

Learn more at the Therapeutic Goods Administration website. Cigars are just as dangerous as cigarettes if not more. On average, cigarettes contain about 8. Some brands of cigar contain between 20 and 50 times that amount, while also containing more toxic and cancer-causing compounds such as ammonia and cadmium. A person who smokes 5 cigars a day has the same risk of developing cancer as a person who smokes a pack of 20 cigarettes a day.

Shisha is smoked using a 'hookah', a glass device that allows fruit-flavoured tobacco smoke to pass through a water chamber and be inhaled slowly through a pipe. Like cigars and e-cigarettes, it's a common misconception that shisha is safer than tobacco cigarettes. It's not. The water in the pipe does not filter harmful chemicals, and a person can end up inhaling more smoke from a shisha than a cigarette because they're likely to take deep breaths and smoke for longer in one sitting.

Nicotine itself has not been found to cause cancer or heart disease , so it's safer to use nicotine-replacement treatment NRT products than to smoke cigarettes.

Nicotine products, such as patches, gum, tablets and inhalers, are available to buy in pharmacies and some supermarkets. According to Quitline, if you're addicted to smoking, correct use of nicotine-replacement medications may double your chances of quitting successfully. This means that if you get a prescription from a doctor, you can buy nicotine replacements at a reduced price.

There is limited evidence that e-cigarettes are effective in helping people give up smoking in the short-term, but, it is not clear whether they help people to quit in the long-term, or if they are as effective as other methods such as nicotine replacement therapy NRT. Quitting smoking can lead to withdrawal symptoms such as sleeping problems, irritability, hunger and restlessness.