It is hard enough to quit smoking in the first place, but how do you accomplish your goal without spending a lot of money? There are all kinds of products out there that hit your pocket book like gum, patches and medications, but even those can fail without the right psychological framework. In fact, it is possible to stop smoking without using any of those products that are marketed as the only solution to your problem.

The first step is to identify the why of quitting tobacco. Basically, cessation is the single most important factor in improving the quality and length of a smoker’s life. If that isn’t enough reason to quit, maybe improving the quality and length of family member’s lives will sustain you. The next step is to identify what you are up against. Mark Twain made a good illustration, “Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a thousand times.” The reason it is so hard to quit smoking is the highly addictive drug found in cigarettes called nicotine. You are going to experience withdrawal symptoms that will make you want to give up. These include any of the following:

• tiredness
• headaches
• reduced concentration
• irritability
• anxiety
• trouble sleeping
• dizziness
• depression

Nicotine is a nasty combination of physical and psychological addictions. The bad news is that you are going to have to deal with both. The good news is there is help for you.

Now, let’s focus on the rewards of quitting. The long term benefit is you will live longer and get sick less. The immediate rewards of smoking cessation include: heightened sense of smell, improved taste of food, better smelling breath, and reduced body odor, yellow coloration diminishes, and physical stamina increases. Another enormous benefit is the cost savings you will enjoy.

Let’s get down to business and discuss the key elements in quitting cigarettes for good. Smokers need to make the decision to quit and set a quit date. This includes believing that you can in fact quit and that you will give your best effort to do so. Make sure your quit date is not too far off to prevent yourself from rationalizing your way out. Then you need to prepare for your quit day by telling friends and family for support, getting rid of all items related to cigarettes like ashtrays and lighters, and stocking up on substitutes like hard candy, carrot sticks, cinnamon sticks, and sugarless gum.

After you begin, you will need to deal with withdrawal. The most difficult part is the mental association of smoking with nearly every activity that you do. These activities can make it easy to grab a pack of smokes and start up again. You can help avoid these associations by avoiding temptation, changing your habits, participating in stress reducing activities like a hobby or exercise, breathing deeply, and rewarding yourself for overcoming urges. One other item can significantly increase your chance of quitting and that is avoiding alcohol. One glass of wine with dinner might be OK, but anymore and you could easily lose control. After all, don’t most people smoke when they drink?

Generic Celebrex

Active Ingredient: Celecoxib
Typical Brand Name: Celebrex

Overview:
Celebrex is a once-daily prescription medicine that provides 24-hour relief of osteoarthritis joint pain. Celebrex also helps relieve acute pain in adults, as well as primary dysmenorrhea.

Direction:
It can be taken at any time of the day with or without food. It is available in 100-mg, 200-mg, and 400-mg capsules. For osteoarthritis; the recommended dosage is one 200-mg capsule every day or one 100-mg capsule twice a day. For adult rheumatoid arthritis, the recommended dosage is one 100-mg or one 200-mg capsule twice a day. For acute pain, the recommended dose is 400 mg initially, followed by an additional 200-mg dose on the first day if needed. For primary dysmenorrhea (painful menstrual cramping), the recommended dose is 400 mg initially, followed by an additional 200-mg dose on the first day if needed. On subsequent days, the recommended dosage is one 200-mg capsule twice a day, as needed.

Side Effects:
The most common side effects were indigestion, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. As with other NSAIDs, serious stomach problems, such as bleeding, can occur without warning.

Precautions:
Consult with your doctor if you have an unusual allergy to aspirin, other NSAIDS, foods, dyes, or preservatives, anemia, asthma, you are a cigarette smoker, diabetes, drink more than three alcoholic beverages a day, heart or circulation problems, high blood pressure, kidney disease, liver disease, nasal polyps, stomach or bleeding ulcers, taking blood thinners, pregnant or trying to become pregnant, or breast feeding.

Drug interactions:
Inform your doctor about all the medicines you use; including prednisone, other NSAIDS, alcohol, blood thinners, aspirin, cyclosporine, feverfew, garlic ginger, lithium, methotrexate, and water pills.

Varenicline (Champix) is the first non-nicotine drug developed specifically to help smokers give up, and was licensed in the UK in 2006.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said the drug should normally be given alongside counselling and support.

Final guidance is due in July - the start of the smoking ban in England.

Varenicline, produced by Pfizer, is unusual as it both stimulates and blocks specific nicotinic receptors in the brain.

When you smoke, the nicotine from your cigarette causes receptors in your brain to release a chemical called dopamine, which is what causes many of the positive feelings you get when you smoke. When you quit smoking, going without dopamine causes the sometimes miserable signs and symptoms of withdrawal. Signs and symptoms such as irritability, insomnia and difficulty concentrating begin four to six hours after your last cigarette and can last a month after you quit smoking.

Nicotine replacement products, including the patch, gum and lozenges, and the antidepressant bupropion (Zyban), can help you stop smoking, in part, by continuing to release low levels of dopamine in your brain. In this way, these stop smoking medications decrease your craving for nicotine and reduce the signs and symptoms of withdrawal.

Chantix works in this way, too. Chantix stimulates the release of low levels of dopamine in your brain to help reduce the signs and symptoms of withdrawal. In addition, Chantix blocks nicotine receptors in your brain. So if you lapse and have a cigarette, your cigarette doesn’t stimulate your brain’s receptors the way it did in the past. Cigarettes become much less pleasurable, and your desire to return to regular smoking again may be reduced.

The FDA has approved a revolutionary new approach to help smokers kick the habit.

With 45 million smokers and tobacco causing nearly one third of all cancer deaths in the U.S., the American Cancer Society is calling the new smoking pill welcome news.

The FDA has approved the first new drug in almost a decade to help people stop smoking.

Some say the cravings for nicotine are just too strong to quit for good. Now there’s a new option - a prescription pill called chantix. It tricks the brain into feeling full of nicotine.

For people who try to stop smoking on their own, 19 out of 20 will light up again. In six clinical trials involving more than 4,000 people, the new drug helped one in five people quit and it worked better than placebo and better than other drugs currently on the market to help people quit.

However, the long-term benefit isn’t clear.

“The quit rates were pretty good at one month and at six months,” said Dr. Marc Itskowitz, of Allegheny General Hospital internal medicine. “Unfortunately, at one year, patients who were on this new medication, only 20 percent had quit smoking.”

Some people had nausea, vomiting, and headaches with the new medicine and it’s not for everyone.

Chantix wasn’t studied in people with diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney or liver problems or in pregnant or breast-feeding women.

It costs about $150 a month for a three month treatment. It can be repeated for another course if necessary.

Even though chantix only improves your chances of quitting slightly, it is an increased chance. With more than 400,000 deaths each year from tobacco-related illness, thousands of lives could be saved for people who kick the habit for good.