The first thing many people will try when they want to quit smoking is going "cold turkey" or stopping all at once. Now this may be good for you health but it's also really, really hard to accomplish. Therefore, many people try Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) which weans the smoker off of the nicotine in a more gradual fashion.
Nicotine is a strong drug that creates a dependency so whenever a smoker attempts to quit smoking, they begin suffering withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms will that make the smokers life extremely unpleasant until the symptoms pass. NRT allows the smoker to use other approaches such as patches, nicotine gum, sprays, nicotine inhalers, or nicotine lozenges. These substitutes can help break the smokers habit by using nicotine in smaller and smaller amounts every day.
It's true the that the smoker is still ingesting nicotine via the NRT program however, they aren't ingesting the other deadly chemicals that are found in cigarettes. So it may not be a perfect system but it is much healthier approach than just smoking the cigarettes themselves.
What NRT does is it allows the smoker quit smoking by freeing up their mind to deal with the psychological part of the addiction. If the smoker quits cold turkey, they will naturally be focused on the withdrawal symptoms. But they wouldn't be able to focus on their habit of smoking cigarettes for the pleasure it gives them mentally.
While the withdrawal symptoms aren't completely eliminated, they are reduced by 90% or more because the smoker is still getting a little dose of nicotine to keep the cravings at bay. When smokers are asked why quitting cold turkey did not work for them, the majority of them responded that biggest problem was the onset of withdrawal symptoms, so NRT helps alleviate those cravings thereby increasing the odds of success.
NRT doesn't help you with the mental part of the addiction though. It only helps to reduce the physical cravings for nicotine. Smokers should always find something to help them break the mental addiction to smoking as well.
If NRT sounds like it's for you, be sure to start the program right when you first quit smoking. Do not continue to smoke and use NRT at the same time. The reason is that you would be getting a double dose of nicotine and that won't do your health any good at all.
So it's up to you whether you choose to use nicotine patches, nicotine gum, nasal spray, inhalers, or nicotine lozenges. With any of them you could experience some minor side effects. If you do, call your doctor and do what he prescribes or just switch to a different form of NRT until you find one that's effective for you to help you finally quit smoking.
