2. Introduction
Fresh facts indicate that cold turkey quitting is the
most effective way to stop smoking. And this is
coming straight from experts who conducted a
landmark study first published online as a
Review in the January 3, 2012 edition of the
Annual Review of Public Health. This research
makes mockery of the United States’ overall
approach to quit smoking.
3. United States' Smoking Cessation
Policy
The policy at the moment emphasizes the use of
pharmaceutical cessation aids (such as Zyban,
Chantix and NRTs) as well as quitlines through
which telephone coaching can be conducted to
help smokers quit. The two leading quitline
coaching and counseling service providers are
the American Cancer Society as well as Free
& Clear. Due to the current policy, a lot of
money has been expended on these two areas.
4. Research Disagrees With Policy
Existing medical procedures, as well as
government recommendation for quit smoking,
are based on the idea that all smokers should
be treated with pharmaceutical aids.
But this recent research disagrees with the policy.
Without mincing words, the study stated that
despite the general use of quitlines,
pharmaceutical drugs and NRT, smoking
cessation rates have not improved. It goes
ahead to say that quitting cold turkey is still the
most effective way to stop smoking.
5. Research Advocates for a Policy
Shift
In the report titled: Quitlines and Nicotine
Replacement for Smoking Cessation: Do We
Need to Change Policy?, the researchers
stated that “some policies actively discourage
unassisted smoking cessation despite the
documented high success rates of this
approach. There is an urgent need to revisit
public policy on smoking cessation.”
6. Research Advocates for a Policy
Shift(2)
The research, led by professor of family and
preventive medicine, John P. Pierce, analyzed
studies of nicotine and tobacco dependence
carried out in the last 2 decades. Other
members of the research team were Sharon E.
Cummins, Martha M. White, Aimee Humphrey,
and Karen Messer.
7. Research Advocates for a Policy
Shift(3)
The study focused on the efficacy of the nicotine
gum, the patch as well as pharmaceutical
drugs, and concluded that they have not been
successful for real-life quitting. Despite the fact
that these drugs and aids are successful in
clinical trials, the report says the results do not
show an increase in the rate of successful
quitters.
8. Do NRT's Work?
Right after this study appeared online,
researchers at the Harvard School of Public
Health (HSPH) and the University of
Massachusetts; Boston came up with a report
that stated matter-of-factly that
nicotine replacement therapies don’t work in
helping people quit smoking.
This prompted our earlier article
questioning the effectiveness or otherwise of nicotin
.
9. American Cancer Society Gives
Cold Turkey Quitting a PassMark
An American Cancer Society report in 2003 found
that over 91.4% of long-term ex-smokers quit
smoking unassisted (cold turkey). They did it
entirely on their own and without spending a
dime: they neither purchased nor used
the patch, gum, inhaler, Zyban, Chantix,
Lozenge, Laser therapy, hypnosis, you just
name it!
According to the Cancer Facts and Figures,
2003, less than 6.8% of the individuals that took
part in the study successfully stopped smoking
using NRT.
10. American Cancer Society's Amazing
Turn-around
It is therefore amazing that in the same report,
the American Cancer Society approves the use
of NRT even though the report reveals that
NRT is not as effective as cold turkey
cessation. “Although patients often relapse and
require repeated interventions…All patients
attempting to quit should be encouraged to use
effective pharmacotherapy except in the
presence of specific contraindications.” (Cancer
Facts and Figures, 2003)
11. Australian Study on Cold Turkey
Quitting
Earlier, an Australian study, published in the May
2006 issue of Addictive Behaviors, inferred that
cold turkey quitting has the highest success
rate.
The survey analyzed smoking patients of 1,000
family practice physicians and discovered that
winning cold turkey quitters accounted for 1,942
of 2,207 ex-smokers, a massive 88% of all
success stories.
12. Australian Study on Cold Turkey
Quitting(2)
During this study, numerous stop smoking
methods were compared and all NRT therapies
attained less than 10% effectiveness and had
the highest rate of relapse. Herbal remedies
and hypnosis even beat NRT pants down,by
scoring higher than 10%.
13. Cold Turkey Quitting Doesn't Get to
Be Celebrated
But this cheery news about cold turkey quitting
doesn’t get celebrated in the news as much as
NRT. The ‘almighty’ pharmaceutical industry
would have us believe NRT doubles our
chances of quitting. Millions of dollars are being
spent daily to drum this into the minds of
smokers and that is why you get to hear ‘it’s
hard to quit’ most of the time.
14. Quit Smoking IS Not Hard
At 2stopsmokingtips.com,we don’t buy into that
assertion at all. We have said it several times
that quitting smoking is not hard if you
reprogram your mind (by changing the way you
think about cigarettes),prepare by reading up all
you can about smoking cessation,choose a quit
date,have a plan to counter
nicotine withdrawal symptoms,especially for the
first 72 hours after your last cigarette(when it’s
most severe) and just drop off cigarettes. It
sounds simple,but really,that is what it is.
15. Truth Will Prevail
For a long time, researches have made us
believe going the NRT route is the most
effective way to stop smoking but recent
researches are countering that. We believe it’s
just a matter of time;the truth will eventually
prevail!
16. Putting Cold Turkey Quitting in Bad
Light
January 2012, one of the campaigns meant to
put cold turkey quitting in the bad light was
launched by Pfizer Incorporated. It was tagged
“Don’t Go Cold Turkey” campaign and was
meant to encourage smokers to seek help from
healthcare professionals and get
pharmaceutical aid(like NRT, Chantix or
Zyban) before quitting smoking.
17. Putting Cold Turkey Quitting in Bad
Light(2)
To send out its message loud and clear, Pfizer
partnered with local NHS Stop Smoking
Services to do a national road show and
teamed with Actress and Loose Women
presenter, Lisa Maxwell who went on the air-
waves to talk about her own
experience of quitting smoking.
18. Why Would Pfizer Do This?
It is understandable that Pfizer would do this. It’s
a company that is after huge profits and free
cold turkey quitting can’t offer them that, so,
why should they promote it above NRT, Chantix
or Zyban? Now,tell me,why should they
promote a method of smoking that is quick,
without charge, secure and efficient when they
can promote pharmaceutical aids to haul in
billions of dollars in profits? Why should they?
Just why should they promote cold turkey
quitting that makes no political campaign
contributions? Just why should they?
19. Why Would Pfizer Do This(2)
The truth is: they just won’t and that is why they
are busy bombarding smokers with 2 major
false assertions: the first one is that few
smokers effectively quit unassisted, and the
second is that their smoking aids functioned
well, if not better than real cold turkey quitting.
This is a bunch of lies as cold turkey quitting is
the most effective and productive method of
quitting.
20. Research Counters Pfizer's Claim
At least,the John P. Pierce-led research on the
Quitlines and Nicotine Replacement for
Smoking Cessation lends credence to that fact.
But, Pfizer, in its research,to launch the “Don’t Go
Cold Turkey” campaign claims cold turkey
quitting accounts for just 3% of successful ex-
smokers after 12 months.
21. More Researches Counters Pfizer's
Claim
This Pfizer revelation came after researchers at
Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and
the University of Massachusetts Boston
published a report to the effect that Nicotine
replacement therapies (NRTs) are not effective
in helping smokers quit in the long run, even
when combined with stop smoking counseling.
22. Australian Professor Gives Cold
Turkey Quitting another Passmark
In the same vein, an Australian Broadcasting
Corporation report quotes Professor Simon
Chapman, director of research at the School of
Public Health at Sydney Medical School, as
saying, “Cold turkey is the way that people
don’t like talking about but it’s overwhelmingly
the most popular and successful way that most
people quit smoking. It’s the way that most
people who have quit stopped. If you take 100
ex-smokers and ask them how they quit, about
66 to 75 of them will have quit smoking without
any assistance at all.”
23. Cold Turkey IS the Way to Go
Chapman’s assertions are supported by a
Cancer Institute Australia survey presented
October 2010 at the Asia Pacific Conference on
Tobacco or Health. The survey confirmed that
most Australians still stop smoking cold turkey
(unassisted).
24. Cold Turkey IS it
According to Chapman, “quitting cold turkey isn’t
for everyone though; there are some people
who will need assistance.” He insists on seeing
the alternative – going unassisted – put forward
as a viable option in public health messages
about dropping off cigarettes. (A recent paper
he co-authored on this topic was made
available here). “We need to re-balance the
public discussion about how people quit
smoking. We need to be honest with people
and tell them that most people quit without
assistance.”
25. Another Plot to Disparage Cold
Turkey Quitting
In a twist however, Dr. Michael Siegel, a
Professor in the Department of Community
Health Sciences, Boston University School of
Public Health, blogs about
another study that finds cold turkey quitting more ef
,but concludes otherwise.
So,who is fooling who? I leave you to draw your
inference. But,our mantra,at
2stopsmokingtips.com is: smoking cessation is
possible with adequate information,preparation
and determination. It’s not as hard as they want
you to believe!
26. Quit Smoking Is Not Hard
So, the next time you hear “quitting smoking is
the hardest thing I ever did,” ask yourself who’s
saying it? Real people? Or actors in
commercials for smoking cessation aids like the
patch, nicotine gum, Chantix and Zyban?
The assertion that it’s extremely tough to drop off
cigarettes is widely believed and you’d be
pardoned for thinking you cannot do it alone.
27. Try Quitting Cold Turkey Today!!!
But in reality, good old-fashioned willpower and
determination could be your best and most
effective option. So,try it out today!!! You’ll be
amazed at what you can achieve if you set your
mind to it.