“A
lot of people think that the common sense way to give up smoking is to reduce
the amount they smoke before quitting,”
Nicola Lindson-Hawley
of the University of Oxford, who led a new study published in the journal
Annals of Internal Medicine.
People
who vape or smoke e-cigarettes, I have bad news for you, as the myth of vaping
has been laid to rest. What the absolute best way to quit smoking?
According
to researchers at the University of Oxford, cold-turkey is best as reported in
the article “The
Best Way to Quit Smoking, According to Science”, published March 14, 2016
by Mandy Oaklander, Time Magazine.
Researchers,
who published their work in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, explored
two options:
1. Quitting
cold turkey
2. Gradually
quitting
Many
have sought for answers on the best way to help people quit smoking. But which
one works best?
University of Oxford
and quitting smoking – Cold Turkey is best as e-cigarettes may be ineffective
Research
done by Lindson-Hawley and her colleagues at the University of Oxford focused
on 700 people in England who smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day but who were
planning to quit. They divided the group as follows:
1. 50%
were randomly assigned to smoke normally until their quit date, then to stop
abruptly i.e. the abrupt group
2. 50%
gradually reduced their smoking over the 2 weeks leading up to the appointed
day i.e. the gradual-cessation group
Both
groups receive the following support:
1. Behavioral
counseling
2. Nicotine
patches
3. Nicotine
replacement therapy i.e. gum, lozenges and mouth spray
Good
to note that the research didn’t look at e-cigarettes which the Ministry of
Health may plan to make prescription as noted in my blog article
entitled “How
Ministry of Health and Jamaica Customs Agency e-cigarette Mix-up hints at
Prescription e-cigarettes”.
The results that came out are quite surprising:
1. 49%
of the abrupt group were successful quitters
2. 39%
of the gradual-cessation group were successful quitters
The
abrupt group did 25% better than the gradual-cessation group. But the real
surprise came when the researchers examined smoking abstinence for 4 weeks
after the quit date, and then 6 months later.
After
6 months:
1. 22%
of the abrupt groups were still smoke-free
2. 15%
of the gradual-cessation groups were still smoke-free
So
clearly the cold-turkey method used by the abrupt group is still more
successful, as a personal preference to quitting does not impact on the success
of quitting to quote Dr. Lindson-Hawley: “Even if people wanted to quit
gradually, they were more likely to quit if they used the abrupt method”.
It
also suggests e-cigarettes may not be as good as often promoted by many albeit
the quitting rates for the gradual-cessation group are not bad, just less as
noted by Dr. Lindson-Hawley: “the quit rates we found in the gradual group were
still quite good.........If there are people who really feel they can’t quit
abruptly, and they want to quit gradually—otherwise they won’t try to quit at
all—we still need to support them to do that.”
So
the choice is still yours as to how you want to kick the habit.
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