New research suggests going “cold turkey” is the best way to quit.
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“Most pregnant smokers do not achieve abstinence from smoking while they are pregnant, and among those that do, most will restart smoking within six months of childbirth”, the authors wrote.
Nicola Lindson-Hawley, who studies tobacco and health at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, says the findings show that people may have a misled attitude towards quitting. Make a promise, set a date and stick to it. It also helps if people don’t give in to the temptation of just taking a puff or two.
If you’re a smoker looking to quit, good for you.
Enrollees in the gradual-quit group did get to choose whether, in the two-week period over which they were to stop smoking, they would taper their daily cigarettes, observe smoke-free periods, or smoke on a schedule.
The same researchers later analysed 23 trials with data concerning more than 9,000 women who had signed up to programmes aiming to help them quit smoking. Six months later, 22 percent of the group still held strong.
Results showed that 39 percent of the gradual quitters could keep their hands off cigarettes, compared to 49 percent of people in the sudden cessation group.
The abrupt-quitters were issued nicotine patches, which they wore for the two weeks leading up to their “quit day”. Those who said they preferred gradually cutting down before the study began were less likely than others to still be abstinent from cigarettes at this point. “It provided them with an extra thing to do, which may have put them off quitting altogether”. However, a lot of smokers prefer to take a more gradual approach, meaning that they plan to cut back on the amount they smoke over time.
The researchers acknowledge that this is hardly the last word on the best way to quit.
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Slow and steady won’t win the race to quit smoking, one recent study finds. Your own success in quitting and staying that way is what really counts, and you have some control over that.
