Do Nicotine Patches Help You Quit Smoking

With the growing awareness of people on the adverse effects smoking has towards our health, more and more smokers are now trying to quit the habit once and for all. However, many smokers find this to be extremely difficult. This is partly due to the many withdrawal symptoms that smokers have to deal with the moment that they attempt to kick off their smoking habit. Oftentimes, many smokers that are trying to quit smoking find it extremely difficult to deal with these withdrawal symptoms and they end up going back to the habit.

This is the reason why some smokers that are trying to quit the habit resort to alleviating these withdrawal symptoms through the use of nicotine patches. In fact, out of all of the different methods that were recommended to help ease the withdrawal symptoms that come along with quitting the smoking habit, this remains to be, by far, the most popular.

How does it work? Cigarettes contain a compound called nicotine. Although it is not addictive, nicotine binds with nerve endings in the brain to cause the release of the hormone dopamine. This hormone is what makes us see smoking as a source of relief and pleasure. When the level of dopamine lowers in the bloodstream, the smokers begin to feel the withdrawal symptoms and as a result, end up lighting up another cigarette or getting back into the habit of smoking.

Nicotine patches help smokers quit the habit by slowly decreasing the amount of nicotine that binds in the nerve endings of the brain until the person comes to a point when he or she is now able to go around without having the urge to smoke anymore, even if they are no longer wearing the nicotine patches. Because the nicotine levels slowly decrease during the time when a person wears them, smokers, particularly those that have been smoking for a very long time, would be able to find the withdrawal symptoms a lot more bearable as opposed to quitting cold turkey without the help of a nicotine patch.

There is no doubt that nicotine patches have helped thousands of smokers to kick-off the habit once and for all. However, there are a handful of people that still relapse into the habit and even find themselves smoking while they are wearing the nicotine patches. The ineffectiveness of the use of nicotine patches to help you quit smoking is not on the nicotine patches, but on the determination and discipline on the part of the smoker. For the nicotine patch to help you to quit smoking once and for all, you have to resolve that you will not light another cigarette during the entire phase. More often than not, many of the times that people end up lighting a cigarette is not really because of the lowering of the dopamine levels in the bloodstream. Rather, it is because they had already developed the habit of lighting up a cigarette along with certain activities and certain times of the day. By maintaining discipline throughout the entire process, there is absolutely no doubt that nicotine patches can help you quit smoking for good.