For smokers, cigars or cigarettes are an integral part of daily life. Many reach for them first thing in the morning and struggle to function without them, quickly becoming irritable and grumpy.
There are many methods to quit smoking including; nicotine pouches, nicotine gum, toothpicks nicotine patches many more.
On this site, we take an in-depth look at how nicotine patches can be used to kick this habit and leave it behind for good.
Many smokers are reluctant to talk about giving up. It’s understandable, as smoking has slowly become a social stigma over recent years and decades, and while puffing away was once considered an elegant and sophisticated pastime, virtually everyone has now accepted the extreme damage it can do, particularly to the lungs and heart, but also to the lips, mouth, and throat, and virtually any other part of the body. It’s been proven repeatedly to increase the risk of cancer, heart disease, and stroke, so much as smokers try to rationalize cutting down as being a good solution, it’s no substitute for quitting altogether.
So, why use nicotine patches?
What Nicotine Patches Do For Smokers
Quite simply, a nicotine patch aims to provide a smoker with the nicotine hit they’re used to, or probably nearer the truth, depend upon to get through the day usually. The idea is that over time you slowly decrease the amount of nicotine that’s delivered to your bloodstream by using patches with successively lower doses.
It’s a straightforward and effective process, but that shouldn’t be interpreted as meaning that it will be easy. Smoking manifests itself as an addiction in many ways, and the physical effects of nicotine withdrawal are just one. Weaning your body off nicotine is, as you might expect, half the battle, but you also need to be prepared for the other symptoms that will test your willpower while giving up. The best example of this is what to do with your hands. You may have been used to going for a cigarette during breaks at work for years and suddenly find a big hole where that social activity used to sit. Some people continue to go outside with the smokers even though they’re not smoking themselves, but that’s often an unnecessary test of your strength to resist. It’s probably a better approach to make things as easy as possible and hang out with nonsmokers, at least while you let the nicotine patch do its job and keep you from thinking about lighting up as much as possible.
Nicotine Patch Brands
Buying patches is very straightforward; you can pick them up from the drug store very quickly. That’s probably not the cheapest option, though, and you might be investing a lot over the coming months in your journey to a smoke-free life. I say invest because you’re investing in your future health. It’s much better to look at the money you’re spending as an investment rather than a cost, as that will make it far less likely that you begrudged buying the patches.
What you will need to do, though, is choose a brand to use. It may be that you try a few and see which works best for you, but they all do the same primary job, provide you with a source of nicotine that’s not a cigarette.
Let’s have a look at some of the more popular brands.
Glaxo Smith Kline
The Glaxo Smith Kline nicotine patch range is called NicoDerm and is a sister range to their Nicorette gums. Both are designed to help smokers quit and intended as a substitute for smoking, not to be used when cutting down.
