According to one study, it is not a good idea to reduce your cigarettes to half, by replacing them with nicotine gum. The same applies to quitting cold turkey and using tobacco replacements without tapering off on cigarettes.
314 adults were studied by Dr. Jean-Francois Etter at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, on average the subjects smoked 15 cigarettes a day.
Half of the smokers were told to use nicotine gum 4 weeks before and 8 weeks after the date they decided to quit, and they also had to reduce their cigarettes by half by that date. On the other hand, the rest of the subjects were asked to use the same gum, but they had to quit smoking abruptly and to use the gum immediately after they quit. They were not given any counseling and they were only allowed to chew 10 pieces of gum daily.
In the short term, smoking cessation rates were about the same for both groups, but it was found that in the long run, the group that was asked to quit abruptly was more successful. Etter says, "This undermines the cut-down-quit strategy and may imply that abrupt quitting is more effective than gradual quitting, as suggested by other investigators."
So if you want to quit it seems that a lot of will-power is needed and there is no need to draw out the process, the sooner you decide to quit the better.
[Via: Reuters]
