New Stop Smoking Pill No More Effective Than Other Aids

by:Patsy Hamilton

The newest “stop smoking pill” is Varenicline, sold under the brand name Chantix in the US and Champix in Europe and Canada. This stop smoking medication was approved by the FDA in August 2006 and was approved for sale in Europe shortly thereafter.
The normal FDA review period of 10 months was shortened to six months for Chantix, allowing the drug to be placed on the market more quickly. According to the FDA’s press release, the new stop smoking pill received a “priority review” because of its “significant potential benefit to public health”.
The fact is that Chantix, although it is considered a “unique” compound, derives chemically from cytisine, which has been used as a “stop smoking medication” for over 40 years in Eastern Europe. Cytisine is a toxic compound that acts very similar to nicotine.
After analyzing accumulated data involving thousands of smokers, researchers at the University of Geneva concluded that “Cytisine may be effective for smoking cessation.” Coincidentally, the Geneva review was released in August of 2006.
Advertising for this “new” stop smoking pill claims that Chantix is more effective than Zyban, the name given to the anti-depressant Welbutrin, when it is prescribed as a stop smoking medication. The fact is that Chantix was only slightly more effective than Zyban in only two of the five independent studies that were completed and patients in the study also received daily counseling.
Over the years, several different anti-depressants have been prescribed as a stop smoking medication. Nicotine replacement therapy, gums, patches, lozenges and nasal spray are commonly used. The gums and patches are sold over the counter in the United States. Overall, studies have shown that about 80% of all smokers will return to smoking within the first year, regardless of the therapy they chose to use.
In April 2007, Pfizer research and development published a study concluding that people could safely take the new stop smoking pill for 52 weeks or one year. The FDA has only approved Chantix for 12 weeks of use, followed by an additional 12 weeks if the person has stopped smoking.
The knowledge that most people return to smoking in the first year may have prompted the Pfizer study, but the results do not indicate that the new stop smoking medication is any more effective than other drugs, including nicotine replacement. Only 53.8% of the smokers completed the study. Of those who did, only 36.7% had not returned to smoking.
In other words, of the 251 smokers who began the study, only 49 completed the study and were still not smoking after one year. Those numbers indicate that Chantix is only effective 19% of the time. Placebo (inactive substances) when combined with a support program is effective 14% of the time. In fact, in a new study published in June 2007, researchers concluded that counseling is just as effective as any stop smoking medication currently on the market.
The researchers went on to say that counseling is the “sole approach without any adverse effects”. Negative side effects of the new stop smoking pill are similar to those of nicotine replacement, including nausea, headache, vomiting, insomnia and abnormal dreams, with the added side effect of altering one’s sense of taste.

More Restricted Rules for Smoking Area

Smoking is restricted or banned in almost all public places and cigarette companies are no longer allowed to advertise on TV, radio, and in many magazines. Today we're more aware about how bad smoking is for our health. The only thing that really helps a person avoid the problems associated with smoking is staying smoke free. Currently more than 90% of Marriott guest rooms are already non-smoking and smoking is prohibited in many public spaces due to local laws. But, as we all know that smoking is like a slow poison and the only work of smoking is to destroy the person, who is having it with such a pleasure.
Health
Today we're more aware about how bad smoking is for our health. Over the long term, smoking leads people to develop health problems like cancer, emphysema (breakdown of lung tissue), organ damage, and heart disease. Smoking can also cause fertility problems and can impact sexual health in both men and women. The consequences of smoking may seem very far off, but long-term health problems are not the only hazard of smoking. Because smoking restricts blood vessels, it can prevent oxygen and nutrients from getting to the skin — which is why smokers often appear pale and unhealthy. And people with certain health conditions, like asthma, become more sick if they smoke (and often if they're just around people who smoke).
Public
Currently more than 90 percent of Marriott guest rooms are already non-smoking and smoking is prohibited in many public spaces due to local laws. By the end of 2008, all enclosed public places and workplaces will be smoke free. These changes will go a long way toward protecting members of the public from passive smoking; by giving them the option of choosing to drink in a pub that has chosen not to allow smoking. It appears that there are only two options left; either accept the opinions of pro-smoking organizations such as the Freedom Organization for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (FOREST) that passive smoking is not harmful and that smokers have a right to smoke wherever they choose or; ban smoking in all enclosed public places to protect workers from ETS.
In conclusion, smoking is an avoidable cause of death. To be twenty-four hours without smoking is to suffer worse tortures than the lost. So I am not discouraging safe smoking because it is true that millions are going to smoke, but you could at least throw a little relevant information into your package to inform the people whom you are letting know indirectly that smoking is not dangerous. To quit smoking is not an easy task for the smoker. One major obstacle on your way to quit smoking is the making smoking as part of your daily routine.
By Sunantha Yancharoen

Stop Smoking Now If You Want To Live Longer - Stop Smoking

Tobacco Is Addictive
In the US, tobacco became so popular that it was used as currency, when bartering for goods. Because of its popularity, the early settlers created fire-curing and charcoal-curing, as a way to extend tobacco's shelf life when the product was being shipped across the seas. Television addicts are a relatively new breed, especially since television itself has only been around for about 50 years, nowhere near as long as alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
Tobacco is a little different because the substance itself is addictive. In 1990, 50 percent of the mortality (over 1-million deaths annually) in the United States from the 10 leading causes of death was linked to addictive behaviors such as tobacco use, poor dietary habits and activity, alcohol misuse, illicit drug use, and risky sexual practices.
Smoking Is Addictive
I started smoking when I was a sophomore in college, one cigarette a night so I could sleep. After three months of smoking one cigarette a day I was hooked. It is at this point that the act of smoking becomes addictive, not because of the smoke itself, but because of the substance in it called nicotine. But, during the middle of the 20th century, health officials started to be concerned about how cigarette smoking was affecting the publics' health. In 1964, the US Surgeon General issued a report stating that there was relationship between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer.
There is no need to go into the harm that this kind of smoking does to the body common sense tells you that smoking is bad for you.
By Richard Davis Waterhouse