Smoking - break the habit

The dangers of smoking are varied and extensive with many long-term, painful and terminal conditions being caused as a direct result of it. However long you have been smoking, and however much you have been doing so, there is no doubt that quitting will lead to a better standard of general health for you.

Some common and dangerous health problems caused by smoking can include:

• Lung, throat, liver, mouth, bladder cancer
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Infertility
• Kidney failure
• High blood pressure
• Cervical cancer
• Erectile Dysfunction
• Heart Disease
• Stroke

Although smoking does not guarantee any of these conditions, it can do incredible damage and raises the risk of you developing them significantly. Indeed, in some more severe cases, people can develop a combination of the health problems above as a result of smoking.

However long you have been smoking, there will be a benefit to your health if you quit. Although the damage caused by smoking may not always be entirely reversible, it can be significantly reduced over time as long as you are able to quit smoking.

Just 72 hours after quitting, your blood pressure will have improved and returned to the normal level; the carbon monoxide levels in your blood stream will have halved; your oxygen levels will return to normal. Aside from these benefits that you will see shortly after quitting, stopping smoking will also lead to a dramatic fall in the risk of many of the health issues mentioned in the previous section, as well as leading to a drop in some of these common smoking side effects:

• Coughing
• Breathing trouble
• Poor circulation
• Discoloured teeth

Aside from those common health and appearance side effects, quitting smoking can also lead to other positives, including a reduction in the smell of cigarette smoke that often clings to smoker's clothes, homes and cars, for example.

As with many other habits, quitting smoking is often a case of removing the temptation or rewiring your brain so that the habit becomes either less tempting or less satisfying, the same is the case with smoking. The most difficult part of quitting is the removal of nicotine, and it is this addictive substance that causes most smokers to fail. Fortunately, many techniques and options have been developed over the years to aid people in quitting smoking.

Several nicotine based over the counter options are available which supply the body with a small dose of nicotine so that a person can stop their smoking without feeling the symptoms of withdrawal. However, one concern with these options is that, as they do not eliminate nicotine altogether, they are not very effective at reducing a person's addiction to nicotine, which in many cases could lead to relapsing back into regular smoking.

Some of the more common quitting aids available include patches, gum, inhalers and sprays, although there is a prescription option available that has been proven to be the most effective form of quit smoking aid.

Champix is the only prescription, quit smoking aid available in the UK and has been proven to be the most effective option when combined with other habitual therapies. Champix works in two ways; firstly, it works to influence the nicotine receptors in the brain, lessening the signals telling your body that you are craving a cigarette; secondly, the treatment causes cigarettes to lose the feeling of satisfaction that they would normally bring so that, even if you do give in to the temptation, you do not get any satisfaction from doing so. This twofold approach is designed to maximise a person's chances of quitting, but also to ensure that the immediate need to smoke and the satisfaction caused by it are combated at once.

It is most often prescribed in a 12 week course, and the success rate of smokers who quit with its help is higher than with any other smoking cessation treatment or option. It is also important to remember that combining Champix with other manual, habit shifting exercises will raise your chances of quitting even further.

Champix prescription medication is available to purchase online from 121doc as long as you are suitable and safe to do so. You must be 18 years old and looking to quit in order to purchase the medication, but other than that it is likely that - if you are a smoker - you will be able to order this medication option. To order this treatment you simply need to complete a free, confidential online consultation. This will be checked by one of our doctors who, once they approve your consultation, will send a prescription onto our UK pharmacy. The prescription will then be checked, prepared, discreetly packed and dispatched for free next day delivery.