Smoking is a habit, it’s something which people do when they’re bored or out of repetition. When smokers successfully quit, it’s generally because they’ve found something else to do with their hands and minds in the time they’d usually smoke. Some take to carrying stress toys like Chinese worry balls or similar, others eat candy sticks or play with marbles and more often than not people take to eating. This is the tricky thing, smoking cigarettes suppresses the appetite meaning that suddenly quitting the habit can lead to a sudden desire to eat under stressful circumstances. It’s easy to fill the void that smoking leaves with food and though you’re unlikely to start smoking again if you do, you’ll find you’ve gained a bit of weight.
There are several varieties of drug which can help people kick addictive habits like smoking or other, less legal substance abuse. They’re opioid blockers which help to help to eliminate the desire for smoking, meaning you’ll get less cravings and those you do get will be less intense and less likely to pull you back into smoking.
One of these drugs, Naltrexone has been used to successfully lessen the weight gain factor of ladies who’ve quit smoking. Though there wasn’t any decrease in gain for men and in actuality the drug didn’t help women stop smoking any more than the placebo did, it as much as halved the amount of weight which those ladies who did successfully quite smoking gained.
This is great news if you’re determined to quit but worried about piling on the pounds but less useful if you need a bit of a kick in the bum to help you stop smoking in the first place. It looks like there simply isn’t a drug that will do it all, but then when has anything done everything?
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