Preventive Medicine Center

Good Health For All

1000 Asylum Avenue, #2109
Hartford, CT 06105
(860) 549-3444 or (800) 789-PREV
[email protected]

Smoking Control

Smoking Control

Smoking is enjoyable and destructive.
It calms and kills: Cancer of the throat/lips/lungs; emphysema/bronchitis/pneumonia/shortness of breath/chronic cough; heart disease/heart attack/ angioplasty/stroke; back and disk trouble; and increased lung disease and birth defects in children exposed to smoke. There are many medications to assist one's effort to stop smoking; the nicotine inhaler/nasal spray/patches or gum, acupuncture, clonidine tablets or Catapres patches, Buspar, bupropion (Wellbutrin or Zyban) and anti-depressants like Paxil, Luvox, Zoloft and desipramine.

  1. Every time you want to smoke, make yourself wait 60 seconds by counting "1 no cigarette, 2 no cigarettes, 3...up to 60 no cigarettes." Just by doing this, you will reduce your smoking 50%!!
  2. Nicoret gum, and nicotine patches are available over-the-counter and are cheaper at the large wholesale houses. To save money, the patches may be cut in ½, used during the day only, 2 days in a row. That is, each patch can last you 4 days. Some patients require the higher dose patches.
  3. Let someone else hold your cigarettes for you. They must be agreeable to giving you a cigarette without an argument one minute after you request it. That's how I stopped smoking.
  4. Bupropion may be helpful. 75, 100 or 150 mg tablets worked up gradually and progressively to 2 times a day if necessary. Use 1 a day for 3 days and up to twice daily for 7-12 weeks or as directed. The Nicotrol Inhaler can be used 6-16 puffs per day (read directions). The Nicotine Nasal Spray can be used at 1-2 puffs an hour up to 40 puffs per day.
  5. Don't buy cigarettes for yourself anymore. Buy cigarettes for people around you who still smoke and bum cigarettes from them whenever you want/need one. Call 1-800-U-CAN-QUIT or 1-800-4-SMOKERS OR 1-800-NICODERM or 888-890-2STOP.
  6. Talk to your friends: Complain/wish/want/moan.
  7. Change your brand, switch to cigars, buy a pipe, but don't keep doing the same old thing. Avoid coffee. Try Inka coffee substitute or Raja's Cup. Avoid sweets/meat/ fried food/chocolate and stay out of smoking situations such as bars or with friends who smoke.
  8. Eat a very high fiber, low fat whole grain-vegetable-bean type diet. Try Smoke Enders, take a walk, drink a glass of water.
  9. Try not to smoke for more than an hour after you first awaken and try not to smoke at any meal. Make a specific effort to get your cigarettes down to under 10 per day, that is the addiction level.
  10. Visualize yourself as a non-smoker.
  11. If you must have a cigarette, take 3 or 4 drags and then gently tamp it out. Don't throw it away; the next time you want a cigarette, re-light that same cigarette.
  12. Try inexpensive "panatella" cigars if you must smoke.

H. Robert Silverstein, MD
Hartford, CT