2024-09-09 14:22:32
If you stop smoking, you are doing something good for your health. According to a recent study, three strategies in particular can help.
Smoking is the greatest avoidable health risk in Germany. Every year, over 127,000 people die in this country as a result of tobacco consumption. That is over 300 people per day. Many more suffer from cancer, cardiovascular diseases or other diseases that are partly caused by cigarette consumption.
The good news: If you give up smoking, you can become as healthy as a non-smoker. The body regenerates over time. However, quitting smoking is not easy. According to a new review study by the University of Oxford in England, there are three particularly effective aids that help smokers to quit. These include two pharmaceutical active ingredients and e-cigarettes.
For their study, the researchers evaluated 14 studies on smoking cessation published between 2021 and 2023 by the nonprofit Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group. The current Oxford study thus summarizes the current state of knowledge.
The result: Smokers find it easiest to give up cigarettes if they use or take a substitute product instead. According to the study, e-cigarettes containing nicotine help test subjects to quit smoking, as do the prescription drug varenicline and the freely available, plant-based drug cytisine.
Cytisine is a plant-based active ingredient found in the seeds of the golden rain tree (Laburnum anagyroides). It has a similar chemical structure to nicotine and can therefore bind to the same receptors in the body as nicotine. According to the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BsArM), it is intended to alleviate the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. In Germany, only one drug containing cytisine is currently approved, Asmoken. In other countries, especially in Eastern Europe, other drugs containing the active ingredient are approved.
According to the study, slow-acting nicotine patches combined with faster-acting nicotine products such as gum, lozenges and sprays were also effective, but less effective than other products. The active ingredient bupropion also helped with smoking cessation, but was occasionally associated with psychological side effects.
- Read also: How quickly the body recovers after quitting smoking
The authors note, however, that many subjects who used e-cigarettes to quit continued the habit afterwards. These people therefore simply switched to another source of nicotine in the long term. Nevertheless, the study authors report that fewer signs of health damage could be detected in the blood of these subjects. This means that e-cigarettes are not healthy, but at least less harmful, they conclude.
However, there are more and more new studies that suggest that e-cigarettes, especially the flavored versions, are more harmful to health than previously thought. For example, a study by researchers from South Korea shows that ex-tobacco smokers who switched to e-cigarettes were more likely to develop lung cancer than ex-smokers who managed to completely abstain (you can find the entire study here).
Researchers at the Institute for Therapy and Health Research in Kiel also examined flavors in e-cigarettes. Their result: the flavorings increase the addictive potential and can also significantly increase the absorption of toxic substances through deeper inhalation. You can find out more about the study here.
- Read also: Quitting smoking – how to get through the first ten days better
“There are a number of effective forms of support for smoking cessation. Cytisine, varenicline and e-cigarettes all increase people’s chances of successfully quitting smoking,” explains Jonathan Livingstone-Banks, study author from the University of Oxford.
The success rate also increases significantly when accompanying counseling or behavioral therapy is used. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, co-author from the University of Massachusetts, emphasizes: “These programs work best when they reward people for quitting smoking.”