Although anti-smoking pills are the most popular among quitters, there are many other forms of medication on the drug market in the country today that help quit smoking permanently. Which technique is most effective for the patient, the physician decides on the basis of a thorough clinical and laboratory examination and the individual's individual characteristics. It is important to understand that all medications work in different ways. Pills are the most numerous and effective group of anti-smoking medications.
The multivector harms of smoking
The danger of nicotine extends not only to heavy smokers but also to those around you. It's about secondhand smoke. Relatives and friends are forced to put up with tobacco smoke while standing next to a smoker. This is the risk of oncology, infertility, obstructive pulmonary diseases, pathological changes in the heart and blood vessels, kidneys.
Scientifically proven fact: Children who like to lift weights have significant developmental delay, low intelligence, limited horizons. This is a consequence of lack of oxygen. The blood does not receive the necessary amount of oxygen, which leads to the development of hypoxia. The neurons in the brain in such conditions are, as it were, under oppression, they cannot fully perform their functions.
The heart, pumping blood saturated with carbon dioxide, experiences excessive stress through the hypotonic vessels. In the context of atherosclerosis as a result of metabolic disturbances and changes in blood viscosity, this becomes the cause of heart attacks and strokes.
Furthermore, this situation applies equally to smokers and those who have never had a cigarette in their mouth.
Tobacco smoke fans are at risk for lower extremity vascular diseases: intermittent claudication, varicose veins, endarteritis obliterans, diabetic foot, polyneuropathy.
But the nervous system still suffers more than anything. Toxic damage to nerve cells, receptors and fibers leads to uncontrollable headaches, mood swings, irrational irritability, memory loss, loss of ability to concentrate, concentrate. Peripheral nerves cause the development of neuritis, the most famous of which is sciatica. Having arisen once, it does not leave the patient for life.
The lungs are the first to find toxins from tobacco smoke. Furthermore, the attack on the structure of the bronchi and on the organ's parenchyma comes from two sides: by the blood and locally, with direct irritation of the mucous membrane. There are tracheitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, COPD. It causes persistent respiratory failure, emphysema, asthma, cancer.
The digestive system also comes into direct contact with nicotine and cigarette tar metabolites. They become triggers of erosive and ulcerative processes, hepatitis, gallstone disease and cirrhosis. The alkaloid belladonna takes the kidneys hostage. They are the ones who metabolize the venom, while destructive processes occur in the organ itself, sclerosis of the nephrons, development of chronic renal failure.
Libido in men and women, reproductive, erectile function suffers.
Appearance - Repels others: gray, dry, flaky skin, brittle nails, thinning hair, yellow teeth, and disgusting breath. Calcium is eliminated from bones, causing osteoporosis and pathological fractures.
This multifaceted effect of nicotine a priori requires a multifaceted approach to restoring the body after quitting smoking, presupposes multivector assistance in tobacco separation. To do this, pharmacologists offer smoking pills and other forms of multidirectional action.
How do nicotine paraffins work?
It must be said that, recently, the traditional forms of drugs have been changing, adapting to people's habits. Today we see a lot of para-pills in pharmacies.
Noteworthy:
- lollipops- representatives of replacement therapy. They contain a minimal dose of nicotine which, when ingested, eases withdrawal symptoms caused by stopping the flow of tobacco to the blood and brain. In other words, it helps not to feel unhappy when giving up cigarettes. An undisputed advantage is the inclusion of herbal extracts in the product's composition and the fact that they can be prepared independently at home. Diabetes patients must be treated with caution. A doctor's consultation about adjusting the dose of sugar-lowering drugs is required.
- chewable tablets- regardless of the country of origin, they have the same anti-nicotine effect: they replace the absence of nicotine. They contain 2-4 mg of a medicinal substance and act similarly to lozenges. The main advantage and difference is that the alkaloid gradually penetrates into the blood and brain as the product is chewed. Usually within half an hour, no less.
- Spray- This is the same liquid anti-tobacco medicine. It's a quick help when you want to take a drag on a cigarette. It reaches blood flow and neurons in just a minute.
- Correction- a representative of transdermal driving in reducing craving for pyridine poison. Maximum comfort to stop smoking. It enters the body through the skin, starts acting instantly, practically does not bind to albumin. It is metabolized and excreted by the kidneys. Therefore, it should be used with caution in patients with organ failure.
Today, pharmacologists offer anti-smoking injections. Basically a vaccine against cigarettes. This is innovation. The working principle is to break the vicious circle. Once in the blood, the components of the solution trigger an immune response in the body. Antibodies produced by the defense system bind to the pyridine alkaloid, forming a very large antigen-antibody complex. It is unable to overcome the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain from any harmful substances.
The center of happiness remains intact. It turns out that the person smokes, but has no pleasure. The chain of addiction breaks and the patient gives up smoking.
However, in the context of all the innovations, pill drugs remain the most sought after.
Smoking drug groups
Modern pharmacology divides all tobacco addiction drugs into several main groups:
- The first includes substances that contain chemical compounds that affect the body, such as a pyridine alkaloid. They activate cholinergic receptors like nicotine, mimicking its presence. As a result, the person experiences the same sensations as a smoked cigarette. But tobacco toxins do not enter the bloodstream and neurons, the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract does not burn. However, the patient still needs the belladonna poison.
- The second directly affects the brain centers responsible for the desire to smoke. Those are antidepressants.
- The third - the most interesting one, blocks the action mechanism of nicotine, killing the urge to smoke a cigarette, as this process does not give any pleasure.
Anti-tobacco Medicines
They are groups of all currently used smoking pill formulations, with mechanism of action and contraindications for use - a reliable assistant for anyone who decides to break a bad habit. It's necessary because tobacco lovers need to understand: addiction rests on two pillars - the physical and mental craving for nicotine.
So, some of these medications help to say goodbye to physiological addiction, others - to psychological.
Wrong selection can end in total failure. Experienced smokers are advised to pay attention to the first group of medications, beginners - to the third.
Nicotine analogues
The composition of these funds contains alkaloids in contact with cholinergic receptors.
The mechanism of action is the replacement of tobacco poison, an attempt to take over its functions. These drugs activate the same biochemical processes, sensations, but without negative consequences.
There is one more nuance. Nerve endings are extremely sensitive. Any overdose causes many negative symptoms. Therefore, if its ingestion is accompanied by the use of cigarettes, there is tachycardia, nausea, shortness of breath, dizziness, sweating, and fainting.
This so "impresses" the organism that the idea of the danger of repetition is clearly fixed in the subcortex.
All drugs in this group have common contraindications:
- Carrying a baby and breastfeeding.
- PUD and duodenal ulcer, erosive processes in the intestine, pancreatitis.
- Atherosclerotic changes in vessels and associated ischemia of the myocardium, brain, hypertension, encephalopathy, heart failure.
- Disorders in the blood clotting system.
- Obstructive diseases of the bronchopulmonary system.
Nicotine containing products
Low-dose nicotine pills help patients to gradually stop smoking permanently, reduce the dose of tobacco they use, or survive a temporary forced smoking cessation. This is the same replacement therapy, but not with belladonna poison simulants, but alone.
The therapeutic effect is due to the ingestion of a pyridine alkaloid by the body without harmful impurities and in small volumes. The dosage is gradually reduced. To the point where quitting is easy and natural.
The contraindications for drug use in this group are a little different:
- Intolerance to the belladonna alkaloid components on an individual basis.
- Up to 18 years old.
- Pregnancy and lactation period.
- Schizophrenia.
- Failure of kidneys, liver, heart muscle, peptic ulcer.
Solanaceous Alkaloid Blockers
The essence of its action is to prevent the penetration of nicotine into cholinergic receptors. The very meaning of smoking is lost in the absence of pleasure from it.
Herbal medicines are included in this group. They contain calamus and mint, which, with their strong taste sensations, cause an aversion to the bad habit, suppressing the urge to smoke.
Products without alkaloids
They are parallel in their mechanism of action to the previous group, but do not block the contact of cholinergic receptors with nicotine, but interact directly with the brain centers responsible for pleasure, suppressing them. Smoking becomes a burden.
What is the reason for the different effects of the drugs in this group on patients is not entirely clear. It is believed that the whole issue lies in the technical synthesis of varenicline by different manufacturers.
Side effects are quite common: headaches, nausea, cramps in the epigastrium, increased blood pressure, insomnia at night and drowsiness, apathy during the day. Rhinorrhea, sore throat, shortness of breath leading to respiratory failure and pulmonary edema are common.
antidepressants
These pills, unlike all other drugs, increase the activity of the brain centers, stimulating the production of the happiness hormones and thus stopping the effect of nicotine.
tranquilizers
Anxiety medications help the smoker to get out of the stressful situation of quitting.
Drugs in this group are contraindicated for pregnant and lactating women and for individual intolerance.
Homeopathy
It is now generally accepted that homeopathic remedies act like a placebo. Even so, there are three new generations of effective medications that can reliably and safely alleviate smoking cessation.
The mechanism of action of these pills is to detoxify the body and remove the psychological addiction to tobacco.
There are several usage restrictions: intolerance to individual fund components and allergic mood of the body. Diabetics need to take them with caution, as glucose is one of the constituents. The regimen and dosage are determined by the physician, without whose consultation treatment is impossible.
Each person can independently assess the harmfulness and usefulness of smoking pills according to key parameters, but it does not give an unambiguous answer to the question of which medicine is best. This is due to the fact that currently there is no ideal anti-smoking drug that would meet all the requirements. Advertising is the engine of progress. But the truth is more expensive.