How to quit smoking… Learn the science of nicotine addiction.
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Just part of the ugliness.
This post isn’t about teaching you how to quit smoking, it is about teaching myself. As always you are welcome to learn along with me.
It worked for weight loss, so why not use the same method again.
Explore, Nurture, Understand, Invent, Plan, Implement, Refine, Invent more, Plan better, Implement again (please see my about page if you haven’t yet).
This post took a while in the making, but not so much because of technical difficulty (although the theory isn’t nearly as simple as many sources make it out to be). The reason it took time is that in the back of my mind, I knew clicking on ‘Publish’ would be the start of my personal war against…
The death sticks.
It’s high time.
I would like to thank Oscar for his post, which “planted the seed” again when I read it a couple weeks ago. It centers around his success with the Allen Carr method. If you haven’t heard about that method, you may be lucky enough that it works for you as well. The following video will give you the basics.
If you think there is something to it, why not buy the book from Oscar’s Amazon link and help him out. I am not going to link to it, it didn’t work for me (I tried it years ago).
It may be all you need, if you’re lucky.
The rest of this post will aim to explain just why it may not be the case. Late scientific developments reveal that nicotine addiction isn’t the same for everyone. There are different smoker profiles (behavior and genetics). Some will find it easy to quit using the Allen Carr method.
Darn luck, I’m not one of them. Let’s find out why.
The Science of Tobacco Addiction.
Nicotine starts a process that leads to the secretion of a rather long list of chemical transmitters, the most important of which is dopamine. Dopamine stimulates the brain’s reward circuits. These are responsible for behavioral patterns. They cause psychological addiction, using natural habit forming processes that make positive reinforcement training efficient.
But in itself this process is only slightly addictive.
It is the combination of the effects of nicotine with those of harman and norharman that can potentially multiply the addictive effects.
These two molecules are side-effects of tobacco combustion. They are, like certain types of anti-depressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Their effect is to inhibit the breaking down of molecules such as… dopamine. This results in much longer half-life, and a much longer lasting psychological imprint of dopamine in the reward circuits.
This class of anti-depressants does not have the same effect on everyone. There is a certain degree of sensitivity that largely depends on genetics. In short, if you are, let’s say immune to these inhibitors (little or no interference with the dopamine breakdown process), then your addiction to cigarettes is much, much slighter than if you are very sensitive to them (dopamine sticks around much longer).
Increased Reward Pathway Sensitivity.
A chain of compensatory effects triggered by nicotine leads to a higher sensitivity to reward pathways. Other drugs like heroin or cocaine have the opposite effect.
This makes heroin and cocaine addiction more violent. They make it much more difficult to substitute their psychological effect with anything else that triggers an efficient reward reaction, because your brain’s ability to trigger that reward reaction has been significantly damaged. In short, one of the direct effects of heroin or cocaine is to make it much more difficult to replace their artificial high with a more natural one.
Fortunately (and unfortunately) this isn’t the case with nicotine.
Fortunately because substitutes to smoking are more efficient. Unfortunately because the effect of nicotine itself on reward pathways (which are more sensitive) increase with time, strengthening the psychological addiction.
Also unfortunately because one of the most common substitutes to cigarettes for ex-smokers is comfort food (it triggers a stronger reward response because reward pathway sensitivity has been previously increased by nicotine). This partly explain why they gain weight.
More about weight gain.
Using food as a substitute for nicotine isn’t the only explanation for weight gain caused by cigarette withdrawal.
Nicotine actually increases the body’s metabolism, which can account for 2-300 extra calories burned each day. This leads to 2 extra pounds a month if dieting or exercise patterns don’t change when that effect is lost due to smoking cessation.
I don’t mean to provide anyone with an excuse to continue smoking, but I am. So let’s debunk that right now. You have a very effective, free weight loss plan on this very site.
No more excuses.
Additives to cigarettes that make you more addicted.
Not all cigarettes are created equal. Some tobacco companies have made them both more efficient, and more lethal.
Ammonia.
Ammonia has been added to most cigarette brands to lower the pH of cigarette smoke, thus making it more volatille. The effects of this strategy is to substantially speed up nicotine transport to the brain.
While it should take 7 minutes for nicotine to reach the brain and take effect, ammonia makes it close to instantaneous.
This is no small thing.
(Since ammonia stinks, it has caused the need to add flavor agents as well).
Theobromine.
Theobromine is extracted from cocoa, and its effects are the dilatation of broncholites. This increases the exchange surface between blood vessels and the lungs, and causes the smoker to absorb higher amounts of nicotine, ammonia, and the rest of the 4000 toxic chemicals found in cigarette smoke.
Note: these two substances are not in the natural form of tobacco. They are intentionally added to increase addiction.
Strategy.
This is the extent of my technical knowledge on the composition and effects of cigarette smoke. I think it is enough to actually understand the problem.
The next step, invent, is tricky business. First, I have come to realize that there is no easy solution. If you have high sensitivity to monoamine oxidase inhibitors (like me), cigarette withdrawal is going to be a rough ride.
Reminder: these inhibitors have allowed dopamine, secreted as a result of nicotine, to remain in your brain much longer than it should have with each cigarette. This increased the addictive potency of nicotine.
But there are two ways to make it much easier (but not quite as easy as I would like it to be).
Change cigarette brands.
Ammonia and theobromine make things worse, so let’s kick them out. There are several tobacco brands out there that advertise their “no additives” policy on their cartons. I will not name them, as the point of this post is obviously not to promote any cigarette brand, but there is a good chance you know about them already. If not, you will find them easily if you look for them.
Expect to want to smoke more in the beginning as a result of changing to one of those brands.
Take advantage of the increased reward pathway sensitivity.
I don’t think ex-smokers choose comfort food as a substitute consciously. It just happens to be the most readily available for most. Be aware that nicotine has gifted you with at least this much: sensitivity to anything that activates a reward pathway.
Like the endorphins secreted after exercising.
Time to review our choice of habits.
Don’t count on nicotine substitutes.
If you have a strong addiction, chances are that is due to a high sensitivity to harman and norharman (the monoamine oxidase inhibitors). There won’t be any in the patches, gums or inhalers.
They can still help, but following the logic of the lingering of dopamine as the cause of stronger addiction, patches will be more effective (constant, steady supply) than gums or inhalers (one-time hits that will be quickly broken down without the inhibitors).
Further down that same logic, causing dopamine to linger seems like a great way to feed the addiction (Allen Carr would be right in that sense).
Don’t feel guilty.
The key for this is to understand that some have it easier than others, and why. That is kind of a liberation in itself.
If you’ve ever wondered why you couldn’t, while knowing people that could, it might have made you feel like &#@. Chances are harman and norharman really are making it much harder for you.
Don’t expect a miracle, it doesn’t exist and it never will.
I’ve been guilty of this for years. “This isn’t a good time” or “I’ll find something that works later”. It will never be a good time. There never will be anything that works.
If quitting smoking is painful today, it will be even worse tomorrow (even more addicted). Now is as good a time as any to get it over with.
So let’s bite the bullet now so we don’t have to later.
So this is what I am going to try.
- Change brands (done).
- Increase exercise (taking advantage of the known effect of endorphins on reward pathways, which have been rendered more sensitive by nicotine).
- Quit on September 30th 2009. Hopefully the brand change will have taken effect. If not, too bad. It’s going to be hell.
- Accountability: Now I am going to make a big fool of myself if I don’t quit, won’t I?
If you think this page can help people you know, or even people you don’t know quit smoking or not start, please share as you see fit.
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Good post and thanks for the link. I learned a lot of things I didn’t know. It doesn’t matter which method you use. The important is to try until you reach your goal. Good luck.
Hi Oscar, glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for stopping by!
If only I can persuade myself to quit smoking….
Hi Karlil,
I hear you!
Perhaps changing to a no-additives brand can help you though. I can feel it losening that grip already. Then from what I’ve found I would say there is no miracle to be expected. It will require significant effort if you are sensitive to harman / norharman.
Good luck!
I’ve never smoked and I don’t intend to, but this article makes a lot of sense to me. Some people quit smoking cold turkey, while others have great difficulty, even with the best nicotine patches and 12-step programs in the world. It’s easy to dismiss those people as undisciplined, but for many of them it is extremely difficult to end the addiction, as you have discovered.
Hi Richard,
Good for you for not starting!
That’s right, we have an excuse
But the primary benefit of discovering this is that ending the guilt and the illusions that there is an easy way out, I am hoping that it will motivate people to take the bull by the horns.
I’ll see just how well that works on Oct 1st-15th…
Thanks for stopping by!