Stopping smoking: the 5 best methods

Want to stop smoking? Congratulations. That’s a good idea. Now you need plenty of willpower – to change both your habits and your lifestyle. On average, smokers need three to five attempts to give up smoking for good. We’ll show you how.

Text: Brigitte Wenger; photo: iStock

It’s definitely a good idea to give up smoking. Just 20 minutes after your last cigarette, your pulse and blood pressure return to a normal level. After eight hours, your blood starts to supply your organs with sufficient oxygen again. 24 hours later, your risk of suffering a heart attack falls, which shows how stressful smoking is for your heart.

A few days after your last cigarette, you’ll find that food tastes better. Over the coming weeks and months, you’ll have fewer coughing fits and shortness of breath. And after ten years, your risk of lung cancer is only half as high as when you smoked. In Switzerland, 9,500 people die each year as a result of tobacco consumption.

The facts speak for themselves. But what’s the best way to give up smoking?

These are the most successful methods:

Stop smoking behavioural therapy

Nicotine replacement products

Medication

Books, apps, stop smoking hotline

Hypnosis and acupuncture

3 questions for the expert

Claudia Künzli is head of health promotion and prevention at Lungenliga Schweiz.

Claudia Künzli, the risk of a relapse after stopping smoking is high. How can this be prevented?

A relapse is usually connected to a specific situation – it’s about avoiding these situations. If you liked having a cigarette with your coffee in the morning, switch to tea instead. If you always used to smoke in the same place, avoid that place. If you always smoked with the same friends, tell them you’ve stopped smoking – that makes you accountable and they know they shouldn’t offer you any more cigarettes. Behavioural therapy will help you identify these triggers. And the support will motivate you to keep going, even if you have a relapse.

How can you avoid gaining weight?

Unfortunately, it’s normal to gain two to five kilogrammes. The nicotine in cigarettes affects metabolism and burns calories. However, this settles down again over time; until then, nicotine replacement products can ease the symptoms. Make sure that you don’t just swap smoking for eating and drinking – do more exercise instead.

Are e-cigarettes a good alternative?

It may have been a noble idea to replace smoking with perhaps less harmful vapour. However, our experience shows that swapping to e-cigarettes isn’t an effective way to stop smoking, but actually encourages people to take it up. After only a short time, many smokers start smoking traditional tobacco products as well as e-cigarettes, which doesn’t bring any health benefits.