Complaints & connections · borters.ch
The dependence is physical and real — but every quit attempt pays off, at any age.
Also known as: smoking cessation · tobacco dependence · quitting smoking · vaping
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Nicotine creates physical and psychological dependence — so quitting is hard, and that is not a lack of willpower. Nicotine keeps the addiction going; most of the harm comes from the other substances in tobacco smoke. Quitting is worthwhile at any age, and the body starts to recover very soon. Relapses are part of the path for many — every attempt brings you closer to freedom. With support, the chances are far higher than going it alone.
Counselling or cessation programmes clearly raise the odds — your doctor or pharmacy are good first contacts.
Patches, gum or spray ease withdrawal and roughly double the success rate.
Prescription medicines can reduce craving — discuss with a doctor.
Avoid or redesign high-trigger situations, find replacement actions.
Nicotine replacement covers the withdrawal without the smoke — patch for the baseline, gum or spray for the peaks. Varenicline partly occupies the receptor and takes away both: craving and reward. None of them decides the quit; they make the first weeks easier, when most relapses happen.
Nicotine reaches the brain in ten to twenty seconds; its half-life is about two hours, which is why the gap between cigarettes gets so short. Withdrawal signs begin within four to twenty-four hours, peak at three days and fade over two to four weeks. The craving itself lasts two to five minutes per wave. After twenty minutes the pulse falls, after twelve hours carbon monoxide normalises, after one to nine months the lung’s cleaning improves.
Irritability, restlessness, concentration trouble and strong craving — usually strongest in the first days.
Coffee, stress, alcohol or routines can trigger craving automatically.
Smoking raises the number of red cells, because carbon monoxide displaces oxygen. After stopping, the value normalises within weeks.
Smoking changes the blood fats unfavourably and speeds up deposits in the vessels. Both improve after stopping.
Smoking keeps a mild ongoing inflammation going in the body. The value falls measurably in the months after stopping.
A lack causes exhaustion, problems concentrating, low mood and forgetfulness — and it is one of the few causes that can be found and put right with a single blood draw.
Low values are common with low mood. Whether correcting it lifts the mood is not settled; that it makes sense in winter at our latitudes is.
An empty store causes tiredness, lack of drive and problems concentrating long before any anaemia becomes visible. In women of childbearing age the most common single reason.
A building block of the cell coverings in the brain. The studies on mood are inconsistent; as part of a good diet it belongs there anyway.
Needed for making the messengers in the brain. It runs short with alcohol and under certain medicines — and it is always judged together with B12.
Patches, gum and lozenges are the studied form: they deliver nicotine without smoke and in studies double the chance of stopping for good. Pouches and liquids are not part of this — there the amount is not fixed and quitting is not the aim.
Studied for addictions in general — 1200–2400 mg a day over 8–12 weeks; the results are small and inconsistent. Against the cough it works independently, as a mucus loosener.
Smokers have measurably lower levels — roughly 35 mg a day more need. That is a topping-up, not a quitting aid; as one it is not studied.
Clearly worthwhile and well supported when deficient — vegan, older adults, certain drugs. No energy boost without a deficiency.
Clearly worthwhile and well studied when deficient; fewer data for the wider uses. Fat-soluble — check blood levels at high doses.
Clearly effective with proven deficiency, useless without. Take only with a documented deficiency — excess is harmful.
Effects on inflammation and triglycerides established; cardiovascular prevention is mixed. Watch quality and freshness.
In pregnancy clearly established against neural-tube defects, otherwise mainly with deficiency. Can mask a B12 deficiency — watch both.
Nicotine releases dopamine in the reward system — within seven seconds of the first draw. That speed is the core of the dependence, not the amount.
After stopping smoking weight rises by four to five kilos on average — the basal turnover falls and appetite returns. That is expected and belongs planned for, rather than experienced as a setback.
Smoking lowers the oestrogen level and brings menopause forward by one to two years. Together with the pill the thrombosis risk rises markedly — hence the age limit of 35 for that combination.
On average 4–5 kg are gained, most in the first six months. This is known and can be planned for — the gain for heart and lungs clearly outweighs those kilos.
Smokers need about 35 mg more vitamin C a day than non-smokers. Two kiwis or one pepper cover the difference.
Brief movement bridges the craving, which rarely lasts more than a few minutes.
Studied in smoking cessation, with effects in the range of other methods.