The problem of quitting smoking has long been considered one of the most pressing. Nothing has changed even now. The number of smokers is increasing every year. Many nicotine users acquire the habit of puffing on cigarettes at a very young age. In adolescents, such an act is associated with the concepts of adulthood. But time goes by, the body gets used to it, dependence on nicotine is formed. And then he alth problems begin: gray complexion, dry cough, premature wrinkles in women. Unfortunately, we begin to realize all the harm of cigarettes for our body too late.
Not everyone manages to refuse on their own. In such cases, you can resort to medication. For example, choose Champix smoking pills. Today they are popular. They are recommended by doctors, celebrities, ordinary people. Why? Why did they deserve such recognition? Let's try to figure it out together.
What the statistics say
Permanent sociological researches and polls testify to not comforting facts. In all countries of the world, the number of men who smoke is 50%. A smoking women varies from 10%up to 50%. This is a lot. Almost half of the world's population is in the tenacious embrace of nicotine. Therefore, Champix anti-smoking pills are so relevant today. After all, almost 70% of smokers, realizing the harm of nicotine, tend to quit smoking. But it turns out that not everyone, but only 5%. And it's not even about willpower, although it can also play a major role in your desire to start a he althy lifestyle. But there is another factor to take into account. Nicotine is no less addictive than drugs. Like cocaine or heroin. And not always a person manages to cope on his own, as there are strong changes in the body. And this is where Champix anti-smoking tablets come to the rescue. Do they help? Reviews indicate the achievement of the desired effect. But what explains the effectiveness of the drug?
A few words about nicotine
To answer this question, you just need to understand how nicotine works. And then you can choose how to deal with it. For example, Champix pills for nicotine addiction.
The fact is that, getting into our body, nicotine affects special receptors in the brain. Therefore, within a few seconds after a person drags on a cigarette, he begins to experience pleasant sensations. They are associated with the release of a special hormone into the blood. Doctors call it dopamine, or the pleasure hormone. But over time, its concentration decreases, and the smoker again begins to feel discomfort. There is a need for a new cigarette toget a portion of pleasure.
The history of the creation of "Champix"
As you can see, there is a vicious vicious circle. It leads to the fact that every year about 3 million people die from smoking. Such figures cannot but alert. For a long time, scientists have struggled to find a way to save the world from the nicotine plague. And at the beginning of the 21st century, a way out was found. Champix smoking pills appeared. Credit for their invention goes to the Neuroscience Center of a company called Pfizer. It was the employee of this institution - Jotam Ko - who became the discoverer and developed pills that help quit smoking.
How do Champix pills work?
This is how Champix anti-smoking pills appeared. Do they help? What is their scheme of action? Let's get back to the behavior of nicotine. It turns out that its effect on receptors can be blocked. How to do it? Very simple. The place of nicotine must be taken by another substance. Then he will not be able to perform his functions and have a stimulating effect. Not finding a place for itself, nicotine will leave the body and do no harm to it.
It is exactly according to this scheme that the newfangled remedy from Pfizer operates. It affects the receptors in the brain, thereby replacing nicotine. As a result, the effect of the harmful substance is blocked. A person does not get any pleasure from a cigarette. For this, Champix smoking pills are valued. The reviews of those people who are already taking them indicate that during the puff they not only do not feel any positive emotions, but, on the contrary, experience an unpleasant taste. Thus, the desire forsmoking is significantly reduced. The urge to puff on a cigarette becomes less and less.
But Champix tablets have one more useful property. They can relieve the symptoms that come with quitting smoking. That is, physically a person suffers less.
What do the doctors say?
Before starting treatment with an innovative drug, it's a good idea to listen to the experts. Doctors highly appreciate Champix smoking pills. Reviews of doctors claim that this tool really helps to win the fight against nicotine. Many people who were considered heavy smokers had no difficulty in quitting this addiction.
The world statistics confirm their words. The drug after clinical trials went on sale in 2006. Smokers from different countries began to actively take it. During the year, Champix anti-smoking pills were consumed by 9,000 people. And 2007 was a significant year for Pfizer. The drug developed by Jotam Ko won the Galen Prize. In the field of medicine, it is equivalent to the Nobel Prize.
However, despite such worldwide recognition, all doctors talk about side effects that may occur when taking the remedy. Have you decided to choose Champix smoking pills? The instruction will tell you about all its properties. Not bad and visit your doctor to consult with him. A visit to a doctor who knows everything about your he alth will help to avoid unpleasant surprises during treatment.
Let's talk more about Champix
So you've decided to quit smoking? Champix tablets can help you with this. They do contain varenicline. This substance is called a nicotine antagonist. Varenicline is able to stimulate nicotinic receptors. But, unlike nicotine itself, its effect on them is minimal. It is able to influence the mechanism responsible for the formation of a feeling of pleasure from a smoked cigarette. Varenicline simply blocks it. As a result, the smoker does not feel any effect from the puff, and his need for nicotine gradually decreases. In addition, varenicline is able to relieve the withdrawal symptoms that immediately appear when quitting tobacco products.
Varenicline Secrets
How does the varenicline that Champix tablets contain affect us? The manual gives detailed information about this substance.
- Varenicline is well absorbed into the blood, which ensures its effectiveness. The maximum concentration is reached 3-4 hours after taking the drug.
- The substance goes beyond the brain. It is evenly distributed throughout the tissues.
- It is noteworthy that varenicline practically does not change its composition and does not enter into any reactions in the body. 92% of the drug is excreted unchanged. And only the remaining 8% leave our body in the form of metabolites.
- Removal of the substance is carried out after about 24 hours. That is, after a day, the presence of varenicline will not be detected in your body.
- In addition, this drug can be usedalong with other medicines. Clinical studies have shown that varenicline does not have any adverse effects when interacting with other drugs.
- But taking the drug on the background of alcohol intoxication can lead to neuropsychiatric complications. Seizures are one of the easiest consequences in such situations.
- Varenicline does not get along well with other anti-smoking drugs. For example, with the same "Nicoretta". In such cases, there is a risk of increased side effects.
Contraindications for use
Many smokers saw a light at the end of the tunnel after they started using Champix smoking pills. Reviews testify to their effectiveness.
But do not rush to the nearest pharmacy to buy several packages at once. They may not be useful to you. The fact is that this remedy has its own contraindications.
- It is better to stop using the drug during lactation and pregnancy.
- It is also not recommended for people with a history of mental disorders.
- In cases of hypersensitivity to varenicline, the use of the drug is out of the question.
Also, don't take Champix smoking pills:
- Teenagers who have not reached the age of 18.
- For drivers and pilots. Since the drug helps to reduce attention.
- People who, on duty, are associated with precise mechanisms. The reason for the contraindication is the same - the impossibilityfocus and scattered attention.
Side effects
Champix anti-smoking pills should be taken with caution. Reviews of former smokers indicate that during treatment they felt incomprehensible anxiety and anxiety. There were frequent cases of insomnia. In principle, all these symptoms should not scare you. After all, they are typical for everyone who quits smoking, even without resorting to this drug.
Sometimes you can observe high blood pressure, dilated pupils. This is also a completely understandable phenomenon that disappears as soon as the body is cleansed of nicotine. However, there are also more serious side effects. For example, these:
- Reduced tactile sensitivity.
- Tachycardia.
- Swelling of the tongue or larynx.
- Muscle spasms.
- Hallucinations.
- Vomiting or bloody stools.
- Exacerbation of various diseases, frequent viral infections.
As soon as you notice these symptoms, you should immediately stop taking the drug and consult a doctor. Your doctor will help you adjust your dose. It is possible that it will reduce it. Then it will be easier for the body to get used to the absence of nicotine.
Using Champix tablets
The main benefit of this medication is the fact that you don't have to quit smoking abruptly. That means one less stress. You can give up cigarettes even when you have completed the entire course. But experts recommend forgetting about the desire to dopuff already in the second half of the treatment.
To do this, it is better to determine for yourself the date when you decide to give up cigarettes. Psychologists recommend choosing a day dedicated to some important event for you. You can start taking the drug a week before the selected date.
All Champix tablets are numbered. This provides additional convenience, allowing you to figure out when and which pill to take.
Champix Reception Scheme
I would like to make a reservation right away that the course of treatment consists of 84 days. Sometimes an additional course of the same duration (12 weeks) is prescribed. If as a result of treatment the desired results were not achieved, the doctor may prescribe a second main course.
Take pills at any time, regardless of meals. They should be taken with a full glass of water. This is how they will be better absorbed by the body.
There is a special regimen for taking the drug:
- The first 3 days you take 1 white tablet once a day.
- The next 4 days the dose is increased. You will have to drink 1 white tablet 2 times a day. During this period, it is desirable to reduce the number of cigarettes smoked per day.
- For the next 11 weeks you will take 1 blue tablet twice a day. As a rule, by this time the body has already fully adapted to the drug, the manifestation of side effects decreases. It is during this period that you must finally quit smoking.
- During the extracourse you need to take the blue pills twice a day.
In the event that you are afraid that the habit will not disappear completely during the treatment, it is allowed not to immediately stop taking the pills, but to gradually reduce the dose of varenicline. In addition, such an approach to treatment can prevent signs of unmotivated aggression, insomnia, depression, the manifestations of which are possible if the drug is abruptly stopped.
Elderly people, as well as patients with impaired renal and hepatic function, do not need to change the dose in some cases. However, if the side effects are too strong, you should consult your doctor. As a rule, he reduces the dose in the second half of the treatment to one tablet per day.
Expert advice: how to quit smoking
Many psychologists say that no matter how effective a drug may be, it may be powerless in the fight against smoking. Here it is quite appropriate to paraphrase folk wisdom: "Rely on Champix, but don't make a mistake yourself." The fact is that in order to achieve positive results, you need to have your own desire and motivation. Sociological studies show that the most successful treatment was for those patients who seriously decided to quit smoking.
Also important in this case is the support of loved ones, colleagues, acquaintances. If someone smokes a cigarette with you, you may well break loose. Therefore, it is necessary either to reduce communication with such people to a minimum, or to go somewhere far away during smoke breaks.
Choose: Champix or Tabex
Among the analogues of "Champix" there is also such a drug as "Tabex". Many choose it because it is cheaper. But clinical trials have shown that cytisine (on the basis of which the analogue is produced) is less effective than varenicline. When using Champix, a person develops an aversion to cigarettes, and, as a rule, he no longer returns to them. This is a more modern and efficient tool. It costs, of course, an order of magnitude more expensive than Tabex.
The price of two packs, which contain 11 tablets of 500 mcg and 14 tablets of 1 mg, is 1300-1400 rubles. For 112 tablets of 1 mg, you will pay about 3200 rubles. Of course, the cost may vary in different regions.
Champix tablets may seem too expensive for some, but it has long been known that it is better not to save on your own he alth.