Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking

Better late than never?

2011-06-24T06:37:00.000-07:00

At long last, the FDA have approved new health warnings on US cigarette packs, for implementation in September 2012. The US is the last 'developed' nation to introduce such warnings - by some considerable distance, it should be said.

On the one hand we applaud this belated public health initiative, but on the other hand we are concerned about the introduction of a prominent display of the 1-800 QUIT NOW number on pack.

1-800 QUIT NOW is run by the US government along with the www.smokefree.gov site. As my friend John Polito from www.whyquit.com observes: 'SmokeFree.gov should be renamed BuyMeds.now as smokers thinking about quitting are bombarded with 173 recommendations to purchase "medicine" or "medication".' This is particularly worrying because nearly every real-world quitting study - including one funded by the government itself - show that the vast majority of long-term quitters did so without the use of medication.

Indeed, as Kevin Helliker pointed out in his 2007 Wall St. Journal article 'Nicotine Fix - Behind Anti-Smoking Policy, Influence of Drug Industry' it is troubling that the public health officials charged with the development of cessation policy have such close ties to the pharmaceutical companies who manufacture cessation products. Helliker notes: 'Dr. Fiore, a University of Wisconsin professor of medicine, headed the 18-member panel that created those guidelines. He and at least eight others on it had ties to the makers of stop-smoking products.'

The specific exclusion of non-pharmacological approaches from the guidelines, including the most effective and successful of all approaches - motivated, educated and supported abrupt cessation - causes some skeptics to allege foul play.

The fact is that American smokers wanting to quit continue to be guided towards products with very poor real-world success rates and this has happened because the policy makers are in bed with the makers of those products. Surely American smokers deserve to know all their quitting options, not just the ones that enrich already wealthy pharmaceutical companies?

Props to Quitnow.ca

2011-01-24T09:04:00.000-08:00

We are very grateful to the folks at www.QuitNow.ca for linking to www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com - they are the first Lung Assocation website in Canada to do so.

As many people know, we are a reluctantly commercial organisation. Allen tried to gift his method to the National Health Service in the UK over twently years ago, but with no success. As a result of us being 'commercial' many of the Cancer Society, Heart & Stroke Foundation and Health Canada sites will not even mention Allen Carr, despite it being the most effective method around (incidentally, this policy doesn't appear to stop them from linking to their pharmaceutical company sponsor's commercial sites!)

Thanks to the Lung Association for their trailblazing!

SMOKE - The Convenient Truth

2011-01-12T11:43:00.001-08:00

Check out this really excellent SlideShare Presentation. Thanks to Evaldas from Allen Carr's Lithuanian clinic for sharing this...

SMOKE - The Convenient Truth

View more presentations from Empowered Presentations, Presentation Design Firm - Honolulu, HI.

Interesting new review of the Allen Carr method

2011-01-12T04:36:00.000-08:00

This is an excellent, concise review of Allen's most famous book from YouCanStopSmokingNow.net

You can read hundreds more reviews from people who have quit using Allen's simple, drug-free method at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Allen Carr in exalted company...

2010-07-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

Dr. Lynne Eldridge mentions Allen in her most recent article at lungcancer.about.com

Allen Carr Worldwide

2010-06-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

An introduction to some members of the Allen Carr 'family'...

Thanks to Asaf from Israel for putting this together...

Smoking and depression

2010-06-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

The link between smoking and depression is one that has been well-known for decades. But what comes first: the chicken or the egg? Are depressed smokers self-medicating or does smoking cause depression?

A study that logged the complete medical history of 1200 New Zealanders born in 1977 claims to have the answer: Nicotine addicts are over 2.3 times more likely to suffer from depression than non-smokers.

Makes perfect sense to me: having your life dominated by a four-inch stick of dried vegetation that doesn't even get you high is pretty depressing...

Break free from the slavery of smoking with Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking

NYC gets under the tobacco industry's skin

2010-06-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

Tobacco companies and retailers are suing New York city for insisting that retailers display graphic images of the health risks of smoking by their cash registers.

According to the NY Times, the industry argues that it 'infringes on the federal government’s authority to regulate cigarette advertising' and that it 'violates the First Amendment rights of store owners who disagree with their message'. Further, it claims that the placards are 'so disgusting that they hurt business by discouraging people from buying...more-wholesome merchandise like milk and sandwiches'.

Firstly, it's nice that the tobacco industry feels the need to protect the federal government rights. One might think that if they were really concerned, the Feds would have sued NY themselves...Perhaps they forgot.

Secondly, I didn't realize it was up to retailers to decide what the dangers of smoking were. Using this logic, if a retailer doesn't think smoking causes lung cancer, he should not be forced to display a poster that says it does.

Thirdly, it is very kind of the tobacco companies to care so much for the sales of other consumer goods companies. Who would have thought they were so charitable?

The tobacco industry are all just big, touchy-feely softies really!

Rue McClanahan

2010-06-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

I met Rue McClanahan in 2005 when she quit smoking at one of our seminars in New York city. She had a wonderful ability to put people feel special. When she looked at you and smiled, she lit up the room.

She was gracious, self-deprecating, funny and enthusiastic. As I remember it, the session went extremely well, in no small part because Rue never stopped encouraging everyone else, despite her own fear of quitting. It was an afternoon I'll remember for a long time.

I got a call from her some weeks after the session to thank me and to let us know how well she was doing. "I feel like a young girl again - it's wonderful!" she said. A very classy gesture from a very classy lady.

A smoker's way to stop smoking...

2010-05-20T05:03:00.000-07:00

We are often asked: "What makes Allen Carr's Easyway so different to other quit smoking methods?" The answer: it's a smoker's way to stop smoking. Take a look and if you like it, spread the word...

Great mention of Allen Carr on Lance Armstrong's Livestrong site...

2010-05-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Livestrong.com for this great mention of Allen Carr's Easyway.

Thirteen years of hell

2010-03-31T10:55:00.000-07:00

At our NYC seminar on Sunday we had an attendee who has been smoke-free using willpower for 13 years. It was heart-wrenching. She said that every single day had been a struggle and that it had several times driven her into a deep depression. For 13 years she felt miserable and deprived. She was a wreck.

Her sister quit easily with my colleague Cyrill Argast in Switzerland and recommended us to her. Today we received from her one of the loveliest emails we have ever got. "After 13 years at long last I have no desire to smoke. You put sunshine in my heart; I don't know how else to describe it. Merci!"

13 years? I wouldn't have lasted 13 minutes!

To become a happy non-smoker, not an ex-smoker with constant cravings, visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

The Mother of all stupid statements

2010-03-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

Georgia Senate Majority leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock)is opposing a $1 tax increase on cigarettes (taxes were last raised from $0.12 to $0.37 in 2003 and lag way behind the average state tax on cigarettes of $1.37 per pack).

His concern is that higher tobacco taxes will lead more youths experimenting with marijuana. He quotes 'a recent edition of Reason Magazine' as the source of this information. Specifically, he says: 'in those states where cigarette taxes went dramatically high, young people began turning toward marijuana more often.'

Unfortunately, the only article that touches on this subject says nothing of the kind. Jody Sullum's December 2009 article Pot Is Now More Popular Than Tobacco chronicles the stunning success of our youth smoking prevention campaigns, where daily smoking prevalence among Grade 12s fell from 28.8% in 1977 to 11.2% today. During the same period pot use has also dropped about half of what it was in 1979 (from over 14% to around 7%) so I'm really not sure how or why Mr. Rogers feels that we have a problem.

The reality is that raising taxes are a proven way of reducing tobacco use, particularly among youths. To see the evidence, go here

Anjelica Huston endorses Easyway

2010-03-09T04:59:00.000-08:00

Today Anjelica Huston went public with her endorsement of Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking.

She said: “Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking Program achieved for me a thing that I thought was not possible – to give up a thirty year smoking habit literally overnight. It was nothing short of a miracle.”

Anjelica attended a session in Santa Monica California in 2006 and has been happily smoke-free ever since.

We congratulate Anjelica on this wonderful achievement and thank her for taking the trouble to spread the word.

A waste of money or good use of tax $?

2009-11-10T05:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I came across the Lung cancer Alliance's new PSA for lung screening - www.DrLunglove.com. It uses a hip-hop music video called "Waitin' Room Service" to promote the idea that screening for at-risk populations is a good idea.

I am not opposed to promoting awareness of screening for lung problems, the issue is that at-risk groups - the over 65s mainly - rarely watch hip-hop music videos. So it seems to me that this activity targets the right people, but in totally the wrong way.
Another case of having the heart in the right place, but failing to understand human behviour and psychology.

Grow up!

2009-11-09T06:51:00.000-08:00

Some deep thinker has started a website called RepealSmokingBans.com

My favourite section is the Hall of Shame where senators, public health professionals, Cancer Society volunteers, nurses, professors of radiology are roundly denounced as fascists. Here are some of my favourite quotes:

Commenting on South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds' statement "We all recognize the health hazards of smoke and secondhand smoke. After serious deliberation, the Legislature decided to create a smoke-free environment in restaurants and lounges." the website says: "Wrong, nazi-breath. We do not acknowledge your lies and propaganda. There was no 'serious deliberation'....You're un-American. You're a coward. We know it, and now the whole world knows it. South Dakota. The home of Mount Rushmore. Absolutely disgusting."

Or this beauty: Gay Cornell is an American Cancer Society volunteer from Kansas who lost close relatives, including a parent, to smoking related cancer in their thirties. For her work in advocating for a smoking ban in Kansas she is described as a 'slob', 'lunatic', 'fascist', 'zealot', 'thug', 'arrogant', 'tyrannical', 'Nazi', 'out of control' and, my personal favourite, as 'spitting on the grave of every soul that gave all'. When soldiers are fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan, I'm pretty sure they aren't fighting against smoking bans.

I once made the observation that sometimes you know which side of an argument is right just by seeing who's on the other side of it. Surely this is such a case. If I was still a smoker, I would be embarrassed and ashamed of these morons.

It's getting cold...

2009-11-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

Well, it had to come sooner or later: we woke up to our first frost of the season today. Oh Joy! Another six months of winter!

When I was a smoker, this was the most depressing time of the year. Realizing that ahead of you is six months of going "to get some fresh air" outside in sub-Arctic conditions, pretending that it's all a bit of fun all the while asking yourself what on earth you're doing...

Not fun.

Stay as warm as toast this winter by quitting smoking with Allen Carr's Easyway. For more information visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Great smoking quotes

2009-11-04T05:03:00.000-08:00

"Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics" Fletcher Knebel

"Sooner or later, everyone stops smoking" Anon

"I'll never feel comfortable taking a strong drink, and I'll never feel easy smoking a cigarette. I just don't think those things are right for me." Elvis Presley

"I'm more proud of quitting smoking than of anything else I've done in my life, including winning an Oscar." Christine Lahti

"In Hollywood you can't even smoke in a bar anymore and yet in the movies they're always showing people smoking. I don't get it." Gerald McRaney

"Tobacco exports should be expanded aggressively because Americans are smoking less." Dan Quayle

A request for honesty from researchers...

2009-11-03T08:55:00.000-08:00

Today a number of news outlets report on a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin which concludes that the most effective way to quit smoking is a combination of the nicotine patch and the nicotine lozenge, but there are many questions raised by the research.

Firstly, the research only covered methods involving drugs (most of them including the drug smokers are actually trying to stop). So methods like Allen Carr's Easyway - which has a success rate 8-10 times higher than NRT - were not included.

Secondly, the study does not provide smokers with the actual success rates for the products tested, instead they compare them in relation to each other. So, for example, we know that using a combination of the nicotine patch and lozenge increases a smoker's chance of being smoke-free after six months by over 200% over placebo.

Sounds impressive, right? But is it really?

The first question is a simple one: a 200% increase from what to what? From 1% to 3%? From 10% to 30%? This is what smokers really want to know, but this information is nowhere to be found.

According to Clive Bates, Director of ASH the UK's leading tobacco control charity and an enthusiastic supporter of NRT the six month success rates are "3-6%". Hardly success to shout from the rooftops is it?

And how many of those who are smoke-free at six months end up addicted to the patch or the lozenge, and how many of these nicotine addicts ultimately go back to smoking?

For simple, clear success rate data for Allen Carr's Easyway and just about every other method out there, please visit us at http://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com/AboutUs/Success/tabid/68/Default.aspx

A simple question...

2009-11-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

If e-cigarettes are as safe as their makers claim, why are they resisting FDA oversight? If they have nothing to hide then the FDA will declare them safe and allow them to be sold.

I would have thought they would welcome the FDA's interest and co-operate in every way with them, not sue to challenge their authority.

Personally, I remain deeply suspicious of anyone selling a product containing an addictive drug while claiming it doesn't warrant federal oversight. It seems to me that e-cigarette companies are guilty of behaving like the tobacco companies they are so clearly trying to replace.

To get nicotine - in all its forms - out of your life, learn more about Allen Carr's easyway by visiting us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

More light relief...

2009-10-29T05:29:00.000-07:00

This video is called Smoking Kills...it's funny though.

No hamsters were harmed in this production.

My first cigarette...

2009-10-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

I remember it so clearly. I was nine. I had just finished my soccer practice and was hanging around the deserted school waiting for my older brother to finish his.

An older, cooler boy, Michael Weeks, was waiting for his brother too. He saw me kicking a ball against the wall and called me over to him. As we sat and chatted, he offered me a cigarette and I took it. It was the worst mistake I ever made and one that would largely define the next 25 years of my life.

I wish, at that moment, I could have stopped the tape and seen into the future: the pain, suffering and despair this drug would cause; the wasted time and money; the damage to the relationships with my family and the years of mental and physical slavery. I would have said NO and kicked Mike in the teeth.

But I didn't. I took that first cigarette. Before long, I was smoking every day and by the time I left High School I was smoking nearly a pack-a-day, despite never genuinely 'enjoying' it.

In all, I smoked for just over 25 years. I was a good sportsman at school, but I quit playing the sports I loved because as a smoker I couldn't handle the physical demands of training. It's one of my biggest regrets. I know I can never get those years back, but what I can do is to try to ensure that other young kids don't make the same mistake I did, which is why I share Allen's passion for prevention.

If you want to help your children to avoid the smoking trap, then read Allen's book "Smoking Sucks!"

Dave Allen talks about smoking and quitting

2009-10-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

The late, great Irish comedian Dave Allen did this terrific routine about smoking and quitting back in 1984 - the year after Allen Carr founded the Easyway organisation. If you have a few minutes, enjoy one of the all-time greats...

An interesting thought...

2009-10-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I was running a quit smoking seminar, one of the attendees - a rather elderly Greek gentleman - made what I thought was a very interesting point. He said: "If we had to pay for our bodies, in the same way that we have to pay for a car or a house, would we never even think about ruining it by smoking."

He's right: we take so much - including our body and our health - for granted.

Allen Carr once said: "Your body is the vehicle that carries you through life. You only get one, and you've been lucky to have a strong, healthy body. It is a thousand times over your most precious possession. Who could conceive of a more ridiculous behaviour than to spend a fortune for the privilege of administering hourly doses of poison to the vehicle upon which the length, quality and enjoyment of your whole life depends?"

Take control of your life back. Quit smoking today using our online web seminar. To find our more visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Quit smoking before Thanksgiving weekend

2009-10-23T05:59:00.000-07:00

Every year we see a big spike in our seminar bookings immediately before Thanksgiving. I guess people want to go back to their families as happy non-smokers, rather than having to suffer through Thanksgiving weekend as a smoker, constantly on the look-out for any excuse to be away from their family so they can sneak out for a quick cigarette.

We are running two seminars in the US before Thanksgiving: one in NYC on November 15th (more information here) and one in LA on November 21st (information here).

If either of these dates or locations is not convenient, then you could think about quitting online with our webcast seminar. The online seminar is available 24/7/365 and you can watch it whenever you want, wherever you want. For more information click here.

More light relief...

2009-10-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

This won't help you quit, but it is pretty funny...

A bit of light relief...

2009-10-21T05:26:00.000-07:00

Most quit smoking commercials are ineffective because they talk about the health risks of smoking and smokers immediately tune it out.

This is a different, more light-hearted approach...enjoy!

Ayn Rand Centre: Smoking and personal freedom

2009-10-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

Today the Ayn Rand Centre for Individual Rights released an article describing the tobacco control community as "a cancer on American liberty". It's ironic really, calling the American Cancer Society a 'cancer'.

The article claims that smoking by-laws, taxes on cigarettes, tobacco advertising bans and lawsuits against Big Tobacco unnecessarily inconvenience smokers and tobacco companies. Smokers should be left to make their own decisions, free of interference, it argues.

So, let's get this right: the Ayn Rand Centre supports smoking everywhere without restriction, no taxes on tobacco, allowing drug dealers to advertise their product without restriction and that tobacco companies ought to be allowed to lie to protect their business and be immune from prosecution for doing so. It sounds like the 1950s and the effect of these policy reversals would be to dramatically increase smoking rates to levels seen back then, undoing 50 years of public health education and initiating a dramatic explosion of the current health crisis at untold financial and human expense.

Actually, I'm a big fan of individual freedom and responsibility myself. But can a child be expected to demonstrate the same degree of maturity and responsibility as an adult? Of course not: just watch an episode of 90210.

The problem here is that over 90% of smokers get hooked in childhood - years before they are able to exert adult thinking and maturity. Tobacco companies know this very well and have been shown to market to teens on a routine basis. This makes sense: when you kill 5,000,000 of your customers every year, you need fresh meat. It is almost impossible to get adults to start smoking, so tobacco companies use cartoon characters, cellphone-shaped packaging and candy-like flavours to promote tobacco to kids.

Is the Ayn Rand Centre really suggesting that this is OK? When you end up supporting drug dealers promoting to children because of 'personal freedom', surely you know something isn't right? Someone needs to point out to them that real adults take real responsibility, including responsibility for their families and their fellow citizens - it's what humans do in civil society. With respect to tobacco, this means protecting easily-misled children from rapacious, amoral tobacco companies looking to make a buck.

We see tens of thousands of smokers every year in our seminars. Over 90% of them started smoking as children and not one of them ever thought they would end up smoking for as long as they have. Kids fall into the nicotine trap very quickly, but it can take them a lifetime to escape.

This is the problem when an idea (personal freedom) becomes a dogma, to be slavishly followed, irrespective of the consequences. Yes, of course personal freedom is important, but it should not trump everybody else's personal freedom. Surely the right to clean air for everyone trumps an individual's right to smoke? Let's not make our children pay the price of Ms. Rand's intellectual masturbation.

It is tobacco companies, not the tobacco control movement who are cancer on American freedom. Every year they steal life from the 450,000 Americans who die from smoking, and liberty from the 8m Americans living with a smoking -related disease or condition.

Yet another happy non-smoker...

2009-10-19T06:20:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my blog last week, Oct 15th was Colleen Rusholme's first anniversary of quitting. Colleen is part of Toronto's EZ-Rock breakfast team, Humble, Kim, Colleen and Rick.

She sent this lovely email through...

"I carry the words " shame" " hopelessness" and " fear" on a little piece of paper in my wallet. I pull it out sometimes as a reminder of who I used to be and how I felt about myself as a smoker. If I could go back and tell that girl that she could be a happy, non deprived non-smoker, I would. I'm free and forever grateful for this method of quitting. I only planned on quitting ONCE. And that's what I did. THANK-YOU!"

We hope that the large number of smokers who want to quit, but are too scared to try, will be inspired by your story. Thank you Colleen for sharing it...

To quit smoking in Toronto - or anywhere across North America, please visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

Smoking in movies

2009-10-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

Watch this excellent and fascinating video from Stanton Glantz's team at Smoke Free Movies.

It's called 120,000 Lives a Year and it's the story of how Big Tobacco uses Hollywood to recruit young smokers.

Colleen Rusholme's first anniversary

2009-10-15T05:45:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to EZ-Rock's Colleen Rusholme who today celebrates her first anniversary of quitting smoking.

I met Colleen through her colleague, "Humble" Howard Glassman, who quit smoking with us five years ago next month. On air he publicly challenged Colleen - a pretty hardcore smoker - to quit smoking and Colleen, never one to shirk a challenge, accepted. I felt this was a very brave move on Colleen's part, particularly as she was experiencing many of the fears that most smokers have whenever they think about quitting ("The cigarette has always been there for me. I'll be losing my best friend!"), let alone the additional pressure of doing it in front of hundreds of thousands of listeners.

She needn't have worried though. She did brilliantly in the session we had, walked out a happy non-smoker had has stayed one ever since.

This morning, I was a guest on the Humble, Kim, Colleen and Rick breakfast show to celebrate Colleen's anniversary. Howard asked me a question I have never had before in all my years of media appearances: "Why is it so easy to quit?" What a great question! The truth is that when you have the right information, quitting can be very easy.

Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking webcasts, seminars and books provide all smokers with the information they need to quit easily and enjoyably. To find out more, visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Uh-oh: more tobacco company ethics issues

2009-10-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

Today, the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) published a devastating article about the destruction of key documents by British American Tobacco's (BAT) Canadian subsidiary, Imperial Tobacco Canada (ITC).

In it the authors claim that BAT instructed ITC to destroy key documents that could expose the company to liability or embarrassment. ITC, rather stupidly in my view, wrote to BAT listing sixty of these documents, confirming their destruction. Using this list, these sixty documents were subsequently found in BAT's own document archives.

The documents included evidence from internal scientific reviews, as well as 47 original research studies, 35 of which examined the cancer-causing effects of smoking. The documents also describe BAT research on light and mild cigarettes, including the ways in which consumers adapted their smoking behaviour in order to get the same levels of nicotine as if they were smoking full-strength cigarettes. The documents also depict a comprehensive research program on the pharmacology of nicotine and its addictiveness, showing the central role of nicotine in smoking behaviour.

We should bear in mind that in 1992, when these documents were destroyed, tobacco companies were still denying that nicotine was addictive and that smoking caused cancer.

As we say in our seminars: Sometimes you need to ask yourself who your friends are.

See no evil...

2009-10-13T04:50:00.000-07:00

Today, a rather self-serving Philip Morris (PM) research report looking at the effectiveness of in-store tobacco display bans was published on the PM-owned website, productdisplayban.com. In it, they conclude that the display ban in Iceland has not had any impact on the number of smokers or the amount they smoke. As a result, they say, the ban should be lifted.

But if such display bans have no effect on cigarette sales, then why does PM continue to fight their introduction with such energy and enthusiasm? And if such bans have no impact, then what's the problem with leaving them in place? Just a thought...

Winter is on the way...

2009-10-09T05:16:00.000-07:00

As the leaves begin to turn here in the NorthEast, the smoker's heart begins to sink as they brace themselves for six months of freezing to death in order to do a drug that doesn't even get them high.

Last winter I flew into Saskatoon to run some sessions and saw something interesting at the airport. As you are probably aware, it gets pretty cold in Saskatoon. This February evening it was -28 degrees Centigrade. Like most people, my big jacket was in my main baggage, so I was waiting for my suitcase at the carousel. Another passenger - clearly a smoker - was doing the same, and getting increasingly agitated as the wait for our luggage continued. In the end he said: "Screw it, I'm outta here." and walked outside in just a T-shirt, to smoke a cigarette.

The terminal at Saskatoon Airport is totally glass-fronted, so the rest of us still at the baggage carousel could see him outside, in -28, trying to light his cigarette. He was shivering so much that he couldn't even light it, and this frustrated him even more. Within a minute or so, he couldn't even feel his hands, but he refused to give up. Eventually, a bundled-up airport employee went outside to ask if he was OK. "I'm fine" he said "I'm just getting a bit of fresh air."

Avoid the indignity of standing outside freezing your nuts off, pretending that you need fresh air when what you really need is to smoke. Quit smoking today with Allen carr's unique Easyway method by visiting us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

The cost of smoking...

2009-10-08T05:35:00.000-07:00

When I was a heavy smoker with a young family, the price of cigarettes put a big strain on our finances.

But smokers would rather go without food than go without smokes. In a rather pathetic attempt to justify my smoking, I once worked out how much it cost per drag and it seemed like quite good value at the time. But of course I was only really conning myself.

The first cigarette you ever smoked cost you everything you have ever spent on smoking. Because if you hadn't smoked that first cigarette, you wouldn't have smoked the second, and the third...you wouldn't have bought your first pack, then your first carton....

That was one very expensive cigarette!

So how much does smoking really cost? Let's say that you are a pack-a-day smoker living somewhere in or around New York, where the average cost of a pack is $10.

Ten dollars a day comes to $70 per week, $300 per month or $3,650 a year, after tax. To net $3,650, you need to earn around $5,000 a year.

So, let's say that you start smoking comparitively late in life at 20, and that smoking kills you at 70. That's 50 years of smoking at $5,000 per year: a total of $250,000. To put this in context as of 2009, the average price of a house in the US is $257,000.

We are not suggesting that smokers quit because of the money, but what we are saying is that being a smoker is a massive financial commitment.

And of course, so far we have only talked about the financial cost of cigarettes. What about the higher health insurance rates smokers are charged? Or the reduced value of a car or home that has been used by smokers? Or the opportunity cost of investing $250,000 instead of it going up in smoke? One MSNBC report calculated that if a 40 year-old smoker quits and invests that money into their 401(k), it could be worth $400,000 by the time they retire.

And so far, we have only looked at the financial cost of smoking. What about the cost to your health, your self-respect and your freedom. And what about the people who love you? What cost are they paying for you to smoke?

The cost of smoking is more than the price of smokes.

To quit smoking easily and enjoyably use Allen Carr's unique, drug-free Easyway method. To find out more visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

More tobacco company hypocrisy?

2009-10-07T06:13:00.000-07:00

Philip Morris is fighting the cigarette retail display ban in Ireland, claiming it is anti-competitive. Interestingly, they are not fighting an identical ban in Canada. Why not?

Could it be that, as always, it's about money? The ban suits them in Canada, where they have a strong market position, but not in Ireland, where they lag behind Gallagher.

So PM's position is not about freedom of expression after all; it's about freezing market share in markets where they do well, and trying to grow it in markets where they don't.

Reasons to quit smoking I

2009-10-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

Non-smokers have more and better sex. http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/1-17-2006-86579.asp

Need I say more?

Another happy non-smoker

2009-10-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

We received this email today, from R. Glassman in Toronto:

"4-and-a-half years as a happy non smoker with absolutely no possible reason to ever consider touching a cigarette again. It's that simple and easy. Once I understood that there were no possible benefits to smoking, it wasn't hard for me to never want to smoke. The seminar really worked for me!"

Thank you for taking the trouble to get in touch and very many congratulations on this wonderful achievement.

To learn more about how you can quit smoking using this simple, drug-free approach, visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

When you lit that first cigarette....

2009-10-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

When you lit that first cigarette were you really deciding that you'd be a smoker for the rest of your life? Did you think that you'd still be smoking all these years later? If you had known that first cigarette would put you in this situation, would you have smoked it?

The vast majority of smokers have their first cigarettes as children. Under pressure from peers, they want to be one of the cool kids. The first few cigarettes are absolutely disgusting and this is what springs the trap: the young smoker just cannot accept that they could get addicted to something so disgusting that doesn't even get them high. It's this lack of a high that springs the trap. If the cigarette got us high like crack or crystal meth, we would be far more wary. The lack of a high prevents the young smoker from seeing smoking for the drug addiction it is, and so we continue to smoke, secure in the knowledge that we could not get into trouble with a drug that doesn't even get us high. The first time most people realize they have a problem is the first time they try to quit and realize they can't.

Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking has helped millions of smokers to escape from the smoking trap easily and permanently. To find out more visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Tobacco and sugar

2009-09-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

Flavorings, especially sweeteners, have been used in US tobacco products for decades, to mask the true taste of the tobacco. The FDA has recently banned some flavourings - specifically those designed to tempt young people to start smoking.

Oregon's Junior Senator, Jeff Merkley, highlighted another tobacco industry trick. In addition to the candy-flavored tobacco, he recently exposed the problem of candy with tobacco in it. Tins of candy, with each one containing a small amount of dissolvable tobacco, have been recently test marketed in several U.S. cities, including Portland.

Merkley, working with Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio won unanimous Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approval of an amendment directing the FDA to refer the matter to the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee.

Their amendment calls for the FDA to investigate“The issue of the nature and impact of the use of dissolvable tobacco products on the public health, including such use among children.” Their amendment was attached to the bill granting the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products.

They followed up with a June 26 letter to FDA Commissioner Hamburg in which they explained:

“Dissolvable tobacco products such as Camel Orbs … come in mint and caramel flavors and look like the candies that come out of a PEZ-type dispenser. … Rather than the traditional smokeless tin that leaves a noticeable ‘ring’ in one’s back pocket, these products look like cell phones in a student’s pocket.

“We believe these products are being used as a gateway to addict children to nicotine and graduate them to cigarettes and other tobacco products. In addition, dissolvable tobacco products are being used to discourage current smokers, both youth and adult, from quitting. These types of products allow children to continue their addiction to nicotine when they are in smoke-free places such as classrooms.”

Thank you Senator Merkley...

Not even wrong

2009-09-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

When scientists come across something spectacularly stupid, they refer to it as 'not even wrong'.

I was troubled to see an editorial in the CSU's Rocky Mountain Collegian asking the FDA to reverse its decision to ban the manufacture and sale of falvoured cigarettes. The basis for this demand: the ban is an affront to 'personal liberty'.

This demand is 'not even wrong'. Nothing is preventing the author from favouring his own cigarettes, should he or she wish, and nothing is preventing them from buying other flavoured cigarettes - in fact, all US cigarettes are flavoured with sweeteners, to mask the taste of the tobacco.

On the basis of this argument, nothing could be prohibited: coke, crack and crystal meth would all be legalised. Sadly the author does not explain how this exciting new public policy initiative would work.

The author claims that if the FDA really cared about 'the children' they would ban smoking outright, but wouldn't this be a further erosion of liberty? I think the FDA, along with public health workers, oncologists, cardiologists, pulmonologists and surgeons would love to ban smoking, but with 45m Americans addicted to this drug, prohibition is impractical.

With an outright ban not on the cards, we are left with a relatively small menu of options to deal with this public health catastrophe: prevention and cessation campaigns, smoking bans, advertising bans, plain packaging, elimination of 'power walls', taxation and de-normalisation.

So here's the argument against flavoured cigarettes:

1. Smoking kills around 5m people every year, therefore...
2. For tobacco companies to continue to make money (and boy, are they good at making money!), they need to find fresh meat to compensate for those killed by smoking
3. It is very difficult to get adult non-smokers to start smoking, therefore...
4. Tobacco companies need kids to start smoking - it's a commercial imperative and therefore...
5. Tobacco companies need to develop products that appeal to kids, for example, cigarettes with cool-sounding flavours and cellphone-like packaging

By banning flavoured cigarettes, we will not reduce youth smoking. We will stop it from getting even higher though.

Every DAY 3,500 American kids will smoke their first cigarette. For 1,000 it will turn into a life-long drug addiction and it'll kill half of them. That's why it is not only right, but also a moral imperative, to uphold this ban.

David vs. Goliath

2009-09-23T06:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended a meeting of municipal smoking cessation workers in Ontario, Canada.

I was struck by two things: firstly, by the dedication, passion, humour and integrity of the attendees, and second, by the laughable mismatch of resources and money between these wonderful people and the tobacco industry.

If these guys had access to 1% of the money the tobacco industry spends on fighting tobacco control legislation, smoking would be a thing of the past.

Make smoking a thing of your past. Make the first move towards quitting smoking by visiting us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Flavoured tobacco products banned

2009-09-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Today the FDA fired its first shot across the bows of the tobacco companies by banning all flavoured tobacco products with the exception of menthol.

Quoting from an 'historic' internal tobacco company memo which plainly states plans to directly target children, Dr. Laurence Deyton of the FDA said that teen smokers are three times more likely than adult smokers to favour flavoured tobacco products.

I wonder whether they'll ban those disgusting tobacco-flavoured cigarettes?!

Whether you are smoking TwistaLime, Strawberry, Vanilla, Winter Mocha Mint or Marlboro Light, you can quit easily using Allen Carr's simple, drug-free Easyway method.

American tobacco vs. Canadian law - you decide

2009-09-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

Rep. Jim Battle of South Carolina's article published on scnow.com serves as a reminder of how influential the tobacco industry remains at all level of politics.

His article bemoans the impact that the Canadian government's decision to ban flavoured tobacco products, which have been specifically designed to appeal to young people, will have. He says that this will have an effect on South Carolina's revenues as a major tobacco producer and must be stopped.

It is mind-boggling that anyone would place the interests of tobacco companies over public health and in particular, youth smoking. Then again, Mr. Battle is a good friend of Big Tobacco and his work in defence of them has netted campaign contributions from Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds, Lorillard, US Tobacco and Brown & Williamson.

Rather than propping up an industry that is already spectacularly profitable and that kills nearly half-a-million North Americans every year, perhaps South Carolina's legislators ought to be looking for new opportunities to replace the tobacco industry, which, like many of its' customers is in terminal decline.

Gosh, politics really is a dirty game...

Nicotine Replacement Therapy

2009-09-18T05:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we received an email from Ann Garner of Pittsburgh, PA. She wrote: "I'm a smoker who has just become pregnant and my doctor keeps recommending that I use the nicotine patch to quit, but I've done some research and I'm not convinced it's going to help me. What should I do?'

Whilst we are reluctant to question the advice of doctors, it's difficult to understand how Ann's baby will benefit from regular doses of an addictive drug, so this is a great question.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) was first introduced as a quitting aid in the 1980s. Today, it comes in a variety of forms: nicotine patches, gum, nasal inhalators, lozenges, e-cigarettes, nicotine water, nicotine lollipops - the list is endless.

The idea behind NRT is that the smoking problem has two components; physical addiction to nicotine, and the psychological 'need' to smoke. Nicotine replacement is used to maintain the physical aspect of the addiction while giving the addict the chance to deal with the psychological aspect. Once that is successfully dealt with, then they can address the physical side. The only problem is that this theory is complete nonsense: nicotine addiction is the problem, how can it also be the solution? Would you give an alcoholic alcohol to get off alcohol or crack to a crack addict to help him stop using crack?

According to Clive Turner, Director of Action on Smoking and Health and long-time advocate of NRT, the long-term success rate for NRT products is around 6%. An article on whyquit.org shows that the success rate for second- or third-time NRT users is less than using nothing at all.

By contrast, Allen Carr's simple, drug-free Easyway method delivered via webcasts, books and live seminars has a 12-month success rate of 63.6% for a pack-a-day smoker. This rises to 75.8% for people who are able to take advantage of our support programme.

For a commonsense approach to quitting visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Does Allen Carr's Easyway work?

2009-09-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

There are literally thousands of stop smoking programs, seminars, books, websites, drugs, patches, inhalers, gum, nasal sprays, and other nicotine replacement therapies, subliminal CDs, motivational DVDs, hypnotherapy, herbal remedies, laser treatments, psychological therapies, and the like. All of them have their seductive sales pitch and all of them "claim" to work. The truth is, none of them really do. Out of all the quit smoking techniques mentioned above few of them have long-term success rates much above 10%.

So what makes Allen Carr's Easyway different? Well, don't listen to us - we're biased! Instead take a look at some of the thousands of inspirational quit smoking stories from some of the millions of former smokers who have been through Allen Carr's simple, drug-free program...

"It worked for me and about 20 other people I know. Seriously." Jason Mraz, Artist

Click here to visit our Testimonials page

How to quit smoking

2009-09-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

Got this email from Ted Fenton (www.goseeted.com)...

"I attended your seminar on November 19, 2005 in Los Angeles and was a heavy 40 to 50 cigarettes a day smoker. I have not had one since. I can't even imagine now, that I used to smoke the way I did...it's amazing! I had also tried to quit a bunch of times before....this seminar works.

Thanks for extending my life."

If Ted can do it, why not you? To find out more about Allen Carr's simple, drug-free approach to quitting, please visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Patrick Swayze

2009-09-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

Astonishingly, some members of the anti-smoking lobby have used this tragedy to criticize Patrick Swayze for not quitting smoking.

Personally, I don't really care whether or not smoking initiates or merely accelerates pancreatic cancer, yesterday we lost a prince - a truly good man: that's what we should be focusing on.

Our condolences and thoughts are with Mr. Swayze's family at this trying time.

How Anthony Hopkins quit smoking

2009-09-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

Oscar-winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins quit many years ago using Allen Carr's Easyway method. He became such a fan that he offered to provide a voice-over for the introduction to Allen's first video.

He describes the method perfectly: "Being a smoker is like being trapped in a complicated maze. You want to get out, but you don't know where to start or which way to turn. It's as if Allen Carr has a map of this maze and can help you navigate your way out."

For a simple, drug-free quit, visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Thought for the day...

2009-09-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

What happens to all those cigarette butts that just get tossed onto the sidewalk?

When I was a smoker I didn't give them a second thought, but cigarette butts are easily the world's biggest source of litter with 4,500,000,000,000 (that's 4.5 TRILLION) being discarded annually.

Keep America Beautfiul (www.kab.org) estimates that cigarette butts constitute 34% of all litter (food wrappers came in second place, with around 10%). On a monthly clean-up of a small section of Boynton Beach in Florida, over 5,000 butts are collected daily.

Cigarette butts contain arsenic, acetone, lead, formaldehyde, benzene, ammonia and cadmium. These chemicals seep out on contact with water, making them deadly to marine life. The filters are made of cellulose acetate, which takes decades to biodegrade.

So before you toss your butt away, think about holding onto it and throwing it in a trash can...

Or, even better, quit smoking with the world's most effective stop smoking method - Allen Carr's Easyway. For more information about this simple, drug-free approach to quitting, visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Allen Carr's Easyway live seminar in LA

2009-09-10T07:29:00.001-07:00

We are delighted to announce that the next Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking seminar date for Los Angeles is Saturday September 26th.

The session will be held in Santa Monica at the Georgian Hotel on Ocean Avenue. The seminar runs from 10am until 4pm. As is standard at Allen Carr's Easyway seminars, attendees will be welcome to smoke throughout.

The session will be led by Damian O'Hara, President of Allen Carr North America. "I love doing sessions on the West Coast." he said "There are always tons of interesting people who attend in LA."

Allen Carr's Easyway clientele reads like a who's who of Hollywood with Oscar-winning actors and Grammy-winning musicians heading the list.

Space at the seminar is extremely restricted, with just 20 spots, 15 of which have already been reserved, so smokers wishing to attend should book now to avoid disappointment.

To find out more information about our LA seminar or to make a reservation, please visit us at http://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com/Seminars/GroupSessions/LosAngelesseminars.aspx

Another happy non-smoker

2009-09-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

Today, we received this email from Jenny Evans, who attended one of our live seminars in NYC.

She says: "I never thought I could stop smoking after 45 years. How could I handle life? I didn't even remember what it was like to be a "Non-Smoker". Well, I have been smoke-free for 2 months now using the "EasyWay", and I feel great! This has been the most empowering gift I have ever given myself. I believe if I can do this.....anyone can!!!!!! I really mean that."

Thank you Jenny for sharing this inspirational story.

To find out how Jenny did it, and how you can too, please visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Tobacco is tobacco is tobacco...

2009-09-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

In his blog at the right-wing, libertarian Cato Institute site Cato@Liberty, David Boaz says that because Philip Morris is not fighting alongside their fellow tobacco companies to overturn new advertising restrictions, we should say that this is not about "Big" Tobacco, but "Medium" Tobacco.

But I think there's a much more interesting observation here: Why aren't Philip Morris fighting along with the rest of the industry? Why are they now accepting the same advertising restrictions that througohut the 1970s and 1980s they fought tooth and nail against? I hate to sound cynical, but if all advertising is banned, no-one will ever be able to take over Philip Morris's No.1 position as market leader. No wonder Philip Morris want this ban just as much as the tobacco-control advocates, albeit for completely different reasons!

Is PM's position altruism or self-interest? You decide.

Plain packaging - the tobacco industry's worst nightmare

2009-09-08T04:25:00.000-07:00

While American tobacco companies are going to court to try to avoid putting proper health warnings on cigarettes, there is a much bigger drama being played out in Europe, where tobacco control advocates have proposed the implementation of plain packaging for cigarettes - no camels, no colour, no chevrons, no fancy typrefaces, nothing. Just plain grey packaging with the name of the brand in simple black text.

The tobacco industry is a lot more worried about plain packaging than they are about health warnings. They know that older smokers ignore the health warnings and that younger smokers and experimenters feel that they don't apply - "I'll quit years before that happens" they tell themselves...

On the other hand, their branding, logo and typeface is really all they have left to try to appeal to customers. That's why the tobacco industry spends so much money developing sexy packaging...hot pink, cellphone shaped packs. Good thing they aren't trying to appeal to kids!

To quit smoking easily and enjoyably visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Tobacco companies and freedom of expression

2009-09-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

I was reading Dave Melson's blog entry which described his concerns over limits to free expression in the light of the current court case in which tobacco companies are attempting to have loosened recently imposed advertising and packaging restrictions.

I share his concerns, but feel this might be a special case...

This was Allen Carr north America's response...

"I totally understand the almost visceral reaction to any potential threat to freedom of expression, but with their guiding principles of fairness and equality, if the Founding Fathers had seen the way that First Amendment rights had been so egregiously abused by certain people, institutions, industries and companies, they wouldn't have hesitated for a second to legislate against them.

The tobacco industry is surely one such case: Smoking has a truly catastrophic human, financial and societal cost. An estimated 400,000 Americans die from smoking-related diseases every year (part of the nearly 6m worldwide) to say nothing of the 8m Americans living with smoking-related health problems, the millions of loved ones left behind or the estimated $100bn spent every year on caring for smokers.

The links between smoking and cancer and heart disease were established in the early 'sixties. For FORTY YEARS the tobacco industry publicly and energetically denied, while privately acknowledging, these and hundreds of other scientific findings. Big Tobacco have used their First Amendment rights to deceive, distort, deny and lie with stunning effect.

We have a right to bear arms, but if you are convicted of a gun crime, then you are likely going to be prohibited from owning a gun in the future. I think most people would agree that this makes sense.

Likewise, if someone has been found to continually and cynically use their First Amendment rights over a forty-year period to promote an addictive product they know to cause death and disease, why wouldn't it be equally correct that their right to free expression be limited and subject to oversight in the specific areas they have been found guilty of lying in?

Don't get me wrong, this is not a sanction I would take lightly, but I feel that special cases sometimes need extraordinary actions, and in this case I sense the punishment very much fits the crime, so to speak.

Incidentally, all this bill really does is to bring the US a little closer to where every other developed nation is on tobacco control already. The Australians, Canadian and Europeans have had these warnings and this type of advertising restrictions for years.

By the tobacco industry's deeds shall ye know them. Sometimes you know the right side of an argument just by seeing who is on the other side..."

Quit smoking success rates: Nicotine patch

2009-09-03T10:24:00.000-07:00

Every day we get visitors to our site asking about the success rate for other quit smoking methods, so today I would like to focus on one of the most popular (and least effective!) quit smoking aids: the nicotine patch.

The nicotine patch is an adhesive patch that releases nicotine into the bloodstream. It is marketed as a quit smoking aid, and for years manufacturers have claimed that the patch "double your chances of quitting" (this claim appears on the US Surgeon General's office, Health Canada, Cancer Society and Heart Assocation websites) but double it from what to what? From 50% to 100% or from 1% to 2%?

Believe it or not, it is actually much harder than you think to find out even something this straightforward. The reason for this is that researchers rarely quote an actual success rate. Instead they compare the success of a treatment to placebo or to no treatment and quote the difference as an Odds Ratio (OR). So if a treatment is twice as effective as placebo, it has an OR of 2. If it's half as effective the OR would be 0.5.

There have been hundreds of studies looking into the effectiveness of the nicotine patch. Cochrane's Review, an independent body examining evidence-based treatments, identified 111 trials covering over 40,000 smokers and concluded that the nicotine patch has an OR of 1.66 vs. placebo.

So, if you slap a nicotine patch on, then you have a 66% better chance of quitting than if you wore a patch with no nicotine. This is interesting to me. If nicotine replacement really worked, you would expect it to be two, three or even five times higher than placebo or using nothing at all.

Clive Bates, Director of Action on Smoking and Health in the UK and one of the most vocal supporters of nicotine replacement therapy sheds some light on this issue. In a post on a discussion thread in April 2002, Mr. Bates wrote: "The unaided quit rate is about 3% success per attempt. NRT doubles that to 6%."

So, according to one of its biggest supporters, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) has a success rate of 6% or, put another way, a 94% failure rate.

Allen Carr was dismissive of NRT from the beginning. He said "Telling a nicotine addict to stop using nicotine by taking nicotine is a bit like telling an alcoholic to drink beer instead of wine."

Ellen DeGeneres said it best: "The nicotine patch only works when you put one over each eye so you can't find your cigarettes!"

For a simple, no-BS, drug-free approach to quitting, visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Leopards never change their spots

2009-09-02T08:28:00.001-07:00

Today I would like to thank the tobacco industry for reminding everyone how 'moral' they really are as their court case against the FDA kicks off in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

According to the tobacco companies who are the plaintiffs in the case, President Obama's Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act intrudes on their first amendment rights.

The Act, which was signed into law on June 22nd 2009, brings the US into line with the rest of the developed world in curtailing tobacco advertising and introducing graphic health warnings on pack.

There are three aspects of this case I find interesting: firstly, Philip Morris - America's biggest tobacco company, is not involved. Why not? Well, believe it or not, they actually want the legislation to be enacted. Why? Because they are the market leader by far and if advertising is banned, then that's the way it'll stay.

Secondly, the industry has chosen a Kentucky jurisdiction because as a key tobacco state, they feel it more likely that they'll get a sympathetic hearing.

Thirdly, the industry insists that it only markets to adults, and that all communication are aimed at adult smokers, trying to encourage them to switch brands. But this is clearly nonsense. Why spend billions of dollars every year competing for a sector only worth a few hundred million?

The tobacco industry has targeted kids for decades. In their own words...

"…the lower age limit for the profile of young smokers is to remain at 14."

"If you are really and truly not going to sell to children, you are going to be out of business in 30 years."

"[Brown & Williamson] will not support a youth smoking program which discourages young people from smoking."

"We have been asked by our client to come up with a package design... a design that’s attractive to kids.

"We reserve that right [to smoke] for the poor, the young, the black and the stupid."

R.J. Reynolds was once asked if they were targeting junior high school kids or younger. The reply? "They got lips? We want them."

Richard Daynard, a professor at the Northeastern School of Law in Boston and chairman of its Tobacco Products Liability Project, said: ''They want this stuff stopped in its tracks so they can keep pitching cigarettes to kids."

Business as usual then...

How Ashton Kutcher quit smoking...

2009-09-01T08:36:00.001-07:00

Ashton Kutcher: actor, director, prankster and now...non-smoker!

Listen to Ashton talk about how he quit smoking using Allen Carr's unique Easyway method. You can see him talk about it on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno by clicking here. You will also find testimonials from Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Richard Branson, Ellen DeGeneres, Jason Mraz, Lou Reed, Stewart Copeland and David Blaine.

We want to thank Ashton - and all our other celebrity fans - for going public with this and for spreading the word.

To find out more about this simple, drug-free approach to quitting, please visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

More quit smoking scammers

2009-08-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

I recently contacted a company called I Quit Smoking, who claim an 80-90% success rate using laser 'therapy'.

Out of interest I asked what evidence they had to support this astonishing claim - particularly in the light of Cochrane's independent, evidence-based review into acupuncture, auricular and laser therapies, which concluded that "There is no consistent evidence that acupuncture, acupressure, laser therapy or electrostimulation are effective for smoking cessation" and "The review did not find consistent evidence that active acupuncture or related techniques increased the number of people who could successfully quit smoking vs. using placebo or sham acupuncture."

When I asked them to comment on this apparent inconsistency, I didn't hear from them again.

I was also a little suspicious of their testimonials. They quote a testimonial from a Canadian smoker who apparently quit in 2001, despite the company not coming to Canada until 2008. They quote testimonials from Italy and Austria, despite having no operations there. Smells a bit fishy to me!

For a simple, honest, BS-free approach to quitting smoking, please visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Allen Carr's Easyway featured on Forbes.com

2009-08-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

Back in July I was interviewed by Kym McNicholas at Forbes for her Personal Best feature.

Here's the link...http://video.forbes.com/fvn/personalbest/why-people-still-smoke-allen-carr-easyway-stop-smoking

I'm so happy that the mainstream media is catching on to Allen Carr's unique Easyway method.

Thanks Kym, for a terrific piece...

To find out more about quitting smoking using this simple, drug-free approach, please visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Jason Mraz quits with Allen Carr's Easyway

2009-08-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

Pop star Jason Mraz, most famous for his beautiful song I'm Yours, is the most recent celebrity to quit using Allen Carr's simple, drug-free Easyway method. He joins others such as Sir Anthony Hopkins, Anjelica Huston, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Goldie Hawn and many, many more...

Mr. Mraz says of Easyway: "It worked for me and about twenty of my friends. Seriously." You can read his relevant MySpace blog entry here.

Thank you Jason for sharing your Easyway experience with the rest of the world.

To find out more about how to quit smoking using Allen Carr's Easyway please visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

More stupidity from Philly

2009-08-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

In today's Philadelphia Inquirer Patrick McNally laments the treatment of smokers at Citizens Bank Field where the Phillies ply their trade.

A former smoker himself he 'sympathizes with the urge to light up even though...it's a dangerous habit."

Mr. McNally says: "Cigarettes are dangerous, but the same could be said of the hot dogs, pretzels, and beer sold in the ballpark. Yet I was able to buy them and walk back to my seat to enjoy my doughy, salty, fatty, alcoholic treats."

Hot dogs and pretzels are hardly health foods, but to compare them to an addictive drug that kills nearly 6,000,000 around the world every year is ridiculous. Smoking isn't a "dangerous habit", it's a drug addiction that kills half of the people that can't stop.

In addition, eating hot dogs and pretzels don't create dangers for other people. There is no second-hand trans-fat is there?

Mr. McNally should realize that it is smoking, not smokers, that is the target here.

If you are one of the 80% of smokers who want to quit, visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

Smoking and stress relief

2009-08-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to take a look at an article about smokers from the Chicago Tribune. I'm happy that the media covers this important topic, but the fact that they just trot out the same illusions about smoking and quitting is a bit depressing...

In particular, the article focuses on smoking as a stress reliever.

Smoker Keith Shannon says that a break-in scuppered his most recent attempt to quit. "After getting hit over the head with a gun, I needed a cigarette." This is presumably based on the well known fact that smoking a cigarette is an excellent cure for being hit over the head with a gun.

"It helps calm my nerves" Mr. Shannon says of the drug that elevates heart rate and blood pressure and causes the release of cortisol (the stress hormone) and adrenaline (the 'fight or flight' chemical). Does that sound like 'calming the nerves' to you? Some stress relief! More like a recipe for a heart attack.

Three pack-a-day smoker Deborah Israel says "Cigarettes are just adult pacifiers, you stick 'em in your mouth when you get stressed." Three packs a day is a lot of stress relief isn't it? If the cigarette worked to relieve stress, then why is the chain-smoking Ms. Israel stressed at all? Ironically, she says that quitting smoking would be too expensive as her company plan does not cover quit smoking programs. This is somewhat ironic coming from someone who spends over $7,500 a year on buying smokes.

Smoking to relieve stress is like drinking alcohol to get sober. The problem is that the illusion of smoking and stress relief is a subtle one. When a smoker puts out a cigarette, they go into physical withdrawal from nicotine. This is a barely noticeable feeling, a bit like hunger or very mild anxiety. The longer the smoker goes without smoking, the more pronounced the feeling becomes. When the smoker lights up, this slightly anxious edgy feeling disappears - leading the smoker to think that smoking relieves stress, when in fact withdrawal from the previous cigarette created that additional stress in the first place.

Until smokers can see through that illusion, they will have a desire or perceived need to smoke whenever they are in a stressful situation. They will need to use willpower to overcome that desire. This creates a conflict: part of them wants to smoke, but part wants to quit and it is this mental conflict (not physical withdrawal) that makes quitting challenging for those using willpower.

Allen Carr's Easyway method removes the need for willpower by enabling smokers to change their belief that smoking releives stress. Eliminating this belief eliminates the desire to smoke in stressful situations and with no desire to smoke, it really doesn't take willpower not to.

To find out more about this simple, drug-free approach to quitting, visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

Sad, weak editorial from Kansas

2009-08-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

Today the Topeka Capital Journal announced that it was opposing Councilwoman Deborah Swank's proposal to drag Topeka into the 21st century by banning smoking in workplaces.

They believe instead that 'the marketplace' should decide. Presumably they mean that the millions spent by the tobacco industry on lobbying to fight this type of legislation should decide. Having public health policy driven by companies whose products kill an estimated 400,000 Americans every year is less than ideal.

Just because there is a market for something doesn't mean that the market should 'decide' what is right and wrong. There is a market for crack and crystal meth, but no-one is suggesting that crack dealers should develop public drug policy. Public health for the large majority should trump an individual's 'right' to smoke.

As a reader pointed out: "So, when I get lung cancer from breathing all the second-hand smoke lingering in public places, just exactly which part of the marketplace will pay for my lost health and health care?"

Newspapers need to get with the program - smokers have. Recent research shows that over 70% want to quit. To quit smoking easily and enjoyably, visit www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

Allen Carr seminars now available in Denver, Houston and Dallas

2009-08-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

Allen Carr North America is delighted to announce the launch of our seminar program in Denver, Houston and Dallas.

The seminars are conducted by Denver-native Collene Curran, who quit smoking using Allen Carr's Easyway method in 2005.

To find out dates and locations please visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com.

More BS from Britain's NHS

2009-08-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Britain's National Health Service (NHS) has just issued a self-congratualtory press release about its quit smoking service, claiming a 40% "success rate". This is spin, laid on top of spin, with a bit of spin on the side.
Quit smoking success rates are usually measured at 6 months. The NHS's 40% "success rate" is after just four weeks. And it gets worse...as the NHS's primary recommendation is to use nictoine replacement therapy (NRT), that a large proportion of the 40% of "successful" quitters are still using nicotine!
Research shows that with smokers quitting using willpower or NRT there is significant relapse rates between 4 weeks and 6 months, so the real life success rate is likely to be closer to the 5-7% suggested by the independent, evidence-based resource Cochrane's.
In addition, the 40% success rate is of all smokers who set a quit date with the NHS service. What about those that didn't? Ah, well, we'll just forget those shall we?
And in terms of value for money the NHS service gets worse, not better, with their cost per quitter up 26% vs. 2008.
For a no-BS, drug-free, pain-free quit smoking method, visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

Talk about self-interest...

2008-11-11T09:39:00.000-08:00

The Winston-Salem Journal actually believes that the tobacco industry should remain unregulated by the FDA. In an editorial dated October 29th, it describes the efforts to have a product that kills 450,000 Americans every year regulated like every other drug in the country as "wrongheaded government intervention".

So presumably it is also wrong to regulate other harmful (or potentially harmful) products like heroin, cars, airlines, medications and guns? These products kill far fewer than smoking but are rightly subject to regulation or prohibition because of their potential for harm.

It is morally and ethically bankrupt to put the business interests of drug dealers before the lives of their victims. I know Winston-Salem is in the heart of tobacco country but DON'T THEY GET IT? The Journal should be ashamed of itself...

If you want sense instead of nonsense, visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

Smoking and the recession

2008-11-11T06:37:00.000-08:00

According to research conducted by Harris on behalf of the American Legacy Foundation, low-income (defined as earning less than $35,000 a year) smokers are smoking more as a result of the recession. Nearly 40% of such smokers report smoking more as a result of the financial crisis.

The report is published at the same time as another worrying report - this one showing that one in four children in low-income smoking households don't have enough to eat. This figure is three times higher than in non-smoking households.

The clear implication here is that smokers are spending more on smokes, and less on food for their children.

It is at such times when you can see smoking for the unrewarding addiction it really is.

Quit smoking and start saving. To quit smoking with no willpower, no weight gain and no withdrawal pangs, visit www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

If you are addicted to nicotine gum...

2008-10-22T11:48:00.000-07:00

I'm ordinarily a really big fan of John Tierney's Science blog in the NY Times, but I have to take exception with today's entry entitled Should Obama Take Nicotine Pledge? (http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/should-obama-quit-nicorettes/?scp=3&sq=smoking&st=cse)

Here are my concerns.

Firstly, Sen. Obama is described as using nicotine gum 'successfully', but then we are told that he is still ocasionally smoking. I struggle to characterize this as success because (i) he is still addicted to nicotine and (ii) he is still smoking. What is successful about this?

Secondly, Mr. Teirney speculates 'What if the nicotine gum strategy is so successful that Mr. Obama is capable of weaning himself from nicotine altogether? If he reaches the White House, should he give up the chemical that he relied on during his career and his campaign?'

The most obvious problem with this is that Mr. Teirney implicitly assumes that at least part of Sen. Obama's success came because he is addicted to nicotine. But where is the evidence to support this claim? Perhaps Sen. Obama's success is nothing to do with nicotine. Perhaps he is successful because he's smart, hard-working and dedicated. In fact, with the stigma associated with smoking so profound these days, we might even argue that he is successful despite being addicted to nicotine, not because of it.

In support of this theory that weaning himself off nicotine might be a bad thing for Sen. Obama and for America, Mr. Teirney (also a nicotine gum chewer) quotes his colleague Jane Brody, 'Among the...effects of nicotine are arousal, relaxation, improved mood, reduced anxiety and stress, better concentration and faster reaction time.'

It reads like an ad for nicotine gum. Who wouldn't want these things?

But let's think about this for a moment: how can a drug that creates arousal also relax you? Aren't they more or less opposites? And how does a drug that relaxes also improve reaction time? Doesn't this seem contradictory to you? And if nicotine reduces anxiety and stress, then why aren't smokers less anxious and less stressed than non-smokers? In fact, recent research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates the opposite - that smokers are substantially more prone to depression, anxiety, high blood pressure and panic disorders than non-smokers. And if smoking aids concentration, then why aren't smokers smarter than non-smokers?

It gets worse. Ms. Brody goes on to explain "When deprived, smokers report withdrawal symptoms that include irritability, depression, restlessness, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, increased hunger, insomnia, a craving for tobacco, difficulty getting along with others and a feeling that life lacks pleasure."

Like most addicts, including myself when I was a smoker, Mr. Teirney appears to accept that the removal of these 'withdrawal symptoms' is a good reason to continue to consume nicotine. But we don't see the obvious: that non-smokers do not feel irritable, depressed, restless, anxious, distracted, hungry, sleepless, anti-social or dysphoric because they can't smoke. In fact, it is smokers, not non-smokers who suffer from these symptoms. So instead of giving nicotine the credit for alleviating these symptoms, perhaps we should be blaming the previous dose for creating them.

Mr. Teirney poses the question: 'Do do we really want someone in the White House going through nicotine withdrawal?' The answer, I think, is no. Mr. Teirney concludes that Sen. Obama should therefore continue to chew the gum if voted into office. However this would merely guarantee that he would continue to experience withdrawal indefinitely. People who do not smoke or chew nicotine gum do not go through nicotine withdrawal. Those who do, do. On that basis, Sen. Obama should stop chewing the gum.

Mr. Teirney's piece is a classic case of really smart people falling for illusions due to the subtlety of the drug nicotine: Smokers spend most of their time in very mild withdrawal and over time they begin to perceive this as their 'normal' state; smoking temporarily removes this feeling. In this way smokers begin to get tricked into seeing the removal of withdrawal symptoms as genuine pleasure or relief.

If a smoker sleeps for six hours at night, when they wake up they're 97% nicotine-free! Even very heavy smokers do this as a matter of routine. You are 100% nicotine-free and technically no longer an addict after just 3 days.

These 'withdrawal symptoms' - depression, anxiety, over-eating etc. are actually nothing to do with nicotine withdrawal. For a start many of them come weeks or even months after all the nicotine has left your body. They can't be anything to do with nicotine.

They are the symptoms of mental conflict experienced by people who are trying to stop using nicotine but still believe that it provided some benefit, pleasure or crutch. They want to quit, but they still want nicotine and this conflict can create all manner of symptoms. Allen Carr's Easyway removes this conflict: remove the conflict, remove the symptoms.

Radio active...

2008-10-16T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of working with Colleen Rusholme of the 97.3 EZ-Rock breakfast show in Toronto.

I met the anchor of the show, Humble Howard Glassman, four years ago, and helped him and his wife Randee, quit. Howard was a HUGE smoker and has been a massive supporter of our work ever since.

When he got his new gig on EZ-Rock, he made it his mission to get his co-host, Colleen, to quit. Colleen had never tried to quit and had a lot of trepidation, but Howard is a very persuasive guy!Eventually he persuaded her to agree to see me.

On Tuesday I was a guest on the show and met a terrified Colleen for the first time. They announced on the show that Colleen would be quitting, and I think that put a lot of additional pressure on her.

We met yesterday for a session out by Toronto airport. Colleen was absolutely awesome - smart, funny, attentive and open-minded. By the end of the session she was a happy non-smoker.

I was invited on the show again this morning to see how things went and I was thrilled to hear Colleen so happy to be smoke-free. She couldn't keep the smile off her face...

That was a good day...

To find out more about Colleen and Easyway, visit us at http://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com/

Scam alert - QuitSmokingRankings.com

2008-09-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

The people who run the QuitSmokingRankings (QSR) website must think smokers are REALLY stupid. The site claims to provide smokers with 'independent research' into 17 quit smoking products, but a cursory glance at their research 'methodology' suggests that the whole thing is designed to lure desperate smokers into buying expensive but third-rate infomercial products.

My skeptical antenna was twitching from the second I got to their site.

Firstly, they claim to provide "in-depth reviews and rankings of leading quit smoking products" but four of the five products they recommend are herbal or homeopathic products, which real scientific research has conclusively shown to be ineffective. For example, all of their recommended herbal products are based on the substance lobeline, an alkaloid extract of the flowering herb lobelia. Here is what the esteemed Cochrane Collaboration had to say about lobeline for smoking cessation: "There is no evidence available from long-term trials that lobeline can aid smoking cessation." It adds, "Even short-term studies do not indicate a consistent effect on smoking behaviour."

This is a scientist's way of saying "It doesn't work". But despite this damning indictment from real scientists, QSR claims: "Herbs have shown overwhelming evidence that they work." Sadly, they do not quote any studies, research, testimonials or statistics to support this claim, and this is the second problem.

QSR makes enormous claims for the products they promote - bigger claims, in fact, than many of the manufacturers themselves - but unless they are supported by evidence (in the case of smoking cessation, evidence is usually via controlled studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals) they are worse than useless. Anyone can claim a 100% success rate - show me the data.

QSR claims to have used stringent criteria for their product selection: "effectiveness, longevity, safety, side effects, quickness of results and success rates." Allegedly based on 'consumer feedback' and their own research they give brands marks out of ten based on each criteria. Looking at the effectiveness 'data', QSR claims that the success rates for their top 5 products are 100%, 97.5%, 95%, 92.5% and 90% respectively. To anyone who works in the smoking cessation field, these figures are laughable.

For example, their fifth ranked product - for which they claim a 90% success rate - is a nicotine patch. According to Cochrane, based on genuinely independent, peer-reviewed data from over 100 clinical trials, the success rate for the nicotine patch is approximately 10%. How does QSR account for this huge difference? I know which figure I believe.

These people should be ashamed of themselves, but my guess is that they'll be too busy dealing with customer complaints, as the makers of some of the products they promote are. For example, the FTC slapped Smokeaway (formerly a QSR recommended product) with a $1.3m fine for deceptive marketing practices. In May 2008 the makers of another QSR recommended product - Zero Nicotine - were sued by the Federal Trade Commission for misrepresentation, failure to disclose material facts, the unauthorised billing of customer's credit cards and false product claims. Amazingly QSR ranks this company's reputation and customer service as 'very good'.

I welcome dialogue with QuitSmokingRankings.com, or the makers any of the scam products they promote, in fact, I beg them to get in touch to have an open debate about success rates and research.

If you are looking to quit smoking, start at http://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com/ and click on the success rates tab to see a comprehensive review of the success rates of all major -and some not so major - quit methods.

Tobacco industry - bottom of the heap

2008-08-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

Today Harris Interactive, one of the respected names in market research, published their annual report into public attitudes towards twenty key industries. http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/template.NDM/news/more/?javax.portlet.tpst=0b2c9a4dd5f89b80977dd367cc87b42f_ws_MX&javax.portlet.prp_0b2c9a4dd5f89b80977dd367cc87b42f_viewID=news_view_popup&javax.portlet.prp_0b2c9a4dd5f89b80977dd367cc87b42f_newsLang=en&javax.portlet.prp_0b2c9a4dd5f89b80977dd367cc87b42f_ndmHsc=v2*A1216119600000*B1218747956000*DgroupByDate*J2*L1*N1000837*ZBIG%20CHANGES%20IN%20PUBLIC%20ATTITUDES%20TOWARD%20DIFFERENT%20INDUSTRIES%20SINCE%20LAST%20YEAR&javax.portlet.prp_0b2c9a4dd5f89b80977dd367cc87b42f_newsId=20080807005140&beanID=202776713&viewID=news_view_popup&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

The table is topped by supermarkets, online search engines, computer harware companies, software companies, hospitals and Internet Service Providers.

And the industries at the bottom of the table? Only four industries had a negative score (meaning that more people had negative views of the industry than neutral or positive views) and it is the usual suspects: managed care, health insurance and oil companies, but one industry is far below the others. With a score so stunningly bad (-43) the tobacco industry truly owns the title of America's most hated and least respected industry. They have done so much to earn this award. Parents of tobacco company executives must feel so proud of their children...not.

To see the tobacco industry for what it really is, visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com
To download Allen Carr's expose of the tobacco industry visit www.allencarr.com and download his book Scandal for free.

This is what tobacco lobbying money buys...

2008-08-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

Every year, tobacco companies spend millions of dollars lobbying various state and federal bodies. This is an example of what that money buys.

Congressman Richard Burr is a Republican representing North Carolina's 5th District. He is also Congress's biggest recipient of money from Big Tobacco. RJ Reynolds and its law firm are Burr's biggest contributors while collectively U.S. tobacco manufacturers have given Burr more money than any other member of the House of Representatives, according the the non-partisan watchdog the Center for Responsive Politics.

Surprise, surprise, Mr. Burr opposes the bill passed last week in the House that gives the FDA regulatory authority over the tobacco industry which, unbelievably, currently escapes any kind of federal oversight and is essentially an unregulated product.

Mr. Burr's opposition is based on two factors: firstly, he argues that far from improving public health, FDA oversight of tobacco "could do more harm than good". His basis for this truly astonishing claim is that the legislation would require tobacco companies to do what everyone else in the food and drug business does - test their products for safety and efficacy before launching them. His argument is that this might prevent tobacco companies from bringing reduced-harm products to market.

The fact is that it is the tobacco companies themselves that have not been particularly interested in developing such products, because a reduced-harm cigarette might imply that the original product was unsafe. This would effectively constitute an admission that smoking was inherently dangerous - something the tobacco industry could never afford to do because it would expose them to substantial liability. This point is discussed at length in Richard Kluger's Pulitzer-prize winning expose of the US tobacco industry, Ashes to Ashes.

In 1964 the Surgeon General first linked smoking with lung cancer and heart disease. Since then, the industry has had over 40 years to create a reduced-harm product in a market free from any regulation but has failed to do so. In that time an estimated 20m Americans have died from smoking-related diseases. Enough. The tobacco industry is NOT in the business of saving smokers, and it is self-serving and egregiously disrespectful to try to pretend it is.

Mr. Burr's second concern is that gaining oversight over tobacco would 'severely impede the FDA's core mission'. According to the FDA website, their core mission is described thus: "The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of...drugs, biological products,...(and) our nation’s food supply. The FDA is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovations that make medicines and foods more effective, safer, and more affordable; and helping the public get the accurate, science-based information they need to use medicines and foods to improve their health."

It is difficult to see how gaining regulatory oversight for a product that kills 400,000 Americans annually is 'severely impeding' the FDA's protection of the public health. Quite the opposite actually - it is exactly what the FDA was set up to do.

Mr. Burr argues that the FDA is a busy agency and that taking responsiblity for tobacco products would stretch their resources too much. But this is like cutting your head off to cure a headache. If the FDA needs a bigger budget to handle this extended remit, then rather than allow a business that kills nearly half-a-million Americans a year to continue to escape Federal oversight, let's get a bigger budget. So here's an idea: implement a $1 federal tax on a pack of smokes to fund the FDA's work in overseeing tobacco. The US has (by far) the lowest tobacco tax rate of any developed nation. The current tax on a pack of smokes is 39 cents. To put this into perspective the tax rates in Europe and Canada vary between $2 and $10 per pack. A $1 increase in Federal tobacco tax would still leave the US with the cheapest cigarettes in the Western world, and also create an estimated $9 billion in additional revenue - more than enough to fund FDA oversight of tobacco, in fact nearly enough to fund the whole agency!

In advancing Big Tobacco's interests over those of American consumers, Mr. Burr is choosing money over humanity - a campaign contribution over the lives of the 400,000 Americans killed by this awful drug every year. I have never seen a stronger argument for campaign finance reform and for getting business out of politics.

Freedom = drug addiction? I don't think so...

2008-08-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

Today, a newly-formed 'smoker's rights' group - Cigar Rights of America - announced its four day "Freedom Tour" starting next week in NYC.

What is especially interesting is that this smoker's right group has not been set up by smokers and nor does not have any regular, man-in-the-street smokers as members. Does it not seem odd that a smoker's rights group doesn't actually feature any smokers?

The group, which has been established and funded by - yep, you guessed it - cigar manufacturers, is attempting to teach smokers how to protest against the implementation of smoke-free legislation across the US under the guise of protecting freedom.

Nicotine is the most addictive substance known to man. Trying to reposition drug addiction as 'freedom' is shameful and, I think, extremely distasteful and disrespectful to the 45m Americans addicted to this awful drug. Especially to the estimated 450,000 Americans that will die of smoking this year and the further 8m Americans living with a smoking-related condition, or their families

Smoking is not a game, or a pleasure or a 'freedom', and it sickens me that people within the tobacco industry continue to see fit to ignore the shocking price American society pays to this terrible addiction, just to make a buck.

To break free from the slavery of smoking visit www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

The true cost of smoke breaks

2008-08-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

Smokers are under pressure at work. Today smoke breaks, once an accepted part of the work day are frowned upon and in some cases, even banned altogether - as Karen Krindle of Rochester, NY found to her cost.

Ms. Krindle, a paralegal, was terminated by her employer because she failed to comply with a written policy banning smoke breaks. She applied for unemployment benefits and was awarded $3,000. However the state Labour Department challenged this, claiming that Ms. Krindle had misrepresented the reasons for her dismissal. They argued that she was dismissed for misconduct - in which case she has no right to any benefits. The Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court agrees, and Ms. Krindle may be forced to pay back the $3,000 she received in benefits.

Her appeal is based on the argument that banning smoke breaks is unfair to smokers, who use them to "Re-energize and become less crabby".

But as Allen Carr pointed out, why don't non-smokers need to take breaks to make them less "crabby"? And if smoking "re-energizes" then why don't smokers have more energy than non-smokers?

Do you think that Ms. Krindle will get a sympathetic hearing in her appeal? I don't. Smokers are detested by today's society, but I have always felt this to unfair. Allen Carr once said "Smoking is the problem, not smokers", and how true that is. Most smokers got addicted to nicotine as children or young adults. How can we blame them for a mistake they made as a child?

Smokers: if you are looking for a way to quit smoking where you are not judged to be weak, selfish and stupid, but are instead treated with intelligence, dignity and respect then we'll see you at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

She said it with a straight face...

2008-08-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

Commenting on the $1.15bn fine levied on Canada's two largest tobacco companies for smuggling cigarettes Imperial Tobacco spokesperson Catherine Doyle said "We realize...we are going to take a hit to our reputation because of this."

What 'reputation' would that be? When your company is part of an industry that makes a product that kills 4 million people every year, I wouldn't have thought that there was much of a reputation to protect.

You've got to be kidding me...

2008-08-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

In the week when it is announced that after years of escaping oversight by any federal body, the tobacco industry is finally going to be regulated by the FDA, the LA Times has seen fit to publish an article about athletes who smoke. This is a link to the article: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-he-smoking4-2008aug04,0,4646024.story

As you can imagine, it's a fairly short article.

It features five athletes: Rob McCool who after less than ten years of intermittent smoking notices diminished lung capacity, despite a gruelling training regime; Jeff Myers, who sees himself as a casual smoker, despite having smoked half-a-pack a day every single day for the past 13 years and who promised himself he would stop on his thirtieth birthday - five years ago; Simi Singer, who has smoked on and off for twenty-five years and is clearly desperate to quit. She seems embarrased by her smoking working, as she does, at Mt. Sinai; Jon Delaney, a self-described recovering addict for who intends to quit as soon as possible and Nicole Fitzpatrick, who wants to be a non-smoker but feels that she would be missing out on something so cannot quit and smokes 5 to 10 cigarettes a week.

The final sentence of the article reads "But for now, smoking and exercise continue to run in sync" but this doesn't make sense. 94% of the runners polled in the survey the author quotes do not smoke and one-third of those that do are so ashamed of it that they only smoke in secret. A detailed analysis of the five athletes mentioned indicates that four actively want to quit and the other wants to cut down dramatically.

The point of all this is simple. There are a very few athletes who smoke, but only because they don't know how to quit. Every single one of them would rather be a non-smoker.

Reading through the stories of these athletes is heartbreaking. They want to quit, but believe that smoking gives them some comfort or pleasure, or that it helps them manage their weight. So long as they believe these things they will have desire to smoke, and if they try to quit, they'll need to use willpower to overcome that desire to smoke. This is what makes quitting difficult using the willpower path.

Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking makes it easy to quit smoking by challenging the beliefs upon which the desire to smoke is based. By exposing these beliefs as illusory it is possible to completely change the way the smoker sees smoking and remove the desire to smoke. With no desire to smoke, it's easy not to.

If any of the athletes featured in this article want to quit smoking, they would be welcome to attend our next LA seminar free of charge.

Stop press!!!!! Nicotine is a DRUG!

2008-07-31T07:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the House of Representatives at long last passed a bill giving the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), for years a thorn in the tobacco industry's side, sponsored the bill, which will further restrict tobacco advertising and will ban flavored cigarettes which are designed to appeal to young people.

The bill is almost certain to be vetoed by a tobacco industry friendly White House. President Bush's ties to the tobacco industry are strong and deep. Karl Rove, until last year Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff and political Svengali, was formally on Philip Morris's payroll from 1991-1996 as a political intelligence operative. Another of Bush's close friends and advisors, Haley Barbour, who was Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1993-1997 and is considered by many to be a potential Vice-Presidential candidate in 2008, has strong tobacco ties. In 2001 his lobbying company Barbour, Griffith & Rogers was named by Fortune as the most powerful in the nation and it has made millions in fees from lobbying on behalf of tobacco companies.

Back in September 1999 Martin Feldman, a tobacco industry analyst with Salomon Smith Barney said "The prospect of Bill Clinton gone and a George Bush presidency makes the industry almost giddy." And President Bush has not disappointed. He has resisted federal tax hikes on tobacco products, he has advocated tort reform which heavily favours the makers of dangerous products such as cigarettes, he has refused to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control - the worldwide agreement to prevent children from starting to smoke and restricting tobacco companies advertising and promotional activity designed to recruit new, young smokers.

In outlining White House opposition to the FDA taking authority over tobacco, Health & Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt suggests that the FDA has no expertise in the field.

It's funny - I'd have thought that an organzation that was "responsible for protecting public health by assuring the saftey, efficacy and security of human drugs..." and has been doing so effectively since 1862 was EXACTLY what we needed here. If they don't have expertise in the field, who does?

Ontario bans in-store cigarette displays

2008-06-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

On May 31st (coincidentally World No Tobacco Day) the government of Ontario banned so-called 'power wall' displays of tobacco products in stores selling cigarettes.

With so many restrictions on advertising and promotion of tobacco products, the power wall in the convenience store was one of the last bastions of tobacco promotion. Some critics have labelled this move as petty and vindictive, but they are missing the larger point. The display bans are not to 'remove temptation' among former smokers or to hope that smokers somehow forget they smoke if they don't see the display. The bans are designed with children in mind.

Tobacco companies want children to think that it is normal and natural for people to smoke, that smoking is popular among adults and that it is OK to smoke. The power wall displays are designed to reinforce these beliefs. By covering the displays, the products are de-normalised. Cigarettes are no longer perceived as being equivalent to soap powder or candy - regular products consumed by regular people.

I worked in tobacco marketing for seven years and the idea of covering up of power walls absolutely terrified the tobacco companies, to the degree that they fought its introduction tooth and nail in court. They felt that it would seriously limit their ability to establish brand awareness of their products among young children. And they are right to be frightened. These bans will lead to fewer teens perceiving smoking as normal, which will lead to lower levels of teen smoking. And if they don't get you as a teen, then they probably won't get you at all...

To find out more about how the tobacco inductry manipulates children, visit us at http://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com/ and take a look at our links page.

Quit smoking drug companies slug it out...

2008-05-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

Drug comany Glaxo has been quick to try to take advantage of their comeptitor Pfizer's problems.
With the recent announcement by the Federal Aviation Authority banning the use of Pfizer's Chantix among commercial pilots and air traffic controllers due to concern over its' safety, Glaxo marketers have generously offered pilots and air traffic controllers 48 free nicotine lozenges.
However they are not publicising two things: firstly that a full programme of lozenges comprises over 900 lozenges and that the program will cost the pilots an additional $500 to complete, and secondly, that according to research published by industry consultants, the success rate of the lozenge is around 7%.
So, if you're a pilot wanting to quit, you can spend $500 on a product with a 7% success rate or you can visit us www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

Chantix - more bad news...

2008-05-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has banned the use of Chantix among America's pilots and air traffic controllers. The move comes as a response to research released by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. The research details 988 'serious' incidents involving Chantix in the fourth quarter of 2007.

This follows hot on the heels of the FDA's February's public health advisory about Chantix, which warned users of the elevated risk of 'serious psychiatric symptoms' and even that some users had committed suicide.

For a natural, safe, effective, drug-free approach to quitting smoking, please visit us at http://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com/

Quit smoking objective: tobacco-free or nicotine-free?

2008-05-22T10:00:00.001-07:00

I have just received in my inbox a wonderful self-congratulatory press release from a major smoking cessation service provider. In it they pat themselves on the back for achieving their highest ever success rate in the first quarter of 2008. The problem is that they are defining 'success' as being tobacco-free rather than nicotine-free.

When we dig deeper we find that a significant number of the 'successes' are continuing to use the nicotine patch or gum. Research shows that of the 6-8% of gum users who successfully quit smoking, more than half become addicted to the gum. Further research shows that many people who remain addicted to nicotine ultimately relapse back to smoking.

I also note from their research that they were only able to follow-up with the 51% of their customers who completed the survey. What about the rest?

So, of the 14,428 people surveyed, the 'success rate' is based on the responses from just 7,300, and some of the people counted as successes are still using nicotine. In this kind of research it is usually the protocol to count non-respondents as still smoking. In this case their much-trumpeted 'success rate' of 44.5% (tobacco-free, not nicotine-free remember) at six months falls to 22.7%. As those still addicted to nicotine drift back to smoking, this figure would be expected to drop further...

Compare this to the 12-month, nicotine-free success rate of 53.3% for attending Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking seminar.

To get the facts, not the spin, please visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

Light and mild? Deadly and deceitful

2008-05-21T05:54:00.000-07:00

Are light and mild cigarettes 'milder' or 'lighter' (by that what we really mean is 'safer' or 'less dangerous') than so-called full-flavor cigarettes?

To answer this question, we must first understand what a light or mild cigarette is. A light cigarette is identical to the full-flavor version with the exception of two things: first, the filter is longer. This gives the smoke more time to cool down before entering the airways and this reduction in temperature gives the illusion of a milder 'taste'. (This is why most smokers can't smoker non-flitered cigarettes: the smoke is too hot for them and they find the 'flavor' too harsh). Second, many manufacturers also put microscopic ventilations in the filter. Again, this allows the smoke to cool down giving the illusion of a milder taste. Also some side-stream smoke escapes through the ventilations, which gives these cigarettes lower tar and nicotine levels when the cigarette is tested by the FTC's smoking machines.

However, we do not smoke like a machine smokes. We cover the ventilations with our lips or fingers. We rip the filter off, or tape it up. We drag deeper, smoke further down the butt or smoke more cigarettes to compensate for the loss of this side-stream smoke.

Because we smoke light and mild cigarettes differently, we actually end up getting very similar amounts of nicotine (and therefore tar, carbon monoxide etc.) from ultra-light cigarettes as we do from full-flavor brands, it's just that the smoke is cooler giving the illusion of mildness.

In Canada this scam has been blown wide open and tobacco companies and now no longer allowed to use the deceitful descriptors 'light' and 'mild'.

As with so many other walks of life, in quitting smoking knowledge is power. To get more knowledge and power, visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

Stop Smoking online with Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking webcast

2008-05-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

We are delighted to announce the launch of our Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking webcast service.

This service has been launched to service the US and Canadian smokers who do not have easy access to an Allen Carr seminar center (currently NY, LA, Dallas, Denver, Toronto and Vancouver).

The webcast is split into six segments and lasts four hours. As with the live seminars, smokers are invited to continue to smoke throughout the program, right up until the ritual final cigarette.
The webcast is delivered by one of the most experienced facilitators in the Allen Carr network, who has personally helped thousands of smokers - including many members of LA and NY's A-list.

We are getting tremendous feedback from webcast users. One user - a doctor who works in the field of addictions said: "So far, so good. I am amazed at how effectively your program has completely removed my desire to smoke. It really is easy..."

For more information about the webcast, please click here. If you are a smoker, or if there is a smoker in your life, we urge you to take a look...

Another bad day for American smokers...

2008-05-09T05:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the 2008 update to the US Guidelines for Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence was announced by Dr. Michael Fiore, Chairman of the review panel.

As expected, the update says that, apart from where contra-indicated: "Clinicicans should encourage (pharmaceutical quitting products) use by ALL patients attempting to quit smoking." But is this good advice or just another opportunity for drug companies to line their pockets still further? For example, Dr. Fiore's own financial ties to companies with pharmaceutical manufacturers are well-known, having been the subject of a front-page story in the Wall St. Journal (Feb 7, 2007).

The types of products that Dr. Fiore's team believe should be used by 'all patients' trying to quit include the nicotine patch and gum (which according to manufacturer Glaxo's own research have six-month success rates of 7%) and Chantix, which (without ongoing counselling and support) has a success rate of around 9% at 12 months and has been the subject of an FDA safety bulletin.

What's more, the recommendations specifically exclude counselling and education - well-known from clinical trials to be the most effective cessation tools - unless they are used in conjunction with medication. (As an aside here, I still can't get my head around calling a nicotine patch 'medication'. How can it be that the nicotine in a cigarette is an addictive poison, but the nicotine from a patch is 'medicine'? Go figure.)

The Allen Carr's Easyway method - a simple, single five-hour seminar - has been shown in independent clinical evaluations published in highly respected medical journals to have a six-month success rate approximately 10 times higher than nicotine replacement products, yet not only is this method not recommended by the panel, it is not even discussed.

It is tragic that smokers are continually told that they need a drug to stop doing a drug, when such wonderful, natural and effective alternatives are available. If you want to stop using nicotine without taking nicotine or other drugs, please visit us at http://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

Cigarette pack Health Warnings

2008-04-29T05:23:00.000-07:00

...I remember back in the UK in the early nineties a brand called "Death" was launched. The logo was a skull and crossbones and the health warning said "Toxic fumes: do not inhale."

Nice to see some truth in advertising!

To get to the truth about quitting, visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

When the cure is as bad as the disease...

2008-04-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

Today, I was emailed this tragic story by a colleague living in the UK. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351596,00.html

It is the story of Omer Jama, a 39 year-old TV executive who committed suicide while trying to stop smoking using Pfizer's new drug Chantix (a.k.a. Champix).

Around half of the people I see in Allen Carr's Easyway seminars have unsuccessfully used Chantix. Most of them were unable to complete the program of medication because of the side-effects. In fact, back in November 2007 the FDA announced that it was investigating claims brought to the manufacturers attention that the drug caused unpleasant side-effects, including mood swings and 'erratic' behavior in users.

Our thoughts are with Mr. Jama's family at this awful time, and with the tens of thousands of smokers who are prescribed this drug on a weekly basis.

For a simple, drug-free quit smoking method, please visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

NYC nicotine patches - one over each eye so you can't see the results!

2008-04-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

I subscribe to the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene newsletter and today I received an email from them advising me of the launch of their latest quit smoking campaign.

In another repeat of the program first introduced in 2003, until May 1st 2008 the nicotine patch and gum will be available free of charge to an unspecified number of eligible NYC smokers wanting to quit. Whilst I am very happy to see the city taking quitting so seriously, I again question the wisdom of using nicotine replacement therapy which, according to industry reports, has six-month quit rates of just 7%.

To compare these success rates to Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking webcasts and seminars, please click here and for a comprehensive review of all of the major quit smoking methods, please click here

Tobacco and justice...

2008-04-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

You may have read John Grisham's latest book The Appeal. In it the evil CEO of a chemical company buys a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court so that he can get an expensive verdict overturned.

They say that truth is stranger than fiction: in December 2006 when the US Supreme Court declined to review the dismissal of a $10.1bn award against Philip Morris for "enticing smokers to buy "light" cigarettes on a fraudulent promise that they were lower in tar and nicotine" the tobacco industry breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The State Supreme Court judge that cast the deciding vote? Step forward Judge Lloyd Karmeier, who received millions of dollars in campaign support from the tobacco industry, in particular - you guessed it - Philip Morris Inc.

To read Dorothy Samuels' brilliant expose of judicial corruption in the NY Times, go here...http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/opinion/13talkingpoints.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

The truth about Nicotine Replacement Therapy

2008-02-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

For years Allen Carr tried to convince the UK tobacco control establishment to look at the incredible success rates he was achieving with his simple, fast, drug-free approach, with a view to making it freely available to all smokers wanting to quit.

Allen said to me that he felt like he had a cure for cancer, but nobody in authority wanted to know. According to Allen, the tobacco control bureaucracy was no different than any other inept government body - slow-moving, bureaucratic and biased. His frustration was partially born out of the unwavering support by the establishment towards Nicotine Reaplcement Therapy which has comparitively low success rates. He felt that this support was based on the funding provided by the drug companies that manufacture these products.

Allen wrote about this at length in his final book, Scandal, which can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.allencarr.com/

The Wall St. Journal's Kevin Helliker wrote a fascinating article about the influence of drug companies in the formation of public health policy in this field. To read more go to http://www.aerzteinitiative.at/PharmaTies07.htm

This is your brain on Chantix

2008-02-21T14:08:00.000-08:00

Derek DeKoff, a journalist writing for New York magazine had this to say about his experience to try to quit smoking using Chantix (Champix). Suicidal thoughts, hallucinations and blackouts - not everyone's idea of fun.

http://nymag.com/news/features/43892/

For a more effective, drug-free approach to quitting smoking, visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

The Best Time to Quit Smoking

2008-02-20T12:39:00.000-08:00

The one word answer: tomorrow!

But isn't that what you said yesterday? And the day before?

The reason that 'tomorrow' is the smoker's favorite answer is because it means we don't have to do it today. We know we should quit smoking in the long-term, but that's the long-term and we'll think about that later. For now, we want to smoke, and the immediate fear of feeling deprived trumps the longer-term fear of being killed by smoking.

We 'want' to smoke because, even though we know it kills one out of every two smokers, we think it helps us relax or cope with stress or that it keeps us thin. On top of these beliefs that smoking is somehow pleasurable or beneficial, we believe that quitting smoking is extremely difficult and unpleasant. Nicotine withdrawal is said to be brutal; "harder to quit than heroin" we're told. We believe that even if we make it, we will never be truly happy as non-smokers and that we will go through the rest of lives feeling deprived.

With beliefs like this is it surprising that the best day to quit is always 'tomorrow'?

The key to finding it easy to stop smoking is to change the way you see smoking and quitting. Allen Carr's method teaches smokers to shift their prespective. As soon as I began to see the cigarette not as the solution, but as the problem; when I realized that there was nothing to 'give up'; when I understood that as a smoker I experienced nicotine withdrawal for hours at a time when I was asleep and that it was so mild that it didn't even wake me up; when I realized that it was smokers, not non-smokers, who were deprived - of their health, their money, their energy, their self-respect and their freedom - then I realized it could be easy to quit and do you know what?

It was.

For more information on how to build a winning mindset when it comes to quitting smoking, visit us at http://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com/

A thought for the day...

2008-02-19T10:02:00.000-08:00

There are approximately 45m smokers in the US and Canada. There are an estimated 60m ex-smokers. This means that there are more people who have quit smoking than who smoke. What is so special about these people? Absolutely nothing. Like you, many of them thought they would never be able to quit, but they did it, and so can you.

To find out how you can join the 60m visit us at www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

Another great reason to quit: the chances of getting lucky on Valentine's Day are better if you don't smell like an ashtray!

Hope you all have a great and fun day...

So, what's it really like to be a non-smoker?

2008-02-08T11:41:00.000-08:00

When I was a smoker I could never visualize myself as a happy non-smoker. I was convinced that I would go through the rest of my life craving the cigarette I could never smoke and that my life without my 'little friend' would be one of misery, deprivation and irritability.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. When I quit smoking I did not lose a friend, I killed an enemy. As a non-smoker I feel happier, much healthier and free. My energy levels, self-confidence and self-esteem have gone through the roof. The cold hands, the lethargy, the depression and the panic attacks have disappeared.

I still cry when my team loses and I still celebrate when they win. I still love my family, and the fact that I can now spend time with them without trying to create an excuse to leave them to go for a smoke. I still can't stand artichokes or hip-hop. I still worry that I'm going bald...I just don't have to smoke any more, that's all.

Smoking and weight

2008-02-05T06:12:00.000-08:00

I am writing this blog entry in response to a post on the excellent Basil and Spice blog (http://www.basilandspice.com/) which talked about weight gain and quitting smoking.

The issue of smoking and weight control is not as simple as you might think. There are two myths we need to deal with here: first, the idea that smoking helps control weight, either as an appetite supressant or as an agent to boost the metabolism and second, that quitting smoking leads to weight gain.

Many smokers claim that the cigarette works as an appetite supressant but this is really a subtle illusion. Physical withdrawal from nicotine, which starts as soon as the smoker puts out a cigarette, feels very similar to hunger - a slight emptiness in the pit of your stomach. So when the smoker lights up and the 'hunger pang' disappears the smoker gives the cigarette the credit for supressing their appetite when in fact all it has done is to remove a nicotine pang which feels similar to a hunger pang. Think about it; do you think that non-smokers get 'hungry' twenty times a day? Of course not. So why would smokers?

At a physiological level what is happening is this: when a smoker lights up, the poisons contained in tobacco smoke make the body feel that it's under attack. This prompts the adrenal gland to release adrenaline - the fight or flight chemical which in turn prompts the release of stored glucose into the blood (because your body thinks it will need the extra energy to run or to fight). As the blood sugar increases, the smoker's body is tricked into thinking it has eaten because the symptom of hunger (the hunger pang which is actually a nicotine pang) has been removed.

However, this is very short-lived. After a few minutes the body realizes that it is not really under attack and the pancreas produces insulin to mop up the excess blood sugar. This leaves many smokers feeling tired and lethargic. In fact this explains the so-called 'wired and tired' phenomenon experienced by many smokers. The adrenalin released when your body thinks it is being attacked makes you feel jumpy and edgy but the oxygen deprivation and plummeting blood sugar caused by smoking makes you feel lethargic.

When the smoker puts out the cigarette, they immediately go into physical withdrawal again, and within 30-45 minutes they usually begin to feel 'hungry' again, and so the cycle keeps repeating.

So that explains the illusion of the cigarette as an appetite supressant, but what about the metabolism? It is true that smoking elevates the metabolism, but it does it only by a small amount and in the most dangerous way imaginable - by clogging up your blood and creating a thick layer of plaque around the lining of your veins, arteries and capillaries. The impact of this is to increase the smoker's blood pressure and heart rate, which is basically a recipe for a heart attack.

The impact of this higher metabolic rate has been calculated to be around 100 calories a day - the equivalent of a slice of bread. So if you want to retain the same body weight you were as a smoker you will need to reduce your calorific intake by around 100 calories.

Let's face it, it's not as if smokers have this fabulous fat-burning capacity just because they smoke. If that were true, you would never see an overweight smoker, and there are plenty of those around - I was one for years, until I quit and was able to take control of my eating, drinking and exercise, which leads me to my next point - that quitting smoking leads to weight gain.

When I was a smoker I was approximately 60lbs overweight (so much for smoking keeping us thin). The reasons for this were obvious: I couldn't taste food very well and found myself eating foods high in sugar, salt and fat (basically junk food). I also drank too much. I had two young girls and I would never smoke in front of them so I used to go to the village pub every night and drink 5 or 6 beers, just so I could smoke. And, as you can imagine smoking 60 a day, exercise wasn't particularly high on my agenda. When I quit smoking I started exercising because for the first time in my adult life I had energy. I stopped drinking vast quantities of beer (which saved me nearly 900 calories a day) and started eating good food. I lost 35lbs in the first four months after quitting. The weight fell off me.

When you hear stories of people putting large amounts of weight on when they quit smoking they are invariably substituting food for cigarettes. They feel that by quitting smoking they are depriving themselves of a pleasure or crutch. This sense of deprivation leads to feeling a void, and many people try to fill this void with food. The truth is that smoking was the problem here. Cigarettes were the void. By becoming a non-smoker you fill the void and are complete.

Think about it: the metrics of weight control do not change when you become a non-smoker. The metrics of weight control are identical for smokers and non-smokers. Weight depends on what you eat, how much of it, your exercise regime and your genes.

Basically, if you consume more calories than you expend, you'll put weight on. It is said by nutritionists that to put on 1lb of weight, you need to consume approximately 4,000 calories more than you expend.

Let's say that you are worried about putting, say, 20lbs on over a couple of months. This would amount to an 80,000 calorie 'surplus' or 1,333 calories a day. You tell me: would it be possible to consume 1,333 calories a day more than you are currently consuming, every single day for 60 days without knowing about it? No way. You would have to be aware of this increase in consumption. Like I said, people who put large amounts of weight on when they quit are inavariably using willpower. They still want to smoke, but they won't allow themselves to do so. This makes them feel deprived and miserable and they try to console themselves by eating a box of chocolates.

This is why it is so important to see quitting not as a loss, but as a gain. If you see it as a loss, you will want to substitute - probably with food. However if you see quitting as a gain, that you are taking your life back and that this is a wonderful thing, then there is no sense of a void and no temptation to substitute.

It is true that smokers on average tend to weigh around 500g less than non-smokers, but this in itself is not a meaningful statistic because when you look at seriously underweight people (many of whom suffer from eating and/or anxiety disorders) we see that most of them smoke. When we factor this into the situation we find that 'normal' smokers and 'normal' non-smokers weigh the same.

Given that obesity is such a problem these days, surely if nicotine worked to control weight doctors would recommend the patch or nicotine gum for weight loss?

Smoking doesn't make you thin, and following Allen Carr's principles, quitting doesn't make you fat.

Taking inspiration from a Giant shock

2008-02-04T09:41:00.000-08:00

Many congratulations to the NY Giants on their wonderful Superbowl win yesterday. It shows what is possible with preparation, belief and a good plan, even when the odds are stacked against you.

So many smokers are intimidated by the idea of quitting, and feel that the odds are stacked against them, but the reality is that thousands of people do so successfully every day. There are an estimated 50m smokers in North America today, but an estimated 65m ex-smokers. What is so special about these people? Absolutely nothing. They did it, and so can you.

So why not take a lesson out of the Giant's playbook? You won't win a ring, but you might add a few years to your life....

Eight questions every smoker should ask themselves

2008-02-04T06:18:00.000-08:00

When I was a smoker I tried not to think about smoking because when I did, I ended up feeling stupid and frightened. When I eventually plucked up the courage to confront my smoking, here are some of the questions I began to ask myself as a smoker and they put me on the road to freedom.

1. When did you decide to become a smoker for life? When you lit those first few experimental cigarettes as a child or young adult, were you really deciding to be a smoker for life? Did you really think that those first cigarettes would put you in this situation today?

2. If smoking is so great, why does everyone want to quit? Over 70% of adult smokers want to quit. If smokers genuinely enjoyed smoking, they wouldn't want to quit.

3. Have you ever met a smoker who would encourage their kids to start smoking? Why are smokers always so happy when their kids grow up to be non-smokers? Is it because we don't want them to make the same mistake as we did? If smokers enjoyed smoking, they wouldn't perceive smoking as a mistake -they would want to share this pleasure with their children and the fact that they don't raises a big red flag for me: Why not?

4. If smoking relieves stress, why aren't smokers less stressed than non-smokers? Research shows that smokers are far more stressed than non-smokers. If smoking genuinely relieved stress, then the opposite would be true. Smokers are also much more likely than non-smokers to suffer from anxiety disorders and depression.

5. If physical withdrawal from nicotine is so bad, then why can chain-smokers sleep through the night? Most smokers think they only go into withdrawal when they try to stop smoking but the reality is that withdrawal starts the second a smoker puts out a cigarette. If withdrawal is so bad, then why can smokers sleep through every night when they go to bed? Do you think a heroin addict could sleep through heroin withdrawal?

6. What is the true cost of smoking? We think in terms of the cost of smoking as being the cost of smokes (which is bad enough these days), but this isn't really the case. If each cigarette takes ten minutes out of our day, then a pack-a-day smoker spends 200 minutes a day smoking - or three hours and twenty minutes. Over a year, this amounts to over 1200 hours or 152 working days spent smoking. At $20 per hour, this amounts to $24,320 in time lost due to smoking. This is time you could have spent working, or relaxing, or with your family, or studying.

Then there is the biggest cost of all - losing between 8-24 years of your one and only life. And what of those who are left behind. What is the cost they pay?

7. Why doesn't it take you willpower not to take cyanide? Even if you were totally immune to the effects of cyanide, would you take it? Of course not. It's not knowing that cyanide is bad for you that makes it easy to turn down, it's knowing that there is no upside to taking it. Same with smoking. It isn't knowing that smoking is bad for you that makes it easy to quit, it's knowing that there are no benefits to smoking.

8. If smoking helps to control weight, why do we see so many overweight smokers? I told myself that I smoked to keep thin, ignoring the inconvenient fact that as a smoker I was 60lbs overweight. When I quit smoking I started exercising, eating properly and cut back dramatically on my drinking (most of which was consumed so that I could be somewhere I could smoke). The weight fell off me.

Why do smokers believe that quitting is hard?

2008-02-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

Crossing a road is pretty easy, but only if you do it right. If you try to cross a busy highway, in fog, at night, wearing dark clothes, blindfolded, drunk and walking on your hands, you can make something that is basically pretty easy into something extremely difficult. And so it is with quitting smoking.

Smokers believe that quitting is hard for a couple of reasons: firstly, everyone tells them it is. Smokers are bombarded with messages from other smokers, drug companies and quit smoking ‘experts’ (many of whom have never smoked a cigarette in their lives) that smoking is ‘harder to quit than heroin’. I’ve never been a heroin addict, but I’m guessing that quitting the stuff is no picnic. Who could think of a worse mindset with which to approach a problem?

Secondly, throughout their smoking lives smokers have been told that smoking helps them relax, cope with stress, concentrate, keep them thin and so on. Any smoker who believes these things will retain a desire to smoke in those situations, and will need to use willpower to try to overcome that desire. This creates a conflict; part of them wants to quit, but part still wants to smoke and it is this conflict – not physical withdrawal from nicotine – that creates the symptoms of fear, panic, anxiety and irritability that so many smokers associate with quitting.

Thirdly, smokers are seriously misinformed about nicotine – in particular about how addictive it is and bad withdrawal is.

But despite these horror stories, every so often you come across one of those people that say: “Nah. Quitting smoking was easy.” I am one of those people and I want to share my experience with you.

I started smoking as an eleven year-old and for the next twenty-nine years never went a day without smoking. By the time I quit I was smoking 40-60 cigarettes a day. I tried to quit smoking many times over many years. I tried the patch, the gum, hypnosis, acupuncture, laser therapy, cold turkey, herbal treatments, homeopathic remedies – you name it, I tried it. I never made it to a single day smoke-free using these methods for the reasons I have already explained above: My expectation was that quitting would be difficult and unpleasant, that I would feel deprived of my pleasure or crutch, and that physical withdrawal was brutal.

As soon as I was able to change these beliefs, it was ridiculously easy to quit.

First, I decided to stop listening to people who found it difficult to quit and start listening to people who had found it easy. There are a surprisingly large number of such people.

Second, I learned how to challenge the beliefs that created the desire to smoke. If smoking relieved stress then why was I so stressed? If the cigarette was an appetite suppressant then why was I 60 lbs overweight as a smoker? If the cigarette aided concentration why weren’t smokers smarter than non-smokers? If the cigarette aids relaxation why aren’t chain smokers the most relaxed people on the planet? By challenging these beliefs I was able to realize that actually there was nothing to give up, apart from illusions I had acquired as a smoker – most of them as a very young smoker.

Third, I learned the facts about nicotine. It’s a powerful drug, but only in the sense that it hooks you very quickly. Believe it or not, there is an upside to the speed with which nicotine works – it gets out of your body very quickly too. Most smokers believe that they only go into physical withdrawal from nicotine when they try to stop smoking, but this is not true. The process of withdrawal begins as soon as a smoker puts out a cigarette. The reality is that just 20 minutes after putting out a cigarette the body is 50% nicotine free. After six hours of not smoking, the body is 97% nicotine free. Smokers sleep through physical withdrawal from nicotine every single night when they go to sleep, yet it is so mild that it doesn’t even wake them up. If withdrawal didn’t bother you as a smoker, why would it bother you as a non-smoker?

Equipped with this new mindset (courtesy of Allen Carr’s Easyway seminar): that quitting could be easy, that there was nothing to give up but illusions and that physical withdrawal was straightforward (having slept through it every night as a smoker), the confidence levels with which I approached my final quit were much higher than in the past. There was none of the fear and doubt that had plagued my earlier attempts to quit.

After smoking heavily for 29 years, I just walked away from the whole thing. That was nine years ago. I have never once missed smoking or had the slightest desire to light up. In fact, the sense of empowerment, freedom and accomplishment was amazing.

Knowledge is power and when you have the power instead of the cigarette, quitting is easy.

Allen Carr

2008-01-30T14:11:00.000-08:00

Allen Carr, founder of the Easyway to Stop Smoking method, was born in 1934 in London, England.

Like many men of his generation, he started smoking as a young man doing his National Service. In all he smoked for 33 years and in the latter years he smoked between 60 and 100 cigarettes a day.

In July 1983 after countless miserable attempts to quit smoking, he discovered what every smoker on the planet is looking for: an easy way to stop smoking. In October 1983 he resigned from his position as Chief Financial Officer of a major toy company to work full-time with smokers.

He ran his first quit smoking seminars from the front room of his house in Raynes Park, near Wimbledon, just outside London. Word of the success of his method spread quickly and before long, Carr was asked to put the seminar into book form. That book - The Easy Way to Stop Smoking - first published in 1985, has now sold over 10,000,000 copies and has been a #1 bestseller in nine different countries. In 2001 it was voted by customers of Amazon in the UK as one of the fifty most influential books of the 20th century.

During that time, his seminar business continued to thrive and today there are 115 Easyway centres in 40 countries. In a clinical evaluation published in the November 2006 issue of the medical journal Addictive Behaviours, Easyway seminars were calculated to have a 12-month success rate of 53.3%. This is especially impressive given the short duration (the seminar takes just six hours including time for five smoke breaks, compared to the 11-12 weeks for most therapies) of the treatment. To put this into context, the 12-month success rate for Nicotine Replacement Therapy is around 10%. Hypnosis, acupuncture and laser therapy show no improvement over cold turkey (around 5%).

After failing to battle my own nicotine addiction using willpower, patches, gum, pills, hypnosis, aupuncture and laser therapy, I was shocked and thrilled to quit smoking very easily at an Allen Carr seminar in London in 2001. Because I had been a smoker my whole adult life, I had never really thought much about how the cigarette had come to control my life. From the moment I woke up until the moment I went to sleep, my life was one continuous attempt to try to create an excuse to go and smoke a cigarette. It dictated what I did, where I went, who I saw, who I avoided seeing, where I ate, where I drank, where I worked, where I went on vacation.

As a non-smoker for the first time I was able to go places, see people and do things that as a smoker, I just couldn't. The sense of freedom was fantastic, as was the boost of energy I felt after years of lethargy as a smoker. My self-esteem and self-confidence came flooding back and I even lost weight. I felt that Allen's Easyway method had given me my life back and this allowed me, for the first time, to begin to become the person, the father and husband I had always wanted to be. Tremendously grateful, I got back in touch with Easyway and pestered them into training me to conduct Easyway seminars.

It was a thrill to be selected to train as an Allen Carr facilitator but just as big a thrill was getting to know Allen himself. I admired Allen because of what he had done for me and my family (my wife quit by reading the book and I quit at a seminar) and was very happy once I met him to find that he was an open, honest, generous man, completely untouched by his fame and success. Passionate about the smoking issue and tremendously knowledgeable, Allen was a formidable and tireless campaigner for helping smokers. He was a 'man on a mission' personified.

Over the years, Carr became increasingly frustrated by what he perceived as the tobacco control establishment's lack of support for his programme. He was concerned with helping smokers, not with the politics and bureaucracy of the establishment, most of whom, Carr noted, had never smoked or had ever helped a single smoker to quit. As the British government threw more and more money at relatively ineffective programmes, while going out of their way to ignore Easyway, Carr's frustration grew.

In his final book, Scandal, he spoke eloquently of this situation. In it he described the many times he had tried to approach the establishment, only to be rebuffed. Carr felt that drugs companies, whose agenda he believed was to sell more patches and pills, influenced too much of the tobacco control agenda. In particular he fell out with Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), whom he criticised for championing drug company products rather than effective treatments.

In essence, he felt that the establishment was going about the whole smoking problem the wrong way. Rather than tell people that quitting is difficult and that physical withdrawal is brutal, Carr advocated a simple, drug-free, common sense approach which was demonstrably more effective and cheaper to implement. The establishment never forgave him. Fortuntely the millions of people who became happy non-smokers by using his unique approach did.

In July 2006 Allen was diagnosed with squamous cell lung cancer. Carr was typically upbeat. Lung cancer ran in his family, he said. "If I hadn't quit smoking, I'd have been dead twenty years ago." And look at what he achieved in that twenty years: It is estimated that his books and seminars helped 10m smokers quit. Given that smoking is said to kill 1 in 2 smokers, by any calculation Carr's contribution to society has been immense.

It is not possible to tell whether his cancer was caused by his own heavy smoking prior to 1983 or by the years spent in smokey seminar rooms working to help others. Either way, Carr was philosophical. "Since I smoked my final cigarette 23 years ago, I've been the happiest man in the world" he said.

Allen Carr died in November 2006, surrounded by his loving family. In death he perhaps received the public recognition that he had not enjoyed during his life. That his obituary appeared in the Times, the Economist, Forbes, the British Medical Journal and many other fine publications was a measure of the degree of public acceptance. The thousands of letters and emails received at Easyway offices around the world and at the Easyway website (http://www.allencarr.com/) are a testament to the affection, respect and gratitude of the many people he helped.

Allen Carr was a great man. He was a wonderful friend, colleague and mentor. It was a privilege to have known him and his memory serves to inspire all Easyway facilitators in their daily work with smokers.