The withdrawal symptoms can be intense, especially if youve smoked for a long time
The suckiest part of waking up in recovery after heart surgery had to be breathing over the ventilator because I felt like I was strong enough to breathe on my own, and then having to be suctioned out while I felt like I was slowly choking to death and there was no way for me to communicate to the nurses because I had a tube down my throat and my hands were strapped down
A recent study randomly assigned about 700 participants to either gradually cut back on smoking over two weeks or quit abruptly on a set quit date
The study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday
About the Author Wynne Armand, MD, Contributor Disclaimer: As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content
Quitting smoking has many benefits, but its no easy task, especially quitting cold turkey