A cigarette is a pipe with a fire at one end and a fool at the other said Dr. Johnson in his sarcastic comment on cigarettes and smoking.

Smoking is in fact a pernicious craving for tobacco products, especially cigarettes and cigars.

An organic compound, nicotine, which is richly found in tobacco smoke, is very detrimental to your health. It is linked with various health risks. It can cause diseases of the cardiovascular system, myocardial infarction (heart attack), stroke, diseases of the respiratory tract such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) chronic bronchitis and emphysema, cancer (particularly lung cancer and cancers of the larynx and tongue), peripheral vascular disease, birth defects of pregnant smokers' offspring, Buerger's disease (thromboangiitis obliterans), impotence, and in some cases it may develop cataracts that may cause blindness.

The statement One thousand Americans stop smoking every day - by dying ironically expresses the risks of smoking.

Sooner or later, everyone stops smoking. Major health risks can be minimized by cessation smoking. Smoking cessation means to quit smoking, but the cardinal point is how to quit smoking.

Smoking can be quitted by using nicotine-containing tobacco substitutes. Nicotine replacement therapy has been quite an effective treatment. It uses various other nicotine delivery methods to replace nicotine obtained from smoking or other tobacco usage. The nicotine patch, inhaler, nasal spray, gum, gel, and lozenge are some effective tools of NTR. Nicotine gum is a chewing gum, which delivers nicotine to the body.

Nicotine patches are also used to quit smoking. Nicotine patches are transdermal patches that release nicotine into the skin. The patch therapy has been considerably successful in helping many people quit.

Hypnosis Stop-Smoking programs are another alternative that can help people who seriously want to quit.

Quit smoking help with hypnosis involves consultations and sittings with a hypnotherapist, who generally squeezes out the reasons for ones smoking and the reasons for wanting to quit. Various hypnotherapy techniques, positive affirmations, and suggestions, are used to help the patient undertake a change of mindset and therefore quit smoking. Tools like stop smoking tapes or CDs are provided to the patient. Quit smoking hypnosis therapy is also proving to be a great quit smoking support.

The best way to quit smoking is to develop a strong will power to want to quit smoking. People who have weak will power cannot quit smoking. Weak will power can make even the effective therapies useless.

James I of England expressed his hate for smoking while he quoth, A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.

Smoking is not only injurious to health but rather to society also. It should be eradicated as early as possible.