I have a terrible confession to make- I’m an ex-smoker. You would think that people would be proud of me for actually quitting, but in this nearly smoke-free city, people seem repulsed that I ever smoked in the first place.

For years I tried to quit using varying methods that didn’t quite work. The nicotine patch and nicorette were probably the least effective methods, while Wellbutrin worked like an absolute charm. When I did finally quit smoking, it was without any nicotine aids or strange products like Snus- I just stopped smoking one day.

Soon, smokers who want to be ex-smokers may have one more option to try in their quests for healthier lungs- a nicotine vaccine. At first glance, a nicotine vaccine definitely sounds sketchy. According to CNN:

The vaccine is designed to stimulate the immune system to generate antibodies that would latch on to nicotine in a smoker's body and prevent it from ever entering the brain.

Of course, when the drug was tested, only 16% of those who those “who responded best to the drug” were able to permanently quit smoking. What does that even mean? I am guessing that significantly less than 16% of those who tried the drug were actually able to quit smoking permanently, making the drug just another waste of time and money.

The basic idea behind the drug is that when the nicotine fails to enter the brain, smokers will cease to get pleasure from smoking and will then make the choice to quit smoking. The NicVAX vaccine works to trap the nicotine into the bloodstream instead by creating anti-bodies.

As a former smoker, part of the enjoyment of smoking was the habit of smoking with coffee or when talking to a friend. I am sure that a good part of my addiction was the actual nicotine hitting my brain’s pleasure center, but that was only a part of my smoking addiction.

The drug has yet to receive approval from the FDA and after the Black Box warnings placed on Chantix in 2009 and I am hopeful that the FDA might be a little more cautious in approving the drug  until more is known about possible side effects caused by the NicVax.

Needless to say, I doubt I am going to recommend the NicVax a way for smokers to quit smoking; instead, I recommend that smokers who want to quit should bite the bullet and go nicotine-free altogether as the Patch and Nicorette both lead to continued nicotine addictions that don’t remove either your craving for nicotine or your desire to smoke. Somehow, I don’t think continuing to smoke while lessening the impact of the nicotine would really help all that much either.

flckr pic from http://www.flickr.com/photos/superfantastic/ Superfantastic