Quitting smoking cold turkey, which means stopping smoking suddenly and straight away, can be very challenging and rough for most smokers since their brains have become accustomed to nicotine, a highly addictive substance present in tobacco.

When smokers suddenly stop smoking, they will suffer from strong tobacco urges or cravings, which can wear them down. Therefore, for most people who use tobacco, quitting gradually and slowly would be a more feasible and helpful way to get them started on the road to quitting long-term.

There are some ways available to help smokers to quit conventional cigarette smoking gradually, such as slowly cutting down the consumption of tobacco cigarettes and moving to tobacco substitutes. The two methods are popular and widely recognized.

Tapering off daily cigarettes smoked
Tapering off daily cigarettes smoked means reducing the number of times you use tobacco each day or reducing the number of daily cigarettes smoked. For example, you can do it by slowly prolonging the time between cigarettes or taking away one cigarette from your packet each day and going longer until you completely get rid of smoking.

Tapering off the cigarettes can also lead to tobacco craving at the beginning stage, though it might not be as severe as sudden smoking cessation since users have been used to a regular dose of nicotine.

In this case, users can focus on something else so as to divert their attention from smoking, such as doing physical activities like jogging, pushups or deep knee bends, reading books, listening to music, talking with family members or friends, etc. In short words, distracting themself can help smokers get past the physical urge to smoke.

By cutting down the usage of tobacco cigarettes regularly, users gradually reduce their nicotine intake until they finally quit tobacco smoking entirely.

It might take a long time to quit by tapering off tobacco cigarettes, while this method can be helpful to ease smokers’ discomfort and withdrawal symptoms, which include nicotine craving, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, hunger pangs, anxiety, frustration and many more.

Except for cutting down the frequency of smoking, to make transfer from tobacco cigarettes to tobacco substitutes are also popular among smokers who intend to give up conventional cigarettes.

Tobacco substitutes include such products as e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn products, oral nicotines, snus and NRT smoking cessation aids and more, among which e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn products have become the predominant options for many smokers. So, today let’s dive into the two alternative nicotine delivery systems.

Opt for e-cigarettes
E-cigarettes or vapes have changed the tobacco industry ever since they became commercially successful in the early 2000s. Once trying to be a smoking alternative to cigarettes, e-cigarettes have converted a part of smokers.

E-cigarettes work quite differently from traditional cigarettes, which use an open flame to burn the tobacco to an extremely high temperature of around 900°C , where nicotine-contained tobacco smoke, along with its byproducts, is produced.

Tobacco smoke and its residues contain thousands of chemicals, among which 250 substances are known to be toxic, and 70 are considered as cancerogenic.

It is recognized that it is these harmful chemicals, instead of nicotine, that lead to tobacco-related diseases, which include lung cancer, heart diseases, respiratory problems, stroke, cardiovascular diseases and so on.

Comparably, e-cigarettes use an electronic device to heat an e-liquid or e-juice to release a vapor that users inhale without combustion. The e-liquid is a liquid solution that is commonly formulated with water, nicotine, propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin and flavorings. The nicotine is generally extracted from tobacco, while sometimes, it can be synthetic in a lab.

To make it easy for smokers to move to e-cigarettes, the first generation of e-cigarettes replicates the look and feel of traditional cigarettes and is called “cigalikes”.

The cigalikes are available in disposable one-pieces and rechargeable options. The latter features a battery portion that can be disconnected and recharged with a USB power charger.

With technological advances, e-cigarettes have been evolved over time into a variety of forms and styles, which come in vape pens, vape mods, pop vapes and so on. The vaping experiences and sensations have also become distinguishable from traditional cigarette smoking, accordingly.

While these vaping devices vary in shape, size, design and performance, they primarily consist of such components as an atomizer(heating element), a battery ( power source), and a container to hold the e-liquid, like a cartridge or tank.

Since e-cigarettes don’t involve combustion or burning when being used, they are promoted as a less harmful alternative to regular cigarettes.

In addition to e-cigarettes, another tobacco alternative – heat-not-burn products have also become quite a phenomenon among smokers in recent years.

Try heat-not-burn products
Heat-not-burn devices operate by heating rather than burning the raw materials to emit an inhalable aerosol that users breathe in. Hence, similar to e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn products don’t involve burning and are free from tobacco smoke when they are in use.

Heat-not-burn devices are firstly applied to heated tobacco products, such as HEETS tobacco sticks that are heated by IQOS heating devices. Heated tobacco products mimic the look and feel of conventional cigarettes while containing lower levels of hazards that come with regular cigarettes.

Heated tobacco sticks enable users to keep smoking rituals and have a smoking-like feeling, though some users think they taste a bit lighter compared with regular cigarettes.

Industry players have done everything possible to introduce cutting-edge products to satisfy the demand of users. Apart from heat tobacco products, there have been more heat-not-burn innovations available on the market, which are considered as heated tobacco alternatives.

The heated tobacco alternatives are predominantly known as herbal heat sticks, which are compatible with most heating devices associated with heat tobacco products such as IQOS .

The herbal heat sticks don’t contain tobacco while replacing it with natural herbs or tea leaves and its variations as base materials, which blend with nicotine, vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol and flavorings.

By replicating the heat tobacco products, herbal heat sticks enable users to have experiences and sensations similar to the latter. In other words, herbal heat sticks offer smoking-like sensations without using tobacco.

Meanwhile, for some users, herbal heat sticks might be more enjoyable than heat tobacco products, as they don’t have the harsh odor and unpleasant aftertaste that come with tobacco. Besides, they come in rich flavors, which can be refreshed, sweet, flowery, aromatic or fruity.

Furthermore, since herbal heat sticks have similar ingredients to e-cigarettes, some herbal heat sticks brands, such as NEAFS, also define their products as “dry vape”, which is compared with the “e-liquid” present in e-cigarettes.

NEAFS sticks use tea leaves as the base, which are gently steeped in nicotine, natural herbs, and edible essence to create an authentic smoking experience, with a touch of refresher and exotic tastes from tea and natural herbs.

The nicotine present in NEAFS heated sticks is 1.5% in strength, which is lower than traditional cigarettes, so it can make users less dependent on the nicotine in some senses while at the same time helping them overcome the craving for tobacco smoking.
Also, NEAFS is available in a nicotine-free version, which is suitable for those who are looking for something new.

Final thoughts
Going cold turkey may not work with most smokers, as abrupt smoking cessation could be overwhelming and tend to lead to a relapse, though some smokers might finally succeed thanks to their firm willpower.

Instead, regularly tapering off tobacco cigarettes or transferring to alternative nicotine systems like e-cigarettes or heated tobacco and its alternatives would be more practical and easier ways than stopping taking it right away.