Learning how to give up smoking isn’t easy, but some methods work better than others for many. This article explores a new system for quitting that a lot of people are finding to be effective and the final answer to the problem of quitting.

Most people like me fear the Q word. It terrifies you to your soul, giving you nightmares of mass murder in blind rages and reminders of irrational PMT anger. The very idea of the Q word makes most of us break out in a sweat and reach for the nearest lighter. I am of course talking about smokers and the word… dare I type it… Quit!

Women who stop smoking before week 15 of pregnancy cut their risk of spontaneous premature birth and having small babies to the same as non-smokers, according to research published on bmj.com. Women who do not quit by 15 weeks, are three times more likely to give birth prematurely and twice as likely to have small babies compared to women who have stopped smoking, say the researchers.

Research initiated at The University of Auckland has shown that women who quit smoking within the first fifteen weeks of pregnancy can reverse their elevated risk of premature birth and having small babies, without suffering increased stress. “For the first time we have shown that pregnant women who stop smoking during this window of opportunity can prevent serious late pregnancy complications,” says lead researcher Associate Professor Lesley McCowan.

A tiny variation within a single gene can determine not only how quickly and well lungs grow and function in children and adolescents, but how susceptible those children will be to exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke, even in utero, according to researchers from the University of Southern California. “Many factors can affect lung function and growth, including genetic variation and environmental exposures such as tobacco smoke and air pollutants,” said Carrie Breton, Sc.D.

Smoking causes all sorts of problems for you, especially at the end of a long day when you just want to go home and get some much needed sleep. Why is this so?