Why Bupropion Helps Stop Smoking

Watch this video first - it will make you want to quit smoking immediately

You may have decided to quit smoking and maybe now have begun to research the various stop smoking aids that are available to help you as a smoker quit for good.

In your research you may have come across the drug bupropion and you may be wondering how and why bupropion helps stop smoking and what is the mechanism behind bupropion that will help you in your personal anti-smoking campaign.

First of all before we can understand why bupropion helps stop smoking, we need to look at and understand the physical addiction associated with smoking cigarettes or using tobacco in any form.

The Addicted Brain

Tobacco contains a drug called nicotine.  Nicotine is naturally found in the tobacco plant and believe it or not is actually a poison.  Nicotine is the tobacco plants' natural defenses against being eaten by insects.

We mentioned that nicotine is a drug. As a matter of fact it is a very powerful psychoactive drug which can alter your mood and provide you with temporary feelings of euphoria.

When you smoke a cigarette, nicotine enters your bloodstream and finds its way to receptors in your brain.  Nicotine causes these receptors in your brain to release a natural feel-good chemical called dopamine. 

When you quit smoking cigarettes, nicotine is no longer available to these receptors in your brain and therefore dopamine production slows way down. This causes your body to start screaming for more nicotine and begin putting you through physical withdraw symptoms that can be rather unpleasant, to say the least.

Nicotine is thought to have some of the same effects on your brain's dopamine production mechanisms as do the drugs cocaine and heroin.

How and Why Bupropion Helps Stop Smoking

Bupropion is the active ingredient found in both the stop smoking drug Zyban as well as the antidepressant drug Wellbutrin. Bupropion is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline and was originally developed for use as an antidepressant.

Bupropion as marketed under the name Zyban is now used primarily as a stop smoking drug or medication whereas Wellbutrin is marketed as an antidepressant.

Okay, so now after all that you may be wondering how and why bupropion helps stop smoking.

Bupropion helps stop smoking by interacting with the receptors in your brain that we referred to earlier.  This interaction results in the production of dopamine without the use of nicotine.

Now hidden within the question, "why bupropion helps stop smoking" is the key word - "helps".

Bupropion will not "make" you stop smoking - it will only "help" you to quit smoking. Bupropion will help you to deal with the physical withdraw symptoms that you as a future non-smokers will experience by making these symptoms less intense.

What Bupropion will not do for you is to take away the psychological addiction that comes with being a smoker such as missing out on that little mini-vacation you go on every time you go outside to light up.

Or the feel of the cigarette in you hands and mouth and even the smell of cigarette smoke. That, you will have to confront on your own with good old fashion willpower and a true desire to become a non-smoker.

p.s. since bupropion requires a prescription, you'll need to first talk to your doctor or health care provider. Also be sure to read about the precautions surrounding the use of bupropion at See GlaxoSmithKline

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