Chantix is Safer than Electronic Cigarettes?

I've been seeing Chantix™ mentioned in a lot of places lately. Electronic Cigarette supporters point to it as an example of how dangerous some FDA approved nicotine replacement therapies and stop smoking programs are, but to be honest, i knew little more then a few hundred people have commited suicide due to their use of this drug. So, tonight I poked around the Chantix website a bit. I was truly amazed, and a bit frightened at what I saw.

The FDA Mandated Chantix™ Warning

All FDA approved drugs now have to put certain warnings on their marketing materials. For years i've joked about the TV commercials that are 15 seconds of "use this, it's great tell your doctor you want it" and 15 seconds of "may cause your liver to explode, your eyes to pop out and in rare cases your heart to stop or your brain to explode". So, what are the side effects of this "safe" drug that managed to get FDA approval?

Some people have had changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions while using CHANTIX to help them quit smoking. Some people had these symptoms when they began taking CHANTIX, and others developed them after several weeks of treatment or after stopping CHANTIX. If you, your family, or caregiver notice agitation, hostility, depression, or changes in behavior, thinking, or mood that are not typical for you, or you develop suicidal thoughts or actions, anxiety, panic, aggression, anger, mania, abnormal sensations, hallucinations, paranoia, or confusion, stop taking CHANTIX and call your doctor right away. Also tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems before taking CHANTIX, as these symptoms may worsen while taking CHANTIX.

Some people can have serious skin reactions while taking CHANTIX, some of which can become life-threatening. These can include rash, swelling, redness, and peeling of the skin. Some people can have allergic reactions to CHANTIX, some of which can be life-threatening and include: swelling of the face, mouth, and throat that can cause trouble breathing. If you have these symptoms or have a rash with peeling skin or blisters in your mouth, stop taking CHANTIX and get medical attention right away.

The most common side effects include nausea (30%), sleep problems, constipation, gas, and/or vomiting. If you have side effects that bother you or don’t go away, tell your doctor.

You may have trouble sleeping, vivid, unusual, or strange dreams while taking CHANTIX. Use caution driving or operating machinery until you know how CHANTIX may affect you.

Now wait a minute. This "safe", FDA approved drug has a 30% rate of nausea, may cause life threatening skin rashes and some peoples faces swell up so much they might DIE??? And this is safe? This is approved? This is the way you should safely stop smoking? What?

The funny, well, maybe not so funny part is the disclaimer at the end.

The product information provided in this site is intended for residents of the United States. The products discussed herein may have different product labeling in different countries.

What exactly don't they warn you about in other countries? I guess in India you can leave off the whole "you might shoot yourself or your family and your tongue might swell up so much you choke to death on it while your skin falls off".

Potential Health Benefits of Quitting Smoking

They have a whole page on the health benefits of quitting smoking, but these are not Chantix specific, they would apply to anything that gets you to quit. Which might apply to electronic cigarettes? Well, most of them actually.

1. Your food might taste better - Many E-cig users have been reporting this as a benefit of that products use.
2. Your breath, hair, and clothes won't smell like smoke anymore - Yep, E-cigs do that too say vapers.
3.  Carbon Monoxide levels in the blood may return to normal - Well, without any smoke that's to be expected from all the nicotine replacement devices, electronic cigarettes would be no exception.
4. Circulation may improve and lung function can increase - Well, the lung function part is probably true for ecigarettes, users report their doctors say their lungs are clearer and they report their lungs feel clearer, but the circulation part is still in question since they are still using nicotine whose main effect on the body is cardiovascular, so Chantix wins out there.
5. Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's after one year - Again, since nicotine is still involved we might have to give Chantix a win here. (provided of course you have any skin left, have not choked on your own tongue yet or shot yourself).
6. Risk of lung cancer death is half that of a smoker's after 10 years- This might be a tie since this again is most probably tied to smoke. But, since neither Chantix or e-cigs have been around for 10 years, I guess we don't really know yet.
7. Risk of stroke and coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker's after 15 years - ecigs might not win this one either, again since there is still nicotine it stands to reason if you smoke electronic cigarettes for 15 years your cardiovascular risks may be the same as a smokers.

So, Chantix wins the cardiovascular parts. Nicotine is bad for your circulatory system, that's well known. I'm no doctor but it seems to me other than that, electronic cigarettes share the remaining benefits as other quit smoking products like Chantix. But, as the FDA and the anti smoking groups point out, without some clinical studies we just don't really know. E-cigs could be worse for your heart or better for it. Until we have some long term studies we just don't know.

Savings over Smoking

Like many electronic cigarette manufacturers and retailers they have a calculator to figure out how much you will save. What they don't add into the equation is how much the drug costs. About $3 a pill, but that seems comparable to nicotine cartridges and after the three or five months it takes Chantix to work, you won't have that cost anymore, while e-cig users may still have the cost of cartridges.

How is Chantix™ Different?

Well, number one is no nicotine.

It works in two ways. It targets nicotine receptors in the brain, attaches to them, and blocks nicotine from reaching them. It is believed that CHANTIX also activates these receptors, causing a reduced release of dopamine compared to nicotine.

Now wait a minute, it's believed?? They don't even know how it works? Well, I guess in the end it's not the road that's important, it's the destination. As long as it works we don't really need to know the exact details. Right?

Chantix™ is Proven to work

In studies, 44% of CHANTIX users were quit during weeks 9 to 12 of treatment (compared to 18% on sugar pill). CHANTIX also helped reduce the urge to smoke.

CHANTIX has been proven to be more effective in helping smokers quit than Zyban^® (bupropion hydrochloride). The average person in these studies had been a smoker for more than 24 years. The trials involved a mix of men and women who smoked an average of 10 or more cigarettes a day.

Now, ok, I'm being a bit mean here, but i notice they don't mention what percentage of the study participants killed themselves or choked on their own tongues, but i'm sure it was less then the sugar pill.

Again, i'm being a bit cheeky, but hey, sugar pills are proven to be 18% effective as a quit smoking device. Can I start marketing sugar pills as a quit smoking thing? They seem to work better then the patch after all. But, Chantix does seem over twice as effective, so maybe that's the way to go.

THE CLINICAL STUDY

Ok, now we get to the good stuff. How did they test this? What did they have to do to show the FDA Chantix is safe and effective? What kind of test might the electronic cigarette need to go through to get FDA approval so it can join all these safe drugs on the A list?

1,022 patients were enrolled in this study, and results were duplicated in another identically designed clinical trial.

Patients received either CHANTIX 1 mg twice a day, Zyban 150 mg twice a day, or sugar pills twice a day for 12 weeks. In addition to the pills, patients were given a booklet on quitting smoking and received brief counseling at each visit.

In weeks 9 through 12 in the study, the smoking status of each patient was checked, and the information was compared among the 3 groups. Patients were considered quit if they did not smoke a cigarette (not even a puff) or use other nicotine products for the final 4 weeks of treatment. CHANTIX was proven to be more effective than the sugar pill or Zyban.

Was a large percentage of the success rate of all three actually the pamphlets and the couseling rather then the drugs? We may never know.

The bad news for electronic cigarettes is that all the nicotine replacement therapies and the drugs like Chantix have two goals: to get you to quit smoking and to break your nicotine addiction. So, to be FDA approved the e-cigs may have to prove effective at both.

To be approved the goal may have to be to get you down to the 0% nicotine cartridges in 15 weeks or less. Not a bad thing, but for those smokers who like nicotine, they may find some regulations that restrict how long they can buy nicotine cartridges.

I'm just not sure the FDA will approve any nicotine product that's intended for the user to continue using nicotine without the purpose being to wean you off. Not that electronic cigarettes can't do that, many vapers are reporting that's exactly what they've done, but currently thats not the primary purpose of them. Perhaps ecigarettes will have to become a quit smoking device to be approved.

Chantix, the pill with a plan

Now, I like that! that's catchy!! as they say "the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recognizes the need for behavioral support. Research has shown that medication combined with support is more effective in quitting smoking than using medication alone." and that makes sense. So, like most quit smoking drugs, they have a plan too.

Maybe the electronic cigarette makers need to develop a catchy plan. Some vapers report it's far easier to wean yourself off nicotine with e-cigs simply because, unlike the other programs and drugs, you don't miss any of the behavioral aspects of smoking. Even if you get down to 0mg nicotine, you still have the same behaviours as you did smoking. Perhaps that's a bad thing, perhaps not. Depends on your definition of bad habits I guess.

How Chantix works

Wait, a few pages ago they said they were not sure exactly how it worked? Oh well, let's see what they believe is happening anyway.

There are receptors for nicotine in your brain. When you smoke, the nicotine you inhale attaches to these receptors. This sends a message to a different part of your brain to release a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine gives you a feeling of pleasure. But it does not last long. That's why your body craves more nicotine. This can become a vicious cycle.

CHANTIX is different from most other quit-smoking products. It targets nicotine receptors in the brain, attaches to them, and blocks nicotine from reaching them. By activating these nicotine receptors, it is also believed that CHANTIX causes less dopamine – compared to nicotine – to be released.

So, it just weans you off dopamine. They think. Ok, that makes sense. I'm still not clear how it diminishes your urge to smoke, it just seems to be a dopamine replacement therapy rather then a nicotine one, but thats what the plan is for I guess, to help you with the behavioral parts while the Chantix keeps your dopamine factory in check and convinces your brain you don't need nicotine. After all, it's the dopamine we really crave. I think. But then so do the scientists, so seems we are all on the same page.

Planning on Quiting

Ok, this whole section deals with picking a start date, how you can still smoke the first week of treatment while the Chantix builds up in your system and how support is important and falling off the wagon is not a big deal if you just get back on.

To be honest, this whole section looks identical to all the "cold turkey" and other drug programs i've seen and I'm betting accounts for a large percentage of the success rate of any quit smoking program. Otherwise how did 18% of users quit with sugar? (although the whole "quit with sugar" plan might be very popular! And it's proven effective in clinical studies!)

Important Safety Information and Side Effects

Oh man, just when they had me sold we are back to the whole "might kill yourself or others" and the part that really gives me the creeps where my face might swell up so much I could Die laying in a puddle of my own puke while my skin rots off.

In clinical trials, the most common side effects of CHANTIX include:

• Nausea (30%)
• Sleep problems (trouble sleeping, changes in dreaming)
• Constipation
• Gas
• Vomiting

These are not all the side effects of CHANTIX. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information.

And now I'm really nervous, if they are so forthcoming about the mental and behavior problems, the face swelling, the life threatening skin rash and the nausea and vomiting, what side effects are they not telling me that I must ask the doctor about? Do I even want to know? Probably not.

In Conclusion

So, to sum up. Chantix is a drug we think binds to nicotine receptors and produces lower levels of dopamine in your brain which makes your brain desire nicotine less. And even if you did smoke, the Chantix is hogging all the receptors so the nicotine couldn't work anyway.

They have a plan and a support group to help you quit.

44% of the thousand plus people who participated in each of the two studies quit while only 18% quit using sugar pills. So, Chantix is a bit more than twice as effective as sugar in helping you quit smoking.

The most common side effects included sleep problems, constipation, gas, vomiting and 30% of users experienced nausea while an undisclosed percentage experience serious mental disorders including aggression, anger, mania, hallucinations, paranoia, confusion and suicidal thoughts or actions.

And then we have my personal favorite: Your face might swell up till you choke on your own tongue.

No Thanks Pfizer, I'll stick to Electronic Cigarettes

Ok then. Well, forgive me ASH supporting Pfizer if I decline your offer of assistance in my attempts to quit smoking and stick with the unsafe, non FDA approved, untested and unproven electronic cigarette.

Why? Well, because in my months of research and the hundreds of people who use electronic cigarettes that I've talked with I've not heard of one single case of suicide, constipation, gas, aggressive behaviour, hallucinations or any of the terrible LSD like side effects your product has been clinically proven to cause.

And i've never heard of an electronic cigarette smokers face swelling up to the point of death. Not once.

Let other people use the "safe" FDA approved drugs like yours, at least till the class action and wrongful death lawsuits get Chantix taken off the market like so many other FDA approved drugs that end up killing folks.

And if e-cigs don't work out for me, i'll just try the clinically proven effective 18% of the time sugar pills. Actually, the more clinical studies i read, the more i'm starting to believe sugar pills are 18% effective at curing just about everything!

and so Mr. Banzhaf doesn't sue me, here's my own disclaimer:

The preceding are the personal thoughts and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this website, it's hosting provider or any other creature living or dead. The author is not an attorney or a medical professional and this information is not legal or medical advice. It is presented here for educational and entertainment purposes only and should not be used as the basis for any medical or legal decisions. The best person to seek medical advice from is your doctor or other health care provider, not me and definitely not a drug company.

Chantix™ and GetQuit™ are registered trademarks of the Pfizer corporation and are used here for review and educational purposes only. No infringement of their trademark is intended. This website, unlike many anti smoking groups like ASH have no affiliation with the Pfizer corporation and have never accepted a single dime of drug company money.

Reading this blog post may cause your eyes to tear up, become red and your butt to become sore from sitting for long periods of time. However, no clinical studies have shown the authors words to cause suicidal tendencies or any life threatening face swelling. If you experience such symptoms or if you have an errection that last for more then four hours seek medical attention immediately.