Author: chris | Page 3 | TruthWillOut

Champix review: 14 days on Champix ruined my life, Doc.

“Further to my post (number 87, posted in June 2009) I’m still suffering the same symptoms two and a half years down the line, I’ve been through over 2 years of tests, have lost my job, almost lost wife and children and now, the doctors finally say that they feel that it was Champix that has caused all this. In the very next breath they also said that proving it will be almost impossible and that getting any legal recourse will be even harder, so there we are – 38 years old and basically on the scrap heap until they can hopefully figure out a way to deal with my symptoms. So where do I go from here, I don’t know, the doctors don’t know either, I’ve used all my savings just to live the last couple of years and I can’t function day to day, legal action would be futile and I cant fund it, so all I can do is sit and stare out the window and watch the world go by…

Chantix Champix Reviews: How long does the suffering have to go on?

*Update 1: If you or a loved one has suffered a bad reaction to Champix and you are based in the U.K., you can report it to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) here. The more people do that the clearer the true picture will become. Protect others! Report it.*

**Update 2, 4th November 2011:

The American Food & Drug Administration (FDA) were recently reported in the Business section of the Washington Post as reassuring smokers that Chantix (known as Champix everywhere outside the USA) “does not increase psychiatric problems”, according to two small studies involving 26,000 smokers. Since this flies in the face of everything else they know about Chantix already, it is surely irresponsible to say such a thing at this time, because the caveats added to the story further down do not carry anything like the weight of the inevitable headline. Meanwhile, this article in the Daily Mail reports a study which states exactly the opposite.

Why? Because the Daily Mail is not bending over backward to assist the pharmaceutical industry – even at the expense of smokers’ lives, if that’s what it takes – whereas the FDA very clearly is. The testing and approvals system is corrupt as hell, using every possible means of dragging their feet so that Chantix/Champix stays on the market and remains ‘approved’ regardless of how many individual smokers’ lives are ruined by the drug.

The Truth Will Out Campaign has been trying to alert smokers (and doctors) to the dangers of this drug since Autumn of 2008 – so these unnecessary delays drive me pretty crazy – but just imagine the frustration of this commentator on the new Daily Mail report:

“Oh now they make this a huge statement. My mom used it in mid 2007. She ended up in a mental hospital. Thanks Champix. This stuff shouldn’t even be on the market!!! I still can’t understand why it is, with all these accounts of suicide! I read horror story’s back then after this happened to my mom about people killing themselves or having illness such as bi-polar disorder activated in them. My rule with all drugs is, if it hasn’t been on the market for more then 10 years…DO NOT take it. You never want to be the guinea pig. Sorry for all those who ended their lives because they were manipulated this drug.

– Danielle, USA,
3/11/2011 6:08”

***Update 3, 21st October 2012: Pfizer settle first Chantix suicide case out of court http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-18/pfizer-settles-first-chantix-suicide-case-set-for-trial.html?cmpid=yhoo

14 Days on Champix Ruined My Life, Doc

by hypnotherapist Chris Holmes

I just had an update from Andy, who took Champix (Chantix) for only 14 days. That was two and a half years ago, and this update is the latest reason I believe this medication should be withdrawn immediately. This was the original message from Andy in 2009:

“I started taking Champix on December 1st 08 and took them for 14 days, during the time I took them I felt progressively more and more ill, I contacted my doctor twice and was told its normal to feel ill on them and to keep taking them. On 14 th December 08 I was admitted to hospital with chest pains, 1 week later and a lot of tests I was discharged, no diagnosis, just sent home, since then I have been diagnosed with Diabetes and Reynauds Syndrome, have balance problems, problems with my endocrine system and have been off of work (now lost my job), so how do you go from healthy to feeling ill and being admitted to hospital in 14 days, then 6 months later have the same mystery symptoms, my guess is that as Champix works on receptors in the brain it messes with a whole lot more than just dopamine receptors.

“Can I prove this? The answer is no. I’m a layman and the doctors tell me it isn’t the case, they know because they looked on the manufacturers website, so coincidently within the 2 week period I was using champix I turned diabetic, suffered circulatory problems, endocrine system problems and lost my balance and gained vision that comes and goes as it wants, lost the ability to work, drive my car and generally do things that normal people do, also I dont know where the end of this is, nor do the doctors.. If you google Chantix lawsuit you will find that in the US there are a whole heap of people with similar problems to those I’ve suffered, and am suffering now, find another way to give up smoking, I wish I had….”

So how has Andy fared since then? Has it all worn off, is he back to his normal self? Did the advice to stop taking Champix if you suffer any ill effects save him? After all, he was only on it for 14 days. Here’s Andy again:

“Further to my post (number 87, posted in June 2009) I’m still suffering the same symptoms 2.5 years down the line, I’ve been through over 2 years of tests, have lost my job, almost lost wife and children and now, the doctors finally say that they feel that it was Champix that has caused all this.

“In the very next breath they also said that proving it will be almost impossible and that getting any legal recourse will be even harder, so there we are, 38 years old and basically on the scrap heap until they can hopefully figure out a way to deal with my symptoms.

“So where do I go from here, I dont know, the doctors dont know either, I’ve used all my savings just to live the last couple of years and I cant function day to day, legal action would be futile and I cant fund it, so all I can do is sit and stare out the window and watch the world go by, happy days 🙁 ”

So I thought that Andy’s dreadful outcome deserved a post all to itself. After all, it originally appeared on the thread of comments following my “Champix Chantix 4 – Enough Already” post back in 2008, when I was suggesting that too much suffering had already resulted from this horrible drug. Evidently Pfizer and Andy’s doctors did not agree: they had to ruin his life as well, and many others all over the world. Perhaps Andy’s doctors have finally started to get the message but it is way too late for Andy, and now they are suggesting that nothing can be done legally. Actually I beg to differ Andy, let’s not assume that. Failure to withdraw this drug immediately has to be negligence. Every single victim deserves compensation when the dangers were known YEARS AGO. Andy is not the only one to develop diabetes after taking Champix, despite being perfectly healthy beforehand. Check this little lot:

And that was published in May 2008 – six months BEFORE the drug was given to Andy. This killer drug is still being aggressively marketed and there are still doctors and “quit counsellors” handing it out with scarcely any warnings at all. It’s CRIMINAL.

Sufferers: report it. Doctors: don’t prescribe it. Smokers: don’t take it. Pharmacists: don’t stock it. BMA, NICE, MHRA, FDA… you are all responsible for this rogue drug ruining innocent people’s lives. For Christ’s sake, STOP IT NOW. Personally I think that YOU are the ones that should be sued… along with Pfizer, let’s not forget them. They know it hardly works for anyone in the long run anyway, only in the short term. 86% failure at one year. Do you think Andy would have ever taken it if he had known THAT? Do you think ANYONE would? Champix is just the latest fraudulent “wonder drug”, but in terms of the damage it is probably the worst yet. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if any of these drug giants has another nasty little concoction all ready for the hype train that turns out to be even worse, because the testing procedures are no longer looking at the long term effects or results of any new medications now: if it shows ANYTHING that looks like a positive effect, that’s it! That’s all you need, stop the trial right there, get out the big rubber stamp of approval and off we go again.

Alarmingly quick to approve, criminally slow to withdraw – that’s the FDA and the MHRA for you, and that’s why I’m calling them all lackeys of the pharmaceutical industry. And it’s people like Andy and his family who are paying the price for this global drug profiteering.

Nothing we can do, Doc? I’ll tell you what we CAN do, for a start: lose all faith in your ill-informed ‘advice’ – which is no more than drug company hype – and don’t take the tablets. It has really come to something when it takes two years for the patient to get their own doctor to realise what is wrong with the pills, hasn’t it? For shame, Doctor.

the book that blew the whistle on the nicotine scam

safer alternative

Related posts

Champix Chantix murders and suicide

Champix Chantix suicide

Champix Chantix seizures and epilepsy

44% success rate? No, 86% failure rate for Champix Chantix

More smokers’ comments follow this post

More smokers’ reviews of Champix Chantix

My original post on Champix Chantix April 2008, and almost 300 comments that followed

The Truth Will Out, Pfizer!

Champix Chantix 9: Varenicline, murders and suicide

I first heard of Champix (Chantix in the U.S.), otherwise known as varenicline, in May 2007. By July 2008 I had already learned enough about it to arrive at the conclusion that it should never have been passed as if it were safe for use in the UK, Canada or Australia because it was already clear it was causing serious harm in the United States. Before another year had gone by I had made it an express aim of the Truth Will Out Campaign to call for the withdrawal of this extremely unpredictable killer drug. (See Homepage for the original aims of The T.W.O. Campaign.)

*Update: If you or a loved one has suffered a bad reaction to Champix and you are based in the U.K., you can report it to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) here. The more people do that the clearer the true picture will become. Protect others! Report it.*

Why Champix Should Be Withdrawn Immediately by Chris Holmes

Finally – and this has taken far too long – the call has begun for Champix to be withdrawn from sale because of the dreadful damage it has done to so many smokers and their families. Dr Michael Siegel, a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health has explained why the Black Box Warning on the medication – the strongest type of safety warning there is – is still not sufficient to protect the public. His voice should not be ignored: Dr Siegel has 25 years experience in the field of tobacco control and has published nearly 70 papers on tobacco. This is what he says about Pfizer’s dangerous brain-boiling tablet:

http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/04/rest-of-story-calls-for-removal-of.html

http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/04/chantix-why-black-box-warning-is-not.html

I’ve Been Saying This For Years Now

That was two years ago. The foot-dragging of medical authorities all over the world with regard to this evil medication has become truly obscene. Most recently, New Zealand’s medicines approval body Pharmac – which had hesitated over Champix because of serious concerns regarding its safety – finally did a special ‘package deal’ with Pfizer involving the licensing of a number of drugs, including Champix, making it shockingly clear that their former concerns about the safety of New Zealand smokers could be negotiated away if the price was right. Never mind that the link with suicides was already well established. Never mind the fact that by this time, it was apparent that the true success rate of the drug (at the one-year follow-up stage) was only about 14%. The press in New Zealand churned out the familiar marketing hype about the 55% ‘success rate’ once achieved at the 12 week stage in clinical trials, and a Pfizer spokesperson added the platitude that the “benefits outweighed the risks”. What they really meant was, the benefits to THEM outweighed any risks to smokers lives, jobs, health, relationships, liberty etc. as far as THEY were concerned… risks which Pfizer continue to deny can be conclusively linked to the drug anyway.

*Would you like to reply to that denial? If you or a loved one has suffered a bad reaction to Champix and you are based in the U.K., you can report it to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) here. The more people do that the clearer the true picture will become. Protect others! Report it. If you live elsewhere, Google “How do I report a bad reaction to a medication in…” (wherever)*

Smokers’ Testimony Doesn’t Count

… as far as Pfizer are concerned, that is. This is why I encourage all those smokers who have suffered a bad reaction to report it, and make sure their doctor uses the official channels to make that report count. And although a recent report found that Champix/Chantix was 18 times more likely to be associated with violent behaviour than any of the other 484 drugs in the study – making it the worst offender of all in terms of aggressive reactions – that is STILL only using the data from the limited number of cases where an official complaint was made against the medication.

Smokers’ testimony counts here, though, on Truth Will Out. Already we know, from such testimony, that:

– many smokers are STILL not being warned about ANY risks associated with the medication

– many doctors and other medical personnel don’t know much about risks anyway, or dismiss it as ‘media hype’

– many smokers are okay on the drug at first. THEN it gets nasty

– early results seem much more promising than long-term outcomes actually are

– the last two points have generated massive amounts of PREMATURE praise for the drug

– many sufferers of bad reactions did not know that the drug was to blame

– very bad side effects continue in some people long after coming off the drug.

It seems inevitable that suicidal or violent behaviour in individual cases over the last four years may well have been blamed on the individual rather than the drug. In court cases or inquests all over the world it seems likely that the connection would probably have been missed, or perhaps dismissed as an attempted excuse. Certainly the actor Nicolas Williams was thought by some commentators at the time to be using that connection as a way of getting off an assault charge, when he was cleared by a court last June. But how many have been convicted?

In July last year, Andrew Case killed his two young daughters and his wife, then hanged himself. He had been taking Champix, but at the inquest it was stated that none of the drug was found in his blood. Did the people conducting that inquest fully understand that the horror continues for many Champix victims, sometimes long after the drug is discontinued? PRETTY IMPORTANT FACT TO BE AWARE OF, DON’T YOU THINK?

A Sure-Fire Way To Get At The Truth About Champix

When people die by their own hand – or as a result of violence, there is always a post-mortem examination. In this country, and I’m sure in many others, if that person is on any medication from their doctor, a note of this is made as part of the post-mortem and inquest proceedings. However, if they blew their brains out with a shotgun – or someone else’s brains – then the cause of death is recorded as Death By Shooting. If they were taking Champix at the time, the cause of death is listed as… Death By Shooting. This means if Champix really caused that death, Pfizer got away with it.

I suggest that the obvious thing to do is to look back over ALL the violent deaths and suicides which have happened over the last four years, and find out how many of those people were taking Chantix or Champix at the time. Then compare this information with the same types of cases in the previous four years before that, to see if the Great Global Champix Experiment threw up a spike in the incidence of violent assault, murder and suicide. Might also be a good idea for anyone accused or convicted of violent behaviour during that time to check for a Champix connection if that was not the way they usually behave. I’m sure this kind of information could be demanded by anyone under the Freedom of Information Act here in the UK, or obtained by lawyers involved in cases against Pfizer over Chantix/Champix. Even though this would still be missing the cases where the drug was bought, not prescribed, it would be a very good indicator of the drug’s actual role in all these horror stories and – even if not conclusive in any individual case – enough to get the monstrous concoction banned.

That inevitable event cannot come soon enough. How many more have to die, Doc?

the book that blew the whistle on the nicotine scam

safer, more effective alternative

This Blog is about Nicotine, Not Champix!

by Chris Holmes

OK it is time to get focussed! When I launched the Truth Will Out Campaign back in March 2008, it was to blow the whistle on the Global Nicotine Scam, not to spend the rest of my working life discussing Champix… or Chantix to give it the alias it goes by in the United States. Varenicline. Doesn’t matter what you call it, it still doesn’t work very well unless what you’re after is a mental breakdown and the loss of everything that is dear to you.

That drug is based upon the notion that smokers smoke because of nicotine – an idea which doesn’t stand up to any serious scrutiny, it’s just that no-one was scrutinising it until I published Nicotine: The Drug That Never Was in 2007.

Since then, a study done by Dr Reuven Dar from Tel Aviv University’s Psychology Department (link follows) has confirmed exactly what I was saying in that book: namely that smokers’ cravings are not withdrawal symptoms, and indeed are not related to nicotine levels in any way. Smoking is NOT a drug addiction, it just looks like one if you don’t know the difference between an addiction and a compulsive habit. And doctors currently do not, which is why I wrote the book. To understand the difference, you need to understand how the human Subconscious mind organises and repeats compulsive habitual behaviour. As a hypnotherapist, I’ve spent more than a decade shutting down habits like that with hypnotherapy, usually in one session.

I have done that with thousands of individuals, one at a time. It is not a trick. It is not a parlour game. It is a process of communication and anyone can respond to it if they choose. It is all explained in the book – available as a paperback (£16.95) or a download (£5). The fact is, both Champix Chantix and Nicotine Replacement Products are all based on a myth in the first place, and that is why they usually fail. Shame that smokers usually blame themselves for that failure, when they should be blaming those lousy methods!

the book that blew the whistle on the nicotine scam

The Science

more about hypnotherapy
…and then there is this! We are quite simply right about this. Sorry, Doc! Sorry, NiQuitin! The Nicotine Tale turned out to be an embarrassing medical error leading to a collosal global scam.

Can Champix (Chantix) Cause Seizures/Epilepsy?

by hypnotherapist Chris Holmes

N.B. Please read the comments after this post, as it now transpires that no-one should be prescribed Champix without having a particular gene test FIRST, or it could trigger epilepsy in people with no previous history of epilepsy.

Check this out Widow Sues Pfizer

There is a link in that story to the actual lawsuit, and in that there is mention of evidence that Chantix not only triggers suicides, but many other nasty side effects including seizures. Recently I was contacted by a very distressed person who started having severe epileptic fits only two months after starting on the drug, and it has ruined that person’s life.

If anyone else has had seizures or developed epilepsy after taking this drug – or knows of anyone who has – with no previous history of either condition before taking it, please let us know.

The manufacturers of Champix/Chantix, Pfizer, have an impressive criminal record according to this article by Neil Byrne from 2009:

This week Pfizer settled with the Department of Justice for $2.3 billion, the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the DOJ. It resolved their criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products. Pfizer “off labeled” drugs for uses the FDA didn’t previously approve of. $1 billion was allocated to resolve allegations under the civil False Claims Act that Pfizer illegally promoted the drugs Bextra, Geodon an anti-psychotic drug, Zyvox, an antibiotic, and Lyrica, an anti-epileptic drug. What is worse is that Pfizer is a habitual criminal company since they have been found guilty before in a similar case.

Tony West the DOJ Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division was quoted by news releases, “Illegal conduct and fraud by pharmaceutical companies puts the public health at risk, corrupts medical decisions by health care providers, and costs the government billions of dollars”. Perhaps this massive fine will curtail Pfizer to some degree, but they will likely need at least three strikes. We think this is the beginning of more and more lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for cross labeling, inadequate tests and warnings, and drugs that create suicidal thoughts, and aggressive behavior. Consumers need to fully perform their due diligence before taking drugs which have clear controversial effects. Chantix and Zyban have a new warning that the drug can produce suicidal thoughts and behavior. Do you want to stop smoking or stop life?

Full article here.

If you live in the U.S. and are connected to a Chantix suicide case, this may be helpful to you.

If you just want to stop smoking safely and easily, more info here.

*Update, 27.02.12. In EVERY SMOKER a gene test is required before Champix can be prescribed to make sure you do not have any genetic mutations that would make Champix trigger seizures. Failure to do this in each and every smokers is “playing poker with peoples’ lives”.

Samantha Dearnaley has sent in this rather technical update from her own research… note the P.S. at the end:

Hi Chris,

just thought I would send you this: Mutations in either a4 or b2 subunits can cause autosomal nocturnal epilepsy. There is evidence that
ADNFLE can be due to dysfunction of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAchR). The responsible mutation was subsequently identified as a missense mutation which replaces a serine into phenylalanine (ser248phe) in the a4 subunit gene (CHRNA4) of the neuronal nAchR. This mutation affects the second transmembrane domain (M2) which has been shown to form the wall of the ion channel. This has been the first, and to date only, mutation described in an idiopathic epilepsy. Mutations in mitochondrial DNA, cystatin B and defects causing abnormal neuronal storage, all resulting in neuronal destruction.

Varenicline an a4b2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist, as you can see it works by binding to the same receptors a4b2. I have got this info from Oxford journals, Human molecular genetics.

Kind Regards

Samantha Dearnaley.

PS. I have had another person got in touch yesterday with similar thing, again after Champix. People who want to take this drug should have a gene test done, to see if they have any mutations before they take it, to stop this happening to other people. Its like playing poker with peoples lives. Would this drug still end up costing the NHS less that NRT if they had to do a gene test on everyone? I don’t think so.

[Chris says: Not sure it costs less than NRT anyway, though that may have been the hype. Latest research from Harvard proves NRT doesn’t work at all in the long run – no better than willpower, anyway – didn’t someone say that years ago, though? Oh yes, it was ME! Thanks Harvard! But they’re still prescribing it, aren’t they? “Evidence-Based-Medicine”, folks! Evidence is all that’s required to make it bona fide – any evidence will do – even hard evidence that it doesn’t work at all!]

the book that blew the whistle on the nicotine scam

Spanish Nicotine Costa Packet!

I was interested to hear from a British ex-pat who has resided in Spain for most of the last ten years that the cost of Nicotine Replacement Poisoning in Spain has shot up during the time they were living out there. Apparently a packet of 105 pieces of delicious poison gum had gone from 16.35 Euros in the late 1990s to 27.70 Euros roundabout now.

by Chris Holmes

She also told me that you cannot buy NRT just anywhere in Spain, like you can here. As I said in an earlier post on this blog, I’ve seen NRT on sale in the UK in Pound shops (where everything on sale only costs one pound), which suggests that it is not in great demand! The wasteful U.K. government ‘initiative’ of providing free patches for a week (courtesy of the UK taxpayer) that ran at the start of 2011 also suggests that the sale of NRT is seriously flagging here, and I sincerely hope that the Truth Will Out Campaign has played a part in that over the last 3 years!

In Spain, however, you can only buy NRT from the Pharmacies, which pretty much makes it a racket. Don’t bother, people, it doesn’t work anyway! 94% failure (see home page). Hypnotherapy, acupuncture, Allen Carr method – all far more successful if you want to quit smoking.

the book that blew the whistle on the nicotine scam

more about hypnotherapy option

The British Broadcasting Corporation

Forget The Journalists

I was contacted by the BBC back in December, they were doing a radio programme about current smoking policy and questioning the validity of Nicotine Replacement Poisoning and all that, and wanted me to take part. The Producer had read my book, and really liked it. So I went and did an interview, which they assured me afterwards went very well. (I know: they say that to everybody!) Then it went very quiet, and I sent a couple of emails that didn’t get answered. The radio show is being broadcast today. And today I finally got a reply.

Guess what? I’m not in it!

This is the fourth time that I have been approached, and then before anything is actually broadcast, ditched – by media organisations. And it’s the last. Of course I got a detailed ‘explanation’ as to why, but the fact is I don’t care. I’m wasting my time with these people.

I’m not even disappointed, it’s pretty much what I expected at this point. As this is the fourth time journalists have approached me, then backed right off because I’m actually calling the Department of Health, A.S.H. and the drug companies a bunch of fraudsters who are knowingly wasting huge amounts of public money and carefully lying about it – and I can prove it – well, journalists are not in a position to deal in terminology like that. So I’ve had enough of talking to them.

I’m not a campaigner by nature. I’ve never done anything like this before, so it’s a learning process. And what I’ve learned is: don’t waste your time with journalists. They’re not interested in the real issue, they’re just constructing “items” for the shows (or rags) they knock together, and it’s pretty formulaic. I know how it works, I spent six years teaching a course on television production at Manchester Metropolitan University. I’ve been on TV numerous times (not in connection with this Campaign), and it’s all good fun. But that’s all it is.

The Producer of The Radio Show I Was Never On asked me if I wanted an audio copy of the show anyway, because she would “value my feedback on it”.

That made me feel very special. So I said: “Thank you very much”, and “no”. I already knew who else they had on the show, and I already know what all those people would say, because I’ve heard it all before. In fact the only bit that the listeners wouldn’t have heard before was the bit I contributed, which was why it didn’t really fit in.

Fact is, the internet is where all the real, edgy debate is now. The BBC is like the NHS: no-one who values their job can speak out, they’ve got to cover their own arses and let’s face it, the BBC is totally reliant on the government of the day to keep on approving the licence fee, so…

So: bye bye BBC. It’s been… well, pretty much what I expected, really!

the book that blew the whistle on the nicotine scam

Central Hypnotherapy

Volume II of Nicotine: The Drug That Never Was

Nicotine: The Drug That Never Was (Volume II) A Change of Mind has just become available today.

Read what the critics thought of Volume I:

“The author’s case is simple: nicotine is not addictive, and he makes a
strong case in support of his argument… Numerous asides to various issues
undoubtedly made for a more entertaining read… It’s not often that parts
of a book on a very serious subject have me by turns howling in laughter and
clapping in appreciation of the author’s attention to detail – this one did
both. This has the potential to be a landmark book, and as such deserves a
wide audience.”
Michael O’Sullivan, Hypnotherapy Articles

“Holmes provides “Case Mysteries” as interludes between his chapters and
these are highly entertaining and illuminating. One such interlude
de-constructs the work of Allen Carr, a British smoking cessation guru. By
the time Holmes is done with Carr, there is not much left; it’s a great read
that made me laugh out loud… in the end, the arguments make sense. Just as importantly, they are presented in an entertaining and insightful way,
making this book useful to hypnotists and those who would like to stop
smoking. I’d like to check out Volume II when I get a chance.”
James Hazlerig, RealHypnosisReviews.blogspot.com

Well here it is, James – and only two years late! Enjoy.

If you just want to quit smoking in two hours, read this.

Free Poison Patches From Your Friendly Pharmacist!

…courtesy of the U.K. taxpayer, of course… the latest mad idea for wasting NHS cash, have you heard about this one? Free patches from the chemist for 1 week “to help smokers with their New Years Resolutions”! This despite the fact that numerous scientific reports into the long-term results for NRT prove it is no more successful than willpower alone, with a success range of 2% to 8% – all well within the normal placebo range, and therefore utterly useless. And it’s free only for a week, which is obviously no different from a free sachet of shampoo given away with a magazine. Since when is the U.K. taxpayer supposed to be footing the bill for free samples of useless drug company products? This would be a scandalous waste of precious resources even if there were public money to burn, but as it is… I mean, how many kidney dialysis machines could be bought for that, eh? It’s MENTAL.

Now, quite which government should have their soft, delicate parts jammed in a vice for this piece of out-and-out idiocy, I’m not too sure! Seems a bit soon to have been dreamt up by the new Lib/Con pact, so I suspect this may have been a last gasp of Gordon Brown lunacy but what really made me feel like throwing the sofa through the TV screen last night as this was announced on the BBC Evening News was the appearance of Deborah Arnott from A.S.H. (Action on Smoking & Health) describing this latest cash donation to drug company coffers as “brilliant”. If that moronic marketing ploy is brilliant, Arnott, my wee dog’s an astronomer.

Deborah Arnott’s only reservation, fellow taxpayers, is that it doesn’t go on for long enough. Yeah, you would say that, wouldn’t you Deborah?

Cash In On Smoking And Health

When will the BBC twig that A.S.H. are not REALLY a “Public Health Charity”, which is what they purport to be. If they were, then their decisions and actions would have smokers’ interests at their heart first and foremost, would they not? Yet this was proven to be completely untrue back when Allen Carr died, and Deborah Arnott claimed that specific success rates quoted by Allen Carr’s Easyway International Group were “plucked out of the air” and “basically made up.” Her comments referred to two independent studies conducted by eminent experts in the field of smoking cessation which had already been published in peer reviewed journals indicating a 53% success rate for Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking Clinics after 12 months. She made these comments whilst on the BBC Radio 4’s “P.M.” programme during a piece looking back on the achievements of Allen Carr. The Easyway Organisation sued, and won because Arnott was completely wrong about that. A.S.H. were forced to make a public apology and pay costs. So, did that make the “public health charity” see the error of its ways, and start promoting Allen Carr’s now-proven method too, and not just drug company products?

No. They just published the obligatory apology and then continued to completely ignore the Allen Carr method, which proves what I, the Easyway Organisation and many others have been saying for years: that ASH is just a shop window for nicotine gum, patches, Zyban and Champix, and it has sod-all to do with public health! It’s just shameless promotion of largely-useless quit products dressed up as “healthcare”.

The Scandalous Strategy

You see, here’s how it works. Nicotine Replacement Poisoning was originally passed as if it were an effective quit smoking aid on the basis of its performance at just SIX WEEKS. The manufacturers were even allowed to put the performance rate at six weeks on the packaging, as if it were indicative of the actual long-term outcome, which it certainly is not. The NHS and the Department of Health currently measure the ‘effectiveness’ of the NHS Stop Smoking Services by the results at four weeks, and then stop following up. Using this clearly-inadequate evaluation method, they have routinely boasted ‘success rates’ of 55% (average around the country) rising as high as 90% in the case of South West Kent PCT (see document reproduced in the Evidence section of this website). Long-term results are never mentioned when these very short-term results are being trumpeted to promote the services, which is grossly misleading.

Yet we now know for sure – having examined the scientific reports into the long-term NHS results that we EVENTUALLY managed to get out of the DoH – that the real outcomes at one year are a miserable 2% – 8%, no different from willpower alone!

The defenders of this policy are now reduced to sheer bluff to fool the public, and this is how they do it. Any spokesperson from ASH, the NHS or the DoH will always begin by telling you how many people are killed by smoking every year – as if that fact had any bearing whatever on the performance of those services and products! It is a smokescreen (no pun intended), to give you the impression that this is so serious a problem that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE – even if it makes no difference whatever and costs a fortune. Then they will blithely assure you that “numerous scientific studies have shown…”, but without letting slip that those were all short-term studies and they create a very false impression. The long-term studies they will not mention at all, except perhaps the Ferguson report, which artificially manufactured a 15% success rate at one year by cherry picking: excluding 20% of the 1039 participants from the final evaluation on the basis of socio-economic factors. In other words, they excluded all those they thought were least likely to quit before they evaluated the results, making a nonsense of that 15% figure!

All this would be quite funny if it were not a massive waste of precious NHS resources, and a shameful waste of smokers’ time, encouraging them to bugger about with bogus products that don’t do anything useful really. No-one knows how much time any individual smoker has got, so wasting any of it is potentially life-threatening, Doc.

ASH & Co – and the BMA, the DoH, the Royal College of Physicians, people like Edzard Ernst et al. – are always banging on in a very smug and pompous fashion about EBM: “evidence-based medicines” which the rest of us know as “drug company products”. Yet we can see from all this that it doesn’t matter what the evidence actually IS! Again, it’s just a marketing ploy: evidence about Allen Carr’s genuine and very respectable SUCCESS is ignored by ASH, yet the clear evidence of NRT abject failure is also ignored, they continue to promote that by sneakily substituting very short-term evaluations to mislead smokers and taxpayers alike.

This is a national scandal. The plug should be pulled immediately and there should be a public enquiry into who is responsible for this outrageous attempt to hoodwink everyone. If those millions were being spent on something like a herbal remedy – something NOT manufactured by a drug company – and it showed a 94% failure rate, the very same people who are defending current the NHS policy would be screaming for the funding to be stopped immediately, and everybody knows it! How long is this madness going to be allowed to continue? I’ve been saying this now for THREE YEARS, and in that time the number of smokers attempting to quit has halved, but the amounts of public money being poured into this farcical NHS pantomime has rocketed from £51 million pounds a year to £84 million last year. Those resources should be spent on things the NHS is actually GOOD AT, and smoking cessation certainly isn’t one of those things, as the science shows very clearly now.

If that is not grounds for a public enquiry, I’d like to know what is!

the book that blew the whistle on the nicotine scam

safer, more effective alternative

Rachel’s Hypnotherapy Success!

Last night we had a Xmas party for my husbands sports group and it was good to be able to sit inside the whole time but boy did I smell it when the smokers all came back in, I was so happy that wasn’t me anymore… I have been spreading the word on champix usage to my kiwi friends and encouraging them to check out your website. Now that I have had the hypnotherapy I am even a better example to them.

Keep up the brilliant work, have passed Book One on to my Dad and eagerly await Book Two.

by Chris Holmes

Now THIS is what I’m talking about! This is why no-one needs to take a risk with Champix The Suicide Pill:

Hi Chris,

Well I am happy to inform you that I am a non smoker. I had my hypnotherapy session last week and have not picked up a cigarette since nor do I want to. I knew what to expect due to reading your book and doing my own research. I enjoyed the session and was so excited on the day.

While I was waiting to go in for my appointment (I was early) I was chatting to this older man who was outside having a cigarette and waiting for someone else (nothing to do with where I was going). He asked me who I was waiting for and I told him what I was doing. He said he had hypnotherapy in the UK for smoking and then about 10 years later he immigrated to Australia and took up smoking again so in his opinion hypnotherapy didn’t work!, I had a little chuckle and told him it looked to me as if it did work. Anyway he was all excited about starting champix and I told him to make sure he researches it fully, in fact I know a website ……….

He wished me luck as I him, luck that he will not take champix and place himself in danger.

There has been a strange outcome of my quitting smoking that I never saw coming. The reaction of my husband!. While my 23 year old son has been very supportive and is encouraged by my success, my husband is being difficult. He will deliberately annoy me until I am angry and then say things like ” oo getting a bit tetchy I understand” or throwing his Cigarette out the window when I get in the car and saying ” oops, better get rid of that stinky smoke”. I have not been bothered by his smoking at all as I am a non smoker so it has no effect on me. It is as if he is wanting me to fail and has mentioned that he is closely watching how this ‘works’ for me cause he might try it. I just get an uneasy feeling that he is bating me or testing me to see if I will smoke again. I love my husband dearly and can’t quite understand why he is acting like this, although he is easing off a bit now. Chris, have you seen this response from other ex smokers smoking partners before?

Last night we had a Xmas party for my husbands sports group and it was good to be able to sit inside the whole time but boy did I smell it when the smokers all came back in, I was so Happy that wasn’t me anymore

I have been spreading the word on champix usage to my kiwi friends and encouraging them to check out your website. Now that I have had the hypnotherapy I am even a better example to them.

Keep up the brilliant work, have passed book one on to my dad and eagerly await book two.

Kindest regards
Rachel

So I emailed back:

Hi Rachel, well done you! And well done to your hypnotherapist for a sound professional job there! Ask if she would like a namecheck on my blog, I’d be happy to oblige!

I cannot understand the attitude of people like the smoker (or ex-non-smoker!) you met who interpreted starting smoking again years later as a “failure of hypnotherapy”! You would think anyone with any intelligence would return to the therapy that worked for them before, as indeed most people will if they relapse at some stage. It is the logical choice. However, some behaviour and some decisions are not based on logic. There is an urban myth that if you have had hypnotherapy to stop smoking before, it won’t work a second time – which is RUBBISH! But there might be another explanation. Blaming the relapse on hypnotherapy can be a way of avoiding blaming himself. (Actually there’s no need to blame anyone, we can fix it easily. It’s really not a big deal.) Or he may have adopted the notion that the hypnotherapy “wore off” – although that attitude is more common if the relapse happens within the first 12 months, it’s a bit weird to look at it like that after a ten-year interval! Hypnotherapy isn’t a treatment, it’s a communication process, so it cannot “wear off”, but it is always possible for anyone to smoke again. I could start smoking again if I wanted to. Would that be a somewhat late ‘failure’ in my decision to stop thirteen years ago? I think not!

But to start again, one needs a reason. And if you move to another country, like that chap did in moving to Australia, you need friends. And if the new people you meet are smokers, and they offer you a cigarette… even if you don’t want one, it might seem a bit unfriendly to refuse, like you’re rejecting their attempts at hospitality, maybe even seems disapproving? And as former smokers ourselves, we don’t really disapprove of smokers, do we? Most of us don’t anyway. So what harm could one little cigarette do? When circumstances change, and human individuals need new friends and allies – need to feel accepted – they may adopt a behaviour that they would have passed up under different circumstances. It’s a common enough scenario, and it doesn’t matter because it’s easily fixed with another hypnotherapy session!

Why did he not return to hypnotherapy then? Well the therapist he saw before was in another country, so that would mean starting all over again seeking out a different therapist, and… most likely he didn’t really want to believe in hypnotherapy in the first place, was astonished when it worked because that was contrary to his normal world-view – which is probably more inclined to believe in “tablets from the doctor” than anything ‘alternative’ – so when he started again, he just slipped back into his conventional comfort-zone and dismissed hypnotherapy as if it were a failure. What allowed him to succeed with it in the first place was his genuine underlying desire to quit smoking anyway, which we can be sure of because he didn’t relapse for a decade and he is attempting quitting again with the Champix. (All of this is speculation, of course, but these things are common enough.)

This all boils down to the general ignorance and misunderstanding about hypnotherapy which my book aims to dispel, and replace with a general and widespread UNDERSTANDING of it, not just recognition and acceptance. What really holds hypnotherapy back is general ignorance and prejudice. I’ve always thought that the kind of success we would be seeing if everyone already understood hypnotherapy and it enjoyed universal approval and recognition would be nothing short of spectacular. It’s pretty exciting already, as you’ve just been discovering for yourself!

And so to your husband, and his ‘unexpected’ reaction to your success! Yes, I’ve seen it before – in fact I included a case of it in the Case Mysteries in the second volume, a passage under the title of THE DISSUADERS. Sounds like your husband only has a mild case of this though – the case I wrote about was unusually bad because it was systematic and relentless, and unfortunately succeeded in undoing all the good work hypnotherapy did in that case, and I have to admit it did make me angry – but there was nothing I could do about it.

Now, you mustn’t be angry with your husband, because these are Subconscious reactions which some smokers have when someone close to them successfully quits. Usually they are short-term reactions, and the best thing to do is let your natural good humour deal with them because like most grouchy behaviour it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. It is not really malicious in most cases, it is based on fear. You see, back in the day, when ‘everyone’ smoked (as smokers often claim!), the fact that smoking could kill you wasn’t such a worry because we had a feeling that there was safety in numbers and surely it wouldn’t happen to US. And no-one disapproved too much in those days, so we could be fairly comfortable with our smoking habit. You could smoke anywhere, no-one cared, it was regarded as a fairly normal – even fairly respectable – lifestyle thing.

My God how that has changed! Smokers are very much on the back foot now, numbers are dwindling, every year someone else quits, there’s pictures of tumours on the carton, you can’t smoke anywhere in public without being arrested, the latest TV ads in the UK tell you to not only smoke outside, but now you’ve got to take seven steps away from your house before you light up, like you’re fucking radioactive or something… pretty soon you’ll be told you have to take a bus to a remote abandoned quarry before it’s permissible to light up, and be decontaminated and all your clothes burned before you’re allowed to return to your children, dressed in sackcloth and ashes. God knows how my family have survived with my old Dad smoking his pipe in the car with the windows rolled up all through my childhood… I’d like to see someone try to tell him he has to get out of his armchair and take seven steps away from his house before he lights the filthy thing up again. I wouldn’t, I don’t mind him smoking at all. I felt like puking in the car when I was a kid sometimes, but that’s just normal. I’m glad I don’t live in the same house as him, but there are lots of reasons for that. He’s there by himself nowadays, he can smoke if he wants to. He’s 82. He still plays tennis every week. No kidding. The man has virtually no medical records, he never worries about his health.

Not everyone is that health-confident. Smokers get worried these days – not just about illness, but about not being ‘able’, personally, to stop smoking. Each time someone they know quits, it makes them a bit nervous because it starts to seem increasingly ‘wrong’ to be a smoker, increasingly likely that they WILL be the one that gets the smoking-related disease, and that’s why – if the quitting attempt fails, other smokers often feel a private sense of relief, so that the commiserations are also partly a “welcome back” into the fold.

When you decided to quit, it was your decision, not your husband’s decision – but your success throws his own smoking habit into sharp relief, and that brings discomfort. It may well feel threatening, in two ways: now he may feel ‘obliged’ to try to quit himself – but without the freedom to decide that for himself, and with the fear of failing, which haunts a lot of smokers. He may not WANT to quit at this stage, and be fearful that now you’re going to use his smoking habit as a stick to beat him with – even if you were never going to do any such thing! He may be afraid of hypnosis, as a lot of people are even though there is no risk in it whatsoever. And – don’t forget – there is a certain element of competition in all close human relationships, especially male/female partnerships… the old battle of the sexes… which men like to feel that they would always win, only now you’re one up on him… the pressure’s on…

Not much of this goes through a person’s conscious mind. No, it all bubbles away underneath, and just pops up in little snidey comments and unworthy needling behaviour which is actually aimed at tipping you back into smoking so that he doesn’t have to change or be affected by any of these shifts in the usual state of affairs… but he may not realise that these are the typical causes of this moody phase. And it doesn’t matter, as long as you just smile at the insecurity of men and don’t taunt him about it or indeed take it seriously at all. Just ignore it, forgive him for being normal and it will peter out soon enough, especially if you are tolerant about his habit and don’t beat him up about it (always a mistake). Remember, his smoking habit should have no bearing on your own preference to be a non-smoker – don’t decide that he’s got to quit too now, and don’t hit back. Just enjoy your freedom and leave him to deal with his own issues himself in his own good time. Don’t let the smoking issue drive a wedge between you, because I think we all had the right idea in the old days – smoking is no big deal. But it IS rubbish, which should always be the reason any smoker quits, and it should always be of their own accord.

Is it okay if I put some of this up on the website? Also, let me know the name of your hypnotherapist and her location, so I can promote her services for her! And once again: Well Done Rachel!!!! Enjoy your freedom, and your health.

best regards,
Chris

To which our new non-smoker replied:

Hi Chris, thank you again for your most informative email. My husband seems to be backing off a bit now, in fact this morning he even mentioned how ‘nice’ I have been lately lol. He is the one who first mentioned quitting smoking it’s just that I was the one who did something about it. I know he wants to quit but it has to be when he is ready, not just because I did. I certainly never say anything about it to him, he’s a big boy now.

That man I met who said hypnotherapy didn’t work for him, after ten years of complete success really made me chuckle, some people never fail to amaze me, the frightening thing is, he is happy to be going on Champix. I liked your explanation of his behavior, it makes sense.

I am always happy for you to use my emails on your site if you feel they are appropriate.

The hypnotherapist I saw was:

Barbara Hennessy
www.hypnotherapycentre.com.au
email: [email protected]

PO Box 748
Wynnum. Qld. 4178
Australia.

Chris, I will contact her and ask her permission as requested. [It was granted.]

Have a very Merry Christmas and a safe New Year. Keep up all the good work, you changed my life, if your website hadn’t have been available I probably would never even thought of using hypnotherapy for quitting smoking. If your book wasn’t written, I would have only had my suspicions that NRT doesn’t work instead of the proof and knowledge I now have. If you had just ignored my emails I may have been put off by the whole thing as if you were just someone who wants to makes money… instead you have always promptly answered my enquiries in a thorough and humorous manner, supporting me through this turning point in my life. Thanks Chris!!! As is my way now I will continue to support your campaign in any way I am able.

Kindest regards
Rachel

Rachel told me that she had contacted two hypnotherapists at first, and decided on Barbera because the other therapist was charging too much:

Hi Chris,
I am seeing the hypnotherapist on the 17th of December and can’t wait to finally be free from this behaviour. She has 40 years of experience and the cost is $AU130, I contacted an ad from the local paper and the guy was charging $AU600 for the initial session and $AU400 for the follow up session (which I really shouldn’t need).

This confirms what I always say to smokers: Don’t pay top dollar. Do not assume that if you pay high prices you will get the best therapy, it isn’t true at all. I’m pretty good at what I do, but I don’t overcharge. My stop smoking sessions are £120. There are a few therapists in the UK charging as much as £450, but that just means that they are more interested in your money than your well-being, so don’t go to them! Do what Rachel did, go for experience and reasonable rates, that’s where you’ll find the magic.

For any smokers in the North West of the UK: Central Hypnotherapy

Depression, Champix: Doctor, NO!

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my email and you may certainly reproduce it on your website using my full name, I’m happy to support your campaign as much as I can. I will also write a review on Lulu for the book. I always read the reviews so it is nice to have a recent one to read when making a decision.
Chris, I look forward to purchasing Vol. II and my dad is eagerly waiting for me to finish Vol. I so he can read it too ( he doesn’t smoke) as he is very interested in the smoke and mirrors that health professionals/Pharmaceutical companies pass off as fact to the public all in the name of profits.

Rachel Whalen wrote:
Hi Chris,
I have had clinical depression from a very young age and over the years have
found a medication that lets me live a normal life. I work in an interesting
field (forensics) and have a loving home and family life. My doctor who issues
me with my medication offered, quite sincerely, to give me a script for Champix
to assist me when I asked about giving up the smokes. I was shocked that she
would do this knowing my history. Needless to say I told her I would get back to
her on that and promptly went home and started researching Champix in earnest
which is how I came across you site. I ordered your book from Lulu.com and am
now half way through it. What you are saying makes total sense to me and I have
chosen a reputable hypnotherapist which I will be seeing in a few weeks. I am
really looking forward to stopping smoking and getting rid of that compulsive
behaviour the safe way. I can only imagine the kind of hell I could have
experienced had I just blindly took my doctors offer. Thank you, Chris.

Just in case anyone still doesn’t know, Champix should NOT be prescribed to anyone with a history of depression according to current medical guidelines. These are not the only smokers that have been severely affected by “psychiatric events” whilst taking Champix, but the risk is certainly higher. So why the hell is this happening over and over again all over the world? Don’t doctors bother to read the guidelines?

Anyway, I asked Rachel if it was okay to reproduce her email here – anonymously if she preferred, to which she replied today:

Hi Chris,

Ah, splendid. It seems the Truth Will Out Campaign is getting its message across to the public, if not the medical profession. In this case, the patient was fortunately more clued-up about the medication than the Doctor. Scary, that, isn’t it?

Nicotine: The Drug That Never Was (Volume II: A Change of Mind) is available now as an ebook, a pdf or a paperback. The Nicotine Myth is doomed, it is only a matter of time now.

the hypnotherapy option