Worldwide, nicotine is the substance most people are addicted to. Tobacco use is the cause of six million deaths annually. In other words, every five seconds someone dies from diseases that are the result of smoking cigarettes.

If this trend continues, this number will rise to eight million deaths annually by the year 2030.
Every single person that was or still is addicted to cigarettes, knows how difficult it is to quit smoking.

The desire to quit could be present, but the actual method to do it gets many people stuck. Nicotine plasters, gum, acupuncture, E-cigarettes and self motivation books, can often result in spent money, and not much more.

Saying no to cigarettes is so much easier said than done. Sometimes it even feels  as if the salesmen who are promoting their quitting smoking products want you to fail and keep smoking because selling products and making money is their priority over health.

What if this article can provide you a method to help you quit smoking without spending money? It sounds almost like a cheeky sales line. But it can’t be sold since it is already in your possession. ‘Your own body‘.  This method is only for women since it uses our monthly menstrual cycle.

The study ‘Influence of menstrual cycle phase on resting-state functional connectivity in naturally cycling, cigarette-dependent women’ was published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences. It was conducted by Reagan R. Wetherill and colleagues at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

38 healthy women between the age of 21 and 51 were being used as test subjects.

They were divided in two groups. The first group consisted of 22 participants who were in the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle, while the remaining 16 participants were in the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle.

“Understanding how menstrual cycle phase affects neural processes, cognition and behavior is a critical step in developing more effective treatments and in selecting the best, most individualized treatment options to help each cigarette smoker quit,”

The results show, that women have the biggest chance to relapse when they attempt to quit smoking  in the follicular phase, probably due to dopamine-related processes which can trigger cravings.

So the best time to quit is in the Luteal phase.

When their progesterone levels are the highest, this hormone suppresses the urge of the addiction. This will be approximately a week before you start to menstruate.

Everyone is different and will produce different effects. If you have the sheer will to quit for your body’s sake, the process can be easier when you have the right support around you.

The power lies within you, mentally and physically; you can do it!