The new year is just less than two months away, and here is yet another chance for you to make good on 2008’s New Year’s resolution - to quit smoking and start on a more healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, a look at your recent resolution history shows some rather startling results - you hardly kept to your resolution and returned to your two-pack-a-day habit in less than a week. While you have sought help from all manner of sources, none have been successful in helping you kick the habit, and you’re just about to give up. I say keep the faith and fight the good fight - scientists are currently working on a shot that robs smokers of the nicotine buzz they so enjoy, making this a potentially new method to quit smoking. A recent study has shown that this ain’t no phony experiment or claim as more than twice as many people give five of such shots stopped smoking compared to those given fewer or placebo shots.

The results of these injections show that it is able to hold its own against other smoking cessation aids, and gives hope to folks who have virtually tried everything else in the past and failed to overcome their habit. This so-called smoking “vaccine” aims to immunize smokers against the rush that fuels their addiction, and with it, helping them give up this habit without too much hassle. While some nicotine still enters the system, it does so in order to ease the withdrawal period.

It is said that initial shots “prime” the immune system, while later doses make it produce antibodies that latch onto nicotine in the bloodstream and keep it from crossing the blood-brain barrier and maintaining the addiction. It isn’t some sort of overnight success story for those who are looking for a quick fix - it takes approximately half a year for results to show.

Source: WIRED