Hello world.
My name is Kira, and this is the tale of how I attempted, after 25 years as a very heavy smoker, to quit cigarettes.
Of course we all know that giving up cigarettes is no mean feat. There are the cravings, and the withdrawal, and the constant, often futile wrestling matches between temptation and an ever-more-bruised sense of willpower.
And there aren't really any obvious happy ever afters are there? Or am I missing something? People put on weight, become smug, or they become really annoying buzzkills at parties, having inevitably transformed into a very vocal ex-smoker who's now an anti-smoker. Or worse still, they spend the rest of their lives wistfully staring at other smokers, wishing they could have just one more puff, haunted by reminders of their own volitional deprivation.
Of course your health probably improves as a non-smoker I guess. So there's that.
And just say one wanted to quit nicotine for good, after several failed attempts, well, how exactly would one go about it?
You see, the way of nicotine replacement therapies is not for me. I have tried patches and gums and lozenges, and all manner of nicotine replacements in the past, and while these are wonderful options for some, in my experience, long-term, these all had a fundamental flaw. Namely, they are pseudo-panaceas that simply transition a person from cigarette addiction to nicotine gum addiction. In my experience, in the end, I had never successfully managed to wean myself off of them, and so I remained in nicotine's thrall. And what was the point of that?
In using nicotine replacement therapies to quit smoking, my nicotine receptors were kept alive and kicking. This time, I wanted them to atrophy, and get the heck out of the driving seat.
I wondered if there was a way to make the process a little bit easier? Bear with me, but what if, instead of having to wrestle with nicotine withdrawal and to somehow make it through those first few days without a cigarette through sheer force of will, what if I were to simultaneously give up something far more fundamental and difficult? Perhaps then, depriving myself of this other thing would serve as kind of a distraction from the agony of those first hours of resisting the urge to smoke? So I came up with what I thought was a novel solution. What if I were to give up food at the same time?
Being something of a nerd, and having done a lot of research on the science of fasting, nutrition, and metabolic pathways several years ago, I was well aware of the research around fasting. This was also assisted by the fact that since 2016 I had been in the digital nomad + e-commerce space. For while fasting and the research into it was not simply a tech bro, or Silicon Valley fad, it certainly was one of The Hot "biohacking" topics of the two thousand and teens. But research into fasting was also published in our most prestigous journals. In fact it was in 2016 that Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research into the mechanism of autophagy, which is an incredible process that occurs during fasting. The research I had done in the space stayed with me, and it posed an intriguing possibility for emphatically breaking the nicotine chain.
Important to note, I'm not suggesting that anyone who wishes to quit smoking should empty their fridges and commit to an extended fast, don't do what I do, consult your doctor, etc etc.
For me, there were at least two problems with this plan to use fasting as a tool to break the cycle of addiction.
One was the fact that I am the proud housemate and caretaker of a highly intelligent and hugely energetic dog, who would need my attention and energy no matter what. And two, I also had a full-time job, which was, let's just say, more than a little demanding.
Enter the work of Dr Walter Longo, one of the leading figures in the popularisation of fasting research and co-formulator of something that he called the "fasting mimicking diet", a five day program which 'tricks' the body into thinking that it's fasting, even while you are consuming calories.
The program involves consuming pre-packaged meals and snacks designed to provide a precise ratio of macronutrients. The idea is that these meals will help the body enter a fasting-like state, triggering a cascade of cellular processes that are normally only seen during a water-only fast. This includes autophagy, the body's natural process of cleaning out damaged cells. But positive effects were also seen on other biomarkers such as C-reactive protein levels, triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose and blood glucose. The fasting mimicking diet was also shown to lead to a reduction in inflammation and to boost stem cell production. Not bad byproducts of a determined attempt to quit cigarettes eh?
Prolon might be just what I needed. I would derive many of these benefits of a water fast, but hopefully, with the admittedly scant caloric intake of Prolon, I would still be able to function at a bare minimum level, in order to honour my responsibilities. And surely, I thought, if my body is in a fasting state, and thinks that it is hungry, then it will not even notice that its hourly supply of nicotine has also disappeared?
I was decided. It seemed perfect. I was ready to embark on the journey, and eagerly awaited the delivery of the pre-packaged food to arrive from neighbouring Italy. And sure enough, one week or so after ordering, the five days of Prolon Fasting Mimicking Diet arrived, in rather nicely designed packaging. All that remained was to screw my resolve to its sticking place, and to pick a bloody day.