Today’s Solutions: December 20, 2025

Kicking their cigarette habits for good represents a real challenge for many people. While most adult smokers admit they want to quit, about half of those who try to stop relapse within two weeks. There are many approaches that people use to cease smoking like nicotine gum or behavioral therapy, but most of them fail to treat the actual addiction. Now, a recent study has shown that there may be a novel option when it comes to giving up cigarettes. The findings suggested that smokers may find cigarettes easier to resist when they smell things they enjoy like peppermint or chocolate. The researchers recruited 232 smokers who were asked to smell and rate a number of different odors generally considered to be pleasant (like chocolate, vanilla, or lemon) as well as one unpleasant chemical odor, tobacco from the participant’s preferred brand of cigarettes and one blank (no odor). They were asked then to light a cigarette and hold it in their hands, but not smoke it. After 10 seconds, the participants verbally rated their urge to smoke on a scale of 1 to 100 before putting out the cigarette. The average craving score just after lighting the cigarette was 82.13. However, with a pleasant odor, craving scores dropped almost double than those with a tobacco odor or with the blank. While it’s premature to make any solid conclusions, the results are intriguing and support the need to further investigate why and for whom olfactory cues might be effective.

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

Try this simple breathing exercise to rid yourself of cold hands and feet

Do you often find that your hands and feet are colder than the rest of your body? This can be perplexing, especially when gloves ...

Read More

Roman jars reveal the secrets of ancient winemaking

Archaeologists are still putting the full story of human history together. From the discovery of a Viking shipyard in Sweden to the Sistine Chapel ...

Read More

Cancer detection breakthrough revealed via butterfly-inspired imaging

In the world of sensory perception, other creatures frequently outperform humans. A research team has created an imaging sensor that looks into the elusive ultraviolet ...

Read More

Advancements in vision restoration: CRISPR gives hope to patients 

In a revolutionary development, CRISPR gene editing emerged as a beacon of hope for people suffering from genetic blindness. The results of a Phase ...

Read More