Star editor reveals struggle to kick the smoking habit

Radio Africa Group Digital Editor Oliver Mathenge has revealed his long struggle to quit smoking, which has now seen him resort to using a nicotine patch in a bid to finally kick the habit.

Mathenge, who also writes for the Star newspaper, said on his Instagram page that he has tried other means in the past, including using a nicorrete gum, to no avail.

While many wished him the best, media personality Tina Kaggia, a former colleague at Radio Africa, was quick to warn him that with a nicotine patch it is all about one’s mental strength than anything.

“@olivermathenge with the patch it is more mental than anything. I wish you all the best my dear,” she wrote.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgqMPbPnrq-/?hl=en&taken-by=olivermathenge

According to Wikipedia, a nicotine patch is a transdermal patch that releases nicotine into the body through the skin. It is used as an aid in nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), a process for smoking cessation.

Dozens of clinical trials have shown that the patch approximately doubles success rates over placebo treatment. Placebo tests show a 5.9% success rate, in comparison to the 7.2% blind active tests, and the 10.8% open tests.

A placebo is a substance or treatment with no active therapeutic effect, which may be given to a person in order to deceive the recipient into thinking that it is an active treatment.

One of those who reacted to his revelation said they went for cold turkey ( stopping a habit completely at once) and succeeded.

If the nicotine patch fails (hopefully it won’t), Mathenge could perhaps seek out Nation Media Group Executive Editor Mutuma Mathiu, a former chain smoker who says he has never touched a cigarette for 10 years for help.

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“…it is easier to take a decision not to smoke than to take a decision to stop smoking. One is a small, simple decision, the other is a tall mountain. If you are a smoker fighting to quit, here is a trick to use: Buy a packet of your favourite cigarettes and a lighter, and put them in a conspicuous place where you can see both of them all the time. Then tell yourself, I will not smoke those cigarettes, no matter how I feel. You will be surprised at how easy it is,” Mathiu wrote in his weekly column in the Daily Nation in June last year.