Research reveals genetic obstacle to easy smoking cessation

For some people, giving up a cigarette habit is as simple as throwing away the packet and never buying another. For many others though, it's a much harder task.

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world turn to various methods of boosting willpower like stop smoking hypnotherapy to fight their addiction to nicotine. The aid that these methods give is inarguably vital to many but until now, it has been very uncertain just what it is that makes smoking so hard for some people to quit and so much easier for others.

Now though, new research has revealed that three specific gene variants could play a huge part in how much someone needs a hand to stop smoking.

Three different studies published in the journal Nature Genetics reveal that depending on the specific mutation of these common genes, people who smoke could be more likely to smoke more cigarettes a day, to take up smoking as a habit or to find it harder to quit.

These genes effectively influence the individuals relationship to possible nicotine addiction and could be used in future to identify which smokers are more at risk than the average from their habit, as well as which smokers may need help such as stop smoking hypnotherapy to give up their destructive addiction.