Now if I had a dollar for every time I have heard that question, I would be a rich man. "Does Nicotine Gum Work?". It really depends what you mean by that question.

If it means "Will Nicotine Gum Help Me Stop Cigarettes", then the short answer would be yes. A cigarette is nothing more than a very efficient nicotine delivery system, and a piece of nicotine chewing gum does the same thing, albeit poorly compared to the cigarette.

So assuming you are able to overcome the physical habit of smoking, i.e. lighting the cigarette, holding the cigarette a certain way, keeping your hands busy, distracting you, whatever it is, the nicotine gum will help you control your cravings.

The problem is that while you may have cut out the more physically dangerous aspects of smoking, the tar, the 4,000 chemicals, the burning smoke entering your lungs, you are just as addicted as you were before, only now you are addicted to nicotine gum.

Remember, nicotine is a VERY ADDICTIVE DRUG, being addicted to it is a disease, and its a disease YOU HAVE GOT.

So while nicotine chewing gum may help you stop consuming cigarettes, it will not help you get rid of your nicotine addiction. That's a battle you will have to face on your own, just as if you had stopped smoking cold turkey.

The sad reality is that the one-year success rate for people who quit smoking tobacco using nicotine gum is, according to long-term studies, less than 10%.

That means that for every 10 people who quit smoking using gum, in less than a year, 9 of them will be back smoking tobacco.

The problem with nicotine gum, and that goes for nicotine patches as well, is that they are a very inefficient way of ingesting nicotine. As dangerous as it is, a cigarette is BY FAR the better nicotine delivery system.

So while you may stop - for a while - smoking cigarettes (or any tobacco) using nicotine gum, as long as you keep feeding your nicotine addiction, you will NEVER BE FREE.