Blood test key to help kick cigs

The rate at which a smoker’s blood breaks down nicotine could hold the secret to the best treatment they can receive if they want to kick the habit, researchers have found.

A report in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine Journal suggests people who process nicotine at a normal rate are better off to use drug treatment to wean themselves off cigarettes while, “slow” metabolisers of the substance could have the same results with patches, without the need for the drugs.

Professor Caryn Lerman of the University of Pennsylvania, who co-led the study, said as many as 65% of smokers who try to quit relapse within the first week.