By Allan D. Lieberman, M.D., F.A.A.E.M.   You know you should stop smoking, and perhaps more correctly stated you have to stop smoking. But, in truth, you know it’s not as easy as you have tried too many times before.   There were at first antidepressants and tranquilizers, then nicotine replacements like patches or gum, or going cold turkey. They obviously didn’t work too well, as you are still smoking. But wait, the FDA has just approved another option–a drug that targets areas of the brain that are affected by nicotine, easing withdrawal and blocking effects of inhaled smoke. Side effects include nausea, headaches and constipation, and it has a success rate of about 20 percent. If this doesn’t sound so great either, I have a better offer for you and one that has shown an 87 percent success rate with no side effects.   As you may know, addiction is allergy and allergy is addiction. So in treating your addiction to tobacco, you and the other 44 million smokers might be more successful if you were treated just like you had hay fever to trees and weeds. Twenty-eight years of doing just that in our office has demonstrated success in more than 4 out of 5 smokers, not the 1 in 5 tested for the new, soon-to- be-released drug that must be taken for 12 weeks.   Since one size doesn’t fit all, you will be tested with varying concentrations of whole leaf tobacco extract placed intradermally on the skin of your arm. When the dose that turns off your craving is found, an extract will be made for you to take as a drop under your tongue and used instead of the cigarette. We also recommend alkalizing your blood with a buffering solution of sodium and potassium bicarbonate that will slow down the drop in the level of nicotine in your body. That’s it for the addiction part, but there is one more thing to do for habituation. Most people go back to smoking because they don’t know what to do with their hands (always reaching for that cigarette). Putting a dummy cigarette in your hand for just a few weeks will take care of that. You know you have to stop smoking both for your sake and for your family’s sake. Perhaps you could be among the 87 percent of patients who have succeeded, in using the Smoking Cessation Program at The Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine (COEM). We serve patients from Charleston, Mt. Pleasant, Summerville, all of South Carolina, Nationally, and Internationally. Patients routinely fly into Charleston to be evaluated by COEM and to enjoy this beautiful city which is a Condé Nast and Travel and Leisure Top Domestic and International Tourist Destination.