The increase of cigarette prices is a great incentive for smokers to quit, according to new research. As prices rise, it becomes cheaper to switch to other options, such as drugs instead.

Being a smoker in Chicago, for example, can easily run $ 300 a month, researchers said. This is more than twice the cost of monthly medicine to help smokers quit. However, just because it is cheaper does not mean that it’s easy.

“Nicotine is really that addictive. This is a difficult battle, but one that we will win, including the rising cost of cigarettes through taxes, results in individual smokers at a crucial moment when pain overcomes the joys of smoking nicotine, and they go,” Dr. River Philip McAndrew, an internal medicine doctor and occupational health experts at Loyola University Health System, told HealthDay. “The tipping point can be life-changing experience of health, but most often it affects your wallet, which makes people not think about leaving.”

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Smoking kills more than 400,000 people a year, about 1,200 daily and earlier smokers start smoking more likely they are to die from smoking-related diseases. More than 80 percent of smokers begin smoking before the age of 18 and 99 percent at the beginning of 26 years.

Smoking can cause many health problems including stroke, heart disease, chronic lung problems, and various types of cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking costs the U.S. $ 96 billion in medical costs and $ 97 billion in lost productivity every year.

Like Us on Facebook “To quit you need the time and teamwork approach. Don’t expect to do it overnight and you need a team of support around you to cheer you on. That team captain should be your physician,” he said. “Nicotine is a very strong opponent to someone alone. You have this team to help keep you on track when everything within you wants to come back.”