Over time, you gradually taper off the amount of nicotine you absorb until you eventually cease all nicotine products
"I was just numbing, numbing, numbing myself and then sleeping it off and then getting on stage, killing it in pain, then getting off and smoking, smoking, smoking, not knowing what the pain was." When she felt better, Gaga, with the help of her friend Marina Abramovic, went cold turkey
Nearer our own time T.S.Eliot, Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin, and of course dear Beryl Bainbridge who famously didn't follow her mother's example of only smoking two Craven As at Christmas
Yet, theres another question lurking in the backgroundhow does smoking affect cholesterol