It's important to understand that stopping is not simply about willpower or determination (qualities that Obama personifies). Smoking is an addictive behaviour and to quit you need to overcome the addiction and learn new behaviour. On the addiction front, Obama uses Nicorette gum. He even handed some out to someone in the crowd who said they were trying to quit. But many quitters use it only when they have a craving. That isn't going to work. You need to chew the gum of the right strength as directed, using up to 15 pieces a day. There are dozens of randomised controlled trials showing that if nicotine replacement is used properly, you double your chances of quitting successfully.

Obama also seems to have got it right when he says “you need to eliminate connections”. In other words, if you always smoke after a meal, while on the phone or with a cup of coffee, you need to find something to distract yourself at these times. Exercise - Obama spends an hour a day in the gym - helps, as does the support of those around you. Hopefully, the non-smoking Michelle Obama will be firm but fair. He will just have to make sure that he doesn't hang out too much with secret-service men who smoke.

Whether Obama's efforts are successful or not may ultimately depend on his motivation for giving up. If he is just quitting to save himself from embarrassing photos having a crafty one behind the White House bike shed, he might not succeed. He needs to really want to give up: for financial reasons (unlikely), for the sake of those around him, or for his health. There's one very effective way of providing a health motivation for giving up: ask your doctor for a lung function test and get him or her to estimate your lung age and how smoking might have affected it. A trial published in the BMJ earlier this year showed smokers were twice as likely to give up when confronted with the dramatic evidence of lung damage that this test provides.

We Britons do have one big advantage. The NHS. You are four times more likely to quit if you have support such as that provided by NHS clinics. And while Obama doesn't have access to these, there's the free NHS smoking helpline, 0800 0224332, open seven days a week, 7am to 11pm, or www.smokefree.nhs.uk. where he could also record a promise to the American nation, along with the date of the inauguration as his start date. Yes, he can.

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