Nicotine Replacement

Leonardo DiCaprio has revealed that he is struggling to stop smokiing.

The Shutter Island actor admitted that he has tried using nicotine replacement  patches, but they have caused him severe sleep problems as part of way to overcome the urge to smoke.

"When I use  nicotine replacement patches I have blood curdling nightmares of murder. Mass murders," Contactmusic quotes his as saying.

"I wake up in the middle of the night and have to take them off. I don't really remember my dreams that much apart from then. I don't know what that means about me from a psychological point of view but that's the truth."

DiCaprio recently revealed that he spends time with his friends as "therapy" to find freedom from smoking.

Shutter Island opens in the US on February 19 and in UK cinemas on March 12.

... but I'm still addicted to nicotine

Are you worried about the possible nicotine side effects from your addiction?

Surprisingly you may be addicted to a recognizable brand name nicotine replacement chewing gum.

That addiction may be harder to give up than when you were physically smoking cigarettes.

Are you desperate to give it up before the dangers of nicotine does any further damage to your health?

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) can be somewhat of a mixed blessing.

Perhaps someone you know who has quit smoking by chewing nicotine gum has encouraged or even badgered you to try NRT...maybe even your doctor.

How easy it seems, but if it is so easy why are so many ex smokers chewing nicotine gum ... some for over Ten (10) years since they stopped smoking cigarettes.

Nicotine is a highly addictive drug. It doesn't take people long to feel the biological effects. The brain receptors respond to substances such as nicotine and they very quickly want more.

It is one of the most addictive substances and we know that nicotine side effects are not only a danger of smoking. 

But how many smokers that quit smoking have actually swapped one nicotine addiction for another?

If you are looking for effective way to stop cravings, the urge to smoke and withdrawal symptoms from tobacco-delivered nicotine-dependence yu will be happy to know that there are some terrific nicotine free non addictive products available. Many of these products made from natural ingredients.

Some of these alternatives to NRT’s even contain dark chocolate which has been proven in clinical studies to increase cardiac function and arterial blood flow in smokers.

Take your time and look for what will work for you to take away your addiction.

Lobelia is one of several herbs with a traditional reputation for helping people quit smoking. Lobeline is an active alkaloid contained in Lobelia. This powerful herb helps to calm the mind and relax the body. It has helped many people to control their cravings for nicotine. Lobelia is also reputed to have the effect of making cigarettes taste very bad.

These herbs exert varying effects that will ease the process of smoking cessation. Lobelia extracts have been combined with other natural extracts like theobrominium and cacao in order to improve arterial blood flow and enhance the ability to ward off tobacco and cigarette cravings during times of nicotine withdrawal.

(AP) – 1 day ago

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Reynolds American Inc., maker of Camel cigarettes, is in talks to buy a Swedish company that develops and markets nicotine replacement  products helps people quit smoking, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting online Monday that the second-largest U.S. tobacco company is eyeing Niconovum AB, which sells such nicotine-replacement products as stop smoking gum and stop smoking spray outside the U.S.

David Sweanor, a Canadian law professor and tobacco expert, said he was briefed by people close to the talks and the deal could be worth $44.5 million, according to the report.

Karl Olov Fagerstrom, an expert on smoking cessation and nicotine dependence, formed the company in 2000, according to its Web site.

Sweanor and Niconovum did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Reynolds American spokesman David Howard declined to comment, calling the report speculation.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Common Nicotine Gum Use Adversities

Common complaints among long-term nicotine replacement gum users (one year or greater) include: nicotine addiction and with intense gum cravings realted to nicotine withdrawal, anxiety, irritability, dizziness, headaches, nervousness, hiccups, ringing in the ears, chronic depression, headaches, heart burn, elevated blood pressure, a rapid or irregular heartbeat, sleep disruption, tiredness, a lack of motivation, a heavy feeling, recessed, bleeding and diseased gums, diminished sense of taste, tooth enamel damage, tooth loss, jaw-joint pain and damage (TMJ), canker sores with white patches on the tongue or mouth, bad breath, dry mouth, sore or irritated throat, difficulty swallowing, swollen glands, bronchitis, stomach problems and pain, gastritis, severe bloating, belching, achy muscles and joints, pins and needles in arms and hands, uncontrollable foul smelling gas that lingers, a lack of energy, loss of sex drive, acid reflux, stomach ulcers, fecal impaction from dehydration, scalp tingling, hair loss, acne, facial reddening, chronic skin rashes and concerns about immune system suppression. All this means is that nicotine withdrawal is associated with nicotine replacement making NRT less than a best stop smoking aid because of nicotine's side effects.

Other Health Concerns

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration is not blind. It has seen industry commercials and knows that nicotine gum is addictive and that nicotine withdrawal is a problem encountered by long time users of nicotine replace as a stop smoking alternative. It is being marketed as both a great tasting supplement to smoking and a permanent stand-alone harm reduction solution. Sadly, this is being done without any meaningful long-term research regarding the consequences of long-term NRT use or the influence of harm reduction marketing in fostering youth nicotine addiction. In the initial clinical studies supporting FDA approval it was never intended for these uses. As a matter of fact during the 13 week trials regular gum shown to have a 60% placebo effect in subjects enrolled in the study.

Recent studies raise a host of use concerns as smoking alternative because of nicotine side effects that most users will not notice until it’s too late. Researchers are concerned that nicotine is a super toxin that appears to destroy brain gray matter, prevent unhealthy cells throughout the body from dying natural deaths (apoptosis), promotes lung, breast and pancreatic cancer, hinders bone healing, induces angiogenesis which causes plaque build-up within arteries to harden, and that it accelerates tumor growth rates.

Better to try a more natural smoking alternative when you have the urge to smoke.

FDA NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: July 22, 2009

FDA and Public Health Experts Warn About Electronic Cigarettes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that a laboratory analysis of electronic cigarette samples has found that they contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals such as diethylene glycol, an ingredient used in antifreeze.

Electronic cigarettes, also called “e-cigarettes,” are battery-operated devices that generally contain cartridges filled with nicotine, flavor and other chemicals. The electronic cigarette turns nicotine, which is highly addictive, and other chemicals into a vapor that is inhaled by the user.

These products are marketed and sold to young people and are readily available online and in shopping malls. In addition, these products do not contain any health warnings comparable to FDA-approved nicotine replacement products or conventional cigarettes. They are also available in different flavors, such as chocolate and mint, which may appeal to young people.

Public health experts expressed concern that electronic cigarettes could increase nicotine addiction and tobacco use in young people. Jonathan Winickoff, M.D., chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium and Jonathan Samet, M.D., director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Southern California, joined Joshua Sharfstein, M.D., principal deputy commissioner of the FDA, and Matthew McKenna, M.D., director of the Office of Smoking and Health for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to discuss the potential risks associated with the use of electronic cigarettes.

“The FDA is concerned about the safety of these products and how they are marketed to the public,” said Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., commissioner of food and drugs.

Because these products have not been submitted to the FDA for evaluation or approval, at this time the agency has no way of knowing, except for the limited testing it has performed, the levels of nicotine or the amounts or kinds of other chemicals that the various brands of these products deliver to the user.

The FDA’s Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis analyzed the ingredients in a small sample of cartridges from two leading brands of electronic cigarettes. In one sample, the FDA’s analyses detected diethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze that is toxic to humans, and in several other samples, the FDA analyses detected carcinogens, including nitrosamines. These tests indicate that these products contained detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals to which users could potentially be exposed.

The FDA has been examining and detaining shipments of e-cigarettes at the border and the products it has examined thus far meet the definition of a combination drug-device product under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The FDA has been challenged regarding its jurisdiction over certain e-cigarettes in a case currently pending in federal district court. The agency is also planning additional activities to address its concerns about these products.

Health care professionals and consumers may report serious adverse events (side effects) or product quality problems with the use of e-cigarettes to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program either online, by regular mail, fax or phone.

• Online: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/default.htm
• Regular Mail: use postage-paid FDA form 3500 available at: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/HowToReport/DownloadForms/default.htm and mail to MedWatch, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852-9787
• Fax: (800) FDA-0178
• Phone: (800) FDA-1088

·         Media Inquiries: Siobhan DeLancey, 301-796-4668, siobhan.delancey@fda.hhs.gov 
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

Researchers say that there is no doubt that nicotine gum, nicotine lozenges are products to quit smoking but would you use them as part of your stop smoking program if you knew they could cause oral cancers.

Now new genetic research from the U.K.'s Medical Research Council suggests that nicotine-replacement drugs like nicotine gum and lozenges when used to stop smoking could raise the risk of mouth cancer, Medical News Today reported on April 26.

Researcher Muy-Teck Teh of the Institute of Dentistry, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University London said that nicotine appears to increase expression of the gene FOXM1 in the mouth; increased levels of the gene is known to be associated with some forms of cancer.

 "Our study found that FOXM1 was enhanced during the early progressive stages of mouth cancer. This means if someone has increased levels of FOXM1 in their mouth, it could indicate the early stages of mouth cancer," said Teh. "We were surprised to find that nicotine increased the levels of FOXM1 in the cells. We used the same amount of nicotine found in nicotine  replacement therapies such as chewing gums and the amount was enough to activate the gene."

Most mouth cancers are caused by smoking, chewing tobacco, and/or drinking alcohol. Although several recent studies seem to confirm nicotine is mutagenic, it has not previously been considered to be a carcinogen.

"Although we acknowledge the importance of encouraging people to quit smoking, our research suggests nicotine found in lozenges and chewing gums may increase the risk of mouth cancer," Teh said.

This research published online in the journal PLos One may cause those smokers seeking the best way to to quit smoking to look for more natural stop smoking alternatives which are easily found by searching the internet.

Tobacco retailers should be required by their local boards of health to post accurate warnings to smokers as well as smokers seeking to quit smoking. These warnings must truthfully inform all tobacco consumers as well as those seeking to quit smoking that smoke free tobacco/nicotine products are far less hazardous alternatives than cigarettes, and that switching to low tar low nicotine cigarettes doesn’t significantly reduce the risks of smoking. Even those so called nicotine replacement therapies (NRT’s) like nicotine gum, lozenges and patches can be dangerous in the long run because the nicotine in tobacco is mutagenic and it is equally as bad for the heart because nicotine constricts blood vessels.

Smoke free tobacco/nicotine products do not reduce health risks nearly as much as stopping smoking and quitting all tobacco/nicotine use. With millions of smokers having already significantly reduced their health risks by quitting smoking,  the switch to pharmaceuticals like Zyban and Chantix must be done with extreme caution (See FDA Black Box Warnings).

Smoke free tobacco/nicotine and pharmaceutical products do not absolutely reduce the risk from smoking and may do more harm than good.

Unfortunately, many local boards of health have yet to acknowledge or inform any heavily addicted smokers that smoke free tobacco products are hazardous and the switch to harm reduction alternatives to cigarettes.

Blog Food 6 2 2009

You want to quit smoking, or cut back on using tobacco, or maybe you don’t want to quit at all. Sometimes you just want an alternative to cigarettes and tobacco products when you want to smoke but just can’t light up.

Everyone tells you about nicotine gum and nicotine patches and how easy it is to quit … Well, there are all forms of nicotine replacement therapies that are advertised all over television and before you give in to replacing one form of nicotine for another give this some consideration. As unbelievable as it seems, addiction to those so called aids to quitting smoking like nicotine gum and nicotine patch addiction is for real!

Lots and lots of former smokers who quit smoking using gum and patches are still addicted to nicotine. Those smokers who may have quit using nicotine patches or other form of nicotine replacement therapies often report being unable to come off the patches or gum. Their nicotine addiction has continued on for many more months or even years after the gave up smoking. This much more than is told by epharmaceutical company's guide literature and goes unreported as required in their post marketing reporting to the FDA. They would say those numbers are not significant. Hog wash, not significant to who? What about those that have heart problems and other mutagenic problems that can be tracked back to nicotine.

So if your quitting smoking, thinking about cutting, or just not interesting in stopping smoking at all there are alternatives to nicotine that are natural, great tasting with significant success rates like smokerZchoice which gives you the freedom to decide what you want to do with out replacing one addiction with another.

Of course the decisions are yours as are the choices. Find the best product for what you need and you’ll find the right answer.

I guess I thought it was cool back then.  After all all the cool guys were smoking.

But after 25 years of smoking and after many attempts I was able to break the smoking habit. I guess I tried to quit smoking a thousand times. In 1984, (the last year I smoked a cigarette) I developed a product to help others to quit smoking based on my personal experiences. The product included a fairly comprehensive behavior modification program that was self paced and self administered. It also included a non nicotine approved pharmaceutical medication called lobeline sulfate. I chose lobeline because In comparative studies lobeline compared favorably to nicotine in its ability to alleviate withdraws symptoms. When combined with the behavior modification program the entire lobeline based product had an overall 20% success rate. Nicotine replacement therapies had 22%.  Is that a statistically significant difference ..who knows?

That was years ago. And the major pharmaceutical company sponsoring nicotine replacement therapy were not interested in the Public Health Services mandate to reduce cigarette and tobacco consumption. GEEZ, I thought we were all in it together. Getting people to stop smoking or cut down that’s what I thought it was all about. . I know. I was naïve. How stupid of me. I contacted them altruistically with good intentions. That wanted to put me out of business and did their damndest to do it. Believe me when I tell you they had me on the ropes. These Big Pharma guys only wanted to dominate the market  and put big profits on the bottom line.  Let the consumer (that smoker trying to quit that is) be damned. That was and still is their marching orders and they could care less about the smokers quitting smoking if they weren’t buying their products.

My contention is best not to use nicotine. That is up to you to decide. You can choose to believe the advertising message they are pitching about nicotine gum or nicotine patches or you can choose for yourself.

 All of my products are botanically derived and contain no nicotine. I think there is real health benefit in avoiding nicotine. Using nicotine to break a nicotine addiction flies in face of logic and besides that the underlying science speaks for itself.

Since then, I've been working on other non-nicotine alternative tobacco products because I have seen the studies and I know nicotine is dangerous, toxic, and mutagenic. I think my all natural botanical solution is better. I believe in it so much I am giving away free samples. Not little tiny samples but full size samples of the same product you would pay $29.95 in a store or online. There is no sign up, no credit card, no postage fees to pay.

I have business and I am a business man.  I want to sell my products too. But I don’t believe customers are sheep. I believe in what I sell and I know that if you like the sample you’ll use it and buy it and if you don’t you let me know

So If you want quit smoking, cut back on smoking or keep on smoking that’s your choice. Give smokerZchoice a try.

What have you got to lose?  It’s on me.

Go to www.smokerzchoice.com and choose for yourself.