When considering the occasion of past Great American SmokeOuts, my thoughts turn to the challenges of quitting smoking and my heart goes out to those who struggle with nicotine withdrawal and freedom from smoking. I know because I quit smoking a thousand times.

By now we all know there are personal health reasons to stop, and about the dangers of second hand smoke.

Sometimes it helps to look past the personal, to see ourselves and our actions in a larger context. Here are a few facts that go beyond the nasty pictures of scarred lungs, that may give even the most dedicated smoker pause to consider stop smoking alternatives and their choices otherwise. For example:

Not Smoking Alone: Think smoking is on the way out? The World Health Organization says there are 1 billion smokers in the world. The tobacco industry is thriving despite efforts to regulate it.

Suffering Farmers: In addition to the health hazards for smokers, there are substantial health risks for tobacco farm workers, from inhalation of pesticides and tobacco dust and from "Green Tobacco Sickness" caused by handling the plant's wet leaves.

Crime Spree: Cigarettes are the world’s most widely smuggled legal consumer product. In 2006, about 600 billion smuggled cigarettes were sold.

Emitting Pesticides: As much as ten percent of the pesticide applied to the tobacco crop can appear in the secondhand smoke and side stream smoke. The tobacco industry uses some 25 million pounds of pesticides a year. This means over 2 million pounds of pesticides in the air around us.

How Much Is That Professor in the Window? Tobacco companies fund university and lab researchers to study the effects of everything from stop smoking products to tobacco advertising to cancer drugs. Do you feel comfortable that results will be unaffected by the hand signing the check?

Hard on the Land: Pesticide and fertilizer runoff contaminate water resources, and the curing of tobacco leaf with wood fuel leads to massive deforestation. An often-cited, in-depth study shows that an estimated 200,000 hectares (about 772 square miles) of forest/woodland is lost to tobacco farming each year.

They Want Our Kids: Advertisers use Hollywood movies to target children and youth around the world to glamorize smoking, forget any quit smoking images you would like to see.

Women Are Being Used! Doctor Thomas Glynn of the American Cancer Society notes the targeting of women by tobacco companies in an interview with Voice of America: "As an example, in China, about 4… 5… 6 percent of women across China are using tobacco," he says. "But yet in places like Shanghai where tobacco companies are focusing, we are starting to see figures like 20 or 25 percent."

You Wanna Smoke or Eat? Tobacco replaces potential food production on almost 4 million hectares of the world’s agricultural land, equal to all of the world’s orange groves or banana plantations.

Quitting smoking is tough, but by rejecting an industry that is harming people and planet in the name of profit, you will be contributing to a healthier you and to a healthier world.  Good luck to all the potential ex-smokers out there….you can do it! Whether you quit smoking or cut back on the amount of cigarettes you smoke …. the effort is worth the fight.

... 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.

It's tough to be a hard-core chain-smoker these days. And it's not necessarily the dangers of smoking or secondhand smoke that are leading that charge

Half of the U.S. population could care less about the consequences of smoking but are more interested in when and where they can light up because they live in areas where smoking is banned in workplaces, bars and restaurants.

More than 70% of Americans don't allow smoking in their homes, including about half of current smokers.

So forget your urge to smoke, that nicotine withdrawal, or quit smoking cravings the rules for finding your freedom from smoking have changed.

...and the government and big Pharma took it away!
 

Several years ago, I developed a smoking cessation program and offered it for FREE to the American Lung Association because I felt that we are all in smoking cessation for the same reasons. My incorporated these same goals as American Lung Association’s.  It was based on the idea that smokers trying to quit smoking were informed and prepared for the challenge and had a concrete plan of action were successful. 

Was I ever wrong? The American Lung Association was in bed with and getting big donations from Big Pharmaceutical who basically wanted NO OTHER COMPANIES competing with them regardless of the public health mandate. It didn’t matter that they owned 90% market share for smoking cessation/stop smoking products. If you owned 1% and were helping people to quit smoking they wanted that 1% to buy their products,

Let’s face it smoking and quitting smoking is deeply ingrained in people’s daily activities. It’s hard for people to stop smoking. The physical withdrawal of the nicotine is hard for the smokers to deal with once nicotine withdrawal accompanies the urge to smoke. A smoker has to deal with the multitude of behaviors they associated with the smoking habit and nicotine addiction. 

Smokers trying to quit smoking have to learn what to do with their hands, what to do during breaks at work, how to fill the time at home when they usually smoked and how to handle social situations with friends.

The quitting process is difficult and that’s why the statistics show that it takes most smokers several tries before they are able to quit for good.

However the successful participants seemed to share several key factors:

• They were in the class for themselves vs. being there at the request of a family member.
• They could envision themselves as non-smokers.
• They stuck to the plan.
• They had the support of others to quit.  

My advice …

… Take your time and make sure your ready to quit smoking. Evaluate all products when deciding what might work for you. Don’t just pick the one advertised on TV. There are plenty of natural products available that work just as well as those Rx and OTC brands.

Quitting is a process just stick with it.

Did you crave a cigarette in church on Sunday? That urge to smoke doesn't make it a sin!

You don't have to smoke like your going to hell before you get to church. Nicotine Side effects and nicotine withdrawal? Why go through it just because there is so much pressure from the choir.

How sin free do you think they can be as they preach the virtues of freedom from smoking?

 

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.

If you ask any former smoker about “quitting smoking” they will probably tell you that it stopping smoking was one of the hardest things they have ever done because of the effects of nicotine  withdrawal.  November 19, 2009 marks the 34th American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout – a day for smokers to practice what life would be like without cigarettes.

The Great American Smokeout was developed to encourage smokers to stop using tobacco for one day, in hope that they would be inspired to quit altogether. 

The goal is to remind people that “tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the U.S.”  And that that they can reduce tobacco's harm by quitting smoking or even cutting back on the amount of cigarettes they smoke, and as smokers find freedom from smoking they can increase their life expectancy dramatically.  This fact is even more relevant today as the government debates about health care reform and encourages Americans to live a healthier lifestyle.

The Cancer Society also recognizes the addictive nature of the nicotine in tobacco, and there are many alternatice products to quit smoking. New natural products including dark chocolate based products can help smokers develop a plan that will help them to deal with smoking, cutting back on tobacco products or just plain putting their cigarettes away forever.

Remember when smoking was everywhere? There were blue plumes of cigarette smoke curling up inside movie theaters and over lunch counters. Remember restaurants where your parents would no more leave without having coffee and a cigarette to quelch that momentary nicotine withdrawal than slip out without a tip?

Remember how it felt to hold a cigarette? How it fit between your fingers just right? This made me think of when my father would take us to the woods to shoot his gun, to show us the right way to handle firearms and make sure we respected what they could do. I remember the way the gun felt in my hands, Smoking was cool and hip intensely powerful, seductive with no thought given to the consequences of smoking.

Today it is terrifying when you factor in the danger of smoking and secondhand smoke.

Today it is easy to join the crowd and become one of those annoying anti-smokers. The world has become annoyingly anti-smoking, too demanding our participation as "Freedom From Smoking Fighters. Once quit smoking cravings permeated our brains and inhaling secondhand smoke was a pleasure that couldn't hurt you. Today maybe it is more about being forced to live with other peoples mandates and not all about personal choice.

New laws forced office smokers to huddle under overhangs in the rain and banished restaurant smokers to patios, not that we anti-smokers didn't sigh about them, too. You could see patients standing outside hospitals hooked to IVs, getting their nicotine fixes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that while smoking rates have stayed steady in recent years — about 20 percent of us still puff away — states with smoke-free laws have the lowest rate of adult smokers. So maybe it's working. Me, I'm glad it's no longer a smoker's world and that we chide even the president for it, and not just because it leaves the rest of us with stinking clothes and hair.

Because here's the trick for the anti-smoker: How do you keep from sounding like you know what's best for the rest of the world? How do you explain that you might actually understand how tight the grip, how powerful the seduction, how personal the choice?

Do you want to quit for a moment? ...  or forever? If you haven't made up your mind give smokerzchoice a try. Right now you can get a sample for FREE. Go to www.smokerzchoice.com.

New evidence that dark chocolate helps ease emotional stress was just published in “Metabolic Effects of Dark Chocolate Consumption on Energy, Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects.”

The study found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed. The study found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed.The daily dose also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances. And that’s not all…Sunil Kochhar, and colleagues note growing scientific evidence that antioxidants and other beneficial substances in dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions. Although studies in the past have suggested that chocolate may ease emotional stress, there was little evidence until now from research in humans on exactly how chocolate might have those stress-busting effects.

In the study, scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks. “The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” the scientists say.

This great news for smokers and those smokers that want to quit smoking with a natural stop smoking alternative. No nicotine side effects or those nasty quit smoking cravings.

When you have the urge to smoke look for some of the new dark chocolate products to feel good and reduce the nicotine withdrawal.

OTC and counseling considered successful in study

A study by the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention found the most effective way for smokers to quit smoking is to combine therapies and over-the-counter products into a daily treatment regimen

The study is the largest to date for comparing OTC quit smoking and nicotine dependence treatments against each other, according to a UW-CTRI statement.

“We started collecting stop smoking data in January 2005,” said Megan Piper, lead nicotine dependence researcher at UW-CTRI. “Folks who signed to join the quit smoking programs agreed to three years of participation. Many finished the third year and many are on their second year and are still smoke free We recruited in both Madison and Milwaukee from television and newspaper ads.”

More than 1,500 Wisconsin smokers 18 and older participated. Every smoker involved in the study was also given at least six sessions of counseling, according to Piper.

The study compared nicotine patches, nicotine lozenges and a combination of the two; bupropion — a prescription medication — and its combination with the lozenge; and a placebo. Of the methods, combinations of the patch and lozenge were deemed most effective. The placebo, or quitting cold turkey, was the least effective.

“These results were targeted for daily smokers — at least 10 cigarettes a day,” Piper said. “Someone smoking maybe not every day, but less, [might find] that a combination (of a patch and lozenge) may not be as good for them because they would experience a nicotine overdose if they were not used to [that amount].”

While the national rate of adult smokers is 19.8 percent, in Wisconsin 19.6 percent of adults are smokers, according to UW-CTRI spokesperson Moira Harrington.

“I think smoking is a problem on most college campuses. Many student would like to stop smoking. Most people start before they get to college, but some smokers start a daily smoking pattern while they’re in college or before,” Piper said. “People start while they’re trying to study for finals, or have one in a bar, then go on to develop a true dependence.”

While the patch and lozenge were the most effective combination, many other methods including natural products to ease nicotine withdrawal symptoms were left out of the test.

 “I think the big message is that if you’re a daily smoker and you’re smoking at least half a pack a day, the idea of getting coaching or counseling in addition to a product to ease tension and tobacco withdrawal symptoms will help greatly” Piper said.

She added frequent smokers might find an online or telephone hot line could also help smokers trying to stop smoking decrease their dependency through numerous methods, including counseling.

As a nationally prominent research center and a part of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, the UW-CTRI functions as a research community committed to determining the nature of tobacco and nicotine dependence and developing evidence-based treatments to assist smokers to quit smoking.

It was founded in 1992 to combat smoking as the No. 1 cause of preventable death, Harrington said.

A reprint of an article written by Alex Skanavis
Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Quit Smoking Easy – The Easiest Way To Quit That You’ll Be Amazed. Guaranteee!!!

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.

Tobacco Taxes Expected to Help you Quit Smoking, Hurt State Finances

Sharply rising tobacco taxes may accomplish what state lawmakers largely failed to do when handed a pile of money from the nationwide tobacco settlement a decade ago: drive home the consequences of smoking and cut smoking rates.

Bloomberg News has reported that the new 62-cent increase in the federal tobacco tax, combined with rising state tobacco taxes, could cut U.S. tobacco consumption by up to 10 percent.

States, however, may not be celebrating this odd approach to a new stop smoking alternative. Many took the money from the 1998 tobacco settlement and used it for everything but tobacco prevention. But declining tobacco consumption maybe the governments best stop smoking aid even those it could reduce the industry's annual payout to the states by up to $500 million, and also poses a threat to the $37 billion in bonds that states issued based on expected future receipts of tobacco money. The bonds were issued so that states could get an upfront, lump-sum payout of the settlement money rather than waiting for each year's payments, which are based on sales.

"While settlement revenues may be shrinking, most tobacco bond structures have debt service requirements with built-in increases for future years," said Richard Larkin, an analyst at municipal-bonds firm Herbert J. Sims and Co. Some state bond issues might have to use their reserves to pay the interest on the bonds, he added.

"States that earmarked revenues from cigarette excise taxes for specific programs may be forced to make cuts to those programs or increase the cigarette excise taxes, to make up for the revenue shortfall caused by the volume decline resulting from the federal excise tax increase," noted a recent report from Fitch Ratings.

"The striking irony of the [tobacco settlement] was that it made states dependent on the sale of a deadly product that dramatically increases their health-care costs," said Allan M. Brandt, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.  

I'll smoke today, and then I get back on track and my stop smoking program tomorrow

Really!!"

Sound familiar? Thoughts of quitting smoking and dealing with cravings for cigarettes and tobacco products are common as you go through any phases of nicotine withdrawal. Your mind do funny things in the face of a decision to quit smoking.

Stopping smoking is not an easy decision to make and if you are having a hard time with making that decision it may just be that you are not ready to quit smoking. Not right now anyway. Not being absolutely ready to start on a stop smoking program can be the thing that leads to relapse to smoking and failures that will affect your willpower to try to quit again in the future.

Quit smoking when YOU are ready to quit smoking. Don’t do it for any other reason. It is okay to want to smoke. Don't let it throw you; this is a normal part of nicotine addiction.

Sometimes it is a matter of taking a few baby steps. You can cut down a few cigarettes at a time. Start by making a vow to put your cravings for tobacco off to the side. If you want to smoke you can find help with smokerZchoice. It is a product that deals with those cravings and is designed to get you through the urge for a cigarette or tobacco. It will help to put those thoughts temporarily on ignore when you're struggling. Don’t struggle and keep your focus.

 With smokerZchoice you can just think about getting through the moment when cravings are strongest and get through it smoke free.

Can I smoke just one cigarette when I am trying to quit smoking?

I'll smoke, and then I get back on track and my stop smoking program tomorrow

Really!!"

Sound familiar? Thoughts of quitting smoking and dealing with cravings for cigarettes and tobacco products are common as you go through any phases of nicotine withdrawal. Your mind do funny things in the face of a decision to quit smoking.

Stopping smoking is not an easy decision to make and if you are having a hard time with making that decision it may just be that you are not ready to quit smoking. Not right now anyway. Not being absolutely ready to start on a stop smoking program can be the thing that leads to relapse to smoking and failures that will affect your willpower to try to quit again in the future.

Quit smoking when YOU are ready to quit smoking. Don’t do it for any other reason. It is okay to want to smoke. Don't let it throw you; this is a normal part of nicotine addiction.

Sometimes it is a matter of taking a few baby steps. You can cut down a few cigarettes at a time. Start by making a vow to put your cravings for tobacco off to the side. If you want to smoke you can find help with smokerZchoice. It is a product that deals with those cravings and is designed to get you through the urge for a cigarette or tobacco. It will help to put those thoughts temporarily on ignore when you're struggling. Don’t struggle and keep your focus.

 With smokerZchoice you can just think about getting through the moment when cravings are strongest and get through it smoke free.

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.