Products to Quit Smoking

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.

Flavanol-rich dark chocolate and cocoa drinks helps maths performance

Chocolate makers seeking to leverage sales through health-positioned products could find a fresh direction with new research from the UK suggesting cocoa drinks rich in flavanols could help consumers do maths.  Following a small study, researchers at the UK's Northumbria university found the high level of cacao anchored in chocolate improved cognitive performance in arithmatic tests.

These studies follow on the heels of other studies about dark chocolate's relationship to nicotine side effects and improvement of arterial blood flow in smokers.

"Dark chocolate and drinks rich in cocoa flavanols significantly improved aspects of cognitive performance and levels of fatigue during this mentally demanding task," said Crystal Haskell at the Brain, Performance and Nutrition Research centre at Northumbria university.

This latest research builds on a plethora of studies in recent years that have probed the area of cocoa flavanols and their potential positive impact on health, from heart disease to depression and improvement in smokers health. Even though dark chocolate may not be a product classified as a product to quit smoking it would appear to lessen some of  those nicotine side effects contributing to many consequences of smoking.

Flavanols, the building blocks for proanthocyanidins, are a class of flavonoids that exist naturally in cacao. They have attracted increasing attention from the scientific community, and the food industry, due to their potent antioxidant properties and the role they could potentially play in combating the rising incidence of smoking related cardiovascular disease in today's society.

Consumers have become passionate about looking and feeling good with food and drink products neatly slotting into this trend, and new product development from food makers squarely positioned to piggy-back the emerging health and wellness trend.

But in terms of chocolate, the functional dark chocolate trend is still at the beginning of the curve and only a handful of makers to date, such as Mars' CocaVia and Barry Callebaut's Acticoa, have rolled out products that directly target this area.

However, the double-digit growth seen in the functional category does make for compelling figures and an understandable motivation to drive new product development further down the functional chocolate path. Market analyst Euromonitor reports that in the past four years the functional market has grown on average by 15 per cent a year.

And one in four Western consumers are interested in chocolate with physical or emotional health benefits, according to data gathered on behalf of Barry Callebaut in Belgium, Switzerland, France, Germany, the UK and the US.

UK cocoa drink study uses high levels - 520 mg and 993mg - of cocoa flavonols

“Foods containing high levels of cocoa flavanols, found in dark chocolate, have been shown to increase cerebral blood flow, and it has also been proven that consumption of plants that have these properties improves performance on mentally demanding tasks. We wanted to discover whether cocoa flavanols produced the same effect,” commented Haskell.

For this study, 30 adults consumed cocoa drinks on different days containing 520 mg of cocoa flavanols, 993 mg of cocoa flavanols or a control drink.

The participants were given a number of mentally demanding tasks to complete, such as counting backwards from 999 in threes.

On the days the participants drank the beverages containing 520mg or 993mg of cocoa flavanols "they performed significantly better at the arithmetic task", report the researchers.

Further, the participants recorded they were also less mentally tired during the task after drinking the cocoa-flavanol rich beverage.

Commenting on the findings Professor David Kennedy from Northumbria university added: “The results presented in the symposium show that medicinal herbal extracts and plant-derived chemical compounds from common foodstuffs can also improve cognitive performance and mood.”

The findings were presented as part of a symposium highlighting the potential of plant-based treatments presented this week at the British Psychological Society annual conference in Brighton, UK.

Based on an original article  by Lindsey Partos, 07-Apr-2009

Number of pregnant smokers on the rise

A new report from Flint, Michigan confirms what health professionals around the United States say is one of their toughest challenges: Trying to increase Stop Smoking among pregnant women is on the rise.

Last week's new Kids Count report shows the percentage of women who smoked while pregnant rose to 20 percent in 2007. The findings, released Tuesday, were collected by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Dr. Ivana Vettraino, director of maternal fetal medicine at Hurley Medical Center, is familiar with the smoking problem. She said the best word she can use to describe the numbers who she has counseled to quit smoking is "disappointing."

"When they (patients) look at you and say, 'I've tried to stop smoking before and it hasn't worked,' and then they just walk out, it is a little -- disappointing is the best word I can come up with -- because many of the patients I see have a lot of medical problems. But still, their biggest risk for having a poor pregnancy outcome is their tobacco use resulting from addiction to nicotine ," she said.

Potential negative outcomes can include low birth weight, increased risk of cardiovascular and heart disease later in life, and problems with the placenta that could result in early birth or death.  "There's a lot of knowledge now about what happens in utero sort of prognosticates what's going to happen to you later in life," Vettraino said.

Smoking --is the leading cause of low birth weight –getting pregnant smokers to quit smoking isn't getting any easier.

April Smith, 34, of Flint knows how tough quitting smoking can be. She said that when she was pregnant, she was able to cut back on her smoking the most, but there were "key points" in her day, such as after meals, when she had cravings for tobacco she just couldn't resist.

"There's always a battle inside your mind. Yes, you feel bad for doing it, but your craving or nicotine addiction, you feel good," she said. Smith compares quitting smoking to losing weight, saying that if you're not committed to changing your entire life, you're not going to succeed.

Trissa Torres, a preventive medicine physician for Genesys Health Systems, started a program at the Genesys Flint East Campus to help pregnant women stop smoking. Within her program, Torres said the majority of people she works with -- all of whom sought help themselves -- know smoking can be dangerous.

At Hurley, though, Vettraino said she's surprised by how many patients say they aren't aware of the effects of tobacco can have on an unborn child. And among those who are aware of the risks, she said, the effort to quit smoking often isn't there.

"I'm always surprised when there's somebody that tells you they didn't realize the risks. But most of the time they look at you and they nod. They know, and what they tell you is they're really trying hard to quit. Most of them will tell you that they cut down," she said.

Vettraino said some expectant mothers quit smoking immediately once they find out they're pregnant, but others, even with the offer of smoking cessation aids such as nicotine patches products to quit smoking, don't make the effort.

Even for those mothers who manage to stop smoking, Torres said the larger challenge is staying off cigarettes after children are born. Smith's children are now 8 and 3. She still smokes but said she's cut down, makes a point not to light up around her children and tries to keep them away from other smokers.

"I get angry with myself because it's ridiculous. ... Some days I can go all day without smoking, but the next day I make up for it. It's ridiculous," she said. "I regret it."

Reprinted and Exerpted
Scott Atkinson | The Flint Journal

Monday August 03, 2009,

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.

FDA Issues Suicide Warnings on the Stop Smoking Drugs Chantix, Zyban

Patients seeking products to quit smoking should think twice when taking the stop-smoking drugs Chantix and Zyban/Wellbutrin. They should be closely monitored for symptoms of serious mental illness that could lead to the risk of suicide, according to a new directive from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The New York Times New reported July 2 that FDA officials stressed that patients should not be discouraged from taking the drugs to quit smoking. "Stopping smoking is a goal we should all be working towards," said FDA official Curtis J. Rosebraugh. "We don't want to scare people off from trying a medication that could help them to find alternatives in their fight to quit smoking. But they should just be careful."

FDA announced plans to add a stronger warning to Chantix packaging, and drug maker Glaxo will add the warnings currently on Wellbutrin to Zyban -- both formulations of the drug buproprion.

Sales of smoking-cessation drugs have declined in recent years. Chantix, made by Pfizer, controls about 90 percent of the quit smoking drug market, with $846 million in annual sales. Still, the drug has fallen short of sales expectations, in part because of prior safety concerns.

CHEERS to another big pharmaceutical whose sole mission in helping smokers to quit smoking and find freedom from smoking is greed and making a profit.

Researchers from Duke University Medical Center Duke have used brain PET scans to identify three regions of the brain that seem to control nicotine dependence and craving.

The affected regions include the thalamus, which controls sensory input and may be related to the inability to focus and feeling of being overwhelmed often experienced during withdrawal; the straitum, also know as the brain's pleasure center; and the anterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in cognitive functions like conflict resolution, self-regulation, decision making, and emotion.

All combined they demonstrate why the cravings for cigarettes and tobacco products makes quitting smoking difficult.

"If you can't calm down, can't derive pleasure and can't control yourself or concentrate, then it will be extremely difficult for you to break the habit," said lead study researcher Jed E. Rose, Ph.D., director of the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research. "These brain regions may explain why most people try to quit several times before they are successful."

Preparation is necessary to quit smoking to avoid relapse than can be attributed to cravings. It is best to take a measured approach and look for those alternatives that can help you at the times when cravings are strongest amd make you want to smoke when you dont want to smoke or cant. Make a choice in those moments

The study was published online in the journal "Neuropsychopharmacology".