WHAT IS TOBACCO

--> Although you have been smoking for a number of years, you probably don't know much about what tobacco actually is and where it comes from.  Tobacco comes from a plant called Nicotinia Tabacum.  The leaf of the plant is what is used to create tobacco.  The plants are cultivated and then the leaves are picked, cured and processed to create tobacco used in cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco.

The use of tobacco dates back to the early days in America when the native Americans would use it for medicinal purposes and in ceremonial occasions.   The native Americans thought that tobacco was a gift from the creator and that exhaled tobacco smoke carries ones thoughts and prayers to heaven.

The tobacco that the native Americans used was extremely pure, untreated and very harsh.  They could only take it in very small doses and did not smoke it every day.  This is an interesting fact because the tobacco they used although pure and harsh did not seem to carry the same addictive properties as the tobacco used in cigarettes today.

Tobacco plants have a natural ingredient in them called nicotine.  This is the plants guard to defend against insects and other animals eating the plant.  Doses of nicotine in large enough form are lethal and will kill an animal or even a human being.

While the native Americans appear to be the first to use tobacco to smoke, it quickly became popular with Europeans and other settlers in America.  Now you can find tobacco in all parts of the world and used regularly by about 1/3 of the worlds population.  Every year about 6.7 million tons of tobacco are produced.  The top producer of tobacco is China which generates about 39% of the tobacco worldwide.

By the early 1900's tobacco was being mass produced and smoked on a regular basis primarily by men.  Tobacco companies started creating different strains of tobacco so that the product was more mild and easy to consume.   The effects are apparent as many smokers today smoke 20 or more cigarettes in a day.

Tobacco companies continued to produce and profit from the sale of cigarettes as the industry grew astronomically by the mid 20th century.  At this time smoking was regarded as a glamorous event and enjoyed by nearly half of the people in the United States.

As the smoking revolution continued, tobacco companies became more knowledgeable about the effects of nicotine and the addictive properties of their product.  They knew that the more nicotine a person consumed, the more addicted one would become.  In the 1970 Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company cross bred a strain of tobacco to create a cigarette that had nearly twice the amount of nicotine as other cigarettes (6.5% nicotine vs. 3.5%)

It became readily apparent that the tobacco companies were manipulating their crops to increase nicotine content and consumption rates by its customers.  In recent years they have found that adding ammonia to tobacco increases the amount and speed of nicotine absorbed by the body.  Todays cigarettes are far more powerful and much more addictive than ever before.

Of course we will never really know thanks to the US Supreme courts decision in 2000 that basically stated that the FDA does not have any regulatory authority over the tobacco industry and can not regulate nicotine levels or toxic ingredient levels in cigarettes.  In short, the tobacco companies can do what ever they want - and believe me they are.  There is no longer a measurement of nicotine in cigarettes, at least a universal measure.   For all we know it could be 20%.

Understanding where tobacco comes from and the addictive properties that are found naturally in tobacco will help you to quit smoking.  So many of you believe that you enjoy the act of smoking, but rather you must understand that you only enjoy smoking because your body is in a state of nicotine withdrawal and smoking relieves that pain giving you the misconception that you enjoy it.  You would not enjoy any part of it if you were not suffering from drug withdrawal.  Once you remove the drug (nicotine) you remove the withdrawal and the need for cigarettes or tobacco of any kind.

Use this knowledge to help yourself on the road to quitting.   Remember that each cigarette you smoke does only one thing, it makes you want another cigarette.  The reason you are reaching for this cigarette is that you smoked another about 30 minutes ago.  At some point you have to stop the train and get off, and there is no better time than now.

Good luck on quitting smoking!!!  Your only 72 hours from becoming nicotine free if you abstain!!!


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco

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HYPNOSIS TO QUIT SMOKING

--> There is no shortage of hypnotists advertising their services to quit smoking.  If you google hypnosis to quit smoking or even open your local newspaper you will be inundated with the number of people offering to help you  stop  your smoking habit with a quick 1 hour session.

During my many quit smoking attempts I visited several hypnotists and spent quite a bit of money doing it.  The idea of quitting smoking by hypnosis has some merit.    Hypnosis is used to speak to your unconscious mind.  The part of your mind that keeps telling you it needs a cigarette and eventually wins out.

Think about it, your conscious mind knows that smoking is bad for your health, causes you to have shortness of breath, hacking coughs, yellow teeth, bad breath, increases your risk of many cancers, and costs you a lot of money.  If you were only listening to your conscious mind, you would have no troubles putting down those cigarettes and quitting smoking forever.   But you have this constant internal battle with your unconscious mind that keeps telling you that you need a cigarette and if you smoke a cigarette you will feel better.  Eventually you cave in and you are back to your pack a day habit.  Sound familiar?

My attempts at quitting smoking with hypnotism never resulted in success.  The best I did was quit for about 24 hours mainly because I had shelled out $300 and I was determined not to let that money go to waste.  The gentleman I visited gave me a one on one session that lasted about 45 minutes.  When I walked out the door the only thing I could think about was smoking a cigarette.

My next attempt was in a group session that again lasted about an hour and after the session the hypnotist sold me a bunch of vitamins that were quite expensive and were designed to help relieve the physical withdrawal symptoms of quitting smoking.  His session was supposed to take care of the mental withdrawal and thus the physical would be handled by these vitamins.  Short story is I made it 2 days and reverted right back to my old habits.

One thing every quit smoking hypnotist has in common is the guarantee.   Guaranteed to work or you can come back an get hypnotized as many times as you want.  I'd love to see a hypnotist advertise that they will give you your money back if you don't quit smoking.  Then I would have much more faith in quitting smoking by hypnosis.

I do have several friends who visited hypnotists and quit smoking. And they quit smoking for good, so I know that for some people this method can work.  And it makes sense, if you can convince your subconscious that it does not want or need a cigarette then you are basically home free.  Without that part of your mind nagging at you to smoke, you won't want to reach for a cigarette.

In many ways, my attempts to help you smoking are the same as hypnosis.  I am trying to teach you that you don't need or really even want to smoke.  You do not enjoy smoking and if you realize that you will realize that you only smoke because your body and mind are addicted to nicotine.  If you stop ingesting nicotine and amazing thing happens, you no longer crave nicotine.  And your body and mind adjust back to normal, so smoking will not be pleasurable.  The challenge is to get you to stop for a few days or weeks so you too realize that you don't need cigarettes.

If you have tried every avenue to quit smoking, if you have read my postings on this site and still are not convinced that you don't enjoy smoking, don't need cigarettes and are better off without them, then I would not discourage you from visiting a hypnotist to quit smoking.

For those of you who have quit smoking by use of hypnosis, or those that attempt,  I would love to hear back from you on the specifics and your success.

It's important to quit smoking now.  See  Quit Smoking Benefits

My goal is to help everyone to quit smoking and stay quit.  Good luck on your journey to a happy, healthy smoke free life.

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EFFECTS OF SMOKING

You probably see some very visible effects of smoking, your stained fingers, yellow teeth, dry skin and accelerated aging.  Depends on how long you have smoked but even those who have only smoked cigarettes a short time will see these effects quickly.

Unfortunately, in addition to these minor visible effects from smoking, there is much more going on inside your body that you can not see.

Smokers experience the following unseen effects from smoking:

• Blood pressure raises
• Arteries constrict and blood flow to your extremities decreases
• The brain and nervous system is stimulated and then reduced
• Weakened sense of taste and smell
• Impotence for men, infertility for women
• Peripheral vascular disease due to decreased blood flow to the legs
• Increased risk of heart attack
• Increased risk of stroke
• Increased risk of respiratory infections
• Increased risk of certain cancers - lung, cervical, pancreatic, bladder, kidney, throat, mouth
• Reduced lung function
• Stickier blood which is more prone to clotting
• Decreased levels of Vitamin C in the blood
• Higher risk of blindness
• Increased risk of gum disease and tooth loss
• Reduced bone density
• Genetic damage to sperm in males
• Menopause reached average of 1-2 years earlier for women

All of the above are effects that you can not see but are occurring in your body each time you smoke a cigarette.  Fortunately, if you quit smoking in time, your body will heal and reverse these effects from smoking. 

According to the centers for disease control, between 2000 and 2004 approximately 443,000 annual deaths occur in the United States that are directly attributable to smoking. 

443,000 deaths annually
- 128,900 deaths from lung cancer (29%)
- 126,000 deaths from heart disease (28%)
- 92,900 deaths from COPD (21%)
- 44,000 deaths from other diagnoses related to smoking (10%)
- 35,300 deaths from cancers other than lung (8%)
- 15,900 deaths from stroke (4%)

source: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/mmwrs/byyear/2008/mm5745a3/intro.htm






 

DOES SMOKING CAUSE LUNG CANCER?

Does Smoking cause lung cancer?  I will give you the facts and let you make your own decision.  Once you see the data and understand the correlation there will be no doubt in your mind that smoking does indeed cause lung cancer.

I've said many times I am not a proponent of trying to scare you into quitting smoking.   Fear does one thing to smokers, it makes them want to smoke another cigarette.  So I present to you information on lung cancer relating to smoking only to make you aware of the dangers.  I realize that fear of disease has not stopped you from smoking to this point, and most likely will not be the key that makes you stop.  But it is important that you realize the effects of smoking.

Cigarette smoking in the United States did not become prevalent in men until the early 1900's.  At that time men started smoking and at a rather rapid pace.   There were virtually no instances of lung cancer until the 1920's and 1930's, approximately 20-30 years after smoking became popular.  See the chart below.  Do you see the increase in lung cancer some years after smoking began?

Women in the united states did not start smoking until the late 1920's and early 1930's.  At that time tobacco companies started targeting women with advertisements glamorizing cigarettes and appealing to equality with men to propel them into taking up smoking.  The ads worked and by 1965 33% of women in the United States were smokers.

Now look at the chart below.  This shows lung cancer rates among women in the United States.  Notice that lung cancer in women did not start appearing until the 1950's.  Do you see the correlation?  Some 20-30 years after they began smoking instances of lung cancer started to appear.  This is not a coincidence.

It is painfully obvious from these charts that cigarette smoking does in fact cause lung cancer. In fact it is fairly predictable when the cancers will start appearing.

Does this mean that you will get lung cancer if you smoke?  Probably not, even as a smoker the chances of getting lung cancer are fairly small but there is definitely a correlation between smoking and lung cancer.  Smoking increases your chances of getting lung cancer exponentially.

Is it worth the risk?  The next time you light up, think about what you are doing.  By not smoking you virtually eliminate any risk of ever obtaining lung cancer. 

Good luck quitting smoking.  Millions have quit and many more are quitting right now.  Why not join them right now!!!!

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Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_and_smoking
http://www.whyquit.com/joel/Joel_02_17_smoke_in_lung.html