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




 

SMOKING AND TOBACCO

There are over 6 billion people in the world today and reportedly more than 2 billion smokers.  Tobacco use has been and continues to be a major threat to the health of people worldwide.  It is no wonder one of the most profitable public companies in the world is Phillip Morris who made $7.5 billion dollars in profit in 2010.

I am writing this article today to reach out to the thousands of people worldwide that are considering picking up the habit of smoking tobacco.  I urge you to consider the facts about smoking and understand the realities of nicotine addiction before you enter into a lifetime of misery and addiction.

Cigarette smokers suffer from an addiction to a drug that is found in tobacco.  Nicotine, a byproduct found in tobacco plants creates a chemical addiction in those who inhale, suck on, or ingest into their bodies in one form or another.  If you are a smoker, you will find yourself reaching for a cigarette about every 30 minutes.  That is the time it takes for your mind and body to go into nicotine withdrawal.  And it can take as little  as one cigarette to become addicted.

Most smokers believe that they enjoy smoking cigarettes, but the fact is they have an addiction and the joy they feel when inhaling a cigarette is only a response to satisfying withdrawal from the addiction to the drug nicotine.

There are roughly 4 billion people in the world who don't smoke, and don't crave a cigarette every 30 minutes.  They do not find smoking pleasurable or necessary.  Only when you become addicted to nicotine do you believe you are experiencing pleasure from smoking.  The reality is you do not experience pleasure in any way, it does not relive boredom, stress or any other contrived side effect that the tobacco companies lead you to believe.  It in fact causes serious diseases that will kill nearly half a million people in the United States alone this year.

While tobacco has been on a steady decline in the United States over the last 50 years, it has increased in other parts of the world where people are less knowledgeable about tobacco use and the ill effects it has on the body.  The less you know about the effects of tobacco use, the more inclined you are to begin smoking.  Tobacco companies are targeting these people who are not aware of the dangers of smoking in hopes of bringing them into their world of nicotine addiction.

Do not fall for the trap.  There is nothing cool or glamorous about sucking smoke into your body and blowing it out.  It is an illusion created by the most powerful companies in the world, the tobacco companies.   Once someone becomes addicted to smoking, it is incredibly difficult to quit.  While many are able to quit, there are millions of people around the world who are helplessly caught in a never ending trap that will take them from this earth before their time.

If you are just beginning smoking, you will find that the first cigarette you smoke tastes terrible.  It makes you dizzy, hurts your throat and there is absolutely no enjoyment from smoking.  But if you are determined to smoke another and then another you will find yourself quickly addicted and reaching for yet another about every 30 minutes.  It's hard to believe anyone would continue after the first, but that is the power of the advertising and brainwashing that the tobacco industry has had on our brains.

Nicotine is poison.  If you were to take enough nicotine in on sitting it would kill you.  But in smaller doses it just creates an addiction so that you keep reaching for it.  Tobacco companies are well aware of this and tailor their product to give you just enough nicotine to keep you addicted without killing you instantly.  Of course in time they will kill you.  It may take 5, 10, 15 years or longer, but eventually that company you have been paying thousands of dollars a year for your smokes will take you life.   But don't worry, each day thousands more people will begin smoking.  So if your worried about the tobacco companies going out of business, you need not. 

One tobacco company executive was once quoted as saying the following:

“WE DONT SMOKE THAT SHIT, WE JUST SELL IT. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SMOKE TO THE YOUNG, THE POOR THE BLACK AND STUPID”.

RJ Reynolds tobacco company executive

Tobacco companies prey on our stupidity.  It is time that we fight back and don't pay another dime to the people trying to kill you. 

If you have already started smoking, now is the time to stop.  The longer you smoke, the more difficult it is to break the addiction. 

Please read my other articles on this blog about smoking and the effects it has on your body.  If you smoke now you must quit.  If you need help I hope that you find it on my site.  There are many articles that will give you the facts and remedies to end your addiction to nicotine.

If  you don't smoke, don't start.  If you smoke, stop. 


Resources
http://www.tobaccoatlas.org/industry/tobacco_companies/profits/
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs339/en/index.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_people_in_the_world_smoke
http://www.tobaccoatlas.org/industry/tobacco_companies/global_market/



 

BEST AND WORST CIGARETTES

Have you ever wondered why you keep reaching for that cigarette?  You know they are bad for you and cause all kinds of health problems but you continue to smoke them.  The reason is that you are helplessly addicted to nicotine and your friends at the tobacco companies are making sure that you stay addicted.

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A few years back a scientist conducted a study on the addictive properties of various brands of cigarettes.  His name is James Pankow and the study was conducted at the Oregon Health and Sciences University.  The study measured the amount of free base nicotine levels in various brands of cigarettes.  Free base nicotine is a potent form of nicotine that is naturally occurring in tobacco and is absorbed much more rapidly by your lungs and brain.   Think of it as crack nicotine.

The study measured the percent of free base nicotine in the first 3 puffs of a cigarette.   Below are the results of the 11 brands studied.  

AMERICAN SPIRIT              29%
GAULOLSES BRUNES         25%
MARLBORO                          9.6%
VIRGINIA SLIMS                  7.5%
GAULOLSES BLONDES       5.7%
CAMEL TURKISH GOLD     5.2%
WINSTON                               5.0%
DORAL 100'S                          4.1%
KAMEL REDS                        3.4%
CAMEL                                    2.7%
GPC                                          1.6%

Unfortunately in most cases the specific type of cigarette by brand was not cited but this gives you an idea of the amount of free base nicotine in your particular brand.  American Spirit which has been marketed as a more natural cigarette contains by far the highest levels and thus you can conclude is the most addictive type of cigarette on the market based on this study.

While any amount of nicotine will cause addiction, it is clear that the more nicotine you absorb into your body, the greater your addiction will be. 

Remember, if you abstain from smoking or placing nicotine in your body for 72 hours, you will have removed all nicotine and you will no longer be physically addicted to nicotine.

Good luck on your journey to quit smoking.   Do yourself a favor and make that cigarette your last.

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source: Journal reference: Journal of Chemical Research in Toxicology (DOI: DOI: 10.1021/tx0340596)

BENEFITS OF QUITTING SMOKING

There are varying opinions on the benefits of quitting smoking.  Some reports say that no matter when a person quits they will almost immediately cut their risk of dying from a smoking related disease.  Other reports believe that even smoking one cigarette decreases your lifespan.  The answer is probably in between but I have seen countless instances of former smokers who have quit and gone on to live very long and healthy lives well into their 80's and 90's.

It is my opinion that as long as you quit smoking before you contract a smoking related illness, your body will eventually revert back to that of a non smoker.  The key here is that you have to quit before you contract one of those deadly smoking related diseases.

The speed at which your body heals when you quit smoking is amazing.  While your addiction takes time to cure, the benefits of quitting are visible instantly.  When you quit smoking, keep this with you and take note of all the benefits you are experiencing as a non smoker. 

After you put out that last cigarette you will begin to see the following benefits:

20 minutes after quitting
Your heart rate and blood pressure drop.

(Effect of smoking on arterial stiffness and pulse pressure amplification, Mahmud A, Feely J. Hypertension. 2003:41:183)

12 hours after quitting
The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

(US Surgeon General’s Report, 1988, p. 202)

2 weeks to 3 months after quitting
Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.

(US Surgeon General’s Report, 1990, pp.193, 194,196, 285, 323)

1 to 9 months after quitting
Coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) start to regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.

(US Surgeon General’s Report, 1990, pp. 285-287, 304)

1 year after quitting
The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a continuing smoker’s.

(US Surgeon General’s Report, 2010, p. 359)

5 years after quitting
Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder are cut in half. Cervical cancer risk falls to that of a non-smoker. Stroke risk can fall to that of a non-smoker after 2-5 years.

(A Report of the Surgeon General: How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease - The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease Fact Sheet, 2010; and Tobacco Control: Reversal of Risk After Quitting Smoking. IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention, Vol. 11. 2007, p 341)

10 years after quitting
The risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that of a person who is still smoking. The risk of cancer of the larynx (voice box) and pancreas decreases.

(A Report of the Surgeon General: How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease - The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease Fact Sheet, 2010; and US Surgeon General’s Report, 1990, pp. vi, 155, 165)

15 years after quitting
The risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non-smoker’s.

(Tobacco Control: Reversal of Risk After Quitting Smoking. IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention, Vol. 11. 2007. p 11)


Good luck on your quit smoking journey.  You will succeed and you  will notice all of these above benefits.  Stay committed and enjoy  your new life as a non smoker.
 

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HERBAL CIGARETTES TO QUIT SMOKING

Herbal cigarettes can be effectively used to quit smoking, because they lack one key ingredient - NICOTINE.   There are many brands of herbal smokes on the market today, but true herbal cigarettes do not contain any tobacco products and thus do not contain nicotine.

If you are one of those people that can not seem to make it past the first 10 minutes of your first day of quitting smoking without caving in and buying a pack down at the local store, you may want to consider using herbal cigarettes as an alternative method to give up smoking.

Remember, you are not addicted to cigarettes, and you are not addicted to smoking.   Smoking cigarettes does only one thing, it delivers nicotine to your body, and it does it quickly.  You smoke because you are addicted to nicotine and when you inhale your cigarette, the nicotine reaches your brain in about 8 seconds.  Smoking a cigarette is the fastest way to deliver nicotine to your brain.

Now lets say you never started smoking, your body would not crave nicotine, and you would see no pleasure in sucking on the end of a cigarette and inhaling smoke into your lungs.  You would think it is a vile practice that makes no sense, which is what non smokers see when they witness someone smoking.  But alas, you were stupid like me and taught yourself the great pleasure of nicotine addiction.

So lets examine herbal cigarettes and how they can work to reduce your craving for nicotine and eventually remove your desire to smoke altogether. 

Herbal cigarettes typically contain a blend of herbs such as mint, cinnamon, tea leaves, ginseng, cloves and various other non tobacco products.  They are blended together and placed in rolling  paper similar to that of a regular cigarette and most will even have a filter which is the same as the one found on your regular cigarettes.  But remember, there is no tobacco and no nicotine in herbal cigarettes.

You can find herbal cigarettes online or at most tobacco stores.  Generally they are not sold at your typical convenience or grocery store.

Once you get your pack of herbal cigarettes you are ready to smoke.  They will light up just like your regular cigarette, and will last about the same amount of  time.  Warning - you will not receive the same sensation that you will when you smoke a regular cigarette because herbal cigarettes do not contain nicotine.  You will enjoy the basic sensation of inhaling smoke into your lungs and blowing it out.  You will quickly realize that there is nothing pleasurable about this act.  But keep in mind, each herbal cigarette you smoke will bring you closer to quitting smoking because you will not be feeding your body nicotine and you will actually be in the process of removing nicotine from your body.  Once you remove nicotine from your body you will be able to make rational decisions because you will no longer be a drug addict.  Typically if you do not ingest any nicotine for 72 hours, you will have removed all nicotine from your system.

If you are going to attempt to quit using herbal cigarettes, commit to only smoking herbal cigarettes for at least a week.  Do not cheat and slip in a regular cigarette now and again because you will just recreate the addiction you are trying to break.   Even one puff a regular cigarette will give you enough nicotine to become a full fledged addict again.

A few warnings regarding herbal cigarettes.  They are in no way healthier than regular cigarettes, you are still inhaling smoke into your lungs, and carbon monoxide.  You are still taking in tar which is not healthy.    But believe me, if you break this addiction to nicotine, you will not crave an herbal cigarette or any other kind of cigarette.  You just have to get past the hurdle of nicotine addiction.

I am a strong believer in quitting smoking cold turkey because it is the fastest way to remove nicotine and the psychological addiction to smoking.  The act of smoking, even a herbal cigarette, will continue to remind you of smoking and the mental process of quitting will certainly take longer.   But for those of you who have tried everything, who can't seem to make it a minute without reaching for a cigarette, this is certainly worth trying.

Good luck to you, and I hope that at least one person is able to quit smoking using this method.

Check out our new Quit Smoking forum!!! You can talk with others trying to quit smoking. Great place for support or to give some support to new quitters.

http://quitsmokingwithoutpain.blogspot.com/p/quit-smoking-forum.html

 

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100 REASONS TO QUIT SMOKING

When you quit smoking, you have to have strong convictions about why you want to stop smoking.  Otherwise it is far too easy to give into the urges that will follow, especially in the first couple days.  Many people attempt to quit smoking and make it less than 2 hours because they forget why they wanted to quit smoking in the first place.  The voice inside their head tells them they want a cigarette and they listen.

There are so many reasons why you want to quit smoking.  Those reasons are powerful and they are real.  There is not one good reason to continue smoking.    It does not cure boredom rather it creates it.  It does not relieve stress, rather it creates it.  It does not relax you, rather it inhibits relaxation.  The only thing a cigarette does is make you want another cigarette, in about 30 minutes.

Below are 100 good reasons to quit smoking.  There are literally thousands of reasons to stop, these are only a few.  Try to write your own list and see how long you can make it.

100 REASONS TO QUIT SMOKING

1. Your breath will smell better
2. You will breathe easier
3. Your teeth will be whiter
4. You will have less wrinkles
5. You will be free from addiction to nicotine
6. You will never experience nicotine withdrawal again
7. Your risk of dying from smoking will decrease immediately
8. You will save a ton of money - about $3000/year for a pack a day smoker
9. You won't have to go outside in places that smoking isn't allowed any longer - which is everywhere
10. You will see your children grow old
11. You will see your Grandchildren grow old
12. You will sleep better
13. You will have more energy
14. You will be more calm and relaxed
15. You will be able to run a marathon (if you wish)
16. You will significantly lower your risk of lung cancer
17. Your food will taste so much better
18. Your coffee will taste better
19. You will stop snoring
20. You will have an extra 3 hours a day that you currently waste smoking
21. You will be a good role model for kids
22. You won't have cigarette burns in your car or on your clothes
23. Your health insurance premiums will go down
24. Your life insurance premiums will go down
25. Your cholesterol level will improve
26. Your blood pressure will improve
27. Your clothes will smell better
28. You won't have those yellow stains on your fingers any longer
29. You won't have to run out in the middle of the night to buy a pack of cigarettes
30. Your chance of erectile dysfunction is much less or may go away completely when you  stop
31. Your risk of  macular degeneration is  much lower
32. You will be the envy of all your old smoking friends
33. Your triglycerides will  go down
34. Your chance of  dying in a fire is much lower
35. Your chance of going bald will be lower
36. Your skin will become moist instead of dry and wrinkled
37. You won't have to stuff those cigarettes in your pocket when you go out
38. You won't have to rush up after a meal and miss out on the dinner conversation
39. You will think more clearly and your concentration will improve
40. You will have an extra $100,000 if you don't smoke for the next 20 years and invest that money
41. You will not help the evil tobacco companies make money
42. You will no longer have to sit up at night worrying about whether you have contracted a deadly smoking related disease
43. If you are a closet smoker, you will not have to live a lie any longer
44. You will be far more productive at work without having to take a smoke break every hour
45. Your car insurance will decrease
46. You will have zero chance of contracting brueggers disease (a circulatory disease that only affects smokers)
47. Your bones will be stronger and you will lessen your chance of getting osteoporosis
48. You will have far less phlegm in your throat and in your head
49. Your fitness level will improve and your  body will start to transform
50. You will become much more
51. You will no longer litter the earth with cigarette butts
52. You will no longer subject innocent non smokers to hazardous chemicals from your cigarettes
53.  You will no longer pollute the air on this earth
54. You will feel more confident about yourself
55. You won't lose your teeth (smokers have a much higher risk of tooth decay and loss)
56. Your house won't smell like a stale ashtray any longer
57. Your car won't smell like a stale ashtray any longer
58. Your trade in value of your car will increase
59. You could afford a nice car with the money you will save on cigarettes
60. You can go to a baseball game and watch the whole game without getting up to smoke a cigarette
61. You can travel without the fear of not smoking for hours at a time
62. You can help others quit smoking once you quit
63. You will not get COPD or Emphysema - a fate worse than death
64. Your circulation will greatly improve - almost immediately
65. You will no longer be a drug addict
66. You will be far less anxious than when you smoked
67. You will live an average of 15 years longer than a smoker
68. Your risk of  oral cancer will be much lower
69. Your risk of throat cancer will be much lower
70. Your risk of getting a heart attack will be reduced immediately
71. You will no longer be a regular at the local convenience store
72. You will not get sick as often
73. The dopamine levels in your brain will return to normal
74. Smoking increases your chances of getting diabetes (cigarettes contain large amounts of sugar)
75. Smoking increases your chances of getting Alzheimer's
76. Your baby will be born healthier
77. Smoking increases your risk of acid reflux disease
78. Smoking increases your chances of getting pancreatic cancer
79. Your chance of getting arthritis increases when you smoke
80. Attention women - your chance of breast cancer increases when you  smoke
81. You will increase your chances of getting pregnant if you quit smoking
82. Cigarettes contain 4000 hazardous chemicals, 30 of which are known to cause cancer
83. 500,000 people  in the United States die each year from smoking
84. 50,000 people die each year from 2nd hand smoke
85. The walls in your home will no longer be yellow - once you quit smoking and paint
86. You won't get that raspy smokers voice
87. You won't need that oxygen tank in a few years
88. Your sex drive will improve
89. Your immune system will improve
90. Your hair will have more moisture
91. You won't have to freeze in the snow or rain to smoke a cigarette
92. You  can keep the windows up in your car
93. Your energy levels will greatly improve
94. Smoking makes you look older than you are
95. You will get rid of that hacking cough
96. Smoking around children can increase their risk of getting asthma
97. Smokers use more sick days at work
98. You can climb a flight of stairs without getting winded
99. Everyone who loves you wants you to quit smoking
100. Smoking  is no longer cool - in fact it is anything but cool

The next time you have an urge to smoke, read this list.   By the time you get to the bottom you will have forgotten about that cigarette altogether.  Good luck quitting smoking!!!!

Check out our new Quit Smoking forum!!! You can talk with others trying to quit smoking. Great place for support or to give some support to new quitters.

http://quitsmokingwithoutpain.blogspot.com/p/quit-smoking-forum.html

 

SMOKING RELAPSE PREVENTION

You've successfully quit smoking.  You feel better, your breathing easier, your teeth are starting to whiten, and best of all you sometimes go an entire day without even thinking about a cigarette.  Congratulations, you are officially a non smoker.

Most people who quit smoking will experience an entire day of no smoking thoughts within the first 30 days of quitting smoking.  In fact, as time goes by, you will experience more and more days where the thought of a cigarette doesn't even enter your mind.   Unfortunately, for most ex smokers, they don't even realize this has occurred.

Once you have quit smoking you will have to conquer each smoking trigger at least once before you can move on.  For instance, the first time you get in your car after quitting smoking, you will instinctively reach for that cigarette and press in the lighter.  Lets face it, you've done it thousands of times over the years.  The first time will be tough, but the next time you get in the car it will be easier, and eventually you won't even think about smoking.

Until you complete this exercise with every situation you ever smoked, you will not be completely free.  Driving, a drink at the local pub, after meals, at a casino, at the beach, and anywhere else you ever smoked a cigarette.   You must experience each situation as a non smoker in order to remove the psychological addiction from your mind.

Beware, there are many, many people who have successfully stopped smoking for extended periods of time that were sucked back into the addiction by one little slip.  You see, it only takes one puff on a cigarette to spiral back into that awful world you worked so hard to escape.   The world of not controlling your own thoughts, feelings and actions.  The world of drug addiction.

So how do you prevent yourself from falling into this trap and going back to life as a full time smoker?  You must understand that you are no different than any drug addict.  No different than a person addicted to heroin or an alcoholic.  One slip and you will eventually be right back where you started, smoking a pack a day and wishing you would have never taken that one cigarette.

Far too many people have thought that once they were free of cigarettes, that they could control their addiction and have one cigarette now and again.  They wouldn't fall back into their old habits, but understand, smoking is not a once in a while proposition.  It is not something you can do half way.  How many smokers do you know who only smoke once cigarette a week, or a month.  It doesn't happen.

The only way to truly insure that you never become a pack a day smoker, is to never allow yourself to even have a puff of  a cigarette.  Don't do it, I 100% guarantee that in time, you will become a full time smoker again, smoking cigarette after cigarette.

Remember that first day that you quit smoking?  How difficult was it.  If you are just starting out quitting, write down your thoughts from day 1, day 2, day 3.  Keep it fresh in your mind and remind yourself how difficult it was to free yourself of nicotine addiction.  Keep your guard up, because the devil will strike when you least expect it. 

Do the following to make sure you prevent a smoking relapse:

1. Write down your thoughts and feelings from day 1 of your quit.  Be very specific and keep this with you at all times.
2. Make a pledge that you will never ever take a puff of a cigarette again.
3. Celebrate each day that you are a non smoker.  Don't stop celebrating after a month, 6 months or even a year. 
4. Help others quit smoking.   This is very important, as you will be constantly reminded of the difficulty and struggles that people addicted to nicotine face.  It will remind you that you do not want to become this person again.

You've accomplished something that millions of others hope and pray that they can accomplish, you have quit smoking.  Continue on your path and never let the illusion that smoking is something wonderful enter your mind again!!!!  It is only an illusion and a lie.

 

HOW TO QUIT SMOKING

Every day 5000 people quit smoking.   Do you want to know how they quit?  Then this article is for you.  You may be surprised at how most people quit.

I remember as a smoker I found the thought of quitting so incredibly impossible that I couldn't believe anyone could ever rid themselves of this horrible addiction. 

I wrote this article to show you that yes indeed people actually do quit smoking.  Not just people  who smoke a cigarette here and there, or people who have only smoked for a few years, but people just like you who have smoked for 10, 20, 30 years and more.  People who wake up in the morning and run to their pack of cigarettes as fast as they can,  barely extinguishing one before they light another.  Real people, who really quit smoking, just like you!!!

I decided to complete a market research study.  This study is made up of 100 people who have successfully quit smoking for 1 year or longer. 

The survey group included:

• 62 men and 38 women
• Average age when quitting smoking = 40.2 years old
• Average number of years smoking = 21.4 years
• Average number of times attempting to quit smoking  = 6.2
• Average number of cigarettes smoked per day = 18.8

Included in this group were 5 people who were struck down with a smoking related disease which was the great motivating factor for them to quit.  Everyone else had many reasons for quitting smoking, but the # 1 reason for all was to improve their health and live a longer life.

What method was used by these 100 people to quit smoking?

91 quit using the cold turkey method
5 quit using Chantix
4 quit using hypnosis

The study reinforced the fact that cold turkey is the most common method used for those successfully quitting smoking.   91% of the quitters used this method.

The reason cold turkey is so successful is that you experience all the pain early on in the quit, and if you can make it through that period, you are home free.  Other methods such as nicotine replacement just drag on the  pain, albeit in smaller doses, but you never really cure your addiction to nicotine.  Remember, it only takes 72 hours to rid your body of nicotine,  as long as you don't put more nicotine back in your system.

I was intrigued by the 4 people using hypnosis to quit smoking.  All 4 of the people were heavy smokers  who had smoked for more than 15 years.  Having tried hypnosis myself, twice, I couldn't believe that this method could work for anyone.  But all 4 people told me when they left their session they did not have the urge to light up and never felt the urge again.

Chantix was used by 5 of the people surveyed, and I have no doubt that this drug can be a successful aid in quitting.  But it is worth mentioning,  4 of the individuals who quit by using Chantix were all diagnosed with smoking related illnesses, so their motivation to stop smoking was probably pretty high.  In any case, 5% of the people in this survey did quit using this method.

Take note, not one person credited nicotine replacement therapy as a method used to quit smoking.   More than 40% of the people had tried using some form of nicotine replacement therapy during one of their quitting attempts but none were successful quitting long term with this method.   I am a strong opponent of this method and believe that it only inhibits ones ability to quit smoking by placing the drug you are trying to quit back in your body.   This may be one of the greatest scams of the last 20 years.

I just added a Quit Smoking forum so you can talk with others trying to quit smoking. Great place for support or to give some support to new quitters.

http://quitsmokingwithoutpain.blogspot.com/p/quit-smoking-forum.html

If you use the cold turkey method, please read my post on quitting cold turkey
http://quitsmokingwithoutpain.blogspot.com/2012/02/cold-turkey.html

Also please see my posts on dealing with craves both physical and psychological
http://quitsmokingwithoutpain.blogspot.com/2012/02/cold-turkey.html
http://quitsmokingwithoutpain.blogspot.com/2012/02/dealing-with-physical-withdrawal.html
http://quitsmokingwithoutpain.blogspot.com/2012/02/breaking-psychological-addiction-to.html

And once you stop, make sure you never relapse.  See my post on relapse prevention below.
http://quitsmokingwithoutpain.blogspot.com/2013/03/smoking-relapse-prevention.html

Good luck on your  quit!!!!  I know you will be successful!!!



 

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CHANTIX

Chantix also know as Champix in Europe was released as a wonder drug to quit smoking in 2007.  Pfizer released the drug claiming a 44% success rate in smokers quitting using this new drug. 

Before I get into how Chantix works, it's important that you understand the addiction to nicotine and why you crave a cigarette every 30 minutes or so.   Before you started smoking, you didn't crave a cigarette.  You were not addicted to nicotine and so there was nothing in your body or mind that told you it needed a cigarette.

After your first few cigarettes, you began generating receptors in your brain.  These receptors are ports where the nicotine travels to your brain and you get that good feeling when you smoke.  The more you smoked over the years, the more receptors opened in your brain and the more nicotine your body craved.  This is the part of the brain that keeps telling you that it wants a cigarette, and in most cases you obliged by smoking.  Once this pattern began you were trapped and no longer making decisions on your own, you were a slave to these receptors. 

As the nicotine travels to the receptors, you received a dopamine rush that gave you that good feeling when you smoked.  This is why you continue to smoke and believe that you enjoy smoking.  The release of dopamine provides a nice feeling, feelings of great pleasure.  Of course you think you enjoy it!!!!

A doctor who happened to smoke invented the drug Chantix or Champix as it is known in many countries.  The idea behind this magic pill to quit smoking, is that it blocks those nicotine receptors in your brain, and doesn't allow you to receive the nicotine to that part of the brain any longer.  That is the reason that it is recommended to smoke the first week while you are on the drug.

By eliminating the pathway and not allowing the nicotine to reach these receptors, you no longer will get the same dopamine rush and good feeling sensation when you smoke.  In time all the receptors will be blocked and no longer scream for nicotine.

The theory behind the drug is sound, this is the part of smoking that is difficult to get beyond, especially during the early days of quitting smoking.  In fact, Pfizer boasts an amazing quit rate of 44% on their website for Chantix.

I took Chantix during one of my first quitting attempts.  I followed the instructions exactly as they were recommended and I was able to quit smoking after a week of taking the medication.  I know many others that this drug has helped to cure the smoking addiction, and I know many that it did not.

I did experience side effects while on Chantix.  I had the craziest dreams you could ever imagine, and I found myself sleeping much more than I had prior to taking Chantix.  It definitely has an effect on your brain and there have been a lot of incidences of people acting in strange ways and even taking their own lives while on this drug.  I don't know the facts behind the stories and I can't tell you whether Chantix played a major role, but it is worth noting that a drug of this magnitude can have side effects - severe in some cases.

Unfortunately for me, Chantix was not the end of my smoking days.  I relapsed back to smoking several months after quitting and when I did finally quit smoking for good it was using the cold turkey method.  I don't know how many of the 44% successful quitters using Chantix are still non smokers, but my guess is the number is much less than 44%. 

In my opinion cold turkey is the best method to quit smoking, and by eliminating nicotine from you body, you will slowly start shutting down those receptors in your brain in a natural manner.  By not feeding them nicotine, they will close on their own, guaranteed

I will be writing soon about relapsing when you quit and how to avoid that pitfall.  It is an important topic and certainly something all people who quit smoking need to understand.

Good luck on your decision to quit smoking.  5000 people quit every day.  In fact you quit every time you put a cigarette out.  Make the one you just smoked your last!!!

 SOURCES

http://www.chantix.com/how-it-works.aspx

 

NICOTINE PATCHES

If you are considering using a nicotine patch, gum, lozenge or any other type of nicotine replacement therapy, you must read this article before you begin. 

The nicotine patch was first invented in 1984 and introduced to the marketplace in 1992.  Nicotine patches were all the rave convincing smokers that there was a new breakthrough technology that was going to help them quit smoking once and for all.  The idea behind the nicotine patch was that you could provide nicotine to a smoker (the substance that they were addicted to) and relieve those awful withdrawal symptoms associated with quitting smoking.

Smokers rushed to their doctors to get a prescription for this new wonder drug and sales of the nicotine patch in 1992 reached 900 million dollars.   Today global sales of nicotine replacement therapies (gum, lozenges, patches, etc.) exceeded 2.4 billion dollars in 2011.

There is no doubt that this technology has become a big money maker for pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and retail pharmacies that sell the products.  But does it do anything to help smokers quit the terrible addiction to nicotine?

I first tried the nicotine patch in 1996 when prescriptions were no longer needed and you could buy the patches at any over the counter pharmacy.  On day 1 I was so excited to have quit smoking I put the patch on and celebrated my victory throughout the day.  I had thoughts of smoking all day but knew that this magic patch would keep me from wanting a cigarette.  On day 2, after making it almost 24 hours without a cigarette, I broke down and bought a pack.  My quit lasted less than one day on the nicotine patch.  Unfortunately the story is the same for may want to be ex smokers who have attempted using nicotine replacement to quit smoking.

The fact is that when you quit smoking you are attempting to end your addiction to nicotine.  Placing the drug you are trying to quit into your body makes no sense at all, and if the FDA truly cared about helping people quit smoking, they would never have approved such a drug as a smoking cessation product.  If you were trying to quit drinking alcohol because you were a raging alcoholic, would it make sense to put an IV drip of Whiskey in your body?   Of course not, and it makes no sense to pump nicotine into your body when you are trying to quit your addiction to nicotine.

Up until the introduction of the nicotine patch, smoking was on a steady decline in the United States dropping from a high of 45% of the population down to about 20% in the early 1990's.  20 years after the introduction of the nicotine patch, 20% of the population still smokes.  Do you see the correlation?

Look, everyone is making money off the patch.  Doctors, pharmacies, drug companies, and even the governments by reaping tax dollars.  They are all big proponents of this medical marvel because  they are getting rich while they watch you struggle to give up smoking.

This information is important, it is hard enough to quit smoking without everyone working against you to keep you hooked on a drug.  The success rate for nicotine replacement therapy is likely around 2%.  That means the failure rate is 98%.  There have been hundreds of studies published by the pharmaceutical industry showing success rates as high as 50% using nicotine replacement therapy.  Keep in mind, this is all part of the machine that is trying to keep you hooked on cigarettes.

Do not believe the hype.  Do not let your smoker brain get tricked into thinking that this makes sense, that placing nicotine in your body will help you quit nicotine.  Take a step back and think logically about what they are trying to tell you.  If you want to quit smoking, you need to quit nicotine, and it only takes 72 hours (3 days) to remove the nicotine from your body.  Don't be foolish enough to place it back in your body.

Check out our new Quit Smoking forum!!! You can talk with others trying to quit smoking. Great place for support or to give some support to new quitters.

http://quitsmokingwithoutpain.blogspot.com/p/quit-smoking-forum.html

Good luck on your journey to quit smoking forever. 

SOURCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine_patch

http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/9301280157/sales-spark-may-be-out-nicotine-patches

http://blog.euromonitor.com/2012/11/quitting-time-prospects-for-nicotine-replacement-therapy-nrt-smoking-cessation-aids.html

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/

 

QUIT SMOKING FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Every day I receive emails and comments from readers asking questions about quitting smoking.  Typically most readers have many of the same questions so I created this page to respond to each inquiry in hopes that it will help everyone.  The reality is that we all experience very similar effects when we quit smoking.

I will update this page daily as new questions are asked.  I prefer this method of providing information over a forum because often in forums readers give answers that are not correct and lead people down the wrong path.  Quitting smoking is difficult enough with all the misinformation out on the web and in the media.


I JUST QUIT SMOKING TODAY - HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR ME TO FEEL NORMAL AGAIN?  I SMOKED FOR 22 YEARS.

You probably don't even know what normal is anymore if you have been smoking for over 20 years.   It will take you 72 hours to remove all the nicotine from your system, but you won't feel normal for 20-30 days.   Once you reach that point,  cigarettes will only come into your mind when you see someone smoking or do an activity for the first time since quitting that you used to regularly smoke while doing.  You will be amazed at what "normal" feels like and what you have been missing all these years.

I WANT TO QUIT SMOKING BUT I CAN'T SEEM TO GET PAST THAT FIRST CIGARETTE OF THE DAY.  CAN YOU HELP?

The first cigarette of the day was always the most difficult for me when I quit.  The reason is that your coming off of 8 or more hours of abstinence from nicotine while you  sleep.  You wake and your body is screaming for a dose.  Try this on your next quit attempt, don't try to quit at the beginning of the day, wake up have your coffee and cigarette and try and quit mid morning or at noon.  Once you put out that last cigarette, drink a lot of cranberry juice and water to help flush out the nicotine.  Once you wake the next morning you will have made it almost 24 hours.  It won't be a lot easier the next morning but you know that if you can make it a few hours you will have passed your first 24 hours and are only another day and night away from being nicotine free. 

I ALWAYS HEAR FROM FORMER SMOKERS HOW MUCH THEY MISS SMOKING AND WISH THEY COULD HAVE A CIGARETTE.  DO THE CRAVINGS EVER END?

This was one of the myths that kept me smoking for many years.  I heard the same thing and thought to myself what is the point of quitting if I will just spend the rest of my life craving a cigarette?  That is completely false and I've actually realized that those people probably have not actually quit smoking.  If you speak to people that have quit smoking for more than a year you will get the same response over and over again, "it's the best thing I've ever done and I would never ever go back!"  Don't believe the lies, once you beat the addiction you will be glad you did and you will enjoy your life in such a wonderful way.

SHOULD I GIVE UP COFFEE WHEN I QUIT SMOKING?

No, don't give up anything when you quit smoking, except cigarettes.  The key to quitting is to continue to live your life like you have, enjoy the activities, the food and drink that you always have.  The last thing you want to do when you quit smoking is put other stress on your body.  Quitting caffeine can cause withdrawal symptoms and you don't need to add any more stress to your first days of quitting.  One word of caution, smoking has a strange effect on the way your body absorbs caffeine, it doesn't allow your body to absorb it as well as a non smoker.  When you quit, your body will absorb much more caffeine so limit your intake to a cup of coffee on the first day.  I went from a pot of coffee a day when I was a smoker down to a cup or 2 as a non smoker.

IS THERE REALLY ANY HARM IN HAVING ONE CIGARETTE ON OCCASION NOW THAT I HAVE QUIT FOR A COUPLE MONTHS?

I'm glad you asked this question because it is the downfall of every person who has relapsed back to smoking.  You can not have one cigarette, in fact you can not have one puff or you will quickly fall right back into the smoking trap.  Believe me, I know.   When we quit we all think how wonderful it would be to just have a cigarette now and again.  Listen to me, you can not ever have a cigarette, nor should you convince yourself that you even want a cigarette.  That is your addiction still speaking to you, don't listen to it.   Any former smoker who has even a puff of a cigarette will soon fall back to smoking their old level.  Maybe not the first day but within time you will be right back to a pack or more a day.  It takes almost no time, especially as a former smoker, to become addicted again.  First you have a cigarette once a week, then you start smoking every couple days, and soon you are smoking as soon as you wake up and all  day long.  This is the only guarantee I will make to you, do not try and fool the smoking gods, they will grab you and drag you back into the awful world of addiction to nicotine.

I QUIT 3 MONTHS AGO AND I'M BREAKING OUT IN PIMPLES LIKE WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER.  IS THIS NORMAL?

It's funny how much gunk is in your body after smoking 10, 15, 20 years.  All those toxins you put in your body have to come out, and when they do it creates a lot of different reactions.  Yes, it is normal to experience some acne, it is all part of the wonderful healing process.  In a short time when all the bad stuff gets out of your body you will have the most beautiful glowing skin you could ever imagine.  I had pimples break out in my arm pits which was incredibly painful but only lasted a short while.

I QUIT SMOKING AND I KEEP HAVING DREAMS THAT I AM SMOKING.    WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?

This is completely normal and will happen to most of us when we quit smoking.  This is primarily caused by the removal of tar and nicotine from your lungs.  During this excretion process it creates dreams of smoking.  It is part of the healing process and is a good sign.   Almost everyone will experience this.  Just be glad when you wake that it was only a dream!!!

I HAVE BEEN USING THE NICOTINE PATCH FOR 2 DAYS NOW AND HAVEN'T SMOKED A CIGARETTE BUT THE CRAVINGS HAVE NOT DECREASED AT ALL.  WHEN WILL THE CRAVINGS END?

If you are on the patch, gum, lozenge or any other type of nicotine replacement therapy, the cravings will never end.  The reason is that you are still feeding your addiction to nicotine which creates the cravings for more nicotine.  The nicotine replacement therapy was created by pharmaceutical companies to make money off of your addiction.  The only way to beat your addiction to nicotine is to remove the nicotine from your body.  Take off those patches and you will see the cravings slowly disappear within a few days.  Leave it on and you will experience more cravings and eventually fall back into smoking again.  This has been the biggest scam of the last 20 years and has inhibited more people from quitting than anything else.

I QUIT A WEEK AGO AND HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY CONSTIPATED.  WILL I EVER GO TO THE BATHROOM AGAIN?

This is a very normal reaction as your body is going through some major changes, fortunately they are all good changes!!  Try to eat a lot of fruit and foods rich in fiber to help with your bowel movements.  Within a few weeks you will be back on a normal schedule.  Smoking effects much more than your heart, lungs, and blood flow.  It affects almost every organ in your body including your kidneys, liver and pancreas.



I AM PLANNING TO QUIT SMOKING NEXT THURSDAY.  DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE TO HELP  ME SUCCEED?   SHOULD I START TRYING TO CUT DOWN ON THE NUMBER OF CIGARETTES I SMOKE EACH DAY?

Congratulations on your decision, it's the best one you have made in a long time!!  To prepare for  your quit keep reminding yourself how much you don't enjoy smoking each time you light up your next cigarette.  Ingrain in your mind that smoking is not fun, it is an addiction and it will be a wonderful day when you don't have to stop  every 30 minutes to feed your addiction.  Go grocery shopping and get some cranberry juice, some fruits and some healthy snacks to eat during the first week.  Read, read, read, every day a couple hours spend some time reading about the dangers of smoking and why you want to stop.  Have one really good reason that you want to stop, write it down and remember it every time your brain tells you it wants a cigarette.  Do not cut down on the amount of cigarettes you are smoking from now until your quit date.  Cutting down only makes each cigarette you smoke seem that much more pleasurable due to the time between cigarettes.  Smoke as you normally would and when you put down that last cigarette know that you will never  turn back.  Make the commitment and never look back.  Congratulation and keep me updated on your progress.

ARE THE DANGERS OF SMOKING EXAGGERATED? 

I wish they were but the cold harsh reality is that they are not.  If you  look at historical data you will see a strong pattern of increased cases of lung cancer about 30 years after smoking became prevalent in the United States.  Women didn't start smoking until much later than men, and if you look at the data you will see a stark increase in the number of lung cancer cases in females about 30 years after women began to light up.  You are not guaranteed to get lung cancer from smoking, but there are so many other diseases that have nothing to do with the lungs that affect smokers and kill smokers.  COPD is one of the diseases that you are almost guaranteed to get if you smoke cigarettes long enough.  In fact if you don't die from a cancer related to smoking, or a heart attack, you will most certainly experience COPD and wish you had died from another disease.  It is a terrible disease.  The short answer to your question is no, the dangers are not exaggerated, in fact they haven't been publicized enough or nobody in their right mind would ever light a cigarette again.


I will continue to update this page with questions as I receive them.  If you would like to ask a question either submit it in the comments section below or you can email me directly at quitsmokingwithoutpain@yahoo.com

Good luck to all  you quitters.  And remember, there is nothing wrong with quitting!!!

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ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES

Electronic cigarettes are quickly becoming a popular replacement for traditional cigarettes.  Many smokers have ditched their cigarettes and are using this new alternative method to get nicotine into their system.  As of right now, the FDA has not acted to promote electronic cigarettes as a healthy alternative to smoking.

I was involved in the initial launch of electronic cigarettes into North America back in 2007 so I fancy myself as a bit of an expert on the subject.   I remember the first time I set eyes on these devices I thought that it would revolutionize the world and put an end to filthy smoke filled rooms forever. 

The question that everyone asks is are electronic cigarettes really safe.  I can't tell you that they are completely safe,  because there has not been enough study done on the long term effects, but I can say that it is hard to argue that they are much safer than traditional cigarettes.

Traditional cigarettes contain over 4000 chemicals in addition to the tobacco.  Many of these chemicals are known to cause cancer, yet they continue to be key ingredients.  I won't list all of the 4000 but here are some of the items that you may not be aware are in those cigarettes you are smoking.

Traditional Cigarettes contain:

Carbon Monoxide - that's the stuff that comes out of your car exhaust
Tar - the stuff that those roads your driving your car on are made out of
Ammonia - cleaning agent
Acetone - same stuff you take your nail polish off with
Butane - the stuff in lighter fluid
Freon - works great to make your airconditioning cold, probably not a good thing to inhale
Cyanide - deadly poison but yet it makes its way into your cigarette
Arsenic - that's right, poison used to kill rats and other vermen.  Maybe you someday
Cadium - the stuff in batteries

The list goes on but you get the point.  Some of these items are naturally found in tobacco, others are added by our friends at the tobacco companies to enhance the speed and amount of nicotine absorbed into your body.

In contrast, most electronic cigarettes only contain a handful of chemicals.  Electronic cigarette manufacturers all use the same basic ingredients with a few exceptions.  The process by which the electronic cigarettes work is by using a battery which ignites a heating element when you inhale and creates a water based vapor mist with a nicotine based liquid. 

In the early days of manufacturing electronic cigarettes, the quality control was questionable at best.  Much of the nicotine solution injected into the cartridges was done by hand using a syringe.  The amount of nicotine added to each electronic cigarette probably varied greatly.  Today the process has become much more automated and the electronic cigarettes have a more consistent nicotine level.

The main ingredients in most electronic cigarettes are listed below.   This is a complete list.  As you can see it is considerably smaller than the list of items in traditional cigarettes.

Water
Nicotine
Propylene Glycol
Ethanol
Glycerol
Acetylpyrazine
Gualacol
Myosmine
Cotinine
Vaniilin

Electronic cigarettes can be found in varying amounts of nicotine from zero nicotine up to 3% nicotine.  Check out how much nicotine each brand of electronic cigarettes contains http://ecigfacts.blogspot.com/

If you truly want to quit smoking, if you want  to end your addiction to nicotine, if you want ot free yourself from a life of slavery, then electronic cigarettes will not help you.  This is just another method of injecting nicotine into your body.  While it may be cleaner, it may be safer, and it may even be cheaper than traditional cigarettes, it still produces the same result, an addiction to nicotine.

I wanted to bring out this information about electronic cigarettes, because as smokers we are always looking for the next trick that will help us quit.  At the end of the day, most every smoker wants to quit smoking.  Many of you  have tried the patch, lozenge, gum, etc. as a means to quit.  Most of you found this doesn't work because it just places the drug you are trying to quit back into your system.  Nicotine does one thing, it makes you crave more nicotine.

I've said in previous articles that using the no nicotine cartridges on electronic cigarettes would be the only way that I would promote using this product to quit smoking.   You will quickly find that you get no satisfaction from smoking a no nicotine cigarette, you only remind yourself of smoking when you  imitate smoking a real cigarette. 

Remember, it takes only 72 hours of nicotine abstinence to cleanse your system of nicotine.  Once you make it through those 72 hours you will no longer be physically addicted to this drug.  If you want to quit smoking, then put down the cigarettes, pat yourself on the back for making this decision, and enjoy your new life of better health, more money and total control of your actions.  No longer will a drug be making decisions for you.

Congratulations on your decision to quit smoking.  Every day I receive comments on success stories of people quitting and thanking me for providing these articles.  Keep them coming, I love to hear from those of you that have escaped this evil addiciton.