16
Mar
2012

Acupuncture and Smoking

Acupuncture as an alternative approach to smoking cessation has a growing number of converts. In fact, acupuncture is often a court mandated treatment for drug addicts because of its ability to reduce cravings and alleviate withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, anxiety and difficulty concentrating.

Among current U.S. adult smokers, 70% report that they want to quit smoking and millions try to quit every year. If you have attempted to quit smoking, you know how difficult it can be. Nicotine is a powerful addiction. In fact, research suggests that nicotine is as addictive as heroin, cocaine, or alcohol.

It is estimated that most smokers will attempt to quit two or three times, or more, before finally kicking the habit. When conventional methods to quit smoking have failed, smokers often look outside mainstream approaches and turn to alternative medicine.

Acupuncture as an alternative approach to smoking cessation has a growing number of converts. In fact, acupuncture is often a court-mandated treatment for drug addicts because of its ability to reduce cravings and alleviate withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, anxiety and difficulty concentrating.

Acupuncture is successful with smoking cessation and has turned a growing number of cigarette smokers into permanent ex-smokers. Treatments take all of your symptoms into account and aim at balancing the energy within the body to optimize health.

The acupuncture treatments focus on jitters, cravings, irritability and restlessness; all symptoms that people commonly complain about when they quit. It also aids in relaxation and detoxification.

In one study conducted at the University of Oslo, Norway, acupuncture was found to significantly reduce the desire to smoke up to five years after the initial treatment. Subjects of the study also reported that cigarettes tasted worse than before treatment and that the treatments had effectively reduced their taste for tobacco.

The acupuncture needles used are hair-thin. They are superficially inserted into various points in the ears and body to assist with smoking cessation. In between treatments, small pellets are often taped to the acupuncture points on the ear. When a cigarette craving hits, gently pressing on the pellets stimulates the acupuncture points to calm the mind and eliminate the craving.

Acupuncture is not a panacea or a magic cure in the treatment of any addiction, including smoking. But, acupuncture is effective in making it easier to quit and remain smoke-free for good.

If you are ready to quit, call an acupuncture provider near you for a consultation to see how acupuncture can empower you to take control and begin a healthy and smoke-free life!

Source: Acufinder

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14
Mar
2012

Smoking: Quit and Start Your Healthy Future!

By now, your New Year’s resolutions are probably long forgotten. Your gym bag is gather dust at the bottom of your closet. If one of those promises you made to yourself was to kick the smoking habit, don’t give up on giving up!

We know that most smokers would really like to stop smoking cigarettes, but find it hard. Find it in you to encourage yourself to take the leap and give it a go! One great motivator is thinking about your physical health and your aspirations of a smoke-free future.

Quitting smoking can almost immediately improve your health. Within 20 minutes of your last cigarette, your blood pressure and pulse return to normal. After 24 hours, carbon monoxide is out of your body and your lungs start to clear themselves. After three said, you may have more energy and breathing may become easier. After a year of quitting smoking, your risk of suffering a heart attack may be reduce by half.

Resources are a huge part of quitting smoking. They give you the tools and support you need to quit. Resources to help you stop smoking cigarettes are said to be effective and help a majority of people reach their goal.

Give up smoking can be tricky, frustrating, and extremely hard. However, we all know that are bodies are much better off with out cigarettes. Have you tried quitting smoking? If so, how many times? Please leave us a comment blow or on our Facebook page!

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12
Mar
2012

E-Cigarettes: Smoking Facts

“Sheila Brewers smoked for 48 years, making it an extremely hard habit to break. “I’ve tried so many times. I even accomplished three months, and I never stopped wanting a cigarette,” Brewers said.

That was until she tried electronic cigarettes. Brewers started using e-cigarettes two years ago and has been smoke-free ever since.

“I feel so much better,” said Brewers, of Montgomery, Minn. “I can breathe so much better. Everything is so much better.”

Brewers attributes her elation to e-cigs, which vaporize liquid through a small battery-powered heating element, which the smoker then inhales. The liquid solutions come in a wide variety of flavors and nicotine concentrations. Some solutions have nicotine levels that are slightly stronger than a standard cigarette, while others have no nicotine at all. It looks and feels like you’re smoking a cigarette, but you’re not really.

For that reason, some retailers are promoting e-cigs as an effective (and even cool) smoking cessation tool. Health and regulatory officials caution that there have been no independent studies on the safety of the devices. Despite that, use of the faux cigarettes seems to be catching on.

A Chinese pharmacist developed the patent for e-cig technology in 2003. Four years later they landed here and have been growing in popularity since. The percent of U.S. adults who have tried an e-cig more than quadrupled in a year’s time, from six-tenths of 1 percent in 2009 to 2.7 percent in 2010, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Minnesota-based e-cigarette retailer Jesse Griffith, who owns Smokeless Smoking, said he’s seen similar growth locally. “We were tracking selling 500 refill bottles [in December] and we went up to 600 in January,” he said. In the past year, Griffith’s shop has expanded from its original location in Burnsville Center to the Maplewood Mall and Rosedale.

According to Griffith, each customer responds differently to the e-cigs, especially if they are using them to stop smoking. Like Brewers, Steve Lyzenga of Rosemount went to Smokeless Smoking to quit conventional cigarettes. “I had gone both smoke- and nicotine-free,” Lyzenga wrote in an e-mail. “I was probably four or so months deep using a zero-nicotine load in pomegranate flavor, so it was purely just going through motion of smoking at that point.”

But it didn’t stick. Lyzenga has started smoking again, but plans to return to e-cigs soon.

Griffith talks to customers about their smoking habits and preferences. He then tries to set them up with a package that has flavor and nicotine levels similar to the conventional cigarettes they smoke.

“Generally, if they are a pack-a-day full-flavor, then we’re going to set them up with something that’s probably going to cost them a little bit shy of $100,” Griffith said. “That’s going to be the equipment and that’s also going to be about a month’s worth of refills for them.” Griffith estimates that e-cigs cost average smokers 20 percent of what they spend on regular cigarettes.

As e-cigarette sales grow, so does attention from the medical community. There are almost no independent studies on e-cigs, which leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

“Is this being brought to market as a way of introducing kids or young adults to nicotine addiction? Is it really a nicotine addiction device? … We don’t know,” said Dr. Thomas Kottke, a HealthPartners cardiologist.

Griffith tries to avoid selling to nonsmokers, seeking instead to give conventional smokers a healthier alternative. “We do feel that we have somewhat of a social responsibility to not get people addicted to nicotine,” Griffith said. “We want them to have the better of two evils, not the worse of two evils.”

The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has attempted to step in. The U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., however, ruled that e-cigarettes and other tobacco-containing products are not drugs unless they are marketed specifically for therapeutic purposes, barring the FDA from interfering.

For Kottke, more studies would provide data as to whether e-cigs are a safe alternative to regular cigarettes. “Before we say this is an effective tool … for helping people quit, we actually need some evidence,” Kottke said.

According to Kottke, since an e-cig is inhaled, it is a better way of delivering nicotine than a device that enters the bloodstream. “It gives you an instant hit. It’s like you’re snorting a drug. It’s inhaling a drug … and that’s always been the problem with things like nicotine patches and nicotine gum,” he said, adding that what’s unclear is whether e-cigs keep smokers off regular cigarettes or enable smoking habits.”

Source: Star Tribune

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9
Mar
2012

Smoking and Drinking: Is There a Link?

In most movies, smoking and drinking are portrayed together. Where there’s smoke, there’s likely to be alcohol, too. In this case, Hollywood has it right. Clinical studies have shown that smoking and drinking often go together.

Compared to the general population, people who smoke are four times more likely to abuse alcohol. And, people who drink a lot tend to smoke heavily. People who abuse alcohol are three times more likely to have a smoking problem.

Both smoking and drinking dependence tends to run in families. Scientists suspect there may be a genetic link that makes people vulnerable to both addictions. Researchers also believe that smoking and drinking act on the same part of the brain.

Other studies show that using alcohol and tobacco together can boost the pleasurable effects of both. That’s how “mutual cravings” occur. Smoking can trigger a desire for alcohol and vice versa. Abusing both smoking and drinking greatly increases your health dangers. Your risk of getting mouth or throat cancer rises dramatically when you smoke and drink heavily.

Most people who seek treatment for alcoholism are also chronic smokers. For people with an alcoholic addiction, giving up smoking is especially hard. Even if they have stopped drinking, they may be more addicted to nicotine than smokers who never had a drinking problem. People with both addictions are encourages looking for smoke-free Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Both addictions need to be treated, but approaches vary. Some rehab programs focus on alcoholism first and them work on smoking. Other addition programs encourage giving up both habits at the same time. The results are mixed, and neither method has been proven more effective.

Depression and anxiety are often linked to the co-use of tobacco and alcohol, too. Some people drink and smoke to self-medicate when they are depressed. For others, being depressed or anxious can make them crave alcohol and nicotine. In these cases, any mood disorder needs to be treated along with the addictions.

Since a tie between smoking and drinking has been established, doctors are being urged to use this knowledge as a screening tool. Doctors are far more likely to ask patients about smoking habits than alcohol used. Knowing that a patient smokes can alert doctors to look for possible signs of alcohol abuse. Remember, although sometimes fun, smoking and drinking do not go well together!

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7
Mar
2012

Secondhand Smoke: Affects Non-Smokers

We’ve all heard about the negative effects of secondhand smoke, but new research is shedding light on just how powerful it really is. A recent study from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found that secondhand smoke might make it harder for smokers to kick the habit. Researchers say that secondhand smoke triggers nicotine cravings.

Tobacco smoke is a known carcinogen and toxic substance. Of the 4,000 chemicals found in cigarette smoke, at least 250 are considered harmful to your health and 60 of them are known or suspected causes of cancer. Some of the toxins contained in secondhand smoke are:

  • Arsenic
  • Benzene
  • Beryllium
  • Cadmium
  • Chromium
  • Nickel
  • Vinyl Chloride

Research has found that secondhand smoke is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths every year in non-smokers, including about 3,400 lung cancer deaths and an estimated 46,000 heart disease deaths. Evidence is growing that secondhand smoke might also play a role in the development of breast cancer.

However, children are the most vulnerable to victims of secondhand smoke. About 35% of kinds in the U.S. live in homes where they are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke. Children exposed to secondhand smoke suffer respiratory disease, asthma attacks, and infections at an increase rate. According to experts from NIDA, they believe that every year secondhand smoke:

  • Results in 150,000 to 300,000 lung infections like pneumonia and bronchitis in kinds younger than 18 months, leading to approximately 15,000 hospitalizations every year.
  • Causes 430 babies to die of sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS
  • Prompts more and worse asthma attacks in up to one million children with asthma

Due to the fact that more people recognize the dangers of secondhand smoke, the act of smoking itself can harm relationships and cause people to avoid you. According to the American Cancer Society, the only non-smokers can be completely protected from secondhand smoke indoors is to ban al indoor smoking.

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5
Mar
2012

Quit Cigarette Smoking: Higher Prices May Not Help

Are you attempting to quit cigarette smoking and hope that the higher prices may help you? Well, statistics show that even the rise of cigarette prices cannot make smokers quit. Many smokers believe that higher cigarette prices will make them healthier. However, when you are trying to quit cigarette smoking you will need more than just high prices to kick the habit for good.

There is plenty of evidence that smoking is very bad for people and almost as much evidence that people smoke fewer cigarettes if they are expensive. However, “healthy smokers” are not the same thing as happy smokers. If smokers are rational, they will not believe such as thing. But if smokers are wracked by temptation and are trying unsuccessfully to quit cigarette smoking, then higher prices might make them happier by encouraging them to smoke less or even to stop entirely.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, before people decided whether to light up, they compared the health risks of smoking, the possible social and psychological benefits, and the fact that smoking it habit-forming.

Researchers also found that smokers also smoke less if prices are expected to rise at a later stage. Smokers also think about their future and recognize their own addiction, because a self-diagnosis addict who expects prices to rise might try to begin the difficult process of quitting before the habit becomes expensive.

Smokers recognize the risks and would like to quit cigarette smoking, but keep valuing the short-term bliss of the nicotine hit over the longer-term benefits of kicking the habit. For smokers who fit this description, expensive cigarettes can indeed be a blessing by encouraging them to cut down or quit.

Researchers looked at two large sets of data on overall happiness. They compare what happened with cigarette taxes rose. They found that when cigarette taxes rise, “potential smokers”, the people whose age, class, income, and domestic circumstances suggest that they are likely to smoke, are happier.

They concluded that a rise n cigarette prices will not get people to quit smoking cigarettes. The season why there are so many smokers, drinkers, and drug users is because they need an escape from their lives. If you need help or know someone who needs help to quit smoking cigarettes visits www.smokefree.gov!

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2
Mar
2012

Why Do We Smoke?

None of the much-flaunted appeals of cigarette advertisers, such as superior taste and mildness, induces us to become smokers or to choose one brand in preference to another. Despite the emphasis put on such qualities by advertisers, they are minor considerations. This is one of the first facts we discovered when we asked several hundred people, from all walks of life, why they liked to smoke cigarettes. Smoking is as much a psychological pleasure as it is a physiological satisfaction. As one of our respondents explained: “It is not the taste that counts. It’s that sense of satisfaction you get from a cigarette that you can’t get from anything else.”

Smoking is Fun

What is the nature of this psychological pleasure? It can be traced to the universal desire for self-expression. None of us ever completely outgrows his childhood. We are constantly hunting for the carefree enjoyment we knew as children. As we grew older, we had to subordinate our pleasures to work and to the necessity for unceasing effort. Smoking, for many of us, then, became a substitute for our early habit of following the whims of the moment; it becomes a legitimate excuse for interrupting work and snatching a moment of pleasure. “You sometimes get tired of working intensely,” said an accountant whom we interviewed, “and if you sit back for the length of a cigarette, you feel much fresher afterwards. It’s a peculiar thing, but I wouldn’t think of just sitting back without a cigarette. I guess a cigarette somehow gives me a good excuse.”

Smoking is a Reward

Most of us are hungry for rewards. We want to be patted on the back. A cigarette is a reward that we can give ourselves as often as we wish. When we have done anything well, for instance, we can congratulate ourselves with a cigarette, which certifies, in effect, that we have been “good boys.” We can promise ourselves: “When I have finished this piece of work, when I have written the last page of my report, I’ll deserve a little fun. I’ll have a cigarette.”

The first and last cigarette in the day are especially significant rewards. The first one, smoked right after breakfast, is a sort of anticipated recompense. The smoker has work to do, and he eases himself into the day’s activities as pleasantly as possible. He gives himself a little consolation prize in advance, and at the same time manages to postpone the evil hour when he must begin his hard day’s work. The last cigarette of the day is like “closing a door.” It is something quite definite. One smoker explained: “I nearly always smoke a cigarette before going to bed. That finishes the day. I usually turn the light out after I have smoked the last cigarette, and then turn over to sleep.”

Smoking is often merely a conditioned reflex. Certain situations, such as coming out of the subway, beginning and ending work, voluntary and involunatary interruptions of work, feelings of hunger, and many others regulate the timetable of smoking. Often a smoker may not even want a cigarette particularly, but he will see someone else take one and then he feels that he must have one, too.

While to many people smoking is fun, and a reward in itself, it more often accompanies other pleasures. At meals, a cigarette is somewhat like another course. In general, smoking introduces a holiday spirit into everyday living. It rounds out other forms of enjoyment and makes them one hundred per cent satisfactory.

Smoking is Oral Pleasure

As we have said, to explain the pleasure derived from smoking as taste experience alone, is not sufficient. For one thing, such an explanation leaves out the powerful erotic sensitivity of the oral zone. Oral pleasure is just as fundamental as sexuality and hunger. It functions with full strength from earliest childhood. There is a direct connection between thumbsucking and smoking. “In school I always used to chew a pencil or a pen,” said a journalist, in reply to our questions. “You should have seen the collection I had. They used to be chewed to bits. Whenever I try to stop smoking for a while, I get something to chew on, either a pipe or a menthol cigarette. You just stick it in your mouth and keep on sucking. And I also chew a lot of gum when I want to cut down on smoking….”

The satisfied expression on a smoker’s face when he inhales the smoke is ample proof of his sensuous thrill. The immense power of the yearning for a cigarette, especially after an enforced abstinence, is acknowledged by habitual smokers.

Source: Psychology of Everyday Living

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29
Feb
2012

Steps to Quit Smoking Cigarettes: Ways to Help You

In most cases, people must take steps to quit smoking cigarettes, instead of just quitting cold turkey. The steps to quit smoking cigarettes vary depending on the person; however, we have provided some helpful steps to quit smoking cigarettes below!

  • Know why you want to quit: Why do you want to quit smoking? The answer “because it’s bad for you” isn’t good enough. To be motivated to quit, you need a powerful, personal reason. Maybe you want to protect your family from secondhand smoke, or the thought of lung cancer frightens you.
  • Don’t go cold turkey: It may be tempting to toss your cigarettes and declare you’ve quit, but going cold turkey isn’t easy to do. Ninety-five percent of people who try to stop smoking with out therapy or medication end up relapsing. Nicotine is addictive. The brain becomes used to having nicotine and craves it. In its absence, the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal occur.
  • Try nicotine-replacement therapy: When you stop smoking, nicotine withdrawal may make you feel frustrated, depressed, restless, or irritable. The craving for “just one” may be overwhelming. Nicotine-replacement therapy can help reduce these feelings. Studies suggest that nicotine gum and patches can help double your changes of quitting successfully when used with an intensive behavioral program.
  • Ask about prescription pills: To ease nicotine withdrawal without using products that contain nicotine, ask your doctor about prescription medications. There are pills that may help reduce cravings by affecting chemicals in the brain. They may also make smoking less satisfying if you do pick up a cigarette. Other drugs can help reduce troubling withdrawal symptoms, such as depression or inability to concentrate.
  • Don’t do it alone: Tell your friends, family, and co-workers that you’re trying to quit. Their encouragement could make all the difference. You may also want to join a support group or talk to a counselor. Behavioral therapy is a type of counseling that helps you identify and stick to quit-smoking strategies. Combine behavioral therapy with nicotine replacement products and/or medication to boost your odds of success.

There are many options and resources out there to help you quit smoking. Provided above are some helpful steps to quit smoking cigarettes. For more information on steps to quit smoking cigarettes, talk to your doctor!!

Source: WebMD

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27
Feb
2012

Smoking and Bad Breath

Smoking and bad breath don’t go well together. In fact, smoking and other tobacco products can do more than just damage your health. Along with a host of serious disease and health conditions, the use of tobacco also causes bad breath or halitosis. Below are causes and reasons why smoking and bad breath negatively impacts your health.

Tobacco causes bad breath in a number of ways:

  • Dry mouth: smoking or chewing tobacco products inhibits saliva flow and dries the mouth. Without enough saliva to wash the mouth, bacteria growth increases. As bacteria go through the metabolic process, unpleasant-smelling sulfur compounds are products and bad breath results.
  • Gum disease: smoking and chewing tobacco both contribute to gum disease. Because of the dry mouth caused by the tobacco use and the resulting bacteria growth, infections of the mouth and gums become more likely. In addition, tobacco use seems to cause the gums to lose some ability to stick to the teeth. As pockets are created, the area is more vulnerable to odor-causing tooth decay and gum infection.
  • Sinus conditions: smoking tobacco can make any existing sinus conditions, such as postnasal drip, more severe. These sinus conditions can lead to foul-smelling breath.
  • Tobacco residue: when you use cigarettes, cigars or a pipe, unpleasant-smelling substances in the tobacco smoke, including tar and nicotine, are left on the insides of the cheeks, teeth, and tongue. These substances build up on mouth surfaces and bad breath results.

The only way to cure bad breath caused by tobacco use it to quit. However, you can minimize tobacco-induced bad breath through meticulous oral hygiene. If you want to freshen your breath and continue to use tobacco products you must:

  • Brush your teeth and gums gently, but thoroughly for two minutes, twice a day.
  • Brush your tongue and the insides of your cheeks each time your brush your teeth.
  • Floss between your teeth twice daily.
  • Rinse with alcohol-free, anti-bacterial mouthwash at least twice daily.

Smoking and bad breath may negatively impact your dental health. However, there are steps you can take to diminish the effects of smoking and bad breath.

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24
Feb
2012

Smokers’ Brain and Nicotine

When you smoke, your brain changes in response to the very high levels of nicotine delivered by cigarettes. Those brain changes cause you to become addicted to nicotine, and that addiction can make stopping smoking very difficult.

Nicotine is the chemical in tobacco that keeps you smoking. Nicotine that gets into your body through cigarettes activates structures normally present in your brain called receptors. When these receptors are activated, they release a brain chemical called dopamine, which makes you feel good. This pleasure response to dopamine is a big part of the nicotine addiction process.

Over time, as you continue to smoke, the number of nicotine receptors in your brain increases. Addicted smokers have billions more of these receptors than nonsmokers do. But not all smokers have such a high level of receptors. That’s why some regular smokers can stop smoking without much difficulty.

When you try to stop smoking, the receptors in your brain do not receive nicotine, so the pleasure response is cut off. In addition, low levels of nicotine lead to symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, such as strong cravings for a cigarette, anxiety, irritability, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, depressed mood, frustration, anger, increased hunger and difficulty sleeping. The fastest way to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms is to smoke a cigarette, which releases dopamine and activates the pleasure response.

To make stopping smoking even more difficult, the brain receptors can be conditioned to expect nicotine in certain situations long after you’ve stopped smoking. For example, if you regularly smoke when you drink alcohol, or when you’re in a stressful situation, or after a meal, the nicotine receptors in your brain anticipate the dopamine rush from nicotine at that time. These “trigger” situations can cause intense cravings for a cigarette, even if you’ve stopped smoking for several months.

The good news is that once you stop smoking entirely, the number of nicotine receptors in your brain will eventually return to normal. As that happens, the craving response will occur less often, won’t last as long or be as intense and, in time, will fade away completely.

Because of its effects on your brain, nicotine can be powerfully addictive. For many people, overcoming nicotine addiction and successfully dealing with its withdrawal symptoms requires medical treatment. Medications are available that can help reduce withdrawal symptoms, while support and guidance from a tobacco dependence treatment program can help you learn how to change your behavior in ways that increase your chances of staying smoke-free.

Although stopping smoking can be hard, it’s well worth the effort. Your health will benefit almost immediately. Just 20 minutes after your last cigarette, your heart rate slows. Twelve hours later, levels of carbon monoxide — a toxic gas — in your blood return to normal. Your lung function improves and your circulation starts to get better within three months. After a year, your risk of having a heart attack drops by half. And after five to 15 years, your stroke risk will be the same as that of a nonsmoker.

If you smoke, talk to your doctor about stopping smoking. Your doctor can provide medications and support and can also refer you to treatment programs in your area that can are available to help you. Stopping smoking is a process, so take it one step at a time.

Source: Richard D. Hurt, M.D., Nicotine Dependence Center- Mayo Clinic

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