During this time, I will increase my B vitamins (as Ted recommends), maybe take some valerian root (to help calm), and take hot baths daily to help sweat out the toxins.
Also it is my understanding that cigarettes have heavy metal toxins in them, so when I am "quit", I will do a cleanse that will help remove heavy metals. This will include chlorophyll and cilantro as well as plenty of protein so the metals will have something to "grab hold" of and be safely removed from the body.
Replied By Katherine (Houston, Tx/usa) on 07/19/2011
Just wanted to let you know that the nicotine blocker did not work so well. I guess that I suck too hard on cigeretts... It felt like the nicotine blocker was getting into my lungs and causing my lungs to hurt. So I quit the nicotine blocker, but not the dang cigaretts. I am thinking that I just need to be locked up for a week to break this dang habit!!!Replied By Gavin (Manganui, Northland, New Zealand) on 07/19/2011
In a perfect world we wouldn't smoke we wouldn't eat bad food. We wouldn't be stressed out trying to make a living. But it aint a "Perfect world".. Moderate smoking ie five a day and a natural tobacco at that. Might not be politcaly correct.. But as an appetite suppresant it takes the edge off of constant need to feed. It supplies b3. Has a calming effect and a dopamine release. When you weigh up the overall effect Obesity will have on the general population, compared to the health of a moderate smoker. I have the suspicion we might have the reason why people have been smoking for four hundred years. It might be very wise to look at banning tailor made cigaretts, as the list of unatural additves is shocking! As long as this is done with regard to the food industry as well. But a a few cool stogies a day wont kill anyone.Replied By Maria (Gippsland, Australia) on 07/19/2011
Do some research regarding B-3 & Vit C to help with quitting smoking, also check the EC page.
https://www.earthclinic.com/cures/quit_smoking.html
There is a heap of difference with natural (including dried naturally & not forced dried) tobacco. I remember reading many years ago that lung cancer was not a problem with smoking naturally grown & dried tobacco, mind you the amount smoked was small not large amounts. Now days this is not a legal option here in Oz, but cigarettes with all their chemicals are.
Replied By Gavin (Manganui, Northland, New Zealand) on 07/20/2011
Now the anti smoking industry has gone political. Its totaly ignoring a few things. Ie the bigest cause of death in non smokers is bowel cancer. Smoking increases peristalsis, I suppose that means poor food dosn't linger in the gut as long as it does in non smokers, so constipation dosn't occur.. Which is a major cause of this type of cancer. A few years ago doctors would recomend smoking to stop Asthma, and to delay Altzhimers. In the thirties they also touted it for stress relief. Yes the LPG dryers in the leaf drying kilns leave cancerous hydro carbons on the leaf. In a few years it will be interesting to see if lives are actually saved in the demonising of smoking. I doubt it.Replied By Francisca (Michelbach-le-bas, Alsace, France) on 07/20/2011
Sorry Gavin but I can't agree with your advice at all! True, obesity is a big problem and one easy to solve for most people who don't have a specific illness that makes them obese. The answer is tackle it in the beginning, far easier than to let yourself get overly fat and only then try to get rid of your weight. I think that people should stay away from cigaretts because sonner or later they all try to quit and then they have a problem! Ok, the world is far from perfect but should that mean that we go around doing everything that is not good for us? If you don't start you don't miss it, believe me because I don't!
I didn't know that naturally dried tobacco was less harmful than the cigarettes sold in the stores and criminal, if that is the case, that it is forbidden by law at least in Australia. But then till a while ago it was perfectly legal to spray your crops with all kinds of harmful chemical here in France while nettle juice, which is harmless was forbidden. You weren't even allowed to give the recipe to anybody, that was punishable by law. Now they have changed the law to allow it for home use but it is still forbidden in farms. And if you see that we have nettles for free all over the place? But that is exactly the problem.... For free... Makes no money! Anyway, don't forget second hand smoking! I have no idea whether with more natural tobacco this is less of a problem but making others inhale your old smoke is not a nice thing to do, unless you always smoke only around other smokers!
Replied By Gavin (Manganui, Northland, New Zealand) on 07/20/2011
Im totaly comfortable with your spin on things.. I just think the smoking thing needs a bit of logic and reason applied to it. The big tobacco companies have turned a fairly harmless and benign pleasure into a major health problem. The actual tobacco leaf smoked by the red indians (Nicotinus virginius) required two puffs and you were into opium dreamland. This is grown now just for the nicotine which is sprayed onto the mush which is then rolled into commercial cigaretts, all the other crap about 150 harmful chemicals are added for shelf life, flavouring etc..... Its turned into mush because thats the only way the machines can roll them, at this stage. Theirs is also the fact that in certain countries where smoking is heavy, and the diet is far different from the western one. The health risk is just not showing up.. Ie (The asian paradox) and the mediterranean diet. Arguably the greatest minds of the twentieth century were either puffing on a pipe or a cigar and lived a ripe old age. I personaly think that we might be at some sort of watershed, where the ideas generated from those smoke filled rooms might just not happen anymore. The monoxide forces the brain to solve problems and work harder, but thats just a personal opinion. Time will tell.Replied By Sarah (London, Uk) on 11/04/2012
Gavin, I don't know where you're getting your information from, but its contrary to my knowledge and experience. I come from what was only recently the largest tobacco producer in the world (Zimbabwe), which still has the biggest tobacco auction floors globally. My country has (had) a long history of tobacco farming and cigarrette manufacture... And I am familiar with it all. There is no 'spraying' of some high grade nicotine onto 'mush' as you maintain... Certainly not from what I've witnessed. There is, however, a grading of the leaf - from high to low - similar with tea farming.
Also, your statement that "... The big tobacco companies have turned a fairly harmless and benign pleasure into a major health problem" makes no logical sense. Why would commercial companies trash their product?? Its illogical. And what about the expose nearly 20yrs ago now of tobacco companies actually hiding facts about the harm nicotine and smoking has on health?
It is well understood and accepted that nearly 70% of ALL lung cancers are caused directly by smoking - or in a few cases, from exposure to other harmful substances such as asbestos. The figure for oral cancers (mouth, neck and head included) are as high for smokers. This is medical fact, which any oncologist can verify.
Also, the biggest killer today - in developed countries - is coronary heart disease (CHD). Diabetes is also a massive problem, costing health services billions to manage every year, and contributing to CHD deaths. Smoking is a major factor in CHD - and it is not a causal link.
It is true that bowel cancers are on the increase - but NOT necessarily in non-smokers. It is also the easiest cancer to treat if it is caught early enough. Bowel screening programmes are doing much to highlight new cases and may well be distorting the figures.
Conversely, in developing countries, the biggest killers remain communicable diseases. However, as diets become more like the western world (with high fat and sugar) combined with increased smoking - there is an effective tsunami of health concerns on the horizon - especially as developing countries don't have the health infrastructure of the west.
The damaging effects of smoking are - frankly - undeniable. Your claim that 'big tobacco companies' are making up this 'spin' is baffling.
Replied By Sarah (London, Uk) on 11/04/2012
I would just like to add... People today are living considerably longer with each decade - never mind with each generation. This is due to a variety of reasons. First, the discovery of penicillin and the advent of antibiotics is not to be underestimated. For people to die from sepsis today (in the developed world) is rare in comparison to before the advent of antibiotics. A very common infection, especially in children and the elderly, is urinary tract infection (UTI). Left untreated, UTI's can track back along the renal system and infect the kidneys. This is an infection of a vital organ - which, without antibiotics, is potentially fatal. Antibiotics have a bad rep because of their overuse in the 70's and 80's... but their impact on mortalities is massive, and ongoing.
Secondly, vaccines and innoculations have had an equally massive impact on mortality - with small pox virtually eliminated. There was even recently discussions of destroying the last small pox viruse reserves kept for making vaccines.
Thirdly, nutrition -more in the developed world. Good nutrition even impacts on following generations. There was a facinating study done on Dutch women who were children during WWII, and the effects of their malnutrition on their off-spring, and even on the children of their children.
Fourthly, and again more in the developed countries, is better living conditions - clean water, sanitation etc. Have you ever heard of a cholera outbreak in a western town or city? No. In Africa (for example) it can be rife. 4yrs ago Zimbabwe had mass graves because of cholera... The political situation has so degraded the infrastructure there is no clean running water. With the rains comes flooding of sewage into water ways, and boom! Cholera. The very young and the elderly dying the most.
Finally, medical intervention is undoubtably impacting on mortality. This hardly needs further explanation.
So, people of yester-year living to a "ripe old age" while "puffing on a pipe or cigar" is not exactly correct. Their ripe old age was in all likelihood their 60's or early 70's (unlike today, where people with access to modern living standards, good nutrition and healthcare systems are living comfortably into their late 80's, 90's and even 100yrs and beyond) And wouldn't it be interesting to know exactly what it was people puffing away on their pipes and cigars actually died from? Infection? Small pox? Lung cancer?... certainly not old age.
Replied By Mesem (France) on 12/01/2013
This is for Sarah who didn't see to understand Gavin's comment back then! Its important to read carefully what people write and not skim read! Tobacco is just a plant that is not the greatest thing to abuse but add a bunch of chemicals to it and its self administered poison. Cannabis is natural and smoking it is not a huge deal unless you can't control your consumption. Add to list; alcohol, sugar, read meat, salt...Replied By Gavin (Northland, New Zealand) on 12/01/2013
Yes thanks, I was thinking of moderation in all things, immoderate use of all things lead to problems. Most of the things that make a person feel good if overdone are bad for the body. But on the other hand if you go through life without the occasional pleasure we might as well not bother.Replied By Gavin (Northland, New Zealand) on 12/01/2013
With regard to the big tobacco I was referring to the production of taylor made cigys. The leaf is processed into a mush and then dried out like cardboard, it has to be done this way for the cuters, the rolling machines cant make them, any other way. Rice is also used as filler, (burnt rice is a carcinogen) the amount of nicotine in the commercial leaf isn't very high, so they add it to the mush, by spraying. Along with about another 140 chemicals to improve shelf life and taste. I've researched this, and to the best of my knowledge, it is correct. If you add to the mix the hydrocarbons left on the leaf, after kiln drying, another carcinogen, taylor made cigs, are really dicey. No one will convince me that a few and I stress a few, rolled cigarettes, per day are much of a health hazard. The fact that pipe smokers live longer than none smokers, must be a clue to some sort, of balanced look at the problem. During the time I was researching the effects of smoking. I was fairly dumfounded myself as to benefits. This might sound a bit reactionary to the present anti smoking industries.. and I apologise if I've hurt anyone's sensibilities .but I think that its past atmospheric bomb testing with regards to strontium levels, that would be the main culprit for causing a disease that wasn't on the radar before they started.