Sunday, 31 May is World No Tobacco Day.
If you’re a non-smoker, this sounds like a great idea. Ditto if you’re a smoker trying to quit.
However, it’s maybe in order to point out that tobacco isn’t the problem. It’s smoking tobacco that’s the problem. Tobacco is actually a very useful medicinal plant with many traditional uses, including helping wounds to heal rapidly, neutralising snake venom and being a potent anti-cancer agent in some brain cancers. When it comes to tobacco as medicine, we’ve barely begun to scratch the surface. Without tobacco, the world would be a poorer place.
Smoking tobacco, however? Now THAT was a bad idea if ever there was one. Almost as bad as eating refined sugar.
Nobody dreams of smoking aspirin or paracetamol (OK, most of us don’t). The healing power of a product lies in its correct application. Use it wrongly and you get bad results.
Cigarettes drive a multi-billion dollar global cigarette empire. Lately, vaping joined the fray. Around the world, governments have become dependent on the tax revenue generated by “sin taxes” on tobacco products. That puts them in a difficult position: If they discourage smoking, they lose tax revenue in the short term. The long term gains in health will not play out until a decade later, or more. So governments usually pay lip service to the anti-smoking message, but do not go all out to stop people from smoking (which is an easy target to reverse a number of the top causes of death).
Stopping smoking is one of the hardest things to do, as any ex-smoker will attest. Almost as hard as saying, “Worcestershire sauce” or, “My conspiracy theory friend was right.”
Why is it so hard to stop smoking?
Top answer, “Nicotine is addictive.”
PAAARP! Wrong answer!
When you look for the evidence, none can be found. “Nicotine is addictive” is a myth, an urban legend.
Not a single study has ever found nicotine (as nicotine) to be addictive.
Hey but wait! Cigarettes without nicotine are not addictive.
Nicotine, if given in an inhaled format (cigarette or vape) creates an addictive response, yes. Nicotine given by any other route is not addictive, not even in high doses and not even if taken over long periods of time. For example, nicotine patches are not addictive in the least.
Within THREE days of not smoking, nicotine has left the building. One of the metabolites of nicotine still hangs around for about three more weeks before also fading out of sight. That should be the end of smoking addiction, but it isn’t.
What you’re really craving is something entirely different.
Cigarette and vape addiction are more a psychological and social addiction than a biochemical addiction. If you understand this, you’re well on your way to quit for good.
Nicotine and dementia
Vanderbilt University neuroscientist and psychiatrist, Prof Paul Newhouse, has forty years of brain research behind him. His main focus is nicotine’s surprising benefits on memory, mood and brain health.
Yes, brain health.
He has found that nicotine can work in two opposite directions at the same time: If you’re agitated, nicotine can calm you down. Conversely, if you’re too calm, nicotine can make you more alert and focused (that first ciggie of the morning, with a cup of coffee).
There is strong clinical evidence that nicotine is very helpful in patients with Alzheimer’s dementia.
Can nicotine prevent Alzheimer’s disease? So far, we don’t know for sure. No studies have been done to investigate this. In case-controlled studies with a tobacco industry connection, smoking was associated with a 14% decreased risk for Alzheimer’s dementia, but studies with no tobacco industry affiliation show an increased risk of Alzheimer’s dementia in smokers (link).
The MIND study (Memory Improvement through Nicotine Dosing) (link) found that nicotine had significant positive effects on attention, fine motor movements, short-term memory and working memory performance. This study used nicotine patches. (Link)
What About Vaping?
Let’s be clear: vaping, like smoking, introduces unwanted and potentially dangerous chemicals to the lungs and body. Ironically, nicotine in vapes is being targeted for the restrictions on vaping, as though a nicotine-free vape would be any safer. While it is definitely possible to use a vape to stop smoking cigarettes, the delivery mechanism ensures the same addictive effects as cigarette smoking. Giving up vaping is hard, too. Some folks manage to transition from cigarettes to vapes, but not many succeed in giving up vaping.
How To Stop Smoking / Vaping
Most smokers enjoy the serenity and clarity of thought that a cigarette brings. Quitting typically means the opposite: irritability, anger outbursts, loss of focus and indecision. This is the first hurdle that must be crossed. Smokers don’t want to become someone they cannot identify with.
Secondly, the action of holding something in the hands or in the mouth is an important part of the smoking ritual. Some smokers trying to quit walk around with an unlit cigarette in their mouths. This has nothing to do with nicotine (Eat your heart out, Sigmund Freud…).
Someone once said that quitting smoking is like being on a nudist beach for the first time: You do not know what to do with your hands… The act of holding a cigarette in the hands and lighting it is a ritual with deep psychological roots. Removing it leaves the smoker feeling vulnerable. Lighting a cigarette is the first habit in a stack of habits. Removing it is akin to removing the foundation of a house.
The social act of smoking is another powerful addictive force. When first starting to smoke, oxytocin is released in the brain. Oxytocin can be called the “bonding hormone” and it allows moms and babies to bond deeply during breastfeeding. It makes you feel at peace with the world. This is partially the reason why smokers flock together. Over time, this oxytocin-enhancing effect is blunted, however, but smokers never forget that initial “high” of unity. Unconsciously, they wish to recreate it, but it remains ever elusive.
Non-smokers do not understand any of this. They feel smokers are selfish *%*&* for polluting the air we all have to breathe. Non-smokers cannot believe that anyone would willingly fill their lungs with heavily polluted air. Why would anyone suck on the exhaust of a car? To non-smokers, quitting is as simple as not lighting up. Thus smokers find more solace among their smoking peers and even less social reason to quit.
Going “cold turkey” on cigarettes is a smoker’s worst nightmare. You might as well take away a toddler’s dummy (thanks, Sigmund, you may leave now). Not only does smoking become a part of a smoker’s identity, but it actually is the pillar that maintains that identity of being a relaxed, composed person, resolutely (sometimes defiantly) facing the world. Many smokers fear losing this when they stop smoking. Measured 10 years after, about 3% of smokers manage to quit smoking by going “cold turkey”. That leaves 97% who relapse within a decade.
In order to successfully overcome these significant hurdles, a bridge has to be built. When identity is at stake, it requires time to acquire and shape that new identity. In this regard, it is helpful to remember the following List of Threes:
The List Of Threes
Three hours
Three days
Three weeks
Three months
Three years
Three hours
After three hours of not smoking, the urge to light up becomes almost unbearable. This is nicotine calling. It says, “This is how you will feel for the coming weeks. It’s terrible, isn’t it? Rather light up than suffer like this.” Strangely, if ignored, the urge goes away and even stays away for a day or two. Don’t give in.
Three days
After three days of not smoking, the nicotine (biochemical) battle has been won. There will be another convulsive effort to light up at this point, but it isn’t as intense or convincing or persistent as the three hour urge.
Three weeks
After three weeks of not smoking, nicotine metabolites are mostly out of the body. From this point forwards, the biochemical addiction no longer figures. Expect an internal struggle to get past this point.
About one third of wannabe quitters don’t pass the three week mark (if going cold turkey).
Three months
After three months of not smoking, the psychological habits relating to smoking are mostly broken. At this point, there is often a strong yearning to light up again, but it soon passes if resisted. If not resisted, the powerful “kick” of a fresh cigarette restarts the addiction cycle. This is the point where the new identity is tested.
The three month mark is a “thing”. Those who pass the three week point often fail at the three month point. Almost two thirds of wannabe quitters succumb before or at the three month mark.
Three years
Many ex-smokers report how, after about three years of not smoking, they find themselves in a crowd with someone offering them a cigarette. Longing for that social unity can be very tempting at this stage. “It’s only one cigarette. What harm can it do?” The real decision actually is, “What is your true identity? Who are your true friends?” Unless you are clear about your new identity as an ex-smoker, the peer pressure to conform can tip the scales in the wrong direction. Three years marks the last hurdle. For many, it isn’t a hurdle at all, but it is worth noting that it may come – be prepared.
Current Quitting Solutions
There aren’t many bridges available for those who wish to quit smoking.
* Nicotine chewing gums are hard and taste yucky. They don’t tick any of the boxes, except that they supply nicotine. To some extent, they give the mouth something to do, but it is hardly satisfactory. Success rates are higher than “cold turkey” but lower than patches.
* Nicotine patches deliver a constant, low level of nicotine to the body. The idea is that this underlying “safety net” of nicotine will reduce cravings. This does work, to some extent, but the lack of ritual does not address the psychological withdrawal. With patches, there are no nicotine spikes to lighten up the day. Long-term success rates (at the 10 year mark) indicate that nicotine patches increase the likelihood of quitting for good to 8%.
* Prescription medications: These all have unpleasant, even dangerous side effects. Their success rates are on par with those of nicotine chewing gums.
* Behavioural modification: This is moderately successful in the short term.
Social support is important during this time, but by itself, it does not quite cross the bridge.
Our Solution In Four Steps
1. Write down who you want to be. Read this at least once a day. This is your new identity. Start with, “I am…” This is not a wish list. It is your future self made real in the present.
2. Get a small, smooth stone. Give it a name. Every time you feel like lighting up, hold this pebble in your hand until the feeling subsides.
3. Get some xylitol chewing gum to keep your mouth busy when the craving strikes.
4. Use our Nixo Nicotine Spray whenever you feel like lighting up.
What Is Nixo Nicotine Spray?
In order to help smokers quit, Doc Frank developed a nicotine mouth spray called “Nixo”.
One spray into the mouth delivers 0.5 mg nicotine (half a cigarette) and 20 micrograms of Sceletium alkaloids to the gums. Absorption from the gums is rapid enough to calm cravings within a minute. This nicotine spike curbs cigarette cravings for several hours. Inner tensions are relaxed almost instantly.
Studies show that the long-term (one year) success rate of nicotine sprays are roughly triple that of going “cold turkey”, at about 16% vs 5% for the cold turkey group.
Why Sceletium? This remarkable little succulent from the Karoo relieves anxiety in a matter of minutes. In our Nixo Nicotine Spray, it helps lift the mood. No crabbiness or rage while you’re quitting.
Also: By packaging our product in a solid little glass bottle, Nixo gives the hands something to hold and even fondle (if fondling is your thing).
Taste: Organic spearmint and peppermint oil in our spray means Nixo also acts as a pleasant breath freshener.
Dose: Take one spray in the mouth every time you feel like lighting up. Within seconds, the desire to smoke will subside. This also works for those wishing to quit vaping.
Every 30 ml bottle delivers 230 sprays. This should be enough for 2+ months.
Can Non-Smokers Benefit From Nixo Nicotine Spray?
Yes, the formulation in Nixo Nicotine Spray is gentle on non-smokers, too. The nicotine in the spray gives a mildly burning sensation to the tongue, but this quickly fades.
Nixo may help non-smokers struggling with:
* Attention deficit,
* Mild / early dementia,
* Parkinson’s disease,
* Brain fog and
* Long Covid / chronic fatigue
For the above indications, one spray, four to six times a day, should be sufficient.
To your (refreshed) health!
The Team at Integrow Health
