Smoking is an addiction that is difficult but not impossible to stop. Everyone is aware that it is a pathway to cancer,emphysema and other health problems. Having a desire and determination is one part of the process to stop smoking. To help you with the physical nicotine withdrawal symptoms and cravings many people are using natural herbs and home remedies as a successful aid. The costs are lower and are safe and effective.

To quit smoking using natural herbs is becoming very popular among many people and have been around for many years and used for many types of treatments.

Mimosa tea (mimosa hostilis) an evergreen shrub, native to Brazil and Mexico, uses the bark to make sacramental beverage. A cup of this tea will boost your mood and relieve anxiety and headaches associated with nicotine withdrawals. It is not addictive and is recommended for use of anti-depressant medicines.

The Chinese Cao Su herb diminishes the desire to smoke also.

Lobelia or indian tobacco is popular for smokers, many believe it makes the taste of tobacco repulsive, while others say it calms the nerves and body muscles and eases mild depression.

These stop smoking natural herbs help to quit smoking if you are ready to do so. Some of the major natural herbs that help to quit smoking are:

* Avena Sativa

* Garcinia Cambogia

* Gotu Cola

* Skullcap

* Valerian

* Parrot’s Beak

* Willow

* Oak

* Oregon Grape Root

* Goldenseal

Home remedies are also used as part of your plan to stop smoking.

Home remedy #1- Honey is the best food source that is rich in vitamins, enzymes, proteins, and Amino acids that helps dealing with Nicotine addiction.

#2- Eating high alkaline foods and taking grape seed extract to repair damaged lungs.

#3-Mix fresh grated radish with 2 teaspoons of honey and drink it as a juice.This is a good quit smoking herb.

#4- Dissolve 2 tablespoons of baking soda(sodium bicarbonate) in a glass of water and drink it with every meal.

#5- O.J. is acidic in nature and the 1st step to stop smoking and eliminates the nicotine from your body. Drink twice a day if possible.

#6- Chewing a licorice stick is a good substitute for a cigarrete.

When you are feeling the urge to smoke eat something salty or place a bit of salt on your tongue for immediate relief.

You should also follow a natural detoxification plan to cleanse yourself of as many toxins and chemicals. This gives you a clean slate in your efforts to quit.

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One of the difficulties in trying to quit smoking is that smokers become physically dependant on nicotine. Smoking affects the parts of the brain that relate to reward and pleasure. It increases the amount of the neurotransmitter, dopamine, and the nature of nicotine is that it creates a cycle of positive reinforcement within your brain that makes you want more.

Scientists have found that when you withdraw from chronic nicotine use, it results in changes in these neural pleasure pathways. And the effect on the brain is similar to what someone addicted to cocaine, opiates and other drugs experiences. Hence, depression and anxiety are common.

Fortunately, some resourceful modern herbalists began applying traditional knowledge to a modern problem. In Ayurvedic medicine, common garden variety oats (but not oat straw), is used to treat opium withdrawal. The herbalist Anand, using a tincture (an alcoholic extract of the herb), applied this same reasoning to nicotine withdrawal, with significant results.

In a group of 26 heavy smokers, he gave an oat tincture, and in another group of 26, he gave a placebo. The group who took the oat tincture smoked less cigarettes, and this effect remained for two months after they stopped treatment. The herbalist Weiss theorizes that it is the sedative effect of oats. Oats contain as active constituents the indole alkaloid, gramine, and the alkaloids avenine and trigonelline. Oats are described in herbal medicine texts as helping create a feeling of well-being whilst simultaneously acting as a tonic to the nervous system. But unlike narcotics, these are mild, non-habit forming effects.

My herbal teacher, Ses Salmond, suggested the following formula for those trying to stop smoking. In a 50ml bottle, mix the following herbal tinctures:

• 15ml green oats

• 10ml white horehound
• 10ml mullein
• 5ml golden seal
• 10ml peppermint

Take 6 drops on the tongue whenever the craving to have a cigarette is felt.

Acupuncture is also an excellent support option. HerbMed offers the following herbal option, to be used on appropriate acupuncture points. Mix oil of cloves, oil of wintergreen, an extract of evodia fruit, an extract of sichuan lovage rhizome, and msg, and apply to specific acupuncture points. Unfortunately, they don’t say which acupuncture points, but this may be determined by what each person presents with.

Resources: 1. www.herbmed.org/herbs/herb36.htm
2. Class notes by Ses Salmond
3. C Fisher & G Painter, Materia Medica Of Western Herbs For The Southern Hemisphere
4. R Weiss, Herbal Medicine (Beaconsfield Arcanum, 1988)
5. www.drugabuse.gov/Infofacts/Tobacco.html

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One of the best and proven ways to quitting smoking is by making changes to a lifestyle that has been hindered by that dangerous and addictive habit. You must substitute your old lifestyle with a new one. Focusing on your new lifestyle allows you to live and visualize the end result – smoke-free, healthy, and vibrant – and not just talk about it.

A very successful way of starting a new lifestyle without smoking is to begin a fitness program.

A fitness programs offers a lot of help for the person quitting smoking. Exercise helps to reduce stress which is a major trigger for smoking with many people.

It will also help to sustain a healthy bodyweight and this can be a fear for people who are prone to put on weight once they stop smoking as nicotine helps to keep weight down.

Statistics have shown that those people who are involved in some form of exercise regimen have a greater chance of triumph when quitting smoking.

The endorphins that are released with exercise are a superior substitute than those that people get from nicotine. One of the main reasons why quitting smoking is so hard for people is because of the endorphins that are released in the brain while smoking. Endorphins are also known as the ‘feel good’ chemical.

The release of endorphins with exercise can bring about a sense of well-being for several hours following your workout.

As your health will begin to progress within 20 minutes from your last cigarette and continue to do so as your body overturns the damage that smoking has done, one of the first things you will notice will be the capacity to breathe more freely.

Being able to breathe more freely will also boost your energy levels and this will also be augmented by the improvements in the ability for the blood to carry oxygen to all parts of the body.

Increased energy makes working out easier and the upward cycle of fitness can bring some exceptional improvements over a relatively short term.

Changing lifestyles to include exercise usually pushes people to make other improvements to their life with superior nutrition and leading a more stable life. The extra money that you will save from not having to buy cigarettes will allow for more options to get the most out of life and experience things that were previously unattainable when smoking was a part of it.

Quitting smoking is not suppose to be life ending; only life changing for the better.

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Prolonged use of cigarettes can be habit forming. The chief culprit for this dependence formation is believed to be the presence of nicotine. It is an addictive alkaloid produced by and found in the leaves of tobacco plants. The nicotine content on each tobacco plant is fairly high, as it makes up about four percent of the weight of the plant itself. After being processed, the leaves get to retain about seven to twenty milligram of nicotine per stick. And as the average smoker takes in one milligram of nicotine per stick, it reinforces the body’s dependency to the alkaloid. The question in every smoker’s mind is: How can I stop smoking?

It is difficult to stop smoking. It requires a lot of will power to stay away from lighting a cigarette. It’s bad enough that you have to muster up a tremendous amount of drive to stay away from smoking, you also have to go through the various withdrawal symptoms like anxiety attacks, nicotine cravings, irritation, and an inability to concentrate to name a few. But with the help of modern science and research, there are now a lot of different ways to quit smoking.

Here are six successful ways to stop smoking:
l Stop smoking aids. This doesn’t mean that you can depend on smoking aids to get you through quitting the smoking habit. Smoking aids do nothing more than release small quantities of nicotine into the bloodstream. Smoking aids are good in satisfying the nicotine craving with the dangerous tar and poisonous gases found in cigarettes. However since it still has nicotine, there is a tendency for the smoker to drop smoking but get hooked on the smoking aid.
l Hypnotherapy. This is considered a moderately effective way to let go of the smoking habit. The willing smokers agrees to be subjected to a hypnosis session. During session the therapist will use the method of auto-suggestion to give the smoker will power to quit smoking.
l Alternative therapies. Various alternative treatments have been discovered to help smokers with their nicotine cravings. Among these therapies are: aromatherapy, acupuncture, acupressure, yoga, and meditation.
l Willpower. It takes no less than sufficient will power to get you through the smoking habit. It is nothing but a state of mind, a very difficult state of mind to achieve at that. People who have very little will power may find it difficult to stop smoking. Just remember that if you put your mind to it, you will be able to quit. It also helps to have supportive family and friends around you to encourage you in your fight to quit.
l Counseling. Sometimes even the strongest of will power falters. It is during these times that you would need professional help to back you up on your cause. Counseling is very important for behavioral support. It helps boost up your morale and bring you back on track to your fight to stop smoking.
l Medications. Doctors prescribe certain medications to help smokers quit the habit of smoking. These are either sedatives or relaxants that help control or calm the nerves. This alleviates the discomfort brought about by withdrawal symptoms.

Smoking may make men look macho and women look sophisticated and classy. But there’s more to it than just looking cool. It is important to know that cigarette smoking may become habit forming and addictive before you even start on your first stick. After all, starting is easy, quitting the habit is the hardest part.

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Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death and disability around the world. Surprisingly, the number of people who smoke is still very high perhaps due to the little factual information they have about the dangers of tobacco use. Cigarette-smoking is one of the major causes of heart disease and the number of deaths associated with smoking has been consistently on the rise. In the United States alone, cigarettes are responsible for majority of the deaths from heart disease. According to the American Heart Association, about 440,000 of all annual deaths of heart disease are because of smoking. Just a few sticks of cigarettes a day may double the risk of the development of heart disease. Because of the harm that smoking may do for the heart, the need to quit smoking has become an important health issue that could possibly save millions of lives.

Many of the deaths and ailments caused by smoking do not occur quickly. It may take awhile before the chemicals in cigarettes takes its toll on certain individuals. Heart diseases caused by smoking can be a slow and painful process. Smokers may develop heart disease because smoking causes the body’s bloodstream to be contaminated with nicotine, the active component of cigarettes which stimulates the brain and provides a rush of adrenaline. A rush of adrenaline may provide a “high feeling” or a sudden rush or shot of energy. However, while these moments of being high are being enjoyed by a smoker, he or she may already be exposing the heart to serious risk. Adrenaline caused by nicotine may speed up the heart rate, tighten the arteries, and strain the heart. When the nicotine levels of regular smokers falter, they usually experience withdrawal symptoms that may include restlessness, irritability, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and craving for another smoke. These smokers need to smoke regularly in order to feel normal, a condition that may lead to addiction — making it more difficult for smokers to quit smoking.

Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, 60 these chemicals are carcinogenic and are also present in secondhand smoke. Formaldehyde, arsenic, cadmium, benzene, and ethylene oxide are only some of the substances found in cigarettes — all of which can cause cancer. These dangerous components may stay in the air for hours and may harm one’s health in many ways. These chemicals may accelerate the development of artherosclerosis, a disease that affects the large and medium arteries. This condition damages the blood vessels making them difficult to relax. Smoking may also cause the artery walls to stiffen the artery walls and cause pieces of plaque to clog some arteries. Once this plaque clogs the arteries, the heart may become starved for oxygen. In the long run, these conditions may lead to the development of heart diseases like coronary heart disease and angina (severe chest pain).

The risk of acquiring certain conditions like cataract, macular degeneration, psoriasis, tooth loss, osteoporosis, and many more may be increased by smoking. However, it is never too late to quit smoking. Stopping the habit can drastically improve one’s cardiovascular fitness and overall health. Individuals who are having a hard time cutting the habit may try using quit smoking products in the market. These products, however, cannot do all the work. The best and effective to quit smoking involves determination, discipline, and commitment to stop the habit permanently. Using these products can help smokers cut the habit by making them more comfortable and complacent to adjust to life without cigarettes. Many quit smoking products are available over the counter, it is best to seek the approval of health professionals to clarify side effects and drug interactions that may be developed while under medication. With the right tools and attitude, quitting smoking and reducing the development of heart diseases can be easier than others think.

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