Addiction Solution Source

According to recent research, cigarette companies have manipulated the menthol content in cigarettes to lure young people into smoking.

Menthol masks the harshness and irritation of cigarettes, allowing delivery of an effective dose of nicotine, the addictive chemical in cigarettes. There was a deliberate strategy to recruit and addict young smokers by adjusting menthol to create a milder experience for the first time smoker.

For example, Marlboro introduced Marlboro Milds in 2000, with a lower menthol concentration while raising the menthol content in Marlboro Menthol, favored by older smokers. Menthol brands with the greatest market share growth among young adults had the lowest menthol levels (Marlboro Milds and Newport) among the brands tested.

This is another example of the cynical behavior of the tobacco industry to hook teens and African Americans to a deadly addiction. This is after the industry told the American public it had changed its marketing practices.

The Member States of the World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes.

March 12, 2008, is No Smoking Day in the UK. To find out more information and to receive tips on quitting, go to: www.nosmokingday.org.uk

In the United States, the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout® is on the third Thursday of November (November 20, 2008). The event challenges people to stop using tobacco and raises awareness of the many effective ways to quit for good.

Research shows that smokers are most successful in kicking the habit when they have some means of support, such as nicotine replacement products, counseling, prescription medicine to lessen cravings, guide books, and the encouragement of friends and family members.

Despite that, only about 1 in 7 current smokers reports having tried any of the recommended therapies during his or her last quit attempt.

The cigarette is a very efficient and highly engineered drug delivery system.

By inhaling tobacco smoke, the average smoker takes in 1 to 2 mg of nicotine per cigarette. When tobacco is smoked, nicotine rapidly reaches peak levels in the bloodstream and enters the brain in a few seconds. A typical smoker will take 10 puffs on a cigarette over a period of 5 minutes that the cigarette is lit. Thus, a person who smokes about 1-1/2 packs (30 cigarettes) daily gets 300 “hits” of nicotine to the brain each day.

In those who typically do not inhale the smoke—such as cigar and pipe smokers and smokeless tobacco users––nicotine is absorbed through the mucosal membranes and reaches peak blood levels and the brain more slowly.

Here is a video of what happens to your body when you quit smoking cigarettes.

http://quitsmoking.about.com/cs/afterquitting/a/after_quitting.htm

Researchers speculate that the stimulating effects of nicotine could cause smokers to experience nicotine withdrawal each night, which may contribute to disturbances in sleep.

Research has shown that carrying raw or shelled sunflower seeds are particularly good for people trying to wean themselves from cigarettes. Every time you feel the desire to smoke, it is suggested that you go through the process of breaking seeds open and popping them into your mouth to munch on until the desire subsides. There are also other excellent nutrients.

As a smoker, you are always on the brink of a serious condition because your body is acidic and is always struggling to be in balance. Think of a smoker as walking around "off-center", leaning to one side.

Your health depends on the acid-base equilibrium of the body. This should be done with food - not drugs, because drugs will just make your body more acidic.

Many people with ADD self-medicate (treat their underlying problems) with substances as a way to feel more focused, more together, less anxious, less depressed, less overwhelmed, and just generally better.

When tobacco is smoked, nicotine is absorbed by the lungs and quickly moves into the bloodstream and then reaches the brain within 8 seconds! Nicotine also acts directly on the heart to change heart rate and blood pressure and also on the nerves that control respiration to change breathing patterns.

This information about smokers cravings was recently released from Duke University:

Brain scans of smokers studied by the researchers revealed three specific regions deep within the brain that appear to control dependence on nicotine and craving for cigarettes. These regions play important roles in some of the key motivations for smoking: to calm down when stressed, to achieve pleasure and to help concentration.

“If you can’t calm down, can’t derive pleasure and can’t control yourself or concentrate, then it will be extremely difficult for you to break the habit,” said lead study investigator Jed E. Rose, Ph.D., director of the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research. “These brain regions may explain why most people try to quit several times before they are successful.”

In this study, the researchers manipulated the levels of nicotine dependence and cigarette craving among 15 smokers and then scanned their brains using positron emission tomography, or PET scans, to see which areas of the brain were most active.

Three Regions of the Brain are Important for Smokers

Three specific regions of the brain demonstrated changes in activity when the smokers craved cigarettes versus when they did not.

One region that lights up, called the thalamus, is considered to be the key relay point for sensory information flowing into the brain. Some of the symptoms of withdrawal among people trying to quit stem from the inability to focus thoughts and the feeling of being overwhelmed, and could thus be explained by changes in this region, according to the researchers. The researchers found that changes in this region were most dramatic among those who said they smoked to calm down when under stress.