When the intention to quit smoking arises, alternatives for our daily dose of nicotine appear directly on the store counters and as relievers in our addicted brains. Researchers have found that suppressing classic smoking with nicotine gum or other related products is less harmful.
By giving up cigarettes and replacing them with alternative nicotine products removes approximately 90% of the health risks implied by the smoking habit.
The possibility that we can be addicted to nicotine without actually dying from it remains a hot topic for debate in the scientific communities. Nicotine is indeed addictive but can a daily dose be as harmless as the caffeine we get from our morning coffees?
The rising popularity of electronic cigarettes poses very delicate questions among researchers who try to envision a healthy alternative for those who find it hard to quit smoking. The idea that nicotine doses unrelated to the actual habit of smoking can make up for a better health level contradicts the entire batch of theories that make this substance the main problem when it comes to smoking actual cigarettes.
Researchers insist on the bad habit of smoking being the killer, not nicotine taken separately. Psychologists and tobacco-addiction specialists say that now it’s high time to make a clear distinction between the two. Smoking implies nicotine but nicotine doesn’t imply smoking, which makes it better. Our lungs, throats and stomachs don’t hurt that bad if we settle for nicotine only and we take our chances to quitting the most widespread social habit.
Recent studies have showed that nicotine, just like caffeine can also have positive effects. Nicotine is a very cool stimulant, raising heart rate and increasing the speed of sensory information processing. It also eases tension and sharpens the mind.
A common saying implies that nicotine is the substance that causes the pleasure in smoking but the tar that results from classic cigarettes is the one that does all the harm. This finding that tells people “smoke for the nicotine, but die from the tar” is the idea that generated the release of alternative nicotine products on the market.
We have an entire list of such merchandise, addressed to all tastes, desires and expectations. One can chew a tasty, fruit flavored nicotine gum or just stick a nicotine patch on their shoulders and let the body extract its necessary dose or indulge in the pleasure of smoking a fake, electronic cigarette that has nicotine as basic component. There are also vaporizers that can boost your body with the energetic nicotine.
Quitting smoking is so hard because nicotine is the substance that stimulates reward areas in the brain, making us always crave for more. But still, we can have it in less harmful forms, if we find the strength to give up that smoking gesture all smokers love.
Image Source: smokefreeroom.com
Nate says
The 90% figure is too low. Switching from cigarette smoking to any other mode of tobacco/nicotine use produces a minimum 98% reduction in potential health hazards.