- Giving up smoking..how long should you chew-it-over? Archived Message
Posted by Gerard
on May 3, 2019, 6:20 pm
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"User Reported Nicotine Gum Use Symptoms Complaints among long-term nicotine gum users (one year or greater) responding at AskAPatient.com include: addiction with intense gum cravings, anxiety, irritability, dizziness, headaches, nervousness, panic attacks, hiccups, ringing in the ears, chronic depression, headaches, heart burn, elevated blood pressure, a rapid or irregular heart beat, diabetes, insulin intolerance, sleep disruption, tiredness, a lack of motivation, a heavy feeling, recessed, bleeding and diseased gums, diminished sense of taste, tooth enamel damage, tooth loss, jaw-joint pain and damage (TMJ), canker sores with white patches on the tongue or mouth, oral cancers, bad breath, dry mouth, sore or irritated throat, difficulty swallowing, swollen glands, bronchitis, stomach problems and pain, gastritis, severe bloating, belching, achy muscles and joints, pins and needles in arms and hands, uncontrollable foul smelling gas that lingers, a lack of energy, loss of sex drive, acid reflux, stomach ulcers, fecal impaction from dehydration, scalp tingling, hair loss, acne, facial reddening, chronic skin rashes and concerns about immune system suppression. Other Health Concerns The U.S. Food & Drug Administration is not blind. It has seen industry commercials and knows that nicotine gum is now being marketed as both a great tasting supplement to smoking and a permanent stand-alone harm reduction solution. Sadly, this is being done without any meaningful long-term research regarding the consequences of long-term NRT use or the influence of harm reduction marketing in fostering youth nicotine addiction. Recent studies raise a host of nicotine use concerns that most users will not notice until it’s too late. Researchers are concerned that nicotine is a super toxin that appears to destroy brain gray matter, prevent unhealthy cells throughout the body from dying natural deaths (apoptosis), promotes lung, breast and pancreatic cancer, hinders bone healing, induces angiogenesis which causes plaque build-up within arteries to harden, and that it accelerates tumor growth rates. "I started chewing Nicorette 15 years ago," writes a 45 year-old male. "I was fit and healthy dispite being a smoker. Twelve years ago I was diagnosed with insulin intolerence. Today I take 3 drugs for diabetes. No matter what weight loss I have managed, my diabetes is getting worse. After reserching I am begining to suspect it is my addiction to Nicorette.I now have to inject myself with Victosa and have noticed my diabetes control is not based on my food intake but the amount of gum I am chewing." A 38 year-old user is worried about immune system suppression. "The last three to four months I have been sick with viruses and bacterial illnesses more than any time in my life." A 42 year-old 5 year male user believes the gum is responsible for a "lower white blood cell count." "I get sick all the time due to this." "My doctor always asked me 'do you smoke?' I tell him no. He says, 'you get bronchitis a lot'. Bottom line, the gum is no good for you. It will have long term effects." "This is not the person taking the gum but his wife writing this to you. The mood swings got worse. He started getting panic attacks more and more. He has now suffered two slight strokes which the doctors can't understand why because he doesn't have the markers to have them." She lists her husband as a 53 year-old twelve year gum user. And then there is an unexplained spleen rupture in a 40 year-old 10-year male user. Addiction Most Distressing Side Effect "Its effects remind me of the ring's effects on Gollum in Lord of the Rings: 'my precioussss...'," writes a 48 year-old 12 year female gum user who chews 20 4mg pieces per day. "It insidiously hooks you and eats away at you from the inside. I used it to give me energy and see me through stressful times but it ended up being the most important thing in my life." "The most distressing side effect is addiction," writes a 52 year-old ten-year Nicorette female user. "The expense is ridiculous and a total scam. What makes me think that some of the drug company's profit is going back to the tobacco companies?" Her partnership suggestion is much closer to truth than she may realize. Have you ever noticed that never once have you heard a Nicorette commercial suggest that smoking is bad for you? Since about 1984 Nicorette's maker (then Dow Chemical) has had an agreement with the tobacco industry not to directly attack smoking or try to get all smokers to quit, but to only market Nicorette to those wanting to quit, without being anti-smoking when doing so (see documents evidencing agreement: 07/13/82, 07/7/84, 10/25/84, 12/17/84, 01/22/85, 09/4/85, 09/6/85, 09/6/85, 09/25/85, 12/16/85, 01/8/88, 05/8/91, 08/1/91, 04/22/98 04/23/98, PM You can do it ad, 1996 Nicorette OTC ad, 1996 Nicorette helped millions quit ad, 1996 Nicorette ad: cold turkey hard, 1996 Nicorette ad: cravings, 1996 New Year's ad, Jan. 1995 Nicorette serious medicine ad). This is essentially a non-compete marketing partnership that creates an artificial marketing climate which totally ignores the importance of why smokers need to quit smoking. Its purpose is to protect tobacco industry sales. There is no denying that the pharmaceutical industry is actively engaged in protecting cigarette industry profits. "I am addicted to Nicorette, maybe even more than when I was to smoking. Help," pleads a 10 year user. "Nicorette Gum is extremely addictive," writes an 11 year user. "Totally addicted" claims a 53 year-old 9 year female user. "Severely addicted" says a 38 year-old 6 year male user. "I am addicted to the gum and the addiction is escalating," claims a 42 year-old 3 year female user. "Me and my husband quit smoking about a year ago," writes a 24 year-old 1 year gum user. "Its really frustrating to know that we quit one addiction to begin another, which is not any cheaper. I swear its more addicting than cigarettes. I wont lie, we love the fruit chill flavor, and I’m so glad that we are no longer smoking. But I hate that despite my headaches and jaw pain, I still have to chew it." "I now know getting off of Nicorette will be as hard as quitting smoking for me," writes a 36 year-old 12-year female user. A 32 year-old 3 year male user who chews 40-50 pieces a day thinks he may "chew more than anyone in the world." "There is one in my mouth 24/7 ... yes for real! I was addicted to heroin for 3 years and I can verify that this stuff takes the cake in what is the most addictive substance known to man." Since 1984 Nicorette has assured users that risk of addiction is rare. "There is little risk of transferring nicotine dependence from tobacco onto the NRT product," Nicorette's 2000 website proclaimed. "That's because blood concentrations of nicotine peak more slowly and reach much lower levels than those achieved from cigarettes." While the graphs then presented evidenced higher peak nicotine concentrations from smoking they also showed higher average concentrations with nicotine gum. But two 2003 studies would compel Nicorette to invent a new way to answer nicotine addiction concerns. The first, a March 2003 study, combined and averaged all over-the-counter nicotine patch and gum studies and found that only 7% of users were still not smoking at 6 months. Yes, a 93% relapse rate. The second was a November 2003 study by the same lead authors. It had two important findings. It found that up to 6.7% of Nicorette gum quitters were still persistently using Nicorette gum 6 months after quitting smoking. Combining the results from the two studies raises the disturbing question, does any smoker break free of nicotine while still using it or do nearly all success stories remain hooked? The second finding totally destroyed Nicorette's ability to argue that gum addiction is rare. Actual Nicorette store sales findings compelled researchers to admit that, "36.6% of current gum users are engaged in persistent use." Picture a steady stream of newly hooked gum quitters (6.7%) flowing into a larger lake of users hooked on the cure (then 36.6%). The Frequently Asked Questions section of the 2006 version of the Nicorette website posed this question: "If nicotine is the problem, why should I use a nicotine gum?" The answer was that, "Nicorette doesn't contain any of the other addictive substances ... found in cigarettes. This is why Nicorette is safe enough to be sold without a doctor's prescription." The problem is that no addictive substance other than nicotine has yet been identified in tobacco. "I'm addicted to it I can't stop," writes a 26 year-old five year female user. "I'm slowly poisoning myself. No one apart from my boyfriend believes me. Without it, I fall apart. I called the UK stop smoking helpline, they suggested it was psychological! Why do cigarettes in the UK carry warnings and the gum just have requires will power? Will power to quit smoking or to quit the gum? Am I supposed to start smoking again?" "Nicorette is highly addictive," writes a 37 year-old 2 year female user. "More money and more health issues including sore throat and canker sores. Thank you Nicorette. You should be sued!" Harm Reduction Most advocating the nicotine gum and lozenge as cigarette harm reduction measures suggest that marketing pushing fruit, candy and coffee flavored Nicorette will have little or no impact in promoting youth and non-smoker nicotine addiction. Almost all national youth surveys continue to fail to ask youth and adults about NRT use. "I originally tried Nicorette because I was experiencing incredible daytime sleepiness in college," wrote a female user. "I became addicted which is unfortunate as I have never once even tried a cigarette. I have been using it for 4+ years. I wish it hadn't been available over-the-counter." Some advocating NRT as a harm reduction measure suggest that dual use of both cigarettes and NRT is uncommon. A 54 year-old 5 year gum user appears to have spent the last two years mixing smoking with Nicorette. "The gum is more addicting than cigarettes. Now I am double-addicted. It is too easy to make excuses to oneself when its 'just gum!' Advice - don't try Nicorette." A 44 year-old male chewer of twenty 2mg pieces a day for 10 years reports that he "started and stopped and smoked again, and started and stopped and smoked again, and started and stopped and smoked again. Finally, I decided that the ills of chewing could never be as fatal as smoking." "My doc said it was fine to continuing chewing because it was less damaging than smoking. I now have severe TMJ, which has caused quite the bout with anxiety. I now have switched to the 2mg lozenges (to reduce the jaw damage) while I will try and quit nicotine replacement for ever," writes a 36 year-old male 5 year user. Many websites are now advocating the nicotine gum and lozenge as smoking harm reduction measures. But try to locate where any of them try to help those who follow their advice after user symptoms teach them that living the cure can feel worse than the disease. "I can not get off it and I am chewing 30 pieces of 2mg a day! It's awful and there should be more help to get off the gum," writes a 32 year-old 2 year female user. "There is no contact us button on the website and when you phone up they sound like you are the only one who has this problem."" https://whyquit.com/pr/120108.html "We need an all natural product that presents with a protocol that follows a strength reduction regime #Organic #Smoking #Nicotine @mercola @DrMichaelMosley @TheLancetPsych https://patientslounge.com/mental-health/Trading-Cigarettes-for-Addiction-to-Nicotine-Gum … @VictoriaLIVE" https://twitter.com/Williamtheb/status/1124354324765843456 https://patientslounge.com/mental-health/Trading-Cigarettes-for-Addiction-to-Nicotine-Gum https://whyquit.com/pr/120108.html https://www.verywellmind.com/can-vitamin-supplements-help-me-quit-smoking-22396 https://www.thesmokingcure.com/the-benefits-of-nutritional-supplements-to-help-quit-smoking.html https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M148WMN/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=minbodhea0a-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01M148WMN&linkId=d641581bbb3b6a09f360e1a5d3a6c657 Other publications are available.. If using Niacin B-3 try to buy the "cleanest" and most natural product you can (my advice), .. |