Quitting Smoking

[Pam]

I want to quit smoking. Please outline what I could do to support this, especially foods, supplements, homeopathics, etc.

Thank you

[Bruce Paine]

Pam,

I was raised by smokers and started smoking when I left home at age 18.

I quit smoking 5 times in the last thirty-six years, the last time being 16 years ago and though I've had a few urges to have a smoke, since, it has lessened tremendopusly and almost never feel the desire now-a-days.

I don't believe that there is a magic bullet or one plan that fits all.

Because there are so many different kinds of people with different constitutions, conditions, lifestyles, and beliefs, I don't feel that based on very little information about you, anyone can give you, a whole and comprehensive advice.

One thing I would suggest though is that you don't try to solve too many problems simultaneously as that it could make matters worse.

A friend of my who had some very difficult dental problems tried to quit smoking while resolving those problems and has suffered tremendously as a result.

Try taking care of one problem at a time.

I'm sure your immune system will benefit from it.

By the way, besides acidolphilus which I believe might be somewhat yin, you might consider sucking on a umeboshi salt plum, every day that you are getting your dental treatment (especially painkillers), and a two to three year old barley miso in miso soup once all the openings have been sealed to counteract any antibiotics that you might be taking.

Last time that I had a root canal and took antibiotics, I suffered from bronchial congestion, having many a sleepless night for sevel weeks because of difficult breathing, something that I really don't wish to repeat.

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

[Roy Collins]

Hi Pam. Nicotine addiction, like most addictions is both physical and mental. Dependingon length of time one has smoked, and how excessive the habit, will be the main factors needed to set a course for smoking cessasion. Macrobiotic principles and practive usually calls for an approach that is GRADUAL to making ANY lifestyle changes, and thus one should set a realistic goal for stopping cigarette smoking.

My recommendation is a three-month plan, and within that time span, every thirty days you cut your amount of cigarettes down to 1/2. If you begin this program with a one-pack a day habit, then thirty days after you should be smoking approx. 10 cigarettes per day. Thirty days later it will be 5, then thirty days after that you should be down to, say, 3. (One the morning, one in the afterrnoon and one at night.) One might think that three cigarettes per day would not qualify one as a smoker, but the mental addiction is still there.

Within this last phase of 30 days using only 3 cigeratees per day it would be advisable to begin drinking red clover tea three times per day and to eat soy "nuts" or ume plum "candies" (sour taste) that will help to satisfy cravings for cigarettes. You eat these products in place of smoking, which helps satisfy both false hunger (which cigarettes also satisfy) as well as the pleasure centers of the brain.

After two weeks of this, you have to deal with the hardest part of overcoming addiction to nicotine. I would then recommend, as does my fellow herbalogit friends (especially Stephen Foster) to use either the herbal spray that gets applied under or in the nostrils (see url: www.stopsmokingherbs.com/) or begin taking a herbal supplement for this purpose such as Final Smoke (see url: www.finalsmoke.com/) which should be taken for the last two weeks, along with the tea, soy nuts, ume candy, WITHOUT ANY CIGARETTES. The first three days without any cigarettes is usuall the most difficult, but these products and this prepartion period of months will help you tremendously. 7 more days and you will have over-come most of the physical addiciton. By the end of these last two weeks you will have beat the habit.

Let us know how it goes. I hope this helps, and that others will also find the will to achieve the same goal. Mark your calender in red ink to show when your three-month tiome span is up. You will be doing yourself, your family, your firends, and the environment a great favor. Good luck.

In peace, Roy