My last column questioned e-cigarettes as a healthier alternative to smoking. In focusing on the lesser of two evils, I failed to address a much more urgent reality. In other words, I'll never sleep again if the column discouraged a single smoker from quitting, e-cigarette or no e-cigarette.
In the words of Dr. Randy Baker of Soquel, and every doctor since the 1950s, when doctors ceased endorsing cigarettes: “If you are a smoker, stopping smoking is the single best thing you can do to improve your health.”
If stopping smoking was as easy as taking your doctor's advice, however, Phillip Morris would be broke. We know about the tar. The ammonia and formaldehyde. The narrowing, hardening, fat-collecting effect on our arteries. And yet, even the graphic gore of the world’s best anti-smoking ad couldn't stop most smokers from lighting up in front of it.
It was only last week that I stubbed out my last and final cancer stick, bowed my head ceremoniously and braced myself for a hellacious ride. (Aside from a few vicious cravings and a column so late I need to buy my editor flowers, I do believe the worst is over.)
This column is for you, the smoker who plans to quit. After all, you’re more likely to win a battle after thoroughly sizing up the enemy. So here is what you’re up against: nicotine addiction changes the actual structure of the brain. When we quit, our own brain chemistry is fighting against us.
Dr. Richard Hurt of the Mayo Clinic’s Nicotine Dependence Center explains: “After you inhale smoke from a cigarette, nicotine reaches your brain in less than five heartbeats. That's faster than having it injected in your veins.”
In the brain, nicotine stimulates certain neuroreceptors, which release the pleasure-inducing chemicals smokers can crave for years after they quit.
“When you first started smoking, your brain only had a few receptors that reacted to nicotine,” says Dr. Hurt. “However, as you continued to smoke over the years, your brain has developed more and more receptors, millions of them.”
To deny these nicotine-clamoring receptors is to invite their wrath—a rage of nail-biting anxiety, a bout of depression, lost focus, irritability, a general feeling of loss—and all of the above.
The pain of loss is twice as strong as the pleasure of gain, but in this case, it’s so much better for you. And it’s also what you want. Right?
“The single most important factor in stopping is your desire; the more committed you are, the more likely your success,” says Dr. Baker.
It is precisely during the withdrawal phase that I recommend fighting back with an arsenal of health-improving measures. It is thought that each cigarette depletes the body of 25 mg of vitamin C, says Dr. Baker, and that’s the prettiest part of the picture. Replenish your toxin-riddled body with a healthy diet rich with organic vegetables and a multivitamin.
“Stress reduction also helps,” says Dr. Baker, naming auricular (ear) acupuncture as a tool to cure addiction. He prescribes the following: “Exercise, relaxation techniques like meditation, getting adequate sleep, B vitamins—especially B5 and B6, Vitamin C, magnesium, adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha and rhodiola, and amino acids like 5-HTP to improve sleep and reduce anxiety.”
In a few months, the number of nicotine receptors in the brain will be reduced to the number you started with before you ever smoked, says Dr. Hurt. But there’s still danger: the smoker's brain never forgets the calm buzz and toe curling pleasure, and feeding those receptors after a period of abstinence invokes an even higher sensation of rewarding pleasure—a former smoker who takes a single puff is said to be 85 percent more likely to begin smoking again.
If you’re quitting, I commend you, and offer the following advice: the most supportive people at this time of your life are former smokers—let them know about what you’re going through. Each one will offer a different word of strength. Remember that as the greedy nicotine receptors wither away, so too will cravings. In the meantime, avoid the bars. Reward your brain each smoke-free day with a healthy pleasure; tea, an expensive massage, a run on the beach. Humiliating your former self by telling the town you’re quitting can’t hurt, either.
