Long before, smoking has been the habit and favorite pastime of both the young and the old. But smoking has contributed significantly to the reasons for people’s death, no matter the age. Approximately 8 million people per year worldwide die due to smoking, with 7 million of those being smokers and the remaining 1 million being exposed to second-hand smoke. Smoking has the highest percentage of people dying because of this and became one of the leading causes of death. Have you been wondering about quitting smoke? Have you ever thought of ways on how to stop your cannabis and cigarette addiction? In this article, you can somehow find answers to your questions.
Despite such alarming statistics, people still engage in such activities, and sometimes they consume too much to the point that they couldn’t go a day without consuming one. Now you might be wondering why they continue to do so despite the risk, why they would not stop smoking tobacco, the reason is quite simple because it leads them to a temporary feeling of euphoria. As they take a puff, it eliminates the stress they have accumulated and goes well with an alcoholic beverage, making it worthwhile and satisfying. The cause for the euphoria being felt by smokers is due to the nicotine molecules found in the tobacco smoke. The said nicotine molecules then travel in the bloodstream up to the blood-brain barrier and penetrate this semipermeable membrane.
By the time nicotine enters the brain, it activates the brain’s reward circuits, releasing the pleasure-inducing endorphins, which is widely known as the neurotransmitter dopamine. Now we all know what dopamine is; this chemical is responsible for our experiencing happiness. This is why smokers aren’t able to stop smoking tobacco.
Dopamine’s release into these circuits exhibits a correlation between a specific behavior and a neurochemical reward in the form of increased mood. Eventually, constant triggering of this pathway can lead to shifts in neurotransmission involved in stress and self-control. They urged those stressed-out individuals to take out a cigarette to manage their built-up stress and exchange it with euphoria. Thus, results in how addiction is established to those tobacco users, making it hard for them to stop smoking tobacco.
Seeing how smoking tobaccos can trigger the reward circuitry of the brain, how do you think smokers handle quitting smoking?
Common Ways That Tobacco Smokers Try to Quit
As they’ve said, once you’ve started, it’s hard to stop. This is just how smoking tobacco is; there have been numerous methods for you to stop smoking tobacco found on the internet. Some may easily say that they’ve only one day decided to stop and have successfully quit smoking from then on. But what you don’t know is that it is quite easier said than done, especially if you’re one of those chain smokers. If you want to stop smoking tobacco, this part might help you. For this part, we’ll share some methods, results, and side effects of quitting tobacco.
The most common and convenient method would be putting nicotine patches on their skin or chewing nicotine gum as an alternative to distract themselves from wanting to smoke a cigarette. Now you might wonder if this method doesn’t have the same effect of sending nicotine up to our brain. Unfortunately, this process is still being carried out. But, it is always a good start in decreasing the dosage of nicotine that enters your body and removes the carcinogenic act of smoking from the equation—thus helping you control yourself and stop smoking tobacco in the long run successfully.
Some turn to e-cigarettes and vaporizers because of their being healthier than smoking due to lack of combustion. But most importantly, you can control the amount of nicotine you consume, making it an excellent alternative for you to stop smoking tobacco.
Another method that helps you to stop smoking tobacco is called nicotine replacement therapy. This method is associated with you changing the source of nicotine that you get from smoking tobacco. Although it works to some people as a method to stop smoking tobacco, based on research, it was found that it is associated with a relatively high relapse rate.
Regardless of the method used to stop smoking tobacco, whether by gradually lowering the nicotine dosage or using other nicotine sources or by just immediately quitting, there will still be withdrawal symptoms the user will experience. This is due to the regular use of nicotine that causes changes and fluctuations in a person’s mood, feelings, and sense of well-being.
Thus, suddenly stopping what your brain’s receptors have come accustomed to day-by-day will surely demand the drug. Once you’ve started to cut off delivering nicotine to your brain’s receptors, your body will experience withdrawal symptoms such as sweating, headaches, sore throats, anxiety, depression, weight gain, etc. The list goes on, so if you’re planning to start engaging in such activities for fun or curiosity, you shouldn’t do it. It is tested and proven based on smokers that it is quite hard to stop smoking tobacco, and there will surely be consequences on starting to smoke cigarettes.
CBD as A Potential Tool for Quitting Smoking
As people’s interest turns to CBD (cannabidiol), one of the few cannabinoid chemicals, researches and experiments have been started, and the result undoubtedly shows promise. And that it is possible to use CBD as a means of helping users to quit smoking tobacco. The cannabinoid is a chemical found in the cannabis plant. This chemical is quite helpful because it can interface with the endocannabinoid system, a network of cell receptors in the body that responds to internal and external cannabinoids.
Based on a research paper published in the journal entitled Addictive Behaviors, it stated that with the use of CBD, it helped the user to lessen his desire to smoke a cigarette for one week. It was found that the drugs that could alter the endocannabinoid system may be considered to be an effective treatment for those addicted to nicotine and having a hard time without consuming the said chemical.
The subjects used in the research were picked randomly, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study of 24 smokers holding the desire to quit smoking tobacco. These 24 individuals were then grouped into two, consisting of 12 people in each group. One group was given a CBD inhaler and the other a placebo. The group with the inhaler was instructed to use the equipment every time they felt the urge to smoke; this experiment continued for one whole week.
After the experiment was over, the results turned out utterly positive. With the use of CBD, it was found that it successfully reduced the user’s consumption of cigarettes by approximately 40%. A follow-up after the study also reported some maintenance of this effect. In conclusion, researchers were able to verify that using CBD has the potential to treat nicotine addiction, making it useful to people who want to quit smoking tobacco and that further investigation is highly required.
Further research was made and was published in the journal Addiction; it stated that CBD reverses the individual’s yearning to cigarettes; this is because the cannabinoid that enters your body helps reduce the cognitive process involved in propelling individuals to smoke. The proponents from this research paper firmly emphasized that CBD may be a promising treatment for those who wanted to stop smoking completely. Thanks to its anti-anxiety effects and ability to reduce these cravings, it could be used to quit smoking during one’s journey.
The research study was able to properly cite and scrutinize whether CBD can become a proper candidate to reduce the smoker’s desire to smoke and pleasantness of cigarette-related stimuli, craving, and withdrawal. Compared to placebo, with just a single 800mg oral dose of CBD reduces the salience and pleasantness of cigarette cues. However, no influence over tobacco craving or withdrawal was reported.
How to Use CBD to Quit Smoking?
Overall, the research and experiments done on CBD showed great potential for the treatment of nicotine addiction. In ingesting CBD, it is best to seek medical assistance with your doctor to ensure there won’t be any complications from happening. But you might be wondering, why should you go through to some elaborate way? There have been researches performed by lots of people already. This is because CBD can interact with certain medications and can cause some reactions.
Now, the easiest and convenient way to consume the cannabinoid is via CBD oil. This product can be enjoyed by adding it to your teas, juices, or just by consuming it. The CBD oil is usually contained within a dropper bottle to make it easier for the user to use it and adjust the amount necessary.
The second way CBD can be consumed is through e-liquids, flowers, and extracts by vaporizing them. While providing a considerable amount of cannabinoid, this method can still give the user a similar sensation of smoking by letting out smoke or puffs, while even helping the user quit smoking.
And lastly, CBD can be mixed into foods and be made into edibles. The user can produce various extracts such as CBD butter or add CBD isolates into numerous kinds of dishes.