Quitting smoking! Help?

[James Carmichael]

Any good alternatives such as herbal cigarettes or something i can make myself to help me cut down and eventually give up?

A friend of mine collects dandelions, washes then, dries them out and smokes then. Would that work? I'm obviously not looking for a high, but I know they put loads of toxins and chemicals in cigarettes and I need an alternative for the time being so I can work on cutting down.

[Cruditas]

Hello James,
Congrats on your decision! I quit smoking in January and made the decision to stop cold turkey. Just from one former smoker to one thats about to be:) I feel if you substitute the act of smoking with another act of smoking you might give up and go back to cigarettes. It takes 3-4 days to get through the physical addicition, after that is all about staying strong. Good luck. You have some support here to make healthy decisions.

[James Carmichael]

Thanks for the support. I feel the more raw I go the more i get turned off to smoking, but the addiction is still there none the less.

[Gorecki]

I quit smoking a year ago. I used to smoke 30 cigs a day for about 13 years.

My trick? I bought myself a piggybank: everyday I dropped 10 euro's in it (8 dollars? :)) the price of two packages of cigs (my boyfriend also used to smoke so we did it together) At the end of the year, we saved up 3600 euro's! And now? We are leaving for a worldtrip in June 'till October :woot: It is very very stimulating if you have something you can look forward to. But I do admit that sometimes, even after all this time, I still miss my cigs :-)

[SunshineMN]

You can use a blend of Lobelia and other herbs to help if you need something. Lobelia is a plant native americans have used for a long time, in fact, it is often called indian tobacco, though it's not a tobacco plant. There was an article posted at Natural News (http://www.naturalnews.com/035119_tobacco_lung_health_addiction.html) recently about it and how it can help heal your lungs.

Everything I have read about using lobelia says it should only be about 1/4th of the mix you are smoking. Skullcap is popular thing to mix it with. Apparently if you use too much it can make you nauseous. Lobelia is considered a slight sedative and you shouldn't use it with other sedatives.

Do some research on the net to figure out what you should mix it with, there are quite a few resources. :)

[James Carmichael]

I'm sure I've heard of that before. I bet finding it will be a challenge.

[SunshineMN]

It might be a little harder to find it at the moment as places are running out of stock as we come into growing season again. Mountain Rose Herbs and Starwest Botanicals usually has it along with other things I was going to mix it with. I was going to use Lobelia, Skullcap (for taste and aroma), Mullein (an expectorant), and Passion Flower (for depression).

[Traceyraw]

I can't give you tips on quitting but I work in a place where I see cancer patients.

1. 20 years old. Tongue cancer started smoking when he was 14.
2. 52 years old. Celebrated the birth of 1st grandchild. Diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer same week. Smoked 31 years.

I could go on and on. Sad sad world of cigarettes.

I am so glad your quitting.

[SunshineMN]

I just ordered 4 lbs of herbs from Monterey Bay Spice Company (http://www.herbco.com). One each of the 4 from my above post. Hopefully you can find some in the UK if you choose to try it. I'll let you know how the blend goes after we receive it. :)

I know smoking is a bad habit. It's been really tough to quit for me. I think a big part of it has to do with the depression I've had for years. Things I've been reading lately makes me think a lot of my problems are because of gut bacteria. As a child I took a lot of antibiotics because I had tonsil and ear problems. It's taken a long time to learn what my parents and school didn't teach about health. Now it's just the journey to fix the lousy, uninformed choices I've made over the last 25 years, and I'm excited about the possibilities.