From: backon@vms.huji.ac.il
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Nicotine Withdrawal Help Needed
Date: 30 Dec 92 21:34:23 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In article <8283@news.duke.edu>, das@canctr.mc.duke.edu writes:
> I am trying to quit smoking for health reasons (what other reasons are
> there? :-)  ).  Now, I've done a lot all ready...  I've cut down to light
> cigarettes, and down to half a pack a day.  I can smoke as little as 6
> 0.6 mg cigs a day but have reached a point where I can't smoke any more
> than 12 without feeling like my lungs are glued together.  You might ask
> where I'm going with this.  I'll tell you.
>
> I receive less nicotine from my current levels of smoking than are provided
> in the lowest dosage nicotine patch.
>
> I have TMJ and can't chew Nicorette gum.  (I know because I've got a box of
> the stuff aging in my medicine chest.)
>
> So...  the doctor wants me to go cold turkey.  So, I'm trying.  I've gone
> 24 hours without a cigarette (I cheated 2 hrs ago and had a 0.2 mg ultra
> light cigarette, durn it) and I'm climbing the walls.  I only smoked 4 cigs
> yesterday so by two this afternoon my hands were shaking and I couldn't
> concentrate on a darn thing.  I've been to classes countless times but
> because of the timing (no, this is NOT a new years resolution type of thing)
> the leader of my latest group isn't available.  My roommate is out of town
> for the next ten days and I've GOT to get through the worst of this before
> she returns - also, the next term starts in about two weeks and my boss is
> course director for a graduate level class to I've got to have my wits about
> me.  In the meantime, my doctor expects me to have followed her orders before
> I see her in March or I might get thrown out of the health program I'm
> involved in.  I guess they figure that info will motivate me or something.
> Guess it's working.  Anyway, I'm rambling.
>
> The main point is:  I'm going crazy!!!  I'm climbing the walls.  My hands are
> shaking.  I can't keep a thought in my head long enough to work out a
> coherent sentence much less an entire paragraph.  I'm not gonna make it if
> I can't find SERIOUS motivation, and soon.  I figure if I can go at least 24
> hrs without cheating by Friday at the latest, I'll have a better chance than
> I've got right now.


The withdrawal symptoms are due to noradrenergic overactivity. The ideal way to
stop smoking (as well as alcoholism and drug addiction) is the method I've
published in a number of articles in medical journals [check MEDLINE for
articles]. My method involves the use of a thromboxane synthetase inhibitor, a
vasopressin inhibitor, and an inducer of vagal activity. The method is quite
simple, costs practically nothing, is quite pleasurable, and is *very*
effective. I've even gotten people to stop taking crack. The thromboxane
synthetase inhibitor has additional properties: it is an antagonist of
noradrenergic overactivity, it is a dopamine D2 agonist, a prostacyclin
agonist, and may induce endorphinergic receptor activity.

The method is:

a) try to induce the noradrenergic overactivity (withdrawal symptoms) by simply
stopping to smoke for 24 hours (or as long as you can take it);

At the end of this 24-hour period (when you're probably climbing the walls :-)


b) chew on a piece of candied ginger (beware: it's *very* sharp and pungent)
  [ginger is an extremely potent thromboxane synthetase inhibitor, by
implication noradrenergic antagonist, as well as a substance that activates
 endorphinergic receptors in the brain]

c) drink a glass of seltzer (soda water)
  [in 1984, it was found that carbon dioxide is also a potent thromboxane
synthetase inhibitor]


d) go to a *hot* Jacuzzi and immerse yourself up to your ears for 10 minutes
(until you get the urge to urinate)
   (head out water immersion in a hot Jacuzzi drastically lowers vasopressin
   secretion, and this would decrease brain edema that  has been postulated in
the literature to induce some of the withdrawal symptoms]


e) the night after you stop smoking, sleep in the right lateral decubitus
position (on your RIGHT side, with pressure on your RIGHT sided shoulder and
thorax)
[see: skin pressure-vegetative reflex  in MEDLINE]


Good luck !

Josh

Dr. Josh Backon
Cardiology
backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL



>
> 1)  Is there a Smoke-Ender's type support group on the Net?
>
> 2)  What are your worst horror stories about what smoking does to a persons
>     lungs, general health, etc.  Can anybody out there SCARE me into
>     quitting?
>
> Thanks folks.  I need all the help I can get.  (Just keeping my fingers on the
> keys and typing this message has helped a wee bit.  (-:  )
>
> ----------
> Lora M. LeMosy
> 71544.467@compuserve.com (preferred) -or- das@canctr.mc.duke.edu
> -or- steege@bchm.biochem.duke.edu (12/30 only)
> ----------
> /
Newsgroups: sci.med