How to Stop Smoking Using Herbs & Vitamins

Stopping smoking improves not only your health, but also to those around you.

According to the United Sates Food and Drug Administration, smoking kills 1,200 people every day in the United States as of 2011. They have also reported that if you do not quit smoking, you have a 50 percent chance of dying from a smoking related disease. Smoking cessation helps to lower your risks for lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and emphysema. Using herbal and vitamin supplements to aid you in quitting is a healthier alternative to prescription drugs. Individuals with asthma related symptoms and ear infections may be the victims of second hand smoke, which can cause respiratory conditions in non-smokers.

Instructions

1. Pick a date within the next month to quit smoking. Mark the quit date on your calendar. Notify your family and friends about your decision to quit smoking and the date you plan to quit.

2. Boil eight-ounces of water. Pour the boiling water into a cup and steep a mixture of dried herbs from cloves and astragalus membranaceus bunge for fifteen-minutes. Drink the tea daily before and after your quit date to help with withdrawal symptoms and to accelerate the conversion of nicotine in the body.

3. Use an all-natural smoking cessation patch to help aid with nicotine cravings. Grate a few radishes to release the juice and drink it twice daily. Take herbal supplements such as peppermint, valerian, chamomile, skullcap, hops and lobelia to help with the urges to smoke.

4. Take vitamin supplements of A, C, E, and a B Complex to aid in restoring antioxidants destroyed by smoking, which help protect cells from the damage caused by free radicals. Incorporate these vitamins into your diet with foods such as sweet potatoes, carrots, organs, fish, almonds, mangoes, nuts and broccoli.

Tips & Warnings

• Damage from free radicals may lead to many different types of cancers.

References

• U.S. Food and Drug Administration: FDA 101: Smoking Cessation Products
• Smoke Free: Quit Guide: Preparing to Quit
• American Cancer Society: Guide to Quitting Smoking
• U.S. National Library of Medicine: National Institute of Health: Effects of Medicinal Herb Tea on the Smoking Cessation and Reducing Smoking Withdrawal Symptoms.
• Medline Plus: Quitting Smoking
• MC vitamins: Smoking and Second Hand Smoke

Resources

• YgoY: Herbs to Stop Crave for Smoking
• University of Maryland Medical Center: Vitamin C