Natural way to quit smoking
All materials on this site, with the exception of quoted sources, have been written by Oleg Chmelev, who is solely responsible for its content.
This site describes a simple and natural method of how to quit smoking or to get rid of any kind of cravings.
First, let's clarify the terminology, to make sure we mean the same things, when we say "quit smoking".
In this connection one can often hear an expression to "stop smoking"; but, strictly speaking, to stop smoking means only to interrupt the process of smoking or to abstain from smoking for a period of time.
It does not necessarily have anything to do with dropping the habit of smoking.
A proper way of describing this is probably to use the expression to quit smoking.
This expression is used on this site
Nicotine cravings have a very simple physiological origin and can be removed in a matter of days, possibly hours.
Cravings for other substances can be addressed the same way.
In very simple terms it works like this - organism requires many hormones and enzymes to function, it also has a variety of plasma proteins, those which do not form tissues.
And, of course, organism has to constantly produce new cells, which form various tissues.
Even the "simplest" of enzymes are very complex organic molecules, blood proteins are even more complex, with the molecular weight into hundreds of thousand.
These complex molecules are built in stages, from simple to the more complex, till the final "product" is made to "specifications".
Let's call the incomplete parts of biological substances "precursors", even though someone with a formal medical education may say that this term should not be used in such a broad sense.
In order to have the biochemical processes in our body running smoothly, we need all the "component parts", among them, minerals - calcium, magnesium, zinc, manganese, chromium, selenium, copper, vanadium, nickel, molybdenum, to name the more important ones.
For example, a healthy human organism produces more than 300 magnesium enzymes, which are also called metalloenzymes,.
It also produces more than 70 zinc enzymes.
There are many other metals, which are crucial for building vital enzymes.
Trace minerals are equally important in building proteins of all kinds - including DNA.
Metals serve as "junctions points"; their polyvalency allows building complex biological structures.
Deficiency of minerals means that "precursors" cannot connect into a final, biologically viable molecule.
Organism is "designed" to signal discomfort, if there are many "unconnected" precursors.
In a mild form this discomfort may result in craving for a particular food, soft drinks, coffee, or a general feeling of hunger, even after a big meal.
In the old days, when people were eating more wholesome foods, with higher mineral content, they knew exactly what to eat to address a particular craving.
Nowadays, with most our food produced with industrial agricultural methods, people have lost this connection. As a result, they may address a craving with a half-dozen donuts, a cake, a pound of ice cream, a few cans of soft drink or something of that nature.
The underlying reasons for a feeling of discomfort are not addressed, of course, but they are masked by the effects of the substances consumed.
And, needless to say, it does not do you any good.
Incidentally, the American pioneer farmers had no choice but to abandon a field after 5-6-7 years and to clear out another one, as the health of the members of their families was getting progressively worse.
Just an illustration of the value of the trace minerals!
A more severe mineral deficiency may cause various degrees of substance cravings - to alcohol, nicotine, narcotics or even agressive chemicals.
Substance cravings is the reason why some people enjoy sniffing paints, sniffing glue, sniffing gasoline, solvents, they enjoy the smell of gasoline exhaust, etc).
Obviously, people who have been drinking or smoking, or doing drugs for a long time, have made those substances a part of their "biochemistry"; interruption of a "supply" would produce discomfort.
Any smoker or drinker knows only too well, that it brings him an immediate relief, and that is the reason behind substance cravings.
But which biochemical reaction actually take place? Why does it bring relief?
Nicotine or alcohol react with various enzymatic precursors; as a result of that, the precursor molecules are changed sufficiently to become "unrecognizable" to the body.
This reduces the feeling of discomfort, it can even eliminate it completely.
On top of that it is masked by the intoxicating effect of a drug, alcohol, nicotine, or another substance that is introduced into your system.
The feeling of relief is often so profound, that people can really get an idea that smoking or drinking is good for them, albeit with a "qualifier" - "good under my hectic lifestyle and all the stress it brings".
When someone's biochemistry is in such a disarray, it is not easy to resist cravings and to stop smoking or drinking.
There are many substances, which can react with enzymatic or other "precursors" and thus render them "unrecognizable".
Many of those substances are generally regarded as desirable and enjoyable, like perfumes, coffee, sweets, various taste enhancers, and yet they interrupt biochemical processes in your body, often rather profoundly.
Many substances, which are classified as "GRAS" (Generally Regarded As Safe) by the FDA, also do bad things to the biochemistry of your body. Food preservatives are among them.
The way your organism reacts to substances, which destroy enzymatic precursors is indicative to whether you have deficiency of vital minerals.
If you enjoy a smell of a fabric softener, air-freshener, second-hand smoke, then your diet lacks sufficient amounts of trace minerals.
If you enjoy smoking, alcohol, smell of agressive substances - solvents, paint-thinners, paints, solvent-based glues, gasoline, gasoline exhaust, then your mineral deficiency is at a very dangerous level.
If painting your place in winter, with windows and doors closed, does not bother you, then you are likely to have a severe mineral deficiency. The same applies to using lacquer in large quantities, for example, on your hardwood floors, using wood stain.
If your organism does not "notice" the effects of using household and lawn pesticides, aggressive household cleaners, you are likely to have a compromised biochemistry.
At the end of that road an entire array of serious medical conditions is likely to be waiting, possibly not excluding cancer.
The fact that a particular substance can be purchased in a cosmetics store, does not necessarily mean that it is safe.
For example, nail-polish remover is a very aggressive solvent, even though some people might well find its smell pleasant.
But like any other solvent, it penetrates skin very easily.
As a matter of fact, any substance which dissolves lipids (fats), penetrates skin, not to mention mucous membranes.
If you have to handle solvents, make sure you avoid contact with unprotected skin.
It goes without saying that they should only be handled in well-ventilated areas and also, preferably, using an air filter. (Not a paper face mask, or a construction dust mask, but a real filter with activated carbon cartridges).
With regards to nail-polish remover, using a Q-tip is safer than using a cotton-ball.
It is better to take extra few minutes, but to make absolutely sure that poison does not touch your skin!
There are many toxic substances, which are found in trace amounts in various foods, as well as tap water. PCBs (furans) are among them; and, of course, various pesticides.
Drinking water nowadays can be a vehicle for many contaminants.
This site has a page with a list of toxic substances, whose content in drinking water is regulated by the US Safe Drinking Water Act.
Fluoride ion is very agressive destroyer of enzymatic precursors. The biggest source of it for the most of us is tap water, as well as reconstituted juices, if they are diluted with fluoridated water.
There is an entire pictorial essay about reconstituted juices on my site deadWater.INFO
It has almost 40 pictures of labels, which I found on steel drums, which used to contain juice concentrate.
Concentrated juice is cheaper to transport, since the water content (dead weight) in it is reduced to a minimum. And it is reasonable to assume that the juice which was in a drum like this is a wholesome product, without any preservatives, however, if it is diluted with fluoridated water at the packaging plant, then you will end up consuming fluorides, which would not do you any good.
Conscripts of the armies on the service of totalitarian regimes were given bromine salts, another destroyer of enzymatic precursors.
A good example of that was the Soviet Army (a.k.a. "Red Army").
The purpose of bromine "additive" was to reduce sex drive in those hapless conscripts, whose condition of service was only a notch above imprisonment.
Lithium salts have essentially the same effects, they are used as sedative to treat various psychiatric disorders.
Lithium is the most agressive of all base metals, it renders enzymatic precursors useless as "effectively" as fluoride ion.
Among other things, destruction of enzymatic precursors produces fatigue.
On one hand, the organism is caught in an endless cycle of having to produce more and more "enzymatic precursors", a good part of which is destroyed, as soon as they are produced.
The organism also has to dispose of the "mutilated enzymatic precursors", which have essentially become a foreign material, junk in your bloodstream.
It should, of course, be regarded as "beneficial", when the purpose is to calm down violent psychiatric patients, but for the rest of us this interruption of biochemical processes is something to be avoided, as much as we can.
During the first years after the end of WWII, there were many instances of popular unrest in Soviet-occupied Germany. The largest uprising took place 17 June 1953.
The scale of it was such that the occupying regime had declared martial law. Uprising was brutally suppressed, the number of arrests is estimated to have reached 15,000.
Many participants were imprisoned, there were also several death sentences.
I heard from alternative German sources that more than 2000 people, mostly young men have been executed, however, when I looked through the "mainstream" German Internet, they mention "several" executions.
After that the Soviet regime had acquired fluoridation equipment in US and installed it in all metropolitan centers of the occupied Germany.
There were no more uprisings after that!
I cannot provide references to any "official" sources in support of this allegation.
I obtained this information from my personal contacts with some German people.
And I believe that!
If you look through the resources available on the Internet on the subject of fluoridation, you can find references to the fact that at least in some cities of the Soviet-occupied Germany the water was fluoridated.
It was also fluoridated in West Germany till the practice was stopped.
The regime, which ruled the so-called "German Democratic Republic" for more than forty years, went as far as building the Berlin wall, to keep their people from running away.
Why would they hesitate adding some "medicine" to the public water supply to help them stay in power?
If that was true, then one cannot deny that it is a rather illustrative example of the effects of "enzymatic destroyers"!
A few words should be said about coffee.
Even though it is by far not the most dangerous substance people consume, considering the quantities consumed over a lifetime, coffee drinkers do subject their biochemistry to serious harm.
Substances contained in coffee emulate many enzymatic precursors.
This means that they connect with those precursors, making them unrecognizable to the body.
As we have already mentioned, this means an endless cycle of overloading your biochemistry for no good reason.
It is reasonable to assume that if a particular blood protein or enzyme or a hormone has several precursors during the building cycle, then those precursors are created in equal amounts.
In other words, if there are a thousand units of a precursor "A", then there will also be about a thousand of "B", "C", "D" and so on.
Obviously, it would make no sense for the body to make twice as much of one precursor, as some other.
If a particular substance renders only ONE precursor unusable, without affecting the rest, it still means that the rest cannot combine into a functional product - be that a blood protein, enzyme or a hormone.
Naturally, that would be very "confusing" for the biochemistry of the organism, and the fallout from this interference, day after day after day, would mean nothing good for your health.
When precursors are continuously being destroyed, your body has to produce more and more of them.
It also has to dispose of those enzymatic precursors, which became unrecognizable because of exposure to coffee.
With coffee comes sugar, or, worse still, sugar twins, "whiteners", chlorinated and fluoridated water.
And even though many people end up consuming chlorinated and fluoridated water in their own homes and at work, they do not really have to, since those substances can be removed from water with only a small expense.
My other site has a page where a simple method of neutralizing fluorides is described
But a restaurant, a coffee shop or a fast food place are unlikely to trouble themselves with purchasing expensive filtering systems.
After all, those filtering system should have an almost industrial capacity! Plus fluorides can only be removed with special compounds, which have an adsorption capacity to fluoride ion.
In practice an aluminum oxide granules are used in ion-exchange beds to reduce fluoride content, with the granule size between 1 and 3 mm.
Their capacity is rather limited, since a good part of the water ends up flowing past those granules without entering into a chemical reaction.
The ion-exchange compound is regenerated with a solution of aluminum sulfate (Al2(SO4)3).
Plus even if some upscale restaurant buys such a filtering system, they would have to make a decision when to replace the filter or to send the cartridge with ion-exchange compound for reactivation.
Is 95% removal rate still good? How about 80%?
Another harmful thing about coffee is that it is normally consumed hot.
Hot liquid burns your mouth, esophagus, stomach many times during an average day.
Biological tissues die, if exposed to temperatures over 42 degrees C (108 F).
This means that your body has to continuously keep rebuilding cells, which you keep destroying by the billion every day with the "help" of hot coffee or tea.
Hot drinks are an important causative factor behind cancers of mouth and esophagus.
In order to create normal conditions for our biochemistry to function properly, we have to supply the body with all the nutrients it needs, including minerals and vitamins.
Regarding proper nutrition, the basics of it are not complicated at all.
You certainly do not need to take a course in nutrition science to know that junk foods cannot provide your body with all the nutrients it needs.
My grocery list, for example, is very simple - the only items I buy in supermarkets are those which grew up naturally either as a plant or an animal, bird or a fish.
I do not buy processed foods, not bleached flour, not parboiled rice, not to mention anything in cans, jars or boxes.
Obviously, things like yeast can be regarded as a processed food, and so is yogourt, sour cream, but in general, I try to avoid foods, which underwent industrial processing.
Fats
Fats deserve to be mentioned separately in the context of a proper nutrition.
Fats are a very important nutrition item and they have to be a part of a wholesome diet.
Here we have to mention hydrogenated fats, or transfats.
They have been discovered in 1916 and almost immediately became a favourite ingredient for the food industry.
This is because they do not get rancid and thus the food, especially pastry, which was made with those fats, never smells.
As one can well imagine, pastry, which was made with natural fats would start to smell, as those fats get rancid a few weeks later.
Chemically, when fats go rancid, this means they got oxidized. And here is a fat, which never gets oxidized, not even after years in a warehouse!
These fats are similar to the natural fats in their chemical structure, so similar, actually, that they can enter the cell structures after being ingested.
However, they cannot take part in many biochemical reactions and thus disrupt the biochemistry of the body.
Some researches allege that a prolonged consumption of transfats can produce brain lesions.
Some authorities even claim causative link to brain cancer.
The main reason for adding fats / oil to dough is to speed up the baking process, since fats act as a heat conductor.
Food industry can save lots of money churning out this kind of pastry products.
Nowadays, because of bad publicity around transfats / hydrogenated fats, consumers became more aware about their dangers, manufacturers had no choice but to start phasing them out.
However, they have not been outlawed, unsuspecting people can still buy them.
Another food group, where you can run into transfats, is deep-fried foods.
Since the rate of chemical reactions goes up with temperature, hot fats oxidize faster; because of that, using hydrogenated fats for deep frying was considered an "obvious" solution to that problem till recently.
Bad publicity around transfats resulted in a frantic search for substitutes by the food industry.
Such substitute was found, it is palm oil.
This, however, created another problem - destruction of wildlife habitat in the tropical areas.
This, problem, however, is beyond the scope of this site.
But even if you only eat the natural food, avoid junk food, it is very unlikely you would be able to supply your body with all the minerals and vitamins it needs.
Agricultural soil is so depleted of minerals nowadays, that supplementation is absolutely essential.
This site has a separate page about mineral supplements
If you want to search the Internet on this subject, use the keywords "trace minerals" and "mineral supplements".
Meta search may produce better results.
Vitamins should not be overlooked either.
Just one word of caution - you should not take too much of vitamin C at one time.
Try not to take more than 50-100 mg at one time and spread your daily intake over the course of 8-12-16 hours, if you can.
My understanding is that ascorbic acid has affinity for ionized calcium, forming insoluble salt.
Ionized calcium is always present in blood plasma, it would immediately react with ascorbic acid.
Ingestion of considerable quantities of vitamin C would result in production of a sediment, which would eventually end up in kidney tubules, contributing to the formation of kidney stones.
You can often see some "authorities" recommending megadoses of vitamin C, up to 10 grams a day!
In view of a very high risk of developing kidney stones with such amounts ingested daily, I would be very cautious about any claims that such large doses would do you any good.
I know one person who underwent an alternative cancer therapy in one private clinic.
At first he started it in Mexico, but then moved to continue it in Germany (in Silbersee).
Among other things, that therapy involved injection of vitamin C solution right into the bloodstream.
His cancer was successfully cured, even though he developed a bad case of kidney stones.
Obviously, kidney stones should be regarded as a minor nuisance in comparison with cancer.
It nevertheless proves the claim that large dozes of vitamin C precipitate ionized calcium in blood.
If you take calcium supplements or dairy products together with vitamin C, fruits or fruit juices, you lose considerable part of calcium and vitamin C because they react with each other.
If they react in your stomach, you lose some nutritional value of such a meal, since less calcium and vitamin C will be left to nourish the body.
However, if calcium and vitamin C react in your bloodstream, you may also get kidney stones.
To avoid that, it is better to separate the intake of those foods by at least an hour, maybe even more, especially after you took a calcium pill.
Regarding "vitamin C", you sometimes can see claims that certain brands of it are "exactly as found in nature".
Unless it is an advertising gimmick, a claim like that probably reflects the fact that vitamin C is a particular isomer of ascorbic acid, and only that isomer has nutritional / therapeutic value.
Just like with glucose isomers - there are quite a few of them, some are not even sweet, even though they have the same chemical formula as glucose.
This fact is reflected on the labels of powdered milk - "sugar content" can be up to a third in percentile terms, and yet it is not sweet.
MSM
MSM or methyl-sulfonyl-methane is another important dietary supplement, which can help to bring the body's biochemistry in order and thus eliminate cravings for nicotine, as well as other substances.
MSM is a source of dietary sulfur, which is an important building block of some aminoacids and thus proteins.
It also increases permeability of cellular membranes, which allows a more efficient uptake of nutrients, as well as more efficient disposal of cellular waste.
This site has a separate page, which describes the benefits of MSM
In addition to vitamin and mineral supplementation, we have to avoid introducing any substances, which disrupt the natural biochemical processes.
This includes junk food, hydrogenated fats (transfats), sugar, sugar twins, food preservatives.
"High Fructose Corn Syrup" (HFCS) is another substance, which would not do you any good. It is widely used by the food industry and according to medical researches it has been linked to pancreatic dysfunction, insulin resistance (when cells cannot uptake glucose, even though there is enough insulin being produced). All those are early signs of diabetes.
It can also cause high cholesterol levels, hypertension, which can result in a heart disease.
There had been reports linking HFCS to anemia, liver damage, infertility and even cancer.
HFCS is added to soft drinks and fruit drinks, pastry, salad dressings, among other things.
Since HFCS contains no nutrients (enzymes, vitamins or minerals), it does not reduce hunger, and thus it contributes to obesity, as people tend to eat more, when they eat "dead" food (which is devoid of enzymes, vitamins or minerals). It also leeches out vitamins and minerals from the cells.
The reason why the food industry uses HFCS so much is because it is probably the cheapest ingredient, which can be used in industrial food processing and preparation. This, of course, adds to profit margins.
You can also find HFCS sold under the labels of "fruit fructose", "ISO glucose", "glucose-fructose syrup", "inulin", chicory, and, possibly, others.
We have to avoid, as much as possible, exposure to aggressive substances like industrial chemicals, household cleaners, household pesticides.
In addition to proper nutrition it is very important to reduce to the absolute minimum possible any introduction of contaminants into the organism.
Many of them can interfere with body's biochemistry and thus contribute to cravings for various substances, among them nicotine and/or alcohol.
It goes without saying we have to pay extra attention to the water we drink to avoid ingestion of harmful substances.
Pure water has become a rather scarce commodity in our day and age. There are very few unpolluted aquifers left, most people have to rely on filtered water.
Proper treatment of water can remove a large part of contaminants, both organic and inorganic.
My other site (www.deadWater.info) has a page about various filtering methods and their effectiveness
To summarize:
The strategy to quit smoking should aim at eliminating nicotine cravings.
The most important part of this strategy is to bring the body's biochemistry into order.
This can be achieved this by restoring the biochemical balance.
Take your minerals and vitamins every day. Avoid junk food, coffee, sugar, sugar substitutes, foods, which contain preservatives, foods which contain transfats, as much as you can.
Once the biochemical balance is restored, the cravings should disappear. At least they should be manageable to handle.
This eBook is available from IDLoser.com