Stop Smoking with Vitamin C: Here's How

How to Stop Smoking

How to Quit Smoking

Those who have tried know that stopping smoking is easier said than done. Nine out of ten smokers say they’d like to quit, and nine out of ten who do quit used no special technique at all: they just stop doing it.

It works even easier with some help, and here is the best method I have found:

Spray vitamin C into the back of the mouth and throat each time you want a cigarette. (Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 1993:337, p 211-213. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8261886 ) Less than 300 mg/day delivered this way was shown to be effective.

“Oh? So where can I buy vitamin C spray to help me stop smoking?”

Beats me. Plus, I think you are better off making your own, fresh, every day. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) powder is cheap. You can probably find a sprayer at the dollar store. Mix as much of the crystalline vitamin C as will dissolve in a couple of ounces of water and spray the back of your throat every time you want a cigarette. This not only helps you stop smoking; it also helps control hunger cravings and reduce that old nicotine-withdrawal weight gain syndrome.

Again: there’s no need to wander the shopping malls hunting for vitamin C spray. Just take plain ascorbic acid crystals (available from any health food store, and many online suppliers), dissolve as much as you can in a given amount of water, and make your own. If you do not have an extra spray bottle lying around, you can gargle with it. Or use chewable vitamin Cs. Or drink the vitamin C solution. Or just take a lot of vitamin C tablets in the usual way. All these will help you stop smoking, and reduce food cravings at the same time. You might not believe this last zinger of a fact, so ask your public librarian to help get you a copy of the research paper I mentioned above, and see for yourself. You can locate it on the internet, but it is not a free-access paper.

Because vitamin C is acidic (about as acidic as lemonade or carbonated soft drinks), I recommend you rinse your mouth with water immediately afterwards. This simple step is protective for your tooth enamel. If you are unusually sensitive to acidity, you can also buy buffered vitamin C powder, such as calcium ascorbate, or non-acidic sodium ascorbate, or use non-acidic chewables. All these forms of vitamin C are available by asking at health food stores or searching the internet. I do not make brand recommendations.

Your vitamin bill will be more than paid for by the money you save. Russell J. Bird, M.D., Columbia, Pennsylvania said, “A three-pack-a-day smoker once told me, ‘Over the last 20 years, I smoked a Porsche.’"

Many people are familiar with this prayer: “Give me strength to change the things I can, serenity to accept the things I can’t, and wisdom to know the difference.” Well, smoking is something we can take personal control over. Oppose tobacco use. Nag someone you love to stop smoking. Do whatever it takes to save their life. Don’t be shy; it’s that or a premature visit to the mortuary.

Remember: Tobacco kills eight times as many Americans in one year than the Viet Nam War did in ten years.

When actor and heavy smoker Yul Brenner was dying of lung cancer, he was asked on television if he had any words to offer about smoking. He turned to the camera, looked straight into it, and said, “Just don’t do it.” Advice that can save 450,000 lives a year is good advice indeed. In the US alone, tobacco kills 51 people every hour. That’s over 1,200 dead smokers’ funerals each day.

Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html ) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html )

Andrew W. Saul

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