Medical Questions » Smoking Questions » Question No. 1437
| Question: | I' m finding it really hard to quit smoking. Can supplements help? |
| Answer: | Cigarettes are carefully and insidiously designed to be addictive. Nicotine is just one of the chemicals in cig-arettes which act as powerful stimulants that mess up your blood sugar balance. Each time your blood sugar levels fall, you get a craving.
But help is at hand. One of the most effective nutrients at helping to stabilize blood sugar and reduce cravings is the mineral chromium, so supplementing 200mcg chromium each day helps. Vitamin C helps protect you from the cancer-causing toxins in cigarettes: supplementing just 2g of vitamin C a day cuts your risk of cancer by a third if you smoke, and helps detoxify your body while you quit. While you are quitting, and for one month afterwards, supplementing 5Omg of niacin (vitamin B3) a day also helps reduce cravings. Niacin dilates blood vessels and helps get toxins out of cells. (As a consequence, you may harmlessly blush for up to 30 minutes after taking it.) |
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