Herbal Remedy To Ease Nicotine
Withdrawl
By: Rebecca Prescott
One of the difficulties in trying to quit smoking is that
smokers become physically dependant on nicotine. Smoking
affects the parts of the brain that relate to reward and
pleasure. It increases the amount of the neurotransmitter,
dopamine, and the nature of nicotine is that it creates a cycle
of positive reinforcement within your brain that makes you want
more.
Scientists have found that when you withdraw from chronic
nicotine use, it results in changes in these neural pleasure
pathways. And the effect on the brain is similar to what
someone addicted to cocaine, opiates and other drugs
experiences. Hence, depression and anxiety are common.
Fortunately, some resourceful modern herbalists began applying
traditional knowledge to a modern problem. In Ayurvedic
medicine, common garden variety oats (but not oat straw), is
used to treat opium withdrawal. The herbalist Anand, using a
tincture (an alcoholic extract of the herb), applied this same
reasoning to nicotine withdrawal, with significant
results.
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In a group of 26 heavy smokers, he gave an oat tincture, and
in another group of 26, he gave a placebo. The group who took
the oat tincture smoked less cigarettes, and this effect
remained for two months after they stopped treatment. The
herbalist Weiss theorizes that it is the sedative effect of
oats. Oats contain as active constituents the indole alkaloid,
gramine, and the alkaloids avenine and trigonelline. Oats are
described in herbal medicine texts as helping create a feeling
of well-being whilst simultaneously acting as a tonic to the
nervous system. But unlike narcotics, these are mild, non-habit
forming effects.
My herbal teacher, Ses Salmond, suggested the following formula
for those trying to stop smoking. In a 50ml bottle, mix the
following herbal tinctures:
* 15ml green oats
* 10ml white horehound
* 10ml mullein
* 5ml golden seal
* 10ml peppermint
Take 6 drops on the tongue whenever the craving to have a
cigarette is felt.
Acupuncture is also an excellent support option. HerbMed offers
the following herbal option, to be used on appropriate
acupuncture points. Mix oil of cloves, oil of wintergreen, an
extract of evodia fruit, an extract of sichuan lovage rhizome,
and msg, and apply to specific acupuncture points.
Unfortunately, they don't say which acupuncture points, but
this may be determined by what each person presents with.
Resources: 1.
www.herbmed.org/herbs/herb36.htm#Category24Herb36
2. Class notes by Ses Salmond
3. C Fisher & G Painter, Materia Medica Of Western Herbs
For The Southern Hemisphere
4. R Weiss, Herbal Medicine (Beaconsfield Arcanum, 1988)
5. www.drugabuse.gov/Infofacts/Tobacco.html
 About the Author:
Rebecca Prescott publishes the health ezine, The Vitamin Vine,
and a website offering information on nutritional supplements,
herbs and vitamins, plus natural solutions to common health
problems. See this link: http://www.vitaminstohealth.com/supplements.html
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