Nicotine Chewing Gum Addiction

by Terrence Malgamoz

Nicotine chewing gum falls into the category of nicotine replacement therapies (NRT). It is a stop smoking product that comes in various brands and often available for purchase over the counter without need for a doctor's prescription.

Stopping smoking using nicotine gum is common amongst quitting smokers. Some also use nicotine patches, nicotine inhalers or sprays.

The nicotine gum like other NRTs is administered under strict dosage instructions. It contains less nicotine than that found in a tobacco cigarette and patients take a limited number of gum pieces per day.

The gum pieces are to be taken as and when one feels the craving to smoke. Depending on how the strong the craving is, additional pieces maybe taken without exceeding the daily limit. Exceeding the daily limit presents a real danger of nicotine overdose which may lead to nicotine poisoning.

Excess use of nicotine chewing gum may also result in addiction. Even though this is rare, some patients have reported nicotine gum addiction running into years. They have complained that in trying to get off cigarettes they ended up picking yet another costly addiction.

Quitting smoking is hard. Often people who are trying to quit smoking find themselves in a smoking relapse. This is considered normal as many people who are smoke-free today once relapsed several times. At the core of a successful quitting journey is the will power to quit.

It is therefore of paramount importance that the use of nicotine gum should be approached with a quitting mind-set. This alternative to smoking will unlikely work any magic on its own without individual will power also working in the background.

Over-reliance on gum may result in addiction. Nicotine gum is intended to wean one off cigarettes and not perpetually replace cigarettes. Most nicotine replacement products are more effective and produce better results when used in combination with a quit smoking program.

Good brands of nicotine chewing gum such as Nicorete offers a free quit smoking program tailor made to individual needs and circumstances. These are likely to produce best results as compared to uncoordinated and unmonitored daily chewing of gum.

Nicotine is addictive. Any product containing nicotine may therefore become addictive when consistently supplied in correct levels.

SITE MAP

script type="text/javascript"> var infolink_pid = 229591; var infolink_wsid = 0;