‘Low-Nicotine’ Cigarettes May Help Smokers Quit

“These data suggest that if nicotine content is adequately reduced, smokers may benefit by smoking fewer cigarettes and experiencing less nicotine dependence, with few negative consequences”, Eric C. Donny, PhD, an associate professor in the department of psychology at University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues wrote.

The fear that slashing cigarettes’ nicotine content would drive smokers into more risky habits has long discouraged USA health officials from rallying behind proposals to limit the amount of the chemical in combustible tobacco products.

The findings “should serve as a catalyst” for the Food and Drug Administration to set limits on the nicotine content of smoked tobacco sold in the United States, Myers said.

Furthermore, UCSF researcher Dr. Neal Benowitz, notes that when an earlier study was released, the ideal method at the time was to pair lower nicotine intake with other forms of smoking cessation strategies. The best results were registered among users, who smoked cigarettes with reduced levels of nicotine, whereas those who smoked regular brands saw no improvement at all, according to researchers.

“The follow-up period was relatively short – six weeks – and the study was not statistically powered to measure clinical outcomes”, said Tindle, who served as the lead study physician while working at the University of Pittsburgh through the summer of 2014.

Want to quit smoking? However, studies, including the one by Donny et al.in this issue of the Journal (pages 1340-1349), tend to show only modest compensation in response to a reduction in nicotine yield. “The research was exclusively six weeks”.

All of the volunteers had been smoking no less than 5 cigarettes per day.

Cigarettes sometimes have about 15.eight milligrams of nicotine per gram of tobacco. Five smoked study-provided cigarettes that ranged in nicotine strength from extremely low (0.4 mg per gram of tobacco) to levels typical of cigarettes sold in the U.S (15.8 mg per gram).

The cigarettes were provided for free, and no one except people assigned to keep smoking their regular brand knew how much nicotine any of their smokes contained. People who smoke went from 21.three cigarettes per week with 15.eight mg of nicotine to sixteen. A group also was asked to smoke experimental cigarettes with 5.2 mg per gram of tobacco, smoking an average of 20.8 cigarettes per day, roughly the same as the control group with normal levels of nicotine.

Thirty days after the top of the examine, about 35 % of the volunteers who had been smoking the low-nicotine cigarettes had tried to give up versus 17 % of these consuming common-power cigarettes.

The identical impact was seen when the nicotine stage was dropped even decrease, to zero.four mg, a degree believed to be too low to be addicting. “The easiest way of defending your well being is to stop”.