Customer Reviews

For Smokers Only: How Smokeless Tobacco Can Save Your Life

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I recently acquired this book, and couldn't put it down. I have smoked for 21 years, a pack-a-day. Before I bought this book (about a week or so), I made the decision to switch to smokeless tobacco. I came across this book and bought it to reinforce my decision.
Dr. Brad Rodu, Professor and Chair of Oral Pathology with the School of Dentistry with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, explodes all the myths and misconceptions concerning smokeless tobacco and it's health risks, including the big one that switchers trade one form of cancer for another. He includes many useful statistics to back up his claims, which are ignored by the fanatical anti-tobacco prohibitionists. While there is a slight increase of risk for oral cancer among smokeless users over the risk among non-tobacco users, the other problems associated with smokeless tobacco use are minimal, especially when compared with smoking tobacco use. The problem, you see, is with the nicotine delivery system. Combustion of tobacco causes 3,000 different chemicals to enter the lungs and all other organs and systems in the body. Not good. Radu points out that nicotine is what we are addicted to, NOT all the carcinogens and deadly toxins contained in tobacco smoke. Smokeless also doesn't produce harmful second-hand smoke, or discolor clothes and homes, or make burn-holes in beds and car seats, or cause house and forest fires, or stink up everything around it in general, like automobiles. He compares nicotine to caffeine, as both drugs have similar effects on the body, are both addictive, and neither is thought to directly contribute to any serious disease or health problem.
Rodu does not advocate starting any tobacco use if not currently using, and in fact would like to see its use eradicated in the next generation or two - he properly notes that the safest thing is to not use any tobacco at all, but nicotine is such a difficult addiction to shake. If other smoking-cessation programs don't work for you (which they often don't), then switching to smokeless tobacco is a viable and MUCH SAFER alternative. In fact, it is 98% SAFER THAN SMOKING. The life expectancy of a smokeless tobacco user is almost identical to that of a non-tobacco user, while smokers lose an average of 8-15 years of life, and those last years are often a horrible, miserable experience.
I have been off of cigs for almost 3 weeks now, using various U.S. Tobacco products, mostly the pouches in some yummy flavors. I have almost no desire to light up - in fact they stink to me now, and I can really smell a smoker when they get within range. The only time I want a smoke is when I wake up, or after a large meal, but that desire quickly goes away after I put in some smokeless tobacco. The only drawback so far is that it stains my teeth quite a bit, but I can breathe so much easier, and have so much more energy. The teeth-staining problem just requires more teeth maintenance, i.e. using mouthwash, a tooth pick, floss, etc. There is also a risk of gum or tooth loss, but my dentist has assured me that he would much rather see me using smokeless tobacco than smoking, and that I would just need to see him twice a year or so. As Radu points out, soon I will have a much lessened (almost non-existent in a few years) risk of heart attack, lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease, shortness-of-breath, COPD and all the other horrible things and cancers associated with long-term smoking.
I have recently talked to two older gentlemen that have used smokeless for 50 and 42 years, respectively, and no problems were noted, except one guy said he had some receding gum problems, but has not lost any teeth.
Smokeless tobacco is also much cheaper than cigarettes, as Rodu points out that smokers pay more money for less (but far more dangerous) tobacco.
Cigarette smoking kills about 420,000 people each year. It is the largest identifiable and PREVENTABLE cause of premature death in the United States. 20% of all deaths annually are because of smoking. If all of the 46 million American smokers would take Dr. Rodu's unconventional yet quite possibly effective advice, more lives would be saved, if not lengthened. The deaths from tobacco use would be down to about 6,000 per year!!! About 1.7 million smokers have made the switch, according to his stats, although the copy I have was printed in 1995.
If you are a smoker and have failed many times at quitting (as I had), this book is for you. It even illustrates (in pictures) how to properly use smokeless tobacco for 'rookies', and even shows women using the stuff. More 'spitless' products are available, to be even more discreet. If you have switched, and are meeting resistance with the same old tired (and inaccurate) mantras unjustifiably aimed at smokeless tobacco from friends, family members or health-care professionals, then this book is also for you. If you are tired of being a pariah in today's increasingly anti-smoking society, this book is for you. (Just try and find public places to light up these days - you can enjoy smokeless tobacco nearly everywhere, discreetly - and he points out the myth about swallowing tobacco juice being harmful is false, except for maybe an upset stomach.....)
Best of luck to all you current smokers out there - there is hope! I plan on using this as a stepping-stone to quit my personal tobacco use altogether.... But for the time being, I am not going crazy while I can now call myself, for the first time in 21 years, a non-smoker......

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This is a book of practical advice for people who already smoke. The basic message is that smokers are nicotine addicts who find it very hard to quit. The good news is that nicotine by itself is not really harmful (unless one takes a really big dose); it is the smoke in cigarettes that is deadly. From a smoker's viewpoint (and a Public Health perspective) the first priority should be to stay away from smoke. If you can later quite using nicotine, so much the better but getting the smoke out of your body is what is really important. Unfortunately, most of the "stop smoking" products such as the nicotine patch do not deliver enough nicotine to satisfy a smoker's craving. Hence most attempts at smoking fail. The solution is to find a way to get a good jolt of nicotine without the intake of smoke.

An important and practical message of this book is that
Smokers can dramatically decrease their risk of lung and oral cancers by switching to some of the new smokeless tobacco products. These products are not the old "chewing tobacco". They are mint-size bits of tobacco (I have found out that brand names are Oliver Twist, Exalt, and, in test market areas in Topeka KS and Youngstown OH, Revel.)that can be placed in the mouth. Once you are used to them, there is no need to spit etc. There is also a minty pill (Brand name Ariva ) that may be even easier to use.
The author is not a quack. He is a respected medical researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

If you're hooked on cigarettes, this oral cancer expert tells you precisely how to stay alive and well with the radical, but scientifically grounded advice to switch to smokeless tobacco. The author says 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking. If they all switched, they'd still satisfy their nicotine craving with almost no ill effects. He takes on the anti-tobacco movement -- including organized medicine -- and says the credo "do no harm" means telling addicted smokers to switch if they can't quit. Plain English, lots of history and science. Most helpful

this is a great book. forget what you've heard, chewing is way safer than smoking. chew takes a maximum of 3 months off of your life, and only 1 in 150 people get mouth cancer.

I've been chewing now for 4 months, and have had no problems. when you first start, you get a little sore in the gums, but it goes away after 2 weeks. i've had no staining or gum issues. brush your teeth like your supposed to and your good. there are all sorts of spitless products out there.

my clothes dont smell like smoke, i can do cardio now (i've lost 25 pounds) and i dont waste expensive cologne anymore. my taste buds work again, i don't have acid reflux issues, and my fiancee's mom loves that her whole house doesn't smell when i come visit.

no second hand smoke for my baby to breathe off my clothes (yes, and its a problem) and no dirty looks from people or the fake cough sounds as i walk by.

sure my wife hates the spitting (i prefer skoal) but she would rather deal with that and have me floss (i carry a pack on me, my teeth are in the best condition ever due to the flossing that takes place after i spit a dip) then deal with me leaving her pre maturely.

i'm 28yrs old, and in the best shape of my life internally and externally, and i have this book to thank. if not for this read, i would still be smoking and dealing with all the crap that came along with it. I highly recommend this, especially to young people.

Alright first off I have not read the book. This is a comment on the concept of replacing smoking tobacco with smokeless(chewing) tobacco.
I am 35 and have been an 18 year smoker. LOVE my cigarettes. Feels SO good to take that smoke into my lungs. I ended up in the hospital few times because my heart was doing strange things. Had pain in my arm and very irregular heartbeat that scared the daylights out of me.
Sometimes I would get very sad thinking about my beautiful 9 year old daughter and how there is a very good chance I might die from smoking when my daughter is still very young because I cannot give up the smokes. I watched my father have many heart attacks from smoking but he kept on. "How am I ever GOING TO QUIT!!!???" I would ask myself.
Well one day a little over two weeks ago after getting out of the hospital I decided to try quitting again and this time i bought some snus(chewing tobacco).
Now the thing to realize about cigarette addiction is that it's 90% mental. yes the nicotine addiction is strong but it only lasts a week and if it were merely a matter of physical addiction we could just go a week until the nicotine had left our bodies and never think about it again. The truth is however that we are in love with our fix.
My goal was to prove this to myself. Now in the beginning I really had some strong cravings fro the smokes but I told myself that really I'm craving nicotine and forced myself to take a dip of chew even though I didn't desire it. Sure enough 10 minutes later I got the nicotine in my system and the craving for a smoke was 95% gone. Do this repeatedly. You must force yourself. It has been two weeks now and I'm hardly thinking about cigarettes at all. I cannot BELIEVE how much better I feel. My lungs have cleared a great deal and I'm already starting to run places. My heart is no longer bothering me at all. I FEEL GREAT!

Now let me address the naysayers. You will find all sorts of information on the web about how smokeless tobacco is an unsafe alternative to cigarette. Total load of BS!
Smoking related causes easily kill more America than ANYTHING!
Deaths from chewing tobacco are nowhere near the deaths from smoking. Not even close. Probably a 100x as many people die from smoking related heart attacks, emphysema and lung cancer than do from chewing tobacco.
I did the research and you should to.
This is in no way stating that Chewing tobacco is safe yet it is nowhere near as dangerous as cigarettes and you get your lungs and heart back. Now I don't love the chewing tobacco like I loved my cigarette. I smoked for my entire adult life.
However I am content with the chewing tobacco. Some day I would like to be tobacco free but for now I am content that I have added AT LEAST another 10 years onto my life. Some day when I feel confident enough and am far enough away from that smoker I once knew I will quite chewing. Quitting chewing will be easy compared to giving up my smokes.
I encourage anyone who has tried and failed to add this as an option. ANYTHING is better than smoking those poisonous tobacco sticks. It feels so good to run again. Don't fear the separation from cigarettes.
If any of this seems silly to you then consider yourself fortunate that you don't smoke.

Progress before perfection.
This is a post of gratitude.

Thank God!