"What is this?"
"Oh, it was given to me by an old colleague, saying that it was made of tea and could help me quit smoking." The old man frowned and said, "this smoke is choking, like burning in the countryside, and it is much more difficult to smoke than ordinary cigarettes."
Mr Li Can can't help wondering: Is this kind of tea cigarette really healthier than cigarettes?
1. Are tea and cigarettes tea or cigarettes? I wanted to make up my mind to give up smoking, but as soon as I got addicted, I couldn't help smoking again. As a result, a product called "tea cigarettes" came into being, and many merchants sold well in the online market under the banner of "nicotine-free" and "helping to quit smoking".
Tea and tobacco, that is, the combination of tea and tobacco. As we all know, tea contains many substances beneficial to human body, such as tea polyphenols, amino acids, vitamins and so on. It seems that replacing tobacco with tea or adding tea extract to tobacco can really "reduce" the content of harmful substances in tobacco.
Many smokers took a fancy to this and bought cigarettes one after another, euphemistically calling it "healthier than smoking". What is the truth?
Second, is tea and tobacco healthy? You were tricked into searching for "tea cigarettes" on some online shopping platforms, and you will recommend more than ten products. Many products have written "smoking cessation substitution", "nicotine-free" and "dependence-free" on the details page, and some even wrote "tea cigarettes are harmless to the body". Is there really such a magical cigarette?
The reporter bought several models at random and sent them to the laboratory of Beijing Tobacco Control Association for inspection. The results show that these tea cigarettes contain no nicotine, but many harmful substances such as tar, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and tiny particles, and the tar content is even higher than that of many ordinary cigarettes.
Lu Lijun, deputy chief physician of Wuhan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that there is no scientific basis to show that drinking tea is good for health, but tea belongs to organic matter, and burning organic matter will inevitably produce particulate matter and chemical substances, which will undoubtedly cause harm to the body.
The staff of a tobacco bureau in Beijing also reminded that tea cigarettes are not under the control of the tobacco bureau for the time being, but the biggest harm of cigarettes is not nicotine, but tar. The propaganda of tea cigarettes is suspected of misleading consumption.
Third, can tea and cigarettes help to quit smoking? It may be more addictive. The main reason for smoking addiction is that nicotine can lead to addiction. Tea contains no nicotine, and some people come to the conclusion that "smoking tea cigarettes or reducing smoking addiction".
Nicotine in cigarettes can enter the pulmonary capillaries through inhalation and enter the central nervous system within a few seconds, which is addictive. This addiction has long been a chronic disease, and it cannot be easily given up by replacing tobacco.
In addition, although there is no nicotine in tea, the burning of plants will also produce a lot of smoke and pollute the environment. These fumes contain harmful gases such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, which will stimulate the lungs and do no good to health.
It is found that because of their dependence on nicotine, some smokers will compensate (or increase) their intake of nicotine through some behavior changes, which is called "smoking compensation behavior". When they use the method of reducing smoking and hope to gradually reduce their craving for nicotine, the less they smoke, the more serious their withdrawal symptoms will be and the more urgent their craving for nicotine will be.
Even if the amount of cigarettes is reduced, the addiction will increase with each smoking, and will never be weakened by smoking less.
Therefore, the so-called "low tar cigarettes" and "tea cigarettes" are not helpful for quitting smoking. On the contrary, they are as harmful to human health as ordinary cigarettes.
Fourth, quit smoking, there is no shortcut to quit smoking, it is really difficult. According to the data, only about 100% people in China can quit smoking successfully. If you want to quit smoking, you should not only rely on your own perseverance, but also seek the help of a professional smoking cessation doctor once you make up your mind.
At present, over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy drugs (nicotine patch/chewing gum), prescription bupropion hydrochloride sustained-release tablets (Yueting) and valproate tartrate (Changpei) used in China are recommended by the World Health Organization as smoking cessation drugs, which are clinical guidelines for smoking cessation in China, and a large number of evidence-based medical evidences prove their effectiveness and safety.
In addition to taking medicine, we should also actively create an environment for quitting smoking in our lives. If you are addicted to smoking, you can drink water or eat snacks to keep your hands and mouth busy. Or find something to concentrate, distract the smoker, take a few deep breaths, wash your face, or change the environment immediately.
Quitting smoking is a big project, and it is also a tough battle to exercise perseverance. In this process, you may suffer from insomnia, anxiety and give up ... but you must not fall into another "tea smoke" trap in order to quit smoking.