For numerous people around the world, smokeless tobacco is a substance they have tried, if not something indulged in regularly. Most people associate smokeless tobacco with sports stars, and incorrectly believe that it is a safe alternative to smoking. Unfortunately, this proves to be wrong, as smokeless tobacco has a range of harmful effects.

A diverse range of people use this highly addictive substance and no one is safe, dependent on race, income, or gender. The reasons for using smokeless tobacco vary widely from appetite control to generalized stress reduction. And this epidemic is hurting the world. Targeting the world's future with the primary users being only teenagers and in many cases preteens, it is very dangerous stuff.

The truth of the matter is that teens and smokeless tobacco are getting to be excessively close to each other and creating lifelong habits and health risks that are just too great to be overlooked and too dangerous to be ignored. Adolescent use of smokeless tobacco is constantly on the rise, with some users starting when they are only nine or ten.

Rural Caucasian teenagers have the highest risk of using smokeless tobacco, and if the teenagers live in a house with an adult that uses, their chances of following the trend rises dramatically. In the United States, among high school students grades 9-12, an average of 9.3% use smokeless tobacco. Among white male students, the average is about 1 user in every 5 students. But what are the effects of smokeless tobacco and what are the advantages and disadvantages of using it? On the plus side of course is "looking cool," and fitting in. Also it causes an unusual sensation in users by first relaxing them, through the release of dopamine in the brain, and then exciting them with a release of adrenaline. It can also cause appetite suppression, which some users may abuse to try to lose weight.

On the down side are serious ramifications that make the reasons to chew look pretty weak. Use of smokeless tobacco causes a number of cancers, along with dental problems, bad breath, and of course the financial spending of the user to obtain smokeless tobacco products. Most tobacco users using one can per day, over thirty years at current prices will spend up to fifty thousand dollars on chewing tobacco, assuming they live that long. 

There are no known cures for either the oral or the gastrointestinal cancers smokeless tobacco causes, and this may potentially cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment and ultimately funeral costs.

Quitting smokeless tobacco is widely believed to be much more challenging than quitting smoking. A part of the addiction is the tremendous amount of nicotine absorbed by the body while dipping or chewing. This amount is double that received from smoking a cigarette. 

But how can one beat their smokeless tobacco addiction? Various products are on the market to help wean users off of snuff and chew, such as a product that uses the spearmint plant as a substitute for the tobacco without supplying the nicotine. And some success has come from receiving same shot that inhibits receptors in the body for smoking. But the way to quit and permanently stay tobacco-free without withdrawal, stress, and weight gain is through using hypnosis. 

A hypnotherapy program offers a two-fold attack to the systematic dipping or chewing reflex built up by your prior habits and lifestyle choices. It first works to eliminate the emotional motivation for why you need a dipp, and then it works to end the mental habit itself.

First you'll want to consider the emotional reasons for using tobacco products. Dopamine is a "feel good" chemical produced by your body and released by your brain during pleasurable activities. In times of stress, the dopamine produces a general feeling of well being. Some common occurrences of natural release include eating a large meal, or sexual relief. In other words, putting some chew into the mouth gives pleasure and relaxation. The very essence of hypnosis is relaxation, and hypnosis is superb for promoting stress relaxation and stress relief. 

Hypnotherapy also works to break the cycle of expectation created by your mind. When you chew tobacco after dinner, your mind begins to tell your body that you require a chew every time you finish eating dinner. By blocking or eliminating this thought process, you will not feel the compulsion to habitually use smokeless tobacco.

By extinguishing these two root causes of chewing tobacco use, hypnosis programs can eliminate the compulsion to dipp or chew, stopping your need for the extra dopamine release. Thus freeing you from this deadly habit and offering a stress free method for quitting.

Alan B. Densky, CH offers NLP downloads to quit chew. His site offers hypnotherapy CDs for appetite, weight loss, smoke cessation, and stress related symptoms. He provides a library of NLP & hypnosis articles, and offers FREE NLP & hypnosis newsletters and MP3's.

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