"It's not the nicotine in cigarettes that's harmful. It's the smoke."

That was the tag line provided by a manufacturer of nicotine gum during the famous debut of their product's commercials a decade ago. While not an entirely accurate statement (will discuss that later) it did strike a nerve with millions of smokers and led them to a rush to purchase nicotine gum. Unlike many other products of the past which promised a lot and delivered little, nicotine transmission products such as gum, patches, sprays et al turned out to work quite well.

This was a veritable godsend! For many years people struggled to discover reliable cures for the pain of nicotine and cigarette addiction but they all were of no avail. Yes, many people were able to quit smoking cold turkey or through other means but with the advent of nicotine transmission substitutes such as nicotine gum and nicotine patches the ability to kick the habit was made far easier than ever before. Because of this, sales of these products boomed to a degree far greater than anyone ever expected.

Whether one is taking nicotine gum, a lozenge or a patch all of these methods serve the same purpose: to deliver nicotine in much smaller doses than what is found in cigarettes and also with the added benefit of not having to inhale dangerous smoke into one's lungs. Of course, different people react differently to different methods and it may take a little trial and error before finding which particular product works for you. So, if one method doesn't work there is no reason to feel despondent. Simply try another method/product and see if better results will occur.

Of course, one must never lose sight of the fact that you should not be puffing away while also chewing your nicotine gum! When you are taking one of these cigarette substitutes it is critical to stop smoking when taking the product. There are many people who use these products as a means of cutting back on the number of cigarettes they smoke per day with the eventual goal of smoking none. While this may seem like a decent plan it is NOT the suggested method promoted by the actual product. The reason for this is that if one were to chew nicotine gum and smoke at the same time the sheer volume of nicotine one would ingest performing such "double duty" would be far too much and certainly not healthy.

It needs to be pointed out that nicotine is harmful and it is not just the smoke that can harm you. In fact, nicotine in high doses can be poisonous! Also, no matter what form you ingest nicotine it still remains a highly addictive substance so when you chew nicotine gum there comes the potential to being addicted to the gum as well. Now, this is not stated as a means of scaring people into avoiding nicotine gums, patches, etc but rather it is a method of presenting certain warnings regarding continued use of these products. They are designed to wean you off the drug not replace one transmission method with another.