Herbal Cigarettes for Anxiety: Do They Really Help?

According to the National Library of Medicine, there are approximately over 8 million direct tobacco smoking casualties around the world.

7 million of these fatalities can be directly attributed to uncontrolled usage of tobacco. The remaining die due to its dangerous passive effects by inhaling the smoke laden with toxic substances.

Smoking is also associated with an increased risk of many other life-threatening health problems, such as cancer, cardiovascular complications, and stroke. Therefore, deaths from tobacco smoking have been a significant public health concern worldwide.

How Fatal Can Tobacco Smoking Be?

Absolutely FATAL!! 

A World Health Organization report states that around 25% of deaths from cancer are caused by smoking tobacco alone. Do not believe it? Here is a short narrative that will spit out all the facts. Story time!!!

While exploring the most radioactive places on Earth, a YouTuber with a channel named Veritasium visited the global post-apocalyptic sites of Fukushima and Chernobyl, contaminated with uranium radioactivity. And he was surprised to find out that even these places were not as radioactive as people would expect them to be.

The basement of the Chernobyl reactor building, which is claimed to be one of the most radioactive places in the world, still continues to receive about 1500 micro Sieverts of radiation per hour.

“Siverts” is the standard unit of measuring the effective dose or the biological impact of the energy transferred to our body tissues from radiation.

People living around the Fukushima nuclear disaster site in Japan would be exposed to approximately 10,000 micro Sieverts over their lifetime.

Unfortunately and oddly enough, the above numbers are not as deadly as you may think. Because it turns out that tobacco smokers are at an even higher risk of receiving the maximum amount of ionizing radiation.

Shockingly, the rough estimation of exposure comes to about an astronomical 160,000 micro Sieverts of radiation absorbed by an average smoker’s lungs per year due to the presence of radioactive lead and polonium in cigarettes.

To worsen things, there are several harmful carcinogens that further increase health risks.

Therefore, undoubtedly, quitting the habit of smoking will be among your best and healthiest decisions. With a strong urge to stop smoking and the correct resources at your disposal, you can definitely nip this problem in the bud.

Herbal Cigarettes: Can They Help to Quit Smoking?

What are herbal Cigarettes? The National Cancer Institute defines herbal cigarettes as a variant of tobacco cigarettes that incorporates botanicals and medicinal plants.

They are mostly devoid of the main component, which is nicotine, and are packed with a variety of natural herbs that claim to reduce the negative impact of tobacco smoking. However, the ones produced by Chinese companies often include nicotine in them, unlike their European and American counterparts.

Herbal cigarettes are known to help you control triggers and handhold chain-smokers to eventually stop smoking.

These supposedly safer alternatives to nicotine-based cigarettes became a thing in the 1900s as more and more people started looking for ways to quit smoking after knowing the ill effects of the habit.

However, research states that even though herbal cigarettes constitute herbs instead of harmful tobacco products, their burning can still have considerable side effects. Smoking herbal cigarettes are also known to cause several chronic conditions due to an upset metabolism.

Are Herbal Cigarettes Really Effective?

According to traditional medicine, cannabis has been touted as a potential treatment for relieving anxiety and managing pain in the human central nervous system.

The THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, which is a psychoactive constituent, mellows you down and helps you get temporary relief. However, most herbal cigarettes do not produce cannabis-like effects as they do not have psychotropic ingredients such as THC or CBD.

These are primarily made to ease you off of your nicotine or tobacco cravings. However, whether they are highly potent and reduce withdrawal signs are yet to be confirmed.

The companies actively manufacturing herbal cigarettes have made tall claims of bringing down the amount of tar in the body, thus contributing to a better immune system. But none of these companies were upfront about the manufacturing process, the specific ingredients used, and their compositions.

Herbal cigarette producers in Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, and China mainly use ginseng as the primary component. Whereas their Western counterparts in the US preferred making menthol-flavored cigarettes.

The Making of Herbal Cigarettes

Standard filters and rolling papers are utilized to manufacture herbal cigarettes. What ingredients go inside it differ from country to country and culture to culture across the globe.

When it comes to blended herbs in herbal cigarettes, the fillers are generally non-tobacco-based and come in many different forms. Some producers use a combination of mixed herbs with ingredients such as rose petals, clover leaves, and other plants.

The most commonly used herbs in herbal cigarettes include thyme, mugwort, lavender, ginseng, lobelia, peppermint, cloves, and more.

Shisha is another way how these herbs are consumed for stress relief and relaxation. Generally, a mix of minced cabbage, dried romaine lettuce, and bagasse are used for flavoring purposes.

The calming ingredients packed in herbal cigarettes may have some therapeutic and anti-anxiety effects for a short period of time. But their prolonged use for curing or decreasing anxiety is not adequately documented or clinically tested.

How it all Began?

The exact origins are not clear, but the concept of herbal cigarettes is known to have started in Asian countries, with China being the first country to produce them, followed by Japan in the 1970s. It is believed that the initial production of these cigarettes was done keeping medicinal benefits in mind.

As these cigarettes were initially marketed as a smoking cessation aid, there was a tremendous increase in demand for them. It was then followed by a consistent expansion in production, especially in the 1990s.

In the US, Cherry, menthol, and vanilla-flavored herbal cigarettes became increasingly popular around the 1990s and were made to resemble normal cigarettes for people to help quit nicotine.

By the early 2000s, Herbal cigarettes attained immense popularity in the rest of Asia, particularly in Korea and Taiwan.

Shortly after, the wave reached most Western countries, and herbal cigarette fillers underwent a slight transformation, with rose petals, clover leaves, hazel, and other non-therapeutic materials forming the core of the herbal blends. These were primarily made to enhance taste and pleasure without the ill effects of nicotine.

Do Herbal Cigarettes Relieve Anxiety?

This depends on what is being used to make herbal cigarettes. For example, one of the most popular ingredients, called Damiana, is an aphrodisiac and can be effective in lowering your anxiety levels.

However, it is advisable to pay attention to the dosage as an overdose can trigger delusions and hallucinations, causing the opposite of anxiety relief.

A brief breakdown of other commonly-used ingredients

Another ingredient called lavender can have relaxing effects on your mind and body, helping bring down anxiety to an extent. Some studies demonstrated that exposure to lavender stabilized temperature and blood pressure.

Individuals reported feeling refreshed, but it is yet to be evaluated if the positive effects were a direct result of lavender or a peculiar combination of particular ingredients naturally occurring in it.

Ginseng, a widely used constituent of herbal cigarettes, gives a unique flavor to the blend. Some researchers stated that it helped with boosting cognitive function as well as sexual performance. But on the flip side, some studies have quoted otherwise and reported sleep disorders due to ginseng in herbal cigarettes.

The thyme included in some herbal cigarettes may also help with anxiety as it has medicinal advantages. It is quite a popular ingredient generally blended with other herbs for making herbal cigarettes and is known to supplement illnesses concerning the respiratory tract and heart.

Conclusively, we would not vouch for it because of limited evidence, potential side effects, and the possibility of a negative interaction between natural herbs and allopathic chemicals in prescription drugs.

Pros and Cons of Herbal Cigarettes

Tips to Quit Tobacco Smoking

Even though herbal cigarettes are not the be-all-end-all solution to quit smoking, there are many other tried and tested ways that can help you out. If you firmly resolve to stop yourself from tobacco smoking, you can successfully get rid of nicotine addiction.

Here are some ways to do it. It is a long, drawn-out journey, but nobody said it’s easy! However, it is not impossible either.

• Starting small, get rid of your smoking apparatus/equipment
• Start chewing on hard candy
• Avoid your smoker friends
• Enroll in support groups
• Use NRTs or Nicotine Replacement Therapy strictly under your doctor’s supervision
• Take FDA-approved non-nicotine medicines such as bupropion under your doctor’s guidance only, as they can trigger depression or suicidal thoughts
• Filters to discourage smoking
• E-cigarettes
• Yoga and meditation
• Acupuncture treatment and more

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests the following remedies to ensure an effective de-addiction process:

• Consumption of Varenicline because it binds to the same receptors as nicotine and helps you control major cravings. Since the less stimulating varenicline is already present on the binding sites, nicotine does not have enough space to bind to, preventing the instant nicotine rush
• Combining two NRTs like nicotine patches first thing in the morning for a smoother withdrawal and nicotine chewing gum to ensure a swift supply of nicotine to your bloodstream, helping you keep smoking at bay. Your mind will get used to this, after which you can gradually lower the nicotine supply via NRT
• Get FDA-approved prescription medication free of charge

The above tips are recommended by ex-smokers themselves and are, therefore highly effective if you are determined to quit the habit.

Conclusion

The benefits of herbal cigarettes are currently being researched and are a matter of speculation. Most studies indicate that they are just as harmful as tobacco-based cigarettes with slightly lower concentrations of nicotine in them.

There is no one proof, and the conflicting evidence of the relaxing or weaning effects of herbal cigarettes does not confirm its medically-approved usage for quitting smoking.

Herbal cigarettes are not illegal, but smoking for their positive or anxiety-reducing effects is neither fully proven nor recommended by experts. So, we think there are better ways to quit smoking, and herbal cigarettes may not be the best option to kick the habit.

We would recommend consulting a doctor first, as most alternatives have their own pros and cons. Nothing is risk-free, not even e-cigarettes or nicotine patches, for that matter. Therefore, a detailed discussion of the detrimental effects of herbal cigarettes with your physician can help you get access to genuine, medically-approved information.