Can I Chew Nicorette and Still Smoke at the Same Time? the Answer May Surprise You

Every day in America, more and more people are choosing to quit smoking, and with good reason. Quitting smoking saves you a ton of money and is one of the best things you can do for your health. Some people choose to simply give up cigarettes and quit "cold turkey," however this approach can be very difficult and is not for everyone.

Others who are quitting smoking will choose "nicotine replacement therapy" (NRT) which involves using medication to replace some of the nicotine from the cigarettes in order to minimize nicotine withdrawal symptoms. One of the most common NRT products is Nicorette, which is chewing gum that contains a small dose of nicotine. Nicorette is the name brand for Nicotine gum manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline in the USA, but store-brand and generic nicotine gum are also available. For our purposes, I'll refer to both store-brand and name-brand nicotine gum as "Nicorette" for simplicity.

If you purchase a box of Nicorette in America and read the enclosed instruction booklet, it will tell you that you MUST quit smoking before beginning to use Nicorette, and that chewing Nicorette while continuing to smoke can be dangerous. While doing some research on the internet about Nicorette, however, I discovered that these instructions are very different in other countries.

If you look at the Nicorette Austrailia website, you will notice a link for the "Nicorette Cut Down then Stop Program." According to the website, instead of just using Nicorette when you're ready to quit altogether, you can also use pieces of Nicorette gum as "cigarette substitutes" in an effort to help you reduce your cigarette dependence over time. On this program, you could wake up and have your first cigarette of the day (often the most difficult one for smokers to give up), chew Nicorette gum at work instead of smoking, and have a cigarette or two at night before bed. With the Nicorette Cut Down then Stop program, you gradually reduce your cigarette consumption by using Nicorette over the course of up to twelve months, by which time you should be able to give up both cigarettes and Nicorette completely.

The fact of the matter is, smokers are very good at dosing themselves with nicotine and almost never consume too much, even while using Nicorette and continuing to smoke. Someone might get a little sick to their stomach, but it is next to impossible to consume a fatal dose of nicotine. Nicotine by itself is relatively benign....it is the thousands of other chemicals in cigarette smoke that are very dangerous for your health. By replacing some cigarettes throughout the day with Nicorette gum, smokers are able to reduce their risk of lung cancer and heart disease.

FDA regulations prohibit GlaxoSmithKline from marketing Nicorette as a cigarette substitute in America, however the approach is showing some real promise in other countries. If you want to quit smoking but giving up cigarettes all at once seems too daunting, the Nicorette Cut Down then Stop program may be the right approach for you. By chewing Nicorette throughout the day, you will probably be able to cut your cigarette consumption down to just a few per day very quickly. Once you get used to the idea of not smoking, it will become easier and easier to give up those last few cigarettes, and Nicorette can help you manage your nicotine cravings along the way. For more information about reducing then quitting cigarettes with Nicorette, visit the foreign Nicorette websites listed in the "resources" section below.