BestQuitSmokingTip

What You Need to Know About Chewing Tobacco Cessation

In the area now known as the United States, the tobacco leaf was used by Native Americans for hundreds of years before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Tobacco was used only in ceremonies and rituals, and not at any other times. Thus, the early aboriginal tribes were probably unaware that tobacco contained the addictive drug, nicotine. The habit of chewing tobacco in America and European countries is a fairly recent tradition, really taking hold within the last two hundred years. Only in the last fifty years or so have Americans, including Native Americans, discovered the truth about nicotine addiction and the drastic health consequences of chewing tobacco.

“What’s in a name?” William Shakespeare asked. Chewing tobacco goes by a number of names, usually depending upon the place of birth and residence of the chewer. It’s important to remember that regardless of the name given, nicotine exists in all forms of chewing tobacco. In today’s world, we know that the effects of cigarette smoking long-term are very often fatal, but some chewers fail to understand that smokeless tobacco, chaw, chew, snuff, and dipping have similar consequences to a chewer’s health. In fact, since nicotine is addictive in all forms of tobacco use, many medical researchers believe that chewing tobacco is more addictive and has a more difficult nicotine withdrawal syndrome than cigarette and pipe smoking because chewing tobacco contains such a large amount of pure tobacco leaves.

The bottom line is that chewing tobacco has a very toxic and deadly mix of chemicals just like cigarettes, but without the smoke. In addition to nicotine, chewing tobacco contains carcinogens, or chemicals that cause cancer like nitrates, nitrites, nitrosamines and polycyclic hydrocarbons. In studying chewing tobacco, researchers gave laboratory animals these chemicals in amounts that simulate what humans ingest by chewing, and found that the animals eventually, over time, developed a number of serious, malignant cancers.

How many Major League baseball games have you attended where the outfield players spat a huge glob of saliva and chewing tobacco juices onto the field? Do they look tough, “manly” and intimidating? Unfortunately, they’ll be none of these when they develop malignant oral cancer, the number one killer of chewers. Unlike cigarette smoke, which causes esophagus and lung cancer, chewing tobacco stays in the mouth for a long time; the nicotine and carcinogenic chemicals are pressed and absorbed into the mucous membranes between the cheek and gums. These substances are very irritating to these delicate membranes, and cells in the mouth become chronically inflamed, eventually turning into unhealthy scar tissue. Oral cancer cells develop over time. Chewing tobacco causes white patches on the tongue, gums, and cheeks; these patches are called leukoplakia and are often large enough to be seen with the eye rather than through a microscope. Thus, chewing tobacco not only leads to nicotine dependence, but also to cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach and bladder since an amount of tobacco juice is inevitably swallowed.

Just like cigarette smoking, chewing tobacco cessation is difficult because of the nicotine withdrawal syndrome. Nicotine is powerfully addictive, but also like cigarette smokers, those who find pleasure in chewing tobacco can, with medical and emotional support, overcome this addiction. By the time chewers notice a white patch in their mouth – a possible cancer symptom – it is not too late to receive treatment for a pre-cancerous condition and to succeed in chewing tobacco cessation. Oral cancer is most often fatal, with a five-year survival rate of only around 50%.

If you’re a chewer and notice white patches in your mouth, see your physician or dentist immediately while there is still time for you to halt cancerous growths through medical treatment. For more information about chewing tobacco cessation, contact the American Cancer Society.