The tobacco in cigarettes contains two main components - tar and nicotine. Tar is certainly a very dangerous ingredient, which causes all the diseases that cigarettes are notorious for, including the deadly cancers. Tar deposits in the lungs over time and without fail causes problems in the smoker's system. While tar is the ingredient instrumental in inflicting the damage in the smokers body, nicotine is the main addictive ingredient.

People who get these constant cravings for cigarettes do so because of the nicotine present in them. Nicotine is a highly addictive drug, which stimulates the receptors of the brain into the sense of the false euphoria that comes with smoking. However, an excessive use of nicotine is not without its dangers. Nicotine can severely impair the brains impulses taking its toll on the mental and the sexual system of the person. Recent studies have also shown that nicotine can cause cancers apart from addiction.

One popular mode of treatment from smoking addiction is to get the person hooked to nicotine products that do not contain tar. This would at least keep the harmful effects of tar away, while the person could still satisfy his or her cravings for the nicotine. Therefore, there are so many nicotine patches, nicotine gums and nicotine lozenges available in the market. But now that the harmful effects of nicotine have also been studied, the medical fraternity is all out for vehemently refusing the use of nicotine products to stop smoking.

There are other problems associated with nicotine products to stop smoking. Nicotine is quite hazardous to people suffering from diabetes and for pregnant women, even though it is taken in the body in the form of replacement therapies. Nicotine is known to increase the levels of sugar in the blood, and can hasten the probability of heart attacks and strokes in diabetics. If pregnant women use nicotine therapies, then there is a risk that the baby born would be underdeveloped or impaired in other ways. There is also a link between nicotine and the disastrous condition you know popularly as SIDS.

Hence, nicotine replacement therapy is not all that safe as it is touted to be. That brings us to the search for another viable stop smoking alternative. People all over the world are now discovering the best stop smoking alternative that has ever been devised, and that is the herbal smoke cessation method.

The herbal way to stop smoking is a very safe method, and is also considered as one of the most effective methods for the purpose. Using a vast variety of popular herbs, formulations are prepared that serve several purposes for people addicted to smoking. They can detoxify the body of the harm smoke has done, serve as antidepressants to get rid of withdrawal symptoms and also reduce the craving for the addiction eventually.

However many enlightened people are realising that just like you would not give alcohol to an alcoholic, you probably should not give nicotine to a smokerholic either! And as a result people are turning to proven herbal alternatives quit smoking aids instead.