Acceptable Alternative?
A new gel is set to hit the shelves at Walgreen’s. This one does not sanitize your hands, but satisifies your craving for a cigarette. That’s right, just rub it in!
The product, called Nicogel, is the invention of biochemist Dr. John Walters of Great Britain.
Unlike traditional nicotine replacement therapies such as gums and patches, the gel gives an instant hit, going straight into the blood stream within 10 seconds, mimicking the smoking experience, and can stave off cravings for four hours.
It’s intended use was to help stave off cravings in the increasing number of places that ban smoking, such as planes, movie theaters and other public areas. It is now being considered as a stop smoking aid. It gives you a tenth of the tobacco you use in a cigarette. The clear gel, which will soon turn up in other stores, has all the components of tobacco but lacks many carcinogens that are formed as cigarettes burn. After a couple of pumps of its dispenser, just rub the Nicogel into your skin, and get your nicotine fix fast. It’s manufacturer, Nicogel Ltd., claims it can get a dose of nicotine into your system about as fast as smoking a cigarette.
So, is this an acceptable alternative to smoking? Are we going to start pulling out our hands and rubbing them together instead of pulling out a cigarette and lighting it? I don’t know, that puts kind of a creepy picture in my head, not unlike watching someone smacking their lips when eating. I don’t think I’m ready to go that route, but I can see how this may help people who are really trying to quit, and similar to the use of the nicotine patch.
As an interesting sidenote, Nicogel is also being studied for use of foot ulcers in diabetic patients! Apparently, application of the gel is being studied to see if it increases healing time in those diabetics who suffer from the foot ulcers. Clinical Trials.gov
It will be interesting to see if this really is a breakthrough in beating this awful habit as the news media seems to think, or if it is all hype. If you are really struggling, anything is worth a try, right? I’d like to hear from anyone who has tried this.
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