2008-05-25 01:12:51 - The best stop-smoking aids may be the cheapest -- smokeless tobacco (particularly the new spitless forms) and mint snuff. Both work, and they're far healthier than cigarettes.

If you're trying to quit smoking, don't look to the drug industry for help. The most promising pill, Pfizer'sChantix, is running into concerns about seizures and heart trouble. The FAA says pilots can't take it, and now the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is barring truckers from using it.

What's a smoker to do?

Here are two simple ideas - switch to

smokeless tobacco or use mint snuff. Either way, your lungs will thank you, you'll add years to your life, and- you won't be alone.

Smokeless tobacco is widely recognized as being far safer than cigarettes. (It's the smoke that kills you.) Britain's Royal College of Physicians says smokeless products are '10-1,000 times less hazardous than smoking, depending on the product.' Even the risk of oral cancer is lower with smokeless than with cigarettes.

And now there are even spitless tobacco products, making smokeless tobacco 100% socially acceptable.

A new medical journal report says plenty of smokers have unhooked themselves from cigarettes, using smokeless. Analyzing responses to the government's 2000 National Health Interview Survey, a snapshot of American health, university researchers found that 261,000 men successfully switched to smokeless. Most impressive - a full 73% of those who tried to quit smoking using smokeless tobacco fully succeeded. That rate is particularly impressive compared to the 35% quit-smoking rate of those in the survey who tried expensive prescription nicotine patches, or the 34% who succeeded using nicotine gum.

Smokeless tobacco is a lot cheaper and more readily available than nicotine patch or gum. Brands include Camel Snus, Marlboro Snus, Ariva Dissolvable, Skoal Dry Smokeless, Oliver Twist Pellets, Stonewall Dissolvable, etc.

Another inexpensive stop-smoking method is to switch to Mint Snuff, an edible product made of mint that's helped thousands to quit both cigarettes and chewing tobacco. Mint Snuff is available as a chew and in mini-pouches (a package similar to Bandits), in a variety of mint flavors.

Links to lots of alternative tobacco products are available at www.SpitlessTobacco.com. For information about Mint Snuff, go to mintsnuff.com/mintsnuffstory.htm.