Many former smokers start smoking cigarettes again because they suffer from extreme withdrawal, and cannot fully kick their smoking habit. That doesn’t have to be the case. With the roseroot there is a solution without turning to psychopharmaceutic products!
If smokers stop smoking cigarettes, withdrawal symptoms can often occur. This is no coincidence, as nicotine addiction is a disorder that fosters dependence. Withdrawal symptoms can be physical or psychological.
Smokers often report anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, irritability or nervousness during withdrawal. Occasionally these symptoms are so severe that those affected start smoking again.
Nicotine withdrawal often results in a serotonin deficiency and thus depressive moods.
What’s happening in the body?
Serotonin plays an important role in this context. Serotonin is a messaging substance in the nervous system, also known as a neurotransmitter.
The effect of serotonin results in positive feelings, which is why it is also simply referred to as “happiness hormone”. Seratonin deficiency can leads to depressive moods of varying severity and to anxiety. Depressive moods are a common effect of nicotine withdrawal.
Nicotine withdrawal often leads to serotonin deficiency and thus to depression-like conditions of varying severity. But those affected also suffer from restlessness and insomnia. For this reason, antidepressants are occasionally used in the treatment.
Roseroot – a natural antidepressant
Roseroot, also known as Rhodiola rosea, showed astonishing results in animal experiments on rats. Both an increase in serotonin (5-HT) levels in the blood and an increase in the number of so-called serotonin A1 receptors have been observed – serotonin works most frequently at these receptors in the brain. These are important not only during nicotine withdrawal, but also in the presence of depression, anxiety disorders, psychoses and aggressive behavioral disorders.
What can Rhodiola rosea do?
From previous studies we know of the anxiety-alleviating, antidepressant, and adaptogenic properties of roseroot. “Adaptogen” is a term for biologically active plant substances that are intended to help the organism adapt to increased physical and/or mental stress. These qualities are ideal for coping with nicotine withdrawal.
The administration of rose root extract could significantly reduce the addictive potential and withdrawal symptoms of nicotine.
Rose root extract in use against nicotine withdrawal
It’s been proven that the two main active ingredients in rose root extract – rosavin and salidroside – positively influence stress-induced symptoms. In a 2013 study, researchers proved that rhodiola could have favourable effects on nicotine withdrawal due to inhibitory effects in the development of addiction and attenuation of withdrawal symptoms.
Another experiment using mice showed that the simultaneous administration of rhodiola rosea significantly inhibits the addictive potential of nicotine. The withdrawal symptoms were also alleviated, and reduced the relapse rate.
With these promising effects in connection with nicotine withdrawal, however, the number of possible applications of roseroot extract is certainly not yet exhausted.
This relates particularly to the increasing frequency of anxiety disorders and depressive disorders. In these situations, many patients do not want to receive antidepressants immediately, but prefer to resort to a natural alternative.
