Tobacco Addiction: Just Smoke and Die

Hey, do you think smoking is cool? If you do think so, then you will regret when it comes to the effect of smoking.

Tobacco smoking is the burning of tobacco by inhaling the resulting smoke. There are several way of consumption of tobacco such as cigars, cigarette and pipe smoking. The most common consumption of tobacco is cigarette smoke. According to World Health Organization (WHO) has compiled worldwide smoking statistics for the year 2002. There are about one third of males smoke in the world; and every one out of five young teens (aged 13 – 15) smokes worldwide. Smoking is the second major cause of death in the world. The related-diseases kill one in 10 adults globally. If current trends continue, by the year 2030, smoking will kill one in six people.

Click HERE for further information about Global Smoking Statistics.

We can see teenagers smoke everywhere, especially among students.

Now let’s discuss about the most common tobacco smoke that is cigarette smoke. As we all know, cigarette smoke contain nicotine. An average cigarette contains about 1mg of absorbed nicotine. But do you actually know what nicotine is? Nicotine is a liquid alkaloid (a substance with a basic charge) contained in the leaves of several species of plants. An alkaloid is an organic compound made out of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sometimes oxygen.Nicotine is the common name for this chemical while 3-(1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinyl)pyridine is the IUPAC name for this chemical. It has a chemical formula of C10H12N2 and molecular mass of 162.12 g/mol. The structural formula is as shown as below: 

Low doses of nicotine acts as a stimulant in mammals while high doses of nicotine can be fatal. This stimulant effect is the main factor responsible for the dependence-forming properties of tobacco smoking. According to the American Heart Association, nicotine addiction has historically been one of the hardest addictions to break. Although 35% of the smokers attempt to quite smoking each year but fewer than 7% succeed to quite. Tobacco addiction is similar to those determining addiction to heroin and cocaine.

Nicotine is a hygroscopic, oily liquid that is miscible with water in its base form. As a nitrogenous base, nicotine forms salts with acids that are usually solid and water soluble. Nicotine can easily penetrates the skin. As shown by the physical data, free base nicotine will burn at a temperature below its boiling point, and its vapours will combust at 35 °C in air despite a low vapour. Because of this, most of the nicotine is burned when a cigarette is smoked. 

Smoking brings lots of harms (Click HERE). When you smoke, nicotine is absorbed through the mucosal lining of mouth and nose or by inhalation in the lungs. Once it enters our body, it activates the same reward system as do other drugs such as cocaine or amphetamine, although to a lesser degree. This will result in fatal lung cancers. 

From this photo, we can see the differences between smoker's lungs and 

non-smoker's lungs.

In the brain, nicotine increases the level of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is a chemical in the brain responsible for feelings of pleasure. The acute effects of nicotine subside within minutes, so people continue dosing themselves frequently throughout the day to maintain the pleasurable effects of nicotine and to prevent withdrawal symptoms. 

Nicotine is actually a common substance and can be found in several other food items. Tomatoes and eggplants are just two examples of foods that naturally contain nicotine in acceptable levels. 

Tomatoes and eggplants are naturally contain nicotine.

Nicotine in small amounts will not cause any harm to a person’s body. However, the high availability of the substance in tobacco makes it the best way to receive the effects that it produces in larger amounts. A normal cigarette made from tobacco will give a person approximately 1 mg of nicotine that will be absorbed into the bloodstream. This small amount will have stimulating effects, raising a person’s heartbeat and making the person breathe faster. But if a person becomes dependent on the cigarettes, he will receive more relaxation rather than stimulation when he smokes. Then it is consider as an addiction. 

People who smoke cigarettes are not addicted to the tobacco, but rather are addicted to the nicotine and the tobacco provides the easiest way to feel the effects of the nicotine. A person will start experience the signs of nicotine withdrawal when a person stops smoking. A single tobacco cigarette can ease the pain of the symptoms by bringing immediate relief. However, the effects only last a short while before the next nicotine withdrawal starts again and the person will feel the need to have another tobacco cigarette. This cycle will repeat again, again and again.

Although nicotine gives harms, but there are some benefits of nicotine. Nicotine improves our memory and concentration. It improves focus and recall by influencing parts of the brain associated with excitement and visual concentration. It also increase the functioning of the portions required for task performance by borrowing the less-used area of the brain. Besides, nicotine has a calming effects to female who exposed to stressful stimuli. It also increase the subjective feelings of happiness and friendliness of users in both sexes.
Click HERE for further information about the benefits.

There is no sharp boarder to differentiate whether nicotine is good or bad. Nicotine brings pros and cons, is we handle it in a correct way, then it will give us a good effects. But if we misuse it, then it will bring harms.