Your Nicotine Love And Smoking

Smoking is the single biggest cause of cancer in the world, and accounts for one in four cancer deaths in the States. Smoking is known to cause around eighty percent of lung cancer around the world. The 1996 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse has shown that about 62 million people in the United States above 12 years or below 29 percent of the population are current cigarette smokers. So, this makes nicotine, the addictive component of tobacco, one of the most heavily used addictive drugs in the United States. Within the United States, tobacco use was responsible for nearly 1 in 5 deaths or an estimated 438,000 premature deaths per year from 1997 to 2001 thus, smoking kills five times more people than road accidents, overdoses, murder, suicides and HIV all put together.

Nicotine: Many people believe that nicotine causes cancer but the fact is that it only leads to addiction. Whenever a person inhales cigarette smoke, the nicotine present in the smoke is rapidly absorbed into the blood and its affect on the brain is shown within 7 seconds. In the brain, nicotine activates the same reward system as do other drug abuse such as cocaine or amphetamine, but to a lesser extent. Nicotine acts on this reward system and is believed to be responsible for drug-induced feelings of pleasure and, over time, nicotine addiction. It also increases alertness and enhances mental performance. Studies indicate that nicotine by itself may not be harmful. But, when it is combined with other harmful substances such as areca nut, cancer causing catechu substitutes like gambier magnesium carbonate, it may show damaging effects.

Apart from nicotine, cigarette smoke contains around 4,000 different compounds, many of which may cause cancer. In fact tobacco smoke contains about 70 different carcinogens or cancer-causing substances. When you inhale smoke, these chemicals enter your lungs and spread around the rest of your body. Scientists have shown that these chemicals are mutagenic can damage DNA and change expression of various genes which may lead to cancer by making your cells proliferate and multiply uncontrollably. No wonder, smoking is the major cause of lung cancer and is also associated with the increased risk for cancer of the mouth, nasal cavities (nose), larynx (voice box), pharynx (throat), esophagus (swallowing tube), stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney, bladder, uterine cervix, and acute myeloid leukemia.

Nicotine does provide one with a euphoric feeling every time one has it between one's lips. So, it is difficult for one to give up this extraordinary excitement or satisfaction. It is really a very tough job. It is not due to your love towards nicotine, but due to the fact that nicotine has charmed you in such a way that you fail to notice that you have become increasingly dependent on it. You have become a real addict, and nowadays you cannot imagine anything beyond these poisonous tobacco cigarette puffs. What is actually contained in those puffs of nicotine? A tobacco cigarette contains approximately 10 to 20 mg of nicotine. Out of that your body will essentially absorb only some one or two mg when you are smoking a cigarette. As you start smoking, it will result in the rapid release of adrenaline. And, as a result, you are likely to experience rapid heartbeat, heightened blood pressure, and rapid or shallow breathing. The substance called nicotine blocks the release of hormone insulin into the blood stream, and thereby the sugar level in the blood increases.

After that, nicotine increases the dangerous LDL cholesterol which is responsible for damaging the arteries of the body. This way, there is an increase in the likelihood of a heart attack or a stroke in smokers. In addition, in a way, you increase the chances of contracting cancer in your various body parts, mainly, the lungs. The primary role of nicotine, which has hundreds of compounds including some poisonous compounds, is to make the smokers addicted to cigarette smoking. If you have found that you have been breathing poison since the first tobacco cigarette fag of your life, you are sure to understand that you need to quit smoking as soon as possible. Of course it is akin to sleeping with the enemy! Is it that much difficult or impossible for you? Most of the cigarette smokers cannot imagine making their lives miserable fighting the cravings for the rest of their lives. Nearly more than one million people are dying because of tobacco smoking each year; and it is increasing.

Most people know that cigarettes contain nicotine and that somehow might make them sick. However, what really is nicotine and how does it do harm to the human body? Nicotine is created from the extract of dried leaves of tobacco plant, the plant that is famous for being used in the making of cigarettes, pipe, chewing tobacco, and snuff. Once the nicotine substance enters the body it will quickly get into the blood and annoy the blood brain barricade. It comes as no surprise to all that smokers have a chance of dying at an early age. In addition, because most people start smoking in their adolescence part of their lives, their bodies undergo many changes, which have negative effects later on in their lives. Nicotine is an organic compound that is found naturally in the tobacco plant. It is composed of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen and belongs to a group of compounds called alkaloids. Plants usually produce these types of chemical poisons so that animals are deterred from eating them. In high concentrations, nicotine acts as a nerve poison and it is used in insecticides. However, in small amounts, nicotine is a stimulant that enhances brain activity and concentration and improves cognitive processing as well as a person's memory. On the downside, nicotine increases blood pressure and heart rate, causes you to breathe faster and less deeply and it constricts the arteries.

It is not easy to deal with nicotine once it enters your brain. Nicotine changes how your brain and your body function. The net results are somewhat of a paradox: Nicotine can both invigorate and relax a smoker, depending on how much and how often they smoke. Cardiovascular effects have included increases in heart rate and blood pressure. New ventricular and supraventricular tachycardia, increase in PVC frequency, less supraventricular arrhythmia, less arrhythmia and lower heart rate, new ST segment depression, and an improvement in ST- or T-wave changes have been reported in patients with coronary artery disease given transversal nicotine for smoking cessation. The average heart rate and incidence of arrhythmias or angina has not been shown to be significantly different from baseline while smoking and during transversal nicotine therapy in patients with coronary artery disease. In patients with coronary artery disease, nicotine may cause coronary artery vasoconstriction. Myocardial infarction has been rarely associated with the use of nicotine patches. Some of these patients were also smoking (receiving a greater than recommended dose of nicotine) and some may have had underlying coronary artery disease. At least one case of intracerebral hematoma has also been reported.

Sometimes in life failure is not necessarily an indicator of the difficulty or even the impossibility of accomplishing something. It just tells you what doesn’t work. Fortunately, seeing a qualified certified hypnotist is effective for changing a smoker into a nonsmoker for life. Not only do they become nonsmokers, but also they do so more easily and comfortably then they ever expected. With the new cooperation of their subconscious, they are able to lose their desire to smoke cigarettes and cigars. There is some physiological discomfort during the withdrawal period following the cessation of tobacco use, but with hypnosis these effects can be mitigated and the period of discomfort shortened. Hypnosis is also able to greatly reduce and even eliminate any tendency to gain weight after smoking cessation. In my clinical practice, I typically see clients only once for complete and permanent smoking cessation.

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