Smoking is one of the most common health hazards in the United States, and not just here but everywhere. People can start smoking as young as the age of eight, all due to peer pressure. Not only is it due to peer pressure, but also advertisement and media. Those who start smoking will become addicted because of the nicotine found in cigarettes. Nicotine is a drug that causes the brain to release endorphins throughout the body, and it causes the brain to adapt to nicotine treating it as though it was a normal receptor for the body. Even though many people try to quit smoking, the only way they will be able stop completely is with help.
II. Addiction
A smoking addiction is when a person creates a dependence and habitual compulsion for a cigarette and the nicotine within it. Drug addiction occurs from marijuana, cocaine, heroine, and nicotine. Smoking takes over the life of a person because of this drug addiction towards nicotine. If someone tries to quiet after smoking for a short or long period of time, the body goes through withdrawal, and can cause severe emotional, mental, or physical reactions. The body will go through these withdrawals because it is trying to re-adjust itself so it can function without the nicotine. Addiction occurs when someone starts smoking and gets hooked. Someone can start smoking as young as the age of 10 or younger due to curiosity, peer pressure, advertisement, and the media. Smoking can also start because of stress, mental depression, and other negative events and stimuli. Smoking can be used to gain relief and mental pleasure, from the dose of nicotine.
"A MORI survey had found out that 1/3 of smokers will light a cigarette within 30 minutes of waking up, one in twelve will actually light the first within 5 minutes, and over half said that they would have difficulty going a week without smoking." Only one in three smokers will succeed in quitting before they are 60 years old. No matter what age you quit at, if you have been smoking for a long period of time, there will be permanent damage on the body and some effects of smoking are irreversible.
The addiction of smoking is not only mental but also physical. The body is taken over by the addictive drug of nicotine found in tobacco, which makes up the majority of the cigarette. Nicotine is taken in though the blood stream, and depending on the amount you inhale each puff, the lungs, which have a large surface area, will take in more nicotine and quicker, causing large effects. "Nicotine is a psychoactive drug with stimulant effects on the electrical activity of the brain." The effects of nicotine can be calming in a stressful or emotional situation and can also effect "hormonal and other systems throughout the body." When someone gets use to the amount of nicotine they intake, they will start taking larger doses due to tolerance the body has created for the drug. When people then try to get help or want to quit, it will be a lot more difficult due to the withdrawal effects that are more severe due to the large amount of nicotine. Trying on their own, smokers will fail at quitting even though they have tried countless times. Even if they can stop smoking, it will rebound within 2 to 3 months afterwards. It has been shown in studies that severe addictive cases of nicotine are more likely when at a younger age than starting at an older age. "4,800 adolescents smoke their first cigarette, and 42% go on to being regular smokers." Nicotine inside the cigarette causes smoking to be a physical addiction since it produces a "chain reaction" in the body. Nicotine effects the neurotransmitters in the brain and nervous system, and the brains functions and normal operating systems are altered by the nicotine, replacing the last receptors with itself trying to make it as though nicotine was the natural transmitter. It then takes over by making more acetylcholine receptors, causing the body to react as if it was the normal functioning system. Structural changes occur as well as functional within the smokers brain, but when withdrawn the brain and other body parts will be put out of whack, being disturbed from the lack of nicotine as the body tries to readjust to bring back normal functioning. To sum it all up (Nicotine= pleasure and stress relief dopamine are released) and (Quit Nicotine= withdrawal, mood swings, and physical depression).
Another factor of nicotine is that it is also a psychosocial drug. When people smoke over a many years and long periods of time, they learn habits and effects from the amount of cigarettes or smoke they intake. "Learning when, where, and how to take the drug to get the most rewarding effects. The taste, smell, and visual stimuli, handling, and other movements that are closely associated with the rewarding pharmacological effects gradually become rewarding themselves. This is known as conditioning." A smoker can also get a better result for themselves depending on their mood and where they are, can all have a certain effect. Small or large, anything can trigger a person's urge to smoke because smoking can take place anywhere, at almost anytime.
III. Effects and Health Issues
In the United States, over 440,000 death are caused by smoke related illnesses, and most lung cancer is caused by 87% of smoking. Even though nicotine is what hooks you, just chewing tobacco can also give you preventable disease and death. 3,00 lung cancer deaths are caused by secondhand smoking, even if the person who dies has not smoked in their life. The smoke you inhale from smoking is not the only thing that kills you, but what's inside the cigarette is what gets you. A cigarette is made up of water, tar, and nicotine. Within that tiny cigarette, there are over 4,000 identified chemicals and harmful gases produced by the tobacco in it. "Some examples of those toxic gases are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, and other toxic irritants." Not only are there 4,000 different chemicals in a cigarette, but when it is lit there are even more due to combustion, and the burning ingredients. When the chemicals enter that body, cancer-producing chemicals are absorbed through the lungs into the blood stream, and transported to other parts of the body.
Ways in which the body is effected by smoking, can be complicated and caused over the time period a person smokes and even after they quit. Carbon monoxide, a chemical that is absorbed from inhaling the cigarettes smoke, can cause oxygen flow throughout the body to be reduced as it combines itself with hemoglobin. (CM) can also work with its trouble maker nicotine, by causing an accelerated production of of cholesterol, which over the years, hardens and causes slower blood flow which can be dangerous in most situations. Those effects can combine, with less oxygen and a slower blood flow, your body becomes more venerable for a heart attack. Nicotine and the other chemicals can cause this and many other symptoms within the body.
"Heart disease, 30% of all heart attacks and cardiovascular deaths, Cancer, which 30% of all cancer death and 87% of lung cancer deaths happen each year, and Lung problems, 82% of deaths due to emphysema and chronic bronchitis, are all cause by smoking." Not only are those factors from smoking but also your body can start to even look different like getting wrinkles on your face and skin, and nails turning yellow. Smoking causes earlier menopause and reduces fertility for woman. In men it can reduce and impair sperm. One of the most harmful things it can do to a woman's body during pregnancy is that "it can cause miscarriage, premature birth, and even the death of the baby in the first year of its life." While pregnant a mother should never smoke due to the severe health causes it can put on the child such as reduced birth weight and the development of the brain, losing some of its IQ points compared to a mother that hasn't smoked during pregnancy. Even after birth, effects of smoking will take place such as, behavioral problems, venerability towards effects on passive smoking, and a higher chance "of asthma, frequency of colds, and ear infections."
IV. Conclusion
For many years smoking has been a health issue. Even when the 1900's started smoking was a normal
everyday thing for people since no one understood how bad it was or what the side effects of it were. To
this day and age though, we have been able to be more informed then we did back then, even though it's
still abused. Almost every age group around 10 years of age and up, people have been caught by the
addiction of nicotine. Many people try breaking the habit and most will succeeded was they are able to find
the correct help. No matter what the human population will always be addicted to the chemical bundle
known as a cigarette, no matter how are we try to kick it.
V. Journal Article
In this journal article, it explains how smoking is one of the leading causes for premature deaths in the
USA."435,000 people in the USA die prematurely from smoking-related diseases each year." 1 in 5 die
because of the effects of smoking, and 50% of people have complications because from smoking. Later it
also explains different infections and diseases from smoking that get into deeper details.
Resources:
• http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra0809890
• http://www.allaboutlifechallenges.org/smoking-addiction.htm
• http://www.ehealthmd.com/library/smoking/smo_whatis.html
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