Smoking or Quitting?
Smoking cigarettes is a very strong and addictive habit. Because even its negative effects, such as: clothes smell, health problems and many others, can’t make smokers to quit. For example one in four people in the UK still smoke, even though they know the habit will reduce their quality of life and raise the risk of premature death.
According to many researchers smoking is at least as addictive as heroin, cocaine or alcohol.
But nicotine, a chemical that creates the dependence, is less harmful than caffeine. That’s why tobacco industry has invested heavily to make the smoke easier to inhale, speeding the nicotine into the bloodstream to hit the brain in around seven seconds. Once delivered to the brain, a range of brain receptors are able to use the nicotine to help stimulate production of dopamine, the brain chemical that plays a part in making us feel pleasure. Except pleasure smokers can have other symptoms including anxiety, nervousness, agitation and depression.
As well as being more harmful and creating greater dependency, this also guarantees that other nicotine products, such as patches, gums and sprays, simply don’t hit the spot.
The brain learns to tolerate nicotine quite quickly, and there are different degrees of addiction, depending on the age people start smoking, how many cigarettes they smoke, and how deeply they inhale.
Inhaling deeply and frequently, for instance, has a calming effect when smoker are shocked, while a slower deep puff can create an antidepressant or relaxing effect. “This works without the nicotine if you are not a smoker, simply by breathing appropriately. But for smokers, the discomfort of abstinence at critical moments can be intense. It undoubtedly persists after quitting smoking – and is one of the main reasons for relapse,” said Professor John Britton, chair of the Royal College of Physicians’ Tobacco Advisory Group.
Smokers try to give up on average seven times before they finally succeed – and many give up trying along the way, believing they’ll always be defeated.
Source: Topcigarettes
