No More Nicotine for Me

Most people know that cigarettes contain nicotine and that somehow might make them sick. But 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 at no surprise to all that smokers have a chance of dying at an early age. And 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.

By now, most everyone is aware of how addictive cigarettes really are. However, many smokers don't really understand why it is so hard to quit smoking. They do not know why they get irritable and suffer intense cravings when they do not allow themselves to light up a cigarette. They only know that without their tobacco fixes, they just about go crazy.
If you are ready to really quit smoking, then it is important for you to first understand why you became addicted to cigarettes in the first place. By knowing how tobacco affects your body in such a strong manner, you can select the most effective method of fighting your cravings and stopping your smoking habit for good.

The main player in cigarettes' addictive qualities is a substance known as nicotine, which is naturally present in tobacco. Nicotine is what gives you that satisfying buzz that accompanies taking draws off of cigarettes; it's what provides you with new found alertness and motivation to get things done.Unfortunately, however, nicotine is also, what causes you to form both a mental and a chemical dependence on cigarettes.

Chemical Dependence
As you light up and take a draw from your cigarette, the smoke interacts with your body in many different ways. The skin on your fingers and face, your lips and mouth, and your lungs absorbs it. The nicotine from the smoke makes its way into your bloodstream, where it is then delivered to the brain and begins to take immediate effect.

Aside from providing an adrenaline rush, which stimulates the body, nicotine also alters other chemicals that act on the brain. This provides the smoker with feelings of euphoria, which gives nicotine a highly addictive quality.

Mental Dependence
Smokers develop both a mental and a chemical dependence on cigarettes. Taking smoking breaks throughout the day becomes routine for many smokers, and it can be quite difficult to break this habit. Many times, those wishing to quit feel very uncomfortable and antsy when they cannot step outside for a smoke break during the workday, and for more than just chemical reasons. Anxiety caused by lack of nicotine may be compounded by the fact that one's dependable, daily routine has been broken.

Nicotine dependence is mainly the core issue in cigarette smoking and the addiction towards this habit. People smoke to get the nicotine inside it unfortunately, including also the tar and other ailment-causing element inside each stick. In understanding the issue of nicotine dependence it is important to know first when this issue is likely to begin and set root into becoming a health risk habit. There is no specific number that serves as the breaking point for nicotine dependence. The fundamental concept for this issue is mainly the seeping effect and influence of the chemical characteristics of nicotine inside the smoker's anatomical physiology.

Facts about Nicotine Dependency:

• Nicotine is poisonous, and the reason that reason that a smoker does not immediately die is the miniscule quantities of nicotine present in each cigarette.
• Nicotine is highly addictive, and nicotine dependency is often compared with heroin and cocaine dependency in terms of difficulty to quit.
• Relapses are quite common in efforts to quit smoking.
• Apart from nicotine, cigarettes have over 4,000 different chemicals; many of which are carcinogenic (cancer causing substances).
• Smoking for around 15 years, at about 20 cigarettes per day, should result in about one kg of tar in a smoker's lungs.
• A regular smoker's life expectancy would go down by around 7 to 8 years (at about 7 to 8 minutes per cigarette).
• Each month, tobacco companies in Australia lose around 12,000 customers. While around 10,000 manage to quit, most of the others are ones who have passed away because of smoking related illnesses.
• Data collected from the 'Australian Institute of Health and Welfare' shows that almost 80% of the smokers have tried quitting at least once, and in the last year more than 30% have tried stopping.
• More than fifteen thousand Australians die due to smoking each year, and is the largest 'preventable' cause of early death and disease. The percentage of individuals aged over 14 who smoke everyday in Australia has gone down considerably, from 30.5% in 1988 down to 16.6% in 2007. Across the world, ten percent of the adult population smokes; and in the US this figure stands at 20%. In the US alone around 440,000 people, die each year because of tobacco related illnesses. Now, there are around 1.3-1.4 billion smokers in the world, with a large chunk living in developing countries. In addition, given the ongoing trends, by 2020 tobacco would account for approximately 10 million deaths each year.
• Nicotine work in the body releasing dopamine, it also activates the pathways that release adrenaline and serotonin, thereby impacting impulsivity and mood. Over a period of time the physical changes build a new 'neuron chemical' system which revolves entirely around the presence of nicotine within the system. At this stage, the individual is truly addicted. Attempts to stop using nicotine at this stage or later would almost definitely result in withdrawal symptoms. The protective adjustments made by the brain would ensure that any attempt made to stop smoking would result in discomfort as the brain's circuitry senses the absence of nicotine as a cause for concern.

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