Table of Contents
Nicotine Definition
Nicotine is the chemical in tobacco that brands it challenging to quit smoking. Addiction occurs when you need nicotine and cannot stop using it. Nicotine has flea symptoms.
For some people, using any quantity of tobacco can quickly lead to nicotine addiction. Signs that you may be addicted to include the following:
- You cannot quit smoking. You have made one or more thoughtful but unsuccessful attempts to stop.
- It has extraction symptoms when you try to quit smoking. Your attempts to stop have caused physical and mood-related symptoms, such as intense cravings, anxiety, irritability, agitation, difficulty concentrating, depressed mood, frustration, anger, increased hunger, insomnia, constipation, or diarrhoea.
- You keep smoking despite health problems. Even if you have developed health problems with your lungs or heart, you have not been able to stop.
- You give up social activities. You can stop going to smoke-free restaurants or stop socializing with family or friends because you can’t smoke in these situations.
Causes of Nicotine
Nicotine is biochemical in tobacco that keeps you smoking. It reaches the brain within seconds of inhaling a puff. In the brain, nicotine increases brain chemicals called neurotransmitters, which help regulate mood and behaviour.
Dopamine, one of these neurotransmitters, release in the brain’s reward centre, causing feelings of pleasure and improving disposition.
The more you smoke, the other nicotine you essential to feel good. Nicotine fast becomes part of your daily routine and connects with your habits and feelings.
Here are some of the ordinary situations that trigger the urge to smoke:
- Drink coffee or take breaks at work;
- Talking on the phone;
- Consume alcoholic beverages;
- Lead;
- Spend time with friends;
- To overcome your addiction to nicotine, you need to be aware of your triggers and make a plan to deal with them.
Risk Factors of Nicotine
Anybody who smokes or uses other forms of tobacco is at risk of becoming nicotine dependent. Factors that influence who uses tobacco include:
Age
- Most people start smoking throughout childhood or adolescence. The younger you are once you start smoking, the greater the chances that you will become addicted.
Genetics
- The probability that you twitch smoking and continue smoking may be partially inherited. Genetic factors can influence the way receptors on the surface of nerve cells in the brain respond to the high doses of nicotine supplied by cigarettes.
Parents and Colleagues
- Children who produce up with parents who smoke are more likely to become smokers. Children with friends who smoke are also additional likely to try.
Depression or other Mental Illness
- Many studies demonstrated an association between depression and smoking. People who have depression, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress illness, or other mental illness forms are more likely to be smokers.
Use of Substances
- People who misuse alcohol and illegal drugs are more likely to be smokers.
Complications of Nicotine
Tobacco smoke covers more than 60 known cancer-causing chemicals and thousands of other harmful substances. Even “all-natural” or herbal cigarettes have toxic chemicals.
You already know that people who smoke cigarettes are much more likely to develop and die from certain diseases than people who do not smoke. But you may not realize how many different health problems smoking causes:
1. Lung Cancer and Lung Disease
- Smoking is the foremost cause of death from lung cancer. Also, smoking causes lung diseases, such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking also makes asthma worse.
2. Other Types of Cancer
- Smoking increases the danger of many kinds of cancer, including cancers of the mouth, throat (pharynx), oesophagus, larynx, bladder, pancreas, kidney, cervix, and some types of leukaemia. It is overall, smoking reasons 30% of all cancer deaths.
3. Heart and Circulatory System
- Smoking upsurges the risk of dying from heart and blood vessel (cardiovascular) diseases, including heart attacks and strokes. Doubt you have a heart or blood vessel illness, such as heart failure, smoking worsens your condition.
4. Diabetes
- Smoking increases insulin resistance, which can pave the way for type 2 diabetes. If you have diabetes, smoking can accelerate complications, such as kidney disease and eye problems.
5. Eye Problems
- Smoking can increase the risk of severe eye problems, such as cataracts and vision loss from macular degeneration.
6. Infertility and Impotence
- Smoking increases the risk of lower fertility in women and the risk of impotence in men.
7. Complications during Pregnancy
Mothers who smoke throughout pregnancy are at higher risk of preterm labour and give birth to lower-weight babies.
8. Cold, Flu and other Illnesses
- Smokers are more disposed to respiratory infections, such as colds, flu, and bronchitis.
9. Tooth and Gum Diseases
- Smoking associate with an increased risk of developing gum inflammation and severe gum infection that can destroy the teeth’ supporting system (periodontitis).
Smoking also poses health dangers to those around you. Spouses and partners of smokers who do not smoke have a higher risk of lung cancer and heart disease than persons who do not live with a smoker. Children whose parents smoke are more likely to have more severe asthma, ear infections, and colds.
Prevention of Nicotine
The best way to prevent smoking is not to use tobacco in the first place.
The best way to prevent children from smoking is by not smoking yourself. Children whose parents do not smoke or have successfully quit smoking are much less likely to start smoking.
The extra you smoke, the more nicotine you essential to feel good. When you try to stop, you experience unfriendly mental and physical changes. These are the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal.
Regardless of how long you’ve smoked, quitting can improve your health. It’s not easy, but you can break your addiction to nicotine. There are many effective treatments available. Ask your doctor for help.
Diagnosis of Nicotine
Your doctor may ask you questions or complete a questionnaire to see how dependent you are on nicotine.
Knowing your level of addiction will assistance your doctor determine the right treatment plan for you.
The additional cigarettes you smoke each day and the rather you smoke after waking up, the more dependent you will be.
When to See a Doctor
You are not alone if you have tried to quit smoking but have not left for good. Most smokers make many attempts to stop before achieving long-term, stable abstinence.
You are more likely to quit smoking for good if you follow a treatment plan that includes nicotine addiction’s physical and behavioural aspects.
Taking medication and working with a specially trained counsellor to help people quit smoking (a specialist in the treatment of tobacco use) will significantly increase your chances of success.
Ask your healthcare team to help you develop a treatment plan that works for you or to advise you where to get help to quit smoking.
Conclusion
Nicotine, an alkaloid derived from tobacco plants’ leaves (Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana rustica), is the primary addictive tobacco product.
There are different administration forms such as smoking cigarettes, chewing tobacco, moistening tobacco in the mouth, inhaling dry tobacco through the nose, inhaling smoke from a water pipe, and inhaling vapours from an electronic cigarette.
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