Nicotine+Addiction

Nicotine is an addictive drug which causes many changes in the brain and makes people addicted to it. It makes you want to use it more and more. Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body causing many diseases and putting the smoker's health at stake. Nicotine is the main reason that tobacco is addictive, although cigarette smoke contains many other dangerous chemicals, including tar, carbon monoxide, acetaldehyde, nitrosamines, and more.There is a good feeling when the drug is present but a very bad feeling once the drug is absent. Statistics say that nicotine addiction has been the hardest addiction to break in history.

Tobacco addiction is the second-leading cause of death in the world. It is guilty of about 5 million deaths each year. Nicotine is responsible for 1 of every 5 deaths and is the most common cause for cancer-related deaths. Currently, there are about 1.3 billion smokers living in the world. With the smoking habits and trends nowadays, statistics are saying that by the year of 2020, tobacco addiction will kill approximately 10 million people each year. Research shows that the smoking rates have dropped though. In the year of 1965, 52% of men and 34% of women smoked. Today, the number dropped to 28% and 24%. The horrid trend is decreasing in educated people around the world but rising with blacks, blue-collar workers and people in the socioeconomic strata. Recent survey shows that 20% of teenage girls smoke while 15% of teenage boys smoke. Surveys also show that pregnant women who smoke quit during pregnancy but 80% go back to smoking after the child's birth. The cigarette smoke is contained with more then 4000 toxic chemicals.

This horrible addiction also causes many unpleasant symptoms. Smoking causes increase in blood pressure, heart rate, low of blood from the heart and it also causes the arteries to narrow. It may cause changes in the blood such as clots, which increase the chance of a heart attack. Smoking is the cause of premature death in North America. Smoking contributes to diseases such as lung cancer, respiratory bronchiolitis, obstructive sleep apnea, idiopathic pneumothorax, low birth weight, and perinatal mortality. 

 Nicotine i s responsible for releasing a chemical called dopamine. This chemical is "pleasureful". Nicotine moves from the lungs, into the bloodstreams and up to the smoker's brain in only 7-10 seconds. Once its there, nicotine causes a short-term pleasure feeling to the smoker. It is the dopamine that gives the smoke a false well-being feeling and soon the body begins to want more and more dopamine on a regular basis.The sense only lasts a few minutes and as the nicotine level drops in the blood, the smoker feels edgy and agitated. To get rid of these discomforts, the smoker lights up another cigarette and so the nicotine addiction cycle begins.

Nicotine is very addictive and more then 35 million smokers every year say they will quit. Unfortunately, only about 6% of them actually quit. Many research shows that nicotine acts a lot and influences the brain. Nicotine is the primary component in a cigarette and without it, a cigarette wouldn't be pleasurable. Statistics say that nicotine addiction has been the hardest addiction to break in history. The withdrawal of nicotine addiction is very hard for smokers. Symptoms during the withdrawal process include: irritability, craving, cognitive and attentional deficits, sleep disturbances, and increased appetite. These usual symptoms begin to occur around the first days of quitting.

Each cigarette contains about 10 milligrams of nicotine. Since a cigarette doesn't just contain nicotine, a smoker only gets about 1 to 2 milligrams with each puff. Pure nicotine would kill a person and farmers use it as a pesticide on crops. With one puff, the nicotine is absorbed into the blood and is sent up into the brain. It increases the heart rate and respiration rate automatically. Nicotine also then attached to the neurons which transmit the dopamine chemical. media type="custom" key="732359"

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