Nicotine Addiction Facts

Nicotine from smoking influences your brain in such a way that nicotine addiction is harder to beat than most people realize. Nicotine is so powerful that it changes the structure and function of brain. Studies show that nicotine acts like a stimulant and a relaxant. Influence of nicotine on the brain results in physical and mood-altering effects. The effects are pleasing but transient, and they force you to use tobacco again and again.

Nicotine Addiction

Nicotine addiction is defined as the physical vulnerability of your body to the chemical nicotine which is yielded by various tobacco products. Nicotine is so influential that your body develops 'nicotine dependence'. Most tobacco products contain nicotine.

Nicotine, an alkaloid, is found in the plants belonging to the family Solanaceae. An average cigarette releases about 1 mg of absorbed nicotine which acts as a stimulant and is responsible for the dependence-forming properties of tobacco smoking. Now, the question is how will you know whether someone is nicotine addict? If you notice the following signs of nicotine addiction, then you can surely say that the person is nicotine addict.

Signs
Following are the common signs of nicotine addiction:

• The person is unable to stop smoking.
• The person keeps on smoking despite health complications.
• The person stops participating in social or recreational activities that don't allow him/her to smoke.
• If he/she tries to stop smoking, he/she experiences strong nicotine withdrawal symptoms which include craving for tobacco, anxiety, diarrhea, irritability, restlessness, headache, drowsiness, stomach problems, constipation, difficulty in concentrating, etc.

Now, take a look at the important nicotine facts which tell us how it works and what are the complications of nicotine dependence.

Facts
The most significant fact among nicotine addiction facts is that each puff on a cigarette transmits nicotine to the brain within 10 seconds and instantly, you feel more alert and calm. You feel better, so you have another puff. And another. Soon nicotine succeeds in changing the brain's chemical structure and your brain becomes hooked onto nicotine to make the effects last. The effects of smoking are not noticed immediately, but after a long period.

Nicotine is responsible for the release of dopamine into the brain, which offers you feelings of pleasure. But over time, as your brain gets used to nicotine, it needs more nicotine to reach the same level of relaxation and pleasure. Moreover, if you stop providing nicotine to the brain which it wants, you'll feel desperate cravings that are hard to overcome with willpower alone. These strong cravings during the phase of nicotine withdrawal are accompanied by other nicotine overdose symptoms. You think you want a cigarette when, actually, your brain wants nicotine.

Nicotine also inhibits the release of insulin from the pancreas which results in high blood sugar that is responsible for loss of appetite. Nicotine is also responsible for release of adrenaline, the 'fight or flight' hormone which leads to rapid, shallow breathing and racing heartbeats. Adrenaline also plays an important role in instructing the body to dump excess glucose into the bloodstream.

Even though you want to quit smoking, you can't. Nicotine addiction needs to be treated with nicotine replacement therapy and non-nicotine medication. Use of nicotine gum is an effective method to quit smoking, but the side effects of nicotine gum should be properly studied.

The facts inform us that nicotine addiction can affect several parts of your body and can lead to nicotine side effects such as:

• Dry skin
• Oral cancer
• Lung cancer
• Emphysema
• Larynx cancer
• Esophageal cancer
• Chronic bronchitis
• Increased risk of heart diseases
• Throat cancer
• Infertility
• Complications in pregnancy
• Complications in newborn's health
• Dull senses

Statistics

• Every year, nicotine addiction kills more Americans than World War II and the Vietnam War combined. Tobacco related illnesses kill 440,000 US citizens per year. (According to the Centers for Disease Control.)
• Tobacco is the single, most preventable cause of death in the U.S. (Say the reports of National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion)
• There are over 4,000 toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke. (The Burden of Tobacco, Univ. of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey, March 2005)
• Unfortunately, cigarette smoking is responsible for 438,000 deaths annually, in the United States. Estimates from the Centers for Disease Control for 2007 tell us that 20.8% of the U.S. adult population, or 45.3 million people, currently smoke cigarettes.
• Each year, nearly 35 million people make a strong effort to quit smoking. Less than 7% succeed in abstaining for more than a year - most start smoking again within days. {The Search For A Safe Cigarette, NOVA (PBS), October 2001}

I hope the nicotine addiction facts, mentioned above, will help at least some of you to quit smoking. First, the smoker should admit the fact that he is addicted to nicotine, then only he/she can try to quit smoking. Symptoms of nicotine addiction and withdrawal go away gradually. It doesn't happen overnight, but with strong determination, freedom from nicotine is achievable, and will pay you back with benefits that go well beyond what you can probably imagine. So, stop smoking today!