STOP SMOKING !!
Guide to STOP SMOKING :
Nicotine
Nicotine is
a drug found naturally in tobacco, which is as addictive as heroin or cocaine.
Over time, a person becomes physically dependent on and emotionally addicted to
nicotine. This physical dependence causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when
you try to quit. The emotional and mental dependence (addiction) make it hard
to stay away from nicotine after you quit. Studies have shown that to quit and
stay quit, smokers must deal with both the physical and mental dependence.
How nicotine gets in, where it goes, and how long it stays
When you
inhale smoke, nicotine is carried deep into your lungs. There it’s quickly
absorbed into the bloodstream and carried, along with the carbon monoxide and
other toxins, to every part of your body. In fact, nicotine inhaled in
cigarette smoke reaches the brain faster than drugs that enter the body through
a vein (intravenously or IV).
Nicotine affects many parts of your
body, including your heart and blood vessels, your hormones, the way your body
uses food (your metabolism), and your brain. Nicotine can be found in breast
milk and even in the cervical mucus of female smokers. During pregnancy,
nicotine crosses the placenta and has been found in amniotic fluid and the
umbilical cord blood of newborn infants.
Different
factors affect how long it takes the body to remove nicotine and its
by-products. In most cases, regular smokers will still have nicotine and/or its
by-products, such as cotinine, in their bodies for about 3 to 4 days after
stopping.
How nicotine hooks smokers
Nicotine
causes pleasant feelings and distracts the smoker from unpleasant feelings.
This makes the smoker want to smoke again. Nicotine also acts as a kind of
depressant by interfering with the flow of information between nerve cells.
Smokers tend to smoke more cigarettes as the nervous system adapts to nicotine.
This, in turn, increases the amount of nicotine in the smoker’s blood.
Over time,
the smoker develops a tolerance to nicotine. Tolerance means that it takes more
nicotine to get the same effect that the smoker used to get from smaller
amounts. This leads to an increase in smoking. At some point, the smoker
reaches a certain nicotine level and then keeps smoking to keep the level of
nicotine within a comfortable range.
When a
person finishes a cigarette, the nicotine level in the body starts to drop,
going lower and lower. The pleasant feelings wear off, and the smoker notices
wanting a smoke. If smoking is postponed, the smoker may start to feel
irritated and edgy. Usually it doesn’t reach the point of serious withdrawal
symptoms, but the smoker gets more uncomfortable over time. When the person
smokes a cigarette, the unpleasant feelings fade, and the cycle continues.
Nicotine withdrawal symptoms can lead quitters back to smoking
When
smokers try to cut back or quit, the lack of nicotine leads to withdrawal
symptoms. Withdrawal is both physical and mental. Physically, the body reacts
to the absence of nicotine. Mentally, the smoker is faced with giving up a
habit, which calls for a major change in behavior. Emotionally, the smoker may
feel like they’ve lost their best friend. All of these factors must be
addressed for the quitting process to work.
Those who
have smoked regularly for a few weeks or longer will have withdrawal symptoms
if they suddenly stop using tobacco or greatly reduce the amount they smoke.
Symptoms usually start within a few hours of the last cigarette and peak about
2 to 3 days later when most of the nicotine and its by-products are out of the
body. Withdrawal symptoms can last for a few days to up to several weeks. They
will get better every day that you stay smoke-free.
Other substances in cigarette smoke
There is
some evidence that other chemicals in cigarette smoke may act with nicotine to
make it harder to quit smoking. The effects of smoking on monoamine oxidase (a
brain chemical) is still being studied. For some people, withdrawing from
smoking causes more severe mood problems, which can result in worse cravings
and more trouble staying quit.
Smoking affects other medicines
Smoking
also makes your body get rid of some drugs faster than usual. When you quit
smoking, it may change the levels of these drugs. Though it’s not truly
withdrawal, this change can cause problems and add to the discomfort of
quitting. Ask your doctor if any medicines you take need to be checked or
changed after you quit.
How does smoking affect your health?
Health
concerns usually top the list of reasons people give for quitting smoking. This
is a very real concern: smoking harms nearly every organ of the body.
Half of all
smokers who keep smoking will end up dying from a smoking-related illness. In
the United States alone, smoking is responsible for nearly 1 in 5 deaths, and
more than 16 million people suffer from smoking-related diseases.
Cancer
Nearly
everyone knows that smoking can cause lung cancer, but few people realize it is
also linked to a higher risk for many other kinds of cancer too, including
cancer of the mouth, nose, sinuses, lip, voice box (larynx), throat (pharynx),
esophagus, bladder, liver, kidney, pancreas, ovary, cervix, stomach, colon,
rectum, and acute myeloid leukemia.
Lung diseases
Smoking
greatly increases your risk of getting long-term lung diseases like emphysema
and chronic bronchitis. These diseases make it harder to breathe, and are
grouped together under the name chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
COPD causes chronic illness and disability, and gets worse over time –
sometimes becoming fatal. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis can be found in
people as young as 40, but are usually found later in life, when the symptoms
become much worse. Long-term smokers have the highest risk of developing severe
COPD. Pneumonia and tuberculosis are also included in the list of diseases
caused or made worse by smoking.
Heart attacks, strokes, and blood vessel diseases
Smokers are
twice as likely to die from heart attacks as non-smokers. Smoking is a major
risk factor for peripheral vascular disease, a narrowing of the blood vessels
that carry blood to the leg and arm muscles. Smoking also affects the walls of
the vessels that carry blood to the brain (carotid arteries), which can cause
strokes. Smoking can cause abdominal aortic aneurysm, in which the layered
walls of the body’s main artery (the aorta) weaken and separate, often causing
sudden death. And men who smoke are more likely to develop erectile dysfunction
(impotence) because of blood vessel disease.
Blindness and other problems
Smoking
increases the risk of macular degeneration, one of the most common causes of
blindness in older people. It promotes cataracts, which cloud the lens of the
eye. It also causes premature wrinkling of the skin, bad breath, gum disease,
tooth loss, bad-smelling clothes and hair, and yellow teeth and fingernails.
Special risks to women and babies
Women have
some unique risks linked to smoking. Women over 35 who smoke and use birth
control pills have a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and blood clots in
the legs. A woman who smokes is more likely to have an ectopic pregnancy (tubal
pregnancy), which can’t be saved and can threaten the mother’s life. Smokers
are also more likely to miscarry (lose the baby) or have a lower birth-weight
baby. Low birth-weight babies are more likely to die or have learning and
physical problems. And mothers who smoke during early pregnancy are more likely
to have babies with cleft lip and cleft palate.
Years of life lost due to smoking
Based on
data collected in the late 1990s, the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) estimated that adult male smokers lost an average of 13.2
years of life and female smokers lost 14.5 years of life because of smoking.
Each year,
smoking causes early deaths of about 480,000 people in the United States. And
given the diseases that smoking can cause, it can steal your quality of life
long before you die. Smoking-related illness can limit your activities by
making it harder to breathe, get around, work, or play.
Why quit smoking now?
No matter
how old you are or how long you’ve smoked, quitting can help you live longer
and be healthier. People who stop smoking before age 50 cut their risk of dying
in the next 15 years in half compared with those who keep smoking. Ex-smokers
enjoy a higher quality of life – they have fewer illnesses like colds and the
flu, lower rates of bronchitis and pneumonia, and feel healthier than people
who still smoke.
For decades
the Surgeon General has reported the health risks linked to smoking. In 1990,
the Surgeon General concluded:
1. Quitting
smoking has major and immediate health benefits for men and women of all ages.
These benefits apply to people who already have smoking-related diseases and
those who don’t.
2. Ex-smokers
live longer than people who keep smoking.
3. Quitting
smoking lowers the risk of lung cancer, other cancers, heart attack, stroke,
and chronic lung disease.
4. Women who
stop smoking before pregnancy or during the first 3 to 4 months of pregnancy
reduce their risk of having a low birth-weight baby to that of women who never
smoked.
5. The health
benefits of quitting smoking are far greater than any risks from the small
weight gain (usually less than 10 pounds) or any emotional or psychological
problems that may follow quitting.
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