Nicotine: The Effects and Dependency

Ask anyone on the street to name one thing in a cigarette, and i reckon you will get a very large proportion say Nicotine. Nicotine is the "well known" ingredient, but how much do you actually know about it?....there are a host of other nasties in there which i will cover another time, like arsenic and tar, just to name 2 of the 599 ingredients.....yup you read it right, 599 !!!

Right, so back to the good old Nicotine. This ingredient is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde character, not only is it a stimulant, a drug that makes you feel more alert like caffeine or ampthetamines, it is also a very powerful toxin, which is capable of causing our bodies harm, similar to that of car fumes. Nicotine is also the additive that causes the physical addiction to the tobacco.

When you inhale on your cigarette, the nicotine travels down your windpipe where it is then absorbed by your lungs, from here it travels within the bloodstream to your brain, a journey that takes a mere 7 seconds or so. Once there it kinda changes the way in which the brain and body functions, as it has the abilty to both invigorate and relax you, a bit like alcohol does, the first few drinks you are buzzing, but after awhile the alcohol has the reverse effect and it makes you calm, relaxed, sedate. It is this Jeckll and Hyde part of Nicotine, the "invigorate part" and the "relaxing  part", which causes some of the addiction. When you are invigorated you smoke to calm yourself down, yet when you are relaxed and calm, just woken up maybe, you have a smoke to get yourself going, to get yourself invigorated.

Nicotine is an addictive substance, which means your body gets used to nicotine and comes to need a certain amount to function normally each day. Any less than your "normal" intake, willl give you withdrawal symptons, making you on edge, nervey and moody etc.

It is not unusual to hear stories of people who have quit sucessfully, maybe for a number of years, only to have a moment of madness at some point and light one up to find that within a matter of days/weeks they are back on there original quota of say 20 or 30 a day. This is how great the addictive power of Nicotine is, and is probably why there are very very few people who can master the art of being a "social smoker".

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Vattie