Tobacco

Tobacco comes from the plant nicotiana tabacum. Although many people smoke because they believe cigarettes calm their nerves, smoking releases epinephrine, a hormone which creates physiological stress in the smoker, rather than relaxation. When tobacco is smoked, nicotine is absorbed by the lungs and quickly moved into the bloodstream, where it is circulated throughout the brain.

Nicotine acts directly on the heart to change heart rate and blood pressure, resulting in high blood pressure, heart attacks, other vascular diseases and aneurysm. It also acts on the nerves that control respiration to change breathing patterns. In high concentrations, nicotine is deadly; in fact one drop of purified nicotine on the tongue will kill a person. It’s so lethal that it has been used as a pesticide for centuries.

Tobacco addiction is the cause one third of all cancers, the foremost of which is lung cancer. Overall rates of death from cancer are twice as high among smokers as non-smokers. One fifth of deaths from heart disease are attributable to smoking. Passive or secondary smoke also increases the risk of many similar diseases.

Cigarettes can also serve as a major gateway to other forms of drug addiction. One third of young people who are just “experimenting” end up being addicted by the time they are 20. Adolescent cigarette smokers are 100 times more likely to smoke marijuana and to use other illicit drugs such as cocaine and heroin in the future.

Smoking is particularly dangerous for teens because their bodies are still developing and changing and the chemicals can adversely affect this process.

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Posted by Health Care , Published at 9:46 AM and have 0 comments