Stop Smoking Tips

This article gives you the facts of nicotine and why it makes tobacco products deadly. It’s one of the many chemicals that smokers put into their bodies with every puff. I include this information here to give you reasons to quit smoking. Anyone who doesn’t take this information and make a decision to stop smoking must have a death wish.

Nicotine is only one of the more than 4,000 chemicals found in tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco. Nicotine is the primary component of tobacco that works in the brain on the neurological system.

It is an alkaloid found in liquid form made out of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and sometimes oxygen. Their potent effect on the human body is also shared with another alkaloid that people enjoy many mornings – caffeine.

Nicotine is addictive and is recognized by experts as the most frequently used addictive drug. It is a naturally occurring substance – meaning that it isn’t manufactured in a lab. Nicotine, the drug, is a colorless liquid that turns brown when it’s burned and acquires the odor of tobacco when it’s exposed to air.

Nicotine was first identified in the early 1800’s and since that time has been studied extensively. Researchers have discovered that it has a number of complex and sometimes unpredictable effects on the brain and the body of those who ingest it.

Nicotine mimics the affect of acetylcholine (a nerve signal transmitter) and it acts primarily on the autonomic nervous system – that part of the nervous system that cares for the automatic parts of living such as fight or flight, heart rate and hormonal release.

A large dose of nicotine, greater than found in tobacco products, can cause respiratory failure and paralysis – smaller amounts can cause dizziness, nausea, low blood pressure and heart palpitations.

Although nicotine is found in all tobacco products cigarettes are the most common form of nicotine addiction in the U.S. Most of the cigarettes sold over the counter today contain 10 milligrams or more of nicotine. When inhaling cigarette smoke the average smoker will take in between 1 and 2 mg of nicotine per cigarette.

This small amount of nicotine will cause blood vessel constriction, increased heart rate, and confers a feeling of well-being and alertness in the smoker.

The next post will give you more dangers of nicotine in an effort to help you decide to stop smoking.

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