Smoking Tobacco and the Brain :: Biology Smoke Cigarette Nicotine

Cig artte fume, the chief avoidable stupefy of ill-timed death in this country, is responsible for more than 300,000 premature deaths each year. consume is an avoidable cause of death. The way to avoid it? Quit smoking. But populate cant quit because its too hard -- because smoking is addictive. The Surgeon General issued a report entitled Nicotine Addiction. Throughout its 600+ pages he gives a highly flesh out explanation of just why nicotine is addictive.The Surgeon General listed criteria for establishing a medicine as addictive and showed how nicotine adheres to these criteria. The following are some of those criteria for determining that a dose is addictive (all information is based on US section of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of green goddess Nicotine Addiction A piece of music of the Surgeon General 1988.)Users develop a compulsive use of the drug despite damage to individual or society. Smoking causes lung cancer, different cancers, conti nuing obstructive lung disease, heart disease, complications of pregnancy, and several other adverse health effects. Smoking has been associated with antiestrogenic effects such as earlier menopause and increased osteoporosis. Nicotine is know to enter the amniotic fluid, umbilical cord of the fetus, and the breast milk of gravid mothers. Despite these known negative effects of smoking, people continue using cigarettes.The drug is rewarding and drug seeking watchs superiority over other important priorities. In a study by Henningfield, Miyasato, Jasinshki (1985) nicotine was seen to act as a euphoriant and at high doses acted similar to stimulants such as cocaine or amphetamines. Nicotine has been seen to produce other desirable effects as well. It is possible that nicotine improves attention, however most studies in this area compare smokers smoking to smokers not smoking, thus it is unsure whether smoking enhances attention or temperance for someone who regularly smokes impair s attention. Due to a wide range of results, studies clear not been able to conclusively show that smoking improves learning or memory nonetheless, many smokers claim it does both. They also assert that smoking is restful and causes pleasurable feelings. Indeed studies have associated the onset of smoking during the teenage old age with high levels of stress present at this time. Because smokers believe smoking to cause all of these beneficial effects, smokers will often stop what they are doing to take breaks for smoking in order to maintain the nicotine level to which their body has adult accustomed.The drug produces changes in a persons mood that are mainly controlled by effects in the brain.