![]() Some genes can even alter the efficacy of drugs like varenicline, which are designed to help people quit cigarettes by reducing cravings 3. There are also genetic elements to addiction, so certain people are more susceptible to nicotine addiction than others. Cigarette smoke includes compounds that inhibit monoamine oxidase, so when the nicotine releases dopamine, it stays around longer in regular smokers. “An enzyme in the brain called monoamine oxidase breaks down certain neurotransmitters like dopamine,” says Benowitz. The day’s first cigarette often provides the best ‘rush’, and people smoke more heavily over time to replicate that satisfaction.Ĭigarette smoke also has other addictive substances which heighten the challenges of quitting. Then, if a person doesn’t have a cigarette, they suffer withdrawal symptoms like irritability, difficulty concentrating, depression and stress. Over time, nicotine has progressively less of an effect on receptors that release dopamine and other chemicals. It is not intoxicating like some other drugs - another reason why it is popular.” NRTs, like patches or gums, can reduce the urge for a cigarette and help to prevent withdrawal symptoms. If you need to concentrate at work, nicotine helps you focus. “In the early morning, nicotine is stimulating like coffee. It enhances the action of whatever is going on in the body,” says Neal Benowitz, professor emeritus of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “Nicotine also affects stress levels and attention. It also releases glutamate, which is involved in learning and memory endorphins, which play a role in calming and sedation and serotonin, which is implicated in mood modulation and appetite. Like most addictive drugs, nicotine generates feelings of pleasure and satisfaction by causing the release of dopamine. ![]() Nicotine is structurally similar to acetylcholine and can bind to acetylcholine receptors in the brain, heart, blood vessels and immune system: it can fundamentally change how the body functions. Although not considered deadly on its own, nicotine can nevertheless have detrimental effects.Īcetylcholine, the most abundant neurotransmitter in the human body, conveys chemical messages between nerve cells in almost every organ. Nicotine and other inflammatory chemicals can also lead to diabetes: according to CDC, people who smoke are 30–40% more likely to get type 2 diabetes than people who don’t smoke. Heart disease can develop in smokers because of exposure to chemicals like nicotine and carbon monoxide - which, along with other toxic chemicals, can cause irreversible lung damage. HOW NICOTINE AFFECTS THE BODYĬigarette smoke contains more than 7000 chemicals, including 70 carcinogenic substances like arsenic 2. While all these methods can help get people away from combustible cigarettes, the end goal of quitting nicotine is a more difficult challenge that should not be ignored. With a history that stretches back almost 40 years, the value of NRTs, smoking cessation medications and behavioural therapy as means for quitting is well-established. Long-term data on their effect on health are also lacking. They do offer consumers an alternative, cleaner option to smoking tobacco, but also run the risk of keeping people in the nicotine addiction cycle. Many people turn to e-cigarettes to quit their tobacco counterpart, but these are not FDA-approved. Nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs), smoking cessation medicines and counselling are the only established, FDA-approved methods for quitting cigarette smoking and tackling nicotine addiction in the US 1. ![]() Various activities and tools are available to those who are trying to quit. But the social aspects of smoking and other lifestyle factors can make this a very difficult process. Most adult cigarette smokers want to stop, and many can and do quit for good: since 2002 there have been more former smokers than current smokers (CDC, 2022). The CDC also estimated that cigarette smoking cost the US more than $600 billion in 2018 - through the burden of smoking-related diseases, addiction support, and lost productivity from illness and premature death. In the US, the CDC estimated that 12.5% of adults were ‘current smokers’ in 2020. Smoking cigarettes remains the leading preventable cause of death worldwide killing more than eight million people each year, according to the WHO. “This highlights how profoundly difficult it can be to break the smoking addiction.” “Early in my career, I met people who told me they found it easier to quit heroin than cigarettes,” says Scott Leischow, research professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University.
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