Tobacco Addiction - Essay Example

Tobacco Addiction Tobacco has come a long way from being known as an entheogen (i.e. a psychoactive substance used as a religious perspective) to a God sent gift, a trade item and finally to being a health hazard. It contains up to four thousand different substances but the most addictive is the one which is highly toxic. Nicotine is what which causes tobacco addiction; it is justified indeed as tobacco comes from a plant called Nicotiana. Hydrogen cyanide is also present in tobacco which is more commonly known as rat poison. Even the most forgotten corners of the world know for a fact that anything that contains tobacco is dangerous for health. It is rational that they know the risk. Still, one billion people use tobacco; that's more or less 16% of the world population! Smoking seems to help a lot of people overcome many problems; from wafting their troubles away to even thinking of it as some sort of a companion. A person starts smoking for a lot of reasons but once they start it seems harder and harder to quit. They become a drug addict: they crave for the feelings which arise in them whenever they smoke. Some people don't want to stop smoking others just can't tolerate the smell of the smoke. Smoking is cool for teens, a way of life for adults and a part of personality for the aged. People smoke so that they can concentrate on something, part with stress or just simply pass the time. People who smoke generally tend to feel relaxed which is not true as smoking immediately increases the heart rate, flow of blood from the heart and blood pressure. It does, however, calm the senses and numbs the fingers of feet and hands. It weakens appetite and feelings of hunger but it hasn't been proven that obese people would benefit from smoking. All this happens because the brain releases a lot of chemicals which eventually have the smoker in a sate of pure bliss. The nicotine receptor gene of smokers causes them to be eight times more prone to start smoking than non-smokers. Although there are five ways of smoking: cigarette, hookah, pipe, cigar and roll-your-owns; only cigarette is the most common. Cigarettes are known to have pleasing short-term effects but hazardous long-term ones. Nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide are the substances which make up the 'tobacco smoke.' Tobacco smoke is tasted or more commonly, inhaled. Nicotine takes exactly seven seconds to make up its way to the brain and trigger feelings in pleasing combinations of reduced anxiety, heightened pleasure, and a state of alert. It can be used as an anesthetic or a pick-me-up by controlling the amount of nicotine absorbed in the bloodstream. Extended, intense inhalations, additional puffs per cigarette, or smoking down to the end can increase the nicotine being absorbed to a level higher than the printed one. A large amount of diseases are caused by smoking. Over forty chemicals in the tobacco smoke can cause cancers of larynx, throat, tongue, lungs, bladder, pharynx, oesophagus, lips, colorectal, colon, nasal sinuses, nasal cavities, liver and stomach. It also plays a part in developing cancer of the cervix, pancreas, and kidneys. It causes cardiovascular disease, lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It affects all parts of the body from the hair to the immune system. Smoking causes osteoporosis, cataract, leukemia, infertility, Buerger's disease, peptic ulcer, thyroid diseases, erectile dysfunction, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), leukoplakia, skin disorders, peripheral vascular disease (PVD), stroke and insomnia. Passive smokers are also susceptible to diseases related to smoking. Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) causes cardiovascular disease and lung cancer in non-smokers. Childhood exposed to ETS tend to have severe asthma. ETS exposure of toddlers also causes an increased risk of bronchitis, pneumonia and ear infections in them. Hence, smokers benefit many people by quitting smoking and they should be aware that anyone can quit smoking; it's just a matter of time and enthusiasm. Nicotine Replacement Therapy and Non-Nicotine Replacement Medications are the two common methods of treating smoking addiction. It takes 72 hours for the blood-serum to become free of nicotine and 90% of the nicotine metabolites to leave the body via urine. Hence, some treatment programs also use detoxification to reduce nicotine cravings. At first, NRT replaces cigarettes by nicotine patches, gum, and sprays which is gradually reduced in concentration to a zero. NRT is much slower in bringing nicotine to a smoker's brain and hence, help to reduce the urge to smoke. A major drawback of this treatment is that between 84%-100% smokers get no results while FDA claim to have a success rate of 20% every year. On the other hand, Non-Nicotine Replacement Medications do not contain nicotine but gives the same effect. It has a success rate of 19% to around 36%. Many smokers claim that they are not dealt with other aspects of smoking and so, go back to smoking. Group courses have declared a high success rates but it's not officially proven. Whereas, laser treatment have no clinic results though it had been around for 30 years. It targets on reducing stress whereby increasing vigor and is promoted as a temporary relief from pain. There have been a lot of advancements in give up smoking products from smokeless and nicotine-free cigarette to a stop smoking cream. Studies show that quit rates are much more when nicotine replacement products are used in combination with smoking cessation programs that also tackle your smoking addiction. Other infrequent ways to stop smoking includes bioresonance; herbal, homeopathic, and supplement preparations; acupuncture and acupressure; books; nicotine blockers; hospital clinics; hypnotherapy; smoke testing; artificial cigarettes; blogs; individual professional counselors; self-hypnosis and meditation; clay baths; internet courses; ex-smokers guide; scheduled reduction systems; nicotine testing; quit smoking help lines and reader's forum. Most of these methods help smokers while others only end up wasting your time. Although, when a few of all these treatments are combined together they are known to produce much more effective results. Smoking is known as the single largest but preventable cause of disease and premature death in virtually every country on earth. It has been said that more than 90% of the people trying to quit smoking relapse within a year; whereas, 2.5% - 5% actually succeed in quitting on their own. British, American and Japanese multinational firms control the whole tobacco market. Every eight seconds, a tobacco user dies. About 33% of the total adult males are smokers. The Pacific and East Asia has the highest smoking rate as one in three cigarettes lighted worldwide are consumed there. A quarter of the adolescents living in the Western Pacific Region will die from smoking. Evidence confirms that around 50% of those teenagers who start smoking go on to smoke for another 15 to 20 years. 80,000 to 100,000 children globally start smoking every day almost half of whom live in Asia. The diseases caused by smoking ultimately kill one in very 10 adults worldwide. Roughly 90 percent of lung cancers are caused by smoking. Half of long-standing smokers will die from tobacco smoking. Around one in five young teenagers smoke worldwide. Every cigarette smoked reduces at least five minutes off from a smoker's life on average. About three-quarters of world's chronic bronchitis and no less than a quarter of deaths resulting from heart diseases are linked to smoking. Studies claim that teenagers are heavily influenced by tobacco advertising. It is mostly because the tobacco industry has changed its advertising techniques in the last 30 years. Only 10% of advertising expenses is spent on printing and billboard advertisements, while more than half is spent on marketing allowances and items including t-shirts, mugs and lighters. Holland has the highest number of smokers (33%) while Australian the lowest (17%). Smoking pubs have 50 times more carcinogens in air than outside on roads. Smokers are said to spend an around 18 days per year smoking during work hours. Roughly 30 million people die due to tobacco use every 10 years. Over 90% of smokers need a helping hand to help them stop smoking. It has been revealed that companies producing tobacco products aiming to kill 50% of their users is legal. Tobacco addiction is something which is highly dangerous but still seems to attract people towards it every day. References: J L Tang,M Law andN Wald. 1st January 1994. How effective is nicotine replacement therapy in helping people to stop smoking 6th November2008. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/308/6920/21 Kandel, Schaffran, Griesler, Samuolis Davies and Galanti. 2005. On the Measurement of Nicotine Dependence in Adolescence: Comparisons of the mFTQ and a DSM-IV-Based Scale. 5th November 2008. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgitool=pubmed&pubmedid=15863429 Are there effective treatments for nicotine addiction 2008. NIDA Research Reports. 7th november2008. http://www.addictionsresources.com/treatment/nicotine.html Effects of smoking. 2006. Chantix home. 5th November 2008. http://www.chantixhome.com/effects_smoking.html Smoking facts. 2004. Quit guide. 5 November 2008. http://www.quitguide.com/smoking-facts.html Read More