Smoking Tobacco and the Brain :: Biology Smoke Cigarette Nicotine

Cig artte locoweed, the heading excludeable cause of premature death in this country, is responsible for much than 300,000 premature deaths each year. dope is an avoidable cause of death. The way to avoid it? Quit smoking. But people cant quit because its too hard -- because smoking is addictive. The operating surgeon General issued a report entitled Nicotine Addiction. Throughout its 600+ pages he gives a bluely detailed explanation of just why nicotine is addictive.The Surgeon General listed criteria for establishing a drug as addictive and verbalizeed how nicotine adheres to these criteria. The following are some of those criteria for determining that a drug is addictive (all information is base on US Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking Nicotine Addiction A Report of the Surgeon General 1988.)Users develop a compulsive use of the drug despite damage to individual or society. Smoking causes lung cancer, differentwise cancers, chro nic obstructive lung disease, heart disease, complications of pregnancy, and several other adverse health do. Smoking has been associated with antiestrogenic effects such as introductory menopause and increased osteoporosis. Nicotine is known to enter the amniotic fluid, umbilical corduroy of the fetus, and the breast milk of expectant mothers. Despite these known negative effects of smoking, people continue using cigarettes.The drug is rewarding and drug seek takes superiority over other important priorities. In a call for 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 abstinence for someone who regularly smokes i mpairs attention. Due to a wide range of results, studies have not been able to conclusively show that smoking improves learning or memory nonetheless, many smokers claim it does both. They besides assert that smoking is relaxing and causes pleasurable feelings. Indeed studies have associated the blast of smoking during the teenage years with high levels of stress present at this time. Because smokers believe smoking to cause all of these beneficial effects, smokers will a lot stop what they are doing to take breaks for smoking in order to view as the nicotine level to which their body has grown accustomed.The drug produces changes in a souls mood that are mainly controlled by effects in the brain.