Nicotine addiction
Tobacco or nicotin addiction is the second-leading cause of death in the world. With the present smoking trends, tobacco will kill 10 million people each year by 2020. Cigarette smoking is a major preventable cause of disease worldwide, and it is the major cause of premature death. The important causes of mortality are atherosclerotic vascular disease, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Smoking also can contribute to other diseases, eg, histiocytosis X, respiratory bronchiolitis, obstructive sleep apnea, idiopathic pneumothorax, low birth weight, and perinatal mortality. Nicotine, a component of tobacco, is the primary reason that tobacco is addictive, although cigarette smoke contains many other dangerous chemicals, including tar, carbon monoxide, acetaldehyde, nitrosamines, and more. Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known. Study after study shows that one can get addicted to nicotine as quickly as cocaine and other illegal drugs that we generally associate with crippling addictions.
Smoking may begin as a voluntary habit, but eventually it becomes an addiction. Nicotine, a component of tobacco, is the primary reason that tobacco is addictive. Through the use of cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco, nicotine is one of the most heavily used addictive drugs. Nicotine is a potent psychoactive drug that induces euphoria, serves as a reinforcer of its use, and leads to nicotine withdrawal syndrome when it is absent. As an addictive drug, nicotine has 2 very potent issues: it is a stimulant and it is also a depressant. Nicotine causes changes in the brain that make people want to use it more and more.
When you smoke a cigarette, you body receives an instant rush of nicotine - there is a spike in your nicotine levels which slowly dissipates, and when your nicotine levels drop below a certain point you will crave another spike, in the form of another cigarette.
One of the strongest indicators of the effect of nicotine is the discrepancy between the desire to quit and quitting success rates. Addiction to nicotine results in withdrawal symptoms when a person tries to stop smoking. For smokers, typical physical symptoms following cessation or reduction of nicotine intake include craving for nicotine, irritability, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, sleep disturbances, decreased heart rate, and increased appetite or weight gain.
Nicotine addiction treatment
The most important thing in any attempt to quit smoking is willpower, and the chances that you will succeed in staying smoke free without the use of willpower are extremely slim. Usually smokers try nicotine gum and nicotine skin patches to help wean themselves off of nicotine to stop smoking.
Nicotine chewing gum is one medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of nicotine dependence. The reason nicotine gum can be effective is because is can replicate nicotine spikes in your bloodstream without the need for cigarettes. The gum is not chewed like normal gum — rather you hold in your mouth without chewing it for long periods of time, and then give it a few chews when you want a release of nicotine, much as you would take a drag on a cigarette for a quick nicotine hit. Nicotine Gum comes in 2mg and 4mg strengths (the 4mg is recommended if you smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day.). It is recommended that you use the gum every 1-2 hours throughout the day, for a period of up to 3 months. The problem that some people run into with the nicotine patch - the other popular nicotine supplier - is that a nicotine patch supplies a steady amount of nicotine into your bloodstream. The nicotine patch and gum, now readily available at drugstores and supermarkets nationwide, have proven effective for smoking cessation when combined with behavioral therapy.
Nicotine patches deliver nicotine through the skin at a relatively steady rate. Patches are placed on the skin, and work by releasing a slow and steady supply of nicotine into the bloodstream. The idea is that the patch helps wean your body off nicotine - instead of nicotine being immediately absent from your system when you quit smoking, it is gradually reduced.
As you become more and more used to lower levels of nicotine in your system, you can reduce the dosage of the patches you wear, until eventually your body is nicotine free. Another good thing about the patch is that it is an extremely strong deterrent against smoking: if you smoke while you’re on the patch, your levels of nicotine will become too high and you could suffer from a nicotine overdose, which can result in sickness and even death.
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