Nicotine Addiction and Its Effects on Health of Individual

Nicotine is an addictive drug. Nicotine in inhaled through tobacco smoke moves from the lungs, into the bloodstream and up to the brain and causes chemical reactions in the brain that make people to use it repeatedly. Nicotine affects the mood and performance and is the source of addiction to tobacco. Nicotine is a psychoactive drug that induces euphoria, making the smoker to use it more and leads to nicotine withdrawal syndrome when it is absent. Factors like nicotine dependence, genetic factors, and psychosocial factors influence maintenance of smoking behavior in the people. Nicotine persists in the body up to six to eight after smoking is stopped. Nicotine is one of the addiction that it is very difficult to stop.

Nicotine when enters in to the body, it shows following effects:

• When a person smokes, nicotine present in the cigarette smoke enters the body and body responds immediately to the chemical nicotine.
• Nicotine also causes increase in the blood pressure for shorter duration of time, heart rate and the flow of blood from the heart.
• Carbon dioxide present in the cigarette smoke also reduces the amount of oxygen blood can carry.
• Carbon dioxide combined with nicotine creates an imbalance between the demand for oxygen by the cells and the amount of oxygen the blood can supply.
• Carbon monoxide when combined with nicotine also increases the risk of heart attack because it damages the inner walls of the arteries and helps in building up of fats, this causes the vessels to narrow and harden which in turn causes heart attacks.
• Nicotine also inhibits the release of insulin from the pancreas, so the person who is smoking has more sugar in his blood than is normal. Smokers feel less hungry because high blood sugar acts as an appetite suppressant.
• Nicotine also increases the level of dopamine which is a neurotransmitter in the brain.

Nicotine addiction is the most common addiction, as it is easily available in the form of cigarettes. It should be seriously avoided as Nicotine abuse for long time has very bad effects on brain activities.