CIGARETTE SMOKING – It can be very addictive.

Cigarette smoking remains one of the leading sources of death by means of lung cancer all around the world. It is not just lung cancer that could be the result of cigarette smoking.

Cigarette smoking also affects the brain and the heart indirectly. Nicotine, which is a harmful chemical present in tobacco, reaches the brain with seconds of inhalation of the smoke. This adversely affects the brain and other parts of the body, which are nicotine sensitive since nicotine travels mainly through blood and it affects the parts through which they travel. It is said that in addition to lung cancer, emphysema is also caused as a result of cigarette smoking and the risk of heart attack is almost 2 times greater in smokers and compared to the nonsmokers. Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is also common.

Smoking cigarettes actually results in the inhalation of approximately 4000 chemicals, the chief content among them being nicotine. In regular women smoking cigarettes, nicotine has even been found to be present in breast milk. The chief factor, which influences the people to smoke cigarettes, is the ‘kick’ or in other words the high they get out of it. This ‘kick’ is produced as a result of the discharge of epinephrine from the adrenal cortex. Just to get this feeling people indulge in smoking. Children, mostly teenagers get into the bad habit of smoking when other elder children about the effect of smoking advise them. Cigarette smoking is more common among children whose parents and friends smoke.

Girls smoking cigarettes are also a common seen nowadays. In fact girls and cigarettes are a deadly mixture. Most girls begin the habit of smoking in their youth itself that is before 16. The case is the same with boys also. Anyway children who begin smoking at this age normally become chain smokers. Children who start after this age normally do not get into the habit. Dimethylnitrosamine, ethylmethylnitrosamine, hydrazine, vinyl chloride etc and toxic agents like carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide ammonia etc is present. These are only some of the ingredients of cigarettes. These chemicals are added in order to reduce tar. In fact, specifically speaking cigarettes are only about 40% tobacco and 60% waste.

The risk to life that is caused by cigarettes is one that should be taken very seriously. A person smoking for a period of mere 10 years shows higher rate of death. Therefore it is better to quit smoking than to reduce your life.