Saturday, November 27, 2010

Stop Smoking: Why is it So Difficult

By Sandi Feris


If you take a moment to think about it, you can stop smoking for good today and never pick up a cigarette, or a tin of chew for the rest of your natural born life if you truly had to. There's no arguing about that fact. What people who have never had a tobacco habit don't realize though, is that in real terms it's a heck of a lot harder then that to kick the habit.

The biggest hurdle that leads so many would be quitters down the path of failure and back to buy another carton, pack, or can, is they simply fail to take into full account just how powerful nicotine really is. Would you believe that statistically and according to the actual numbers, nicotine is the most addictive drug on the planet. Even worse than heroin, or cocaine. Sound difficult to believe?

Well it shouldn't be hard to believe because nicotine in its pure form is also one of the most powerful as well. Did you know that only 60 milligrams of nicotine is enough to kill a 150 pound man? That's about as much as it would take to fill the cap on your toothpaste tube about 1/3 of the way up. Believe it because nicotine in its pure form is even more deadly than strychnine and arsenic.

So the fact is that smokers and people who use smokeless tobacco are addicted to a very powerful drug that only now the medical community is beginning to fully understand how it even functions in the brain. One of the many ways that it works, is it releases dopamine in the brain which is basically the same way that heroin, and cocaine work in the brain.

If you don't know what dopamine is, it's what neurological researchers classify as one of the reward chemicals your brain produces when you do positive things like exercising, and eating well. Well the nicotine in tobacco products simple force your brain to release dopamine and this is why smoking kills your appetite and you rarely see smokers exercising at the gym.

So now you may be getting a better idea of just why tobacco is such a difficult habit to kick, and stay off of over the long haul. Your brain has actually temporarily lost its ability to function properly without nicotine, so you're grumpy, depressed and your appetite may be running out of control as well. Your brain is telling you that it needs another dose.

So as more is learned about nicotine and how it functions to keep people hooked on it, that same information is also being used to develop more effective products, and systems to counter it. Products and treatments that allow people who are regular tobacco users to better focus on the psychological aspect of their habit, without being tormented by physical nicotine withdrawals.




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