Properties of Tobacco

Properties of Tobacco

What are the properties of tobacco that made it the number one killer nowadays? Tobacco is a slow poison that has harmful effect on the physical, mental, and moral powers. In general, cancer deaths are declining but, lung cancer deaths are rising because of tobacco smoking. Nicotine keeps people to smoke despite its harmful effects. Research showed that nicotine, like many other drugs, causes physical and psychological dependence.

Nicotine is the drug in tobacco leaves. It belongs to the category of stimulant drugs. How someone can deliver nicotine to the brain? Simply by smoking, chewing, or sniffing the powder form of tobacco leaves, you can deliver nicotine to your brain. Each cigarette contains approximately 10 milligrams of nicotine. Nicotine is a powerful drug that if pure nicotine content of two cigars were injected into bloodstream, death would result. Smokers can absorb 1 to 2 milligrams of nicotine to its lungs from each cigarette they smoke.

Did you know that lots of young people nowadays have an alternative to cigarettes? They call it “bidis.” It is popular to young people because they think it is less harmful compared to cigarettes. And, it comes in attractive packages, lots of color and flavor to choose from, which attracts the consumers to smoke more. Behind its attractive color and flavor is a much more harmful effect to the lungs, because bidis has more nicotine content compared to cigarettes.

In tobacco smoking, nicotine stimulates the flow of saliva, raises blood pressure, increases heart rate, causes narrowing of blood vessels, lowers the skin temperature and dulls the appetite. Like other stimulants, the aftereffect is depression of body functions. Like caffeine ingestion, smokers also develop a tolerance to nicotine.

Like nicotine, tar is a harmful by-product of tobacco. It is a yellowish brown sticky residue formed when gases and tobacco smoke particles condense. It bears carcinogenic hydrocarbons that have tumor promoting activity. It can cause cancerous and, or non-cancerous tumors in the lungs. Therefore, tar may be the primary cause of smoking-related cancers.

Are you familiar with carbon monoxide (CO)? Tobacco smoke contains high level of carbon monoxide (CO) that can affect the smoker and those who can inhale the secondhand smoke. High carbon monoxide level in the blood is one of the main factors why smokers suffer from heart diseases. Nicotine and platelet aggregation due to cigarette smoke are some of the factors too.

Did you know that tobacco smoke contains approximately four thousand chemicals? Two hundred of those chemicals are known poison and about 60 are suspected to cause cancer.

Connection Of Smoking To Heart Disease

smoking

What is the most common cause of death nowadays and why? It is cardiovascular disease and the common cause of it is wrong lifestyle, especially vices like smoking. Beyond 50 percent of these deaths are due to coronary artery disease and about 20 percent of it are due to stroke.

Smoking increases atherosclerosis, the disease of coronary arteries, and there’s an increase in all forms of stroke due to smoking. Cigarette smoking remains to be the most significant “changeable” risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD) nowadays. Changeable since it can still be modified through healthy lifestyle.

Nicotine and carbon monoxide, the two harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke, hastens the damage of blood vessels through arterial diseases. Smoking triggers the blood pressure to rise up, decrease the amount of oxygen that enters heart muscle and augment the tendency of the blood to form clot.

Smoking causes lung damage. Circulation in the blood vessels in the lungs are altered, from its normal low pressure system smoking triggers the pressure to rise. Rise pressure in the lungs stresses the pumping chamber or the right ventricle of the heart – which is designed to function with low pressure, causing a permanent damage to the heart. Not only that, it has been noted that nicotine has numbing effect for early pain associated with a heart attack so they are prone to seek medical help when they are on critical stage already.

More than a billion of people worldwide smokes nowadays plus the nonsmokers who have passive exposure to cigarette smoke who are much more in number compared to the smokers. Imagine the risk they are into. In general, smoking has lots of negative effect to our health,especially on cardiovascular system. If these about 1 billion people stop smoking and follow a healthy lifestyle, risk factor of diseases due to smoking will be cut off as well. Prevention from smoking is a best antidote of this problem. Preventing non-smoking population to start this vice is the best scheme.