Nicotine is a Poison
Millions of mystery fans read works in which people are killed by being secretly administered doses of arsenic or strychnine, but these toxins are nothing compared to nicotine. Nicotine? The ingredient in common cigarette smoke? That’s right…it is three times more lethal than arsenic and is frequently used as a very effective pesticide.
So, if it is so poisonous how is it possible that big tobacco companies are allowed to sell it to the consumer market? The average cigarette contains a staggering four thousand different chemicals, and nicotine just happens to be one of them. The delivery system through which the smoker inhales nicotine allows the manufacturer to use very little of it in order to get the best results. The inhalation process actually delivers nicotine immediately to the brain with every single puff taken. If the smoker takes only ten drags on each cigarette that will still translate to ten solid doses of nicotine in a five to ten minute time period.
Nicotine delivered in this way heads straight to the “reward pathways” of the brain and provides this area with an increased level of dopamine. This produces a brief sense of euphoria – roughly ten seconds for any single drag on a cigarette. Because nicotine is also something that the human body can develop some resistance to, the average smoker is going to increase the number of cigarettes needed each day to continue to get the same results from their usage. Hence the reason that nicotine is both a deadly and remarkably addictive poison.
Shockingly enough it is not unusual for a long-time smoker to require three hundred doses of nicotine throughout an average day. The cigarette smoke as a delivery system is nowhere near as fatal as direct consumption, however, and that is why a child who eats even a single cigarette or cigarette butt can become dangerously ill.
Not only does nicotine have an impact on the brain however, it also constricts the arteries throughout the body, causes over exertion in the heart muscle, and can show effects on almost every bodily organ. It does all of this so covertly that few notice anything but the good sensations that the smoke has created in the reward centers of the brain.
Understanding all of the above information makes it much simpler to recognize why so many smokers have such a difficult time in quitting. Fortunately there are many excellent programs that can help someone to wean themselves off of nicotine reliance, and some can do so without leading to the most common withdrawal symptoms too.
