“Cigarettes and nicotine are definitely not addictive in the traditional sense, they are not toxic,” a man in a suit swore at the solemn meeting, and he is one of the seven major tobacco giants in the United States the president. In 1994, 46 states in the United States required tobacco companies to bear the cost of medical insurance. For this reason, the CEOs of seven major tobacco companies in the United States swore in the United States Congress that nicotine is neither addictive nor toxic. It was not until 4 years later that many tobacco companies admitted that nicotine was addictive, and the cigarettes they sold could cause cancer and other diseases.
First, nicotine, from the lungs to the brain, only takes 10 seconds
nicotine is also known as It is nicotine, which is present in tobacco plants. In 1998, WHO listed tobacco dependence as one of the chronic addictive diseases, and pointed out that the main reason for smoking addiction and difficulty in quitting is nicotine.
When people smoke, the nicotine in the cigarette will also be inhaled into the body at the same time. After the nicotine enters the body, it will flow through the blood-brain barrier with the blood, and it only takes about 10 seconds after that. Reaching the brain, the other brain produces pleasure and excitement dopamine and other neurotransmitters, making the body gradually addicted to this feeling.
The effect of nicotine in the human body can only last for 40-120 minutes. When the nicotine in the body is completely metabolized, the receptors that were previously occupied by nicotine in the brain will be emptied. This in turn causes the smokers to experience withdrawal reactions such as anger, upset, anxiety and palpitation. These symptoms can be relieved after re-smoking, and many smokers will be forced to smoke because of this. This also explains why cravings always come about every two hours, because the nicotine in the body is almost depleted after this time and there is no “stock”.
Nicotine is highly addictive, does this mean that nicotine is also highly toxic, and is the carcinogenic effect of cigarettes also caused by nicotine?
Second, how toxic is nicotine? Carcinogenicity is not nicotine’s pot
The 2014 US Surgeon General’s Report found that there is currently no evidence that nicotine causes cancer. The FDA also announced in 2017 that there is no direct causal relationship between nicotine and cancer.
It is not nicotine that actually causes cancer in tobacco, but 69 other chemical carcinogens, such as benzopyrene, which can cause serious health problems after entering the body. Harm, in the long run, it is easy to induce cancer. The real harm of nicotine is not carcinogenic, but these five: 1. It can cause poisoning by itself
Nicotine itself is a highly toxic substance, and the nicotine contained in a cigarette can be poisonous To kill a mouse, the nicotine in 20 cigarettes can poison a cow. If a person ingests a large amount of nicotine in a short period of time (50~70mg, about 40~60 cigarettes), the human body will die.
2. Stimulate the adrenal glands and affect blood pressure
The nicotine inhaled during smoking will be quickly absorbed into the blood, and will quickly reach the brain. This eventually results in the release of epinephrine, which affects heart rate and blood pressure, restricts blood flow to the heart muscle, and causes the patient to experience shallow breathing and rapid heartbeat.
3. Affect blood sugar and suppress appetite
Nicotine also restricts insulin secretion in the body, making smokers in a state of high blood sugar for a long time. High blood sugar can cause appetite suppression in patients, and the frequency of daily hunger in smokers will decrease.
4. Affect fetal development
If a woman smokes during pregnancy, nicotine will enter the fetal blood through the placental barrier, which will lead to the development of a fetal nervous system. A series of abnormal changes may cause preterm birth, stillbirth, congenital malformation, abnormal development and so on.
5. Affects the development of adolescents
The long-term exposure of adolescents to nicotine will lead to long-term deficits in learning and cognitive processes, causing Adverse symptoms such as memory loss, difficulty concentrating, anxiety appear. And nicotine exposure during adolescence increases the chance of drug abuse, as well as the risk of alcohol and cocaine addiction.
For nicotine, some people have put forward a bold hypothesis that nicotine has such a strong toxicity, so is it possible to kill cancer cells in the body through nicotine? Is this idea feasible?Third, since nicotine is poisonous, can it kill cancer cells in the human body? There were indeed rumors that “the unsaturated nicotine in the process of tobacco combustion has anticancer activity.” However, it is actually quite absurd. For cancer cells cultured in vitro, a small amount of nicotine does It can kill them, but smoking and ingesting nicotine in cancer patients who already have cancer is likely to promote the spread and metastasis of cancer cells.
Wake Forest University School of Medicine researchers analyzed three retrospective studies to assess the association between smoking and lung metastases in breast cancer patients. It was found that smokers or ex-smokers had a higher risk of developing lung metastases than non-smokers.
The researchers also conducted experiments on mice, and found that the lungs of mice continuously exposed to nicotine developed an inflammatory response, which in turn formed an immune system that is conducive to cancer cell metastasis. Environment. Even 30 days after quitting smoking, the risk of cancer metastasis did not decrease. this meansSmoking poses long-term risks to the body. Not only does nicotine fail to kill cancer cells, it also promotes metastasis.
There is no doubt that smoking is harmful to health. For people who are smoking, quitting smoking in time is the only way to reduce the harm to the body. Don’t listen to rumors that smoking does not bring health risks. This is a gimmick that some businesses come up with to sell goods.
References:
[1] “5.31 World No Tobacco Day | Use nicotine well, it can help you quit smoking! What are you hesitating about?”.Healthy China.2020-05-31
[2] “Expert: Do you really understand nicotine? come on! Dried this cup of poison! “.Smoke-free Beijing. 2017-04-21
[3]”Smoked too much, “Dr. Strange” was poisoned by nicotine three times”. Medicine. 2021-11-23