Nicotine is an addictive and poisonous chemical found in tobacco plants. Kids ingest nicotine by smoking tobacco and inhaling second hand smoke. Second hand smoke is the smoke streaming from the lit end of the cigarette and exhaled by the smoker. Kids should know that people who begin smoking before they turn 21 have the hardest time quitting, according to Medline Plus, a National Institutes of Health website.
Nicotine Addiction
Nicotine is as addictive as heroin and other "hard drugs," according to John Moxham, a professor of respiratory medicine at the King's College Hospital in London. It is the central problem when trying to quit smoking according to his article "Nicotine Addiction," published in the February 12, 2002, issue of the "British Medical Journal." Moxam explains the cigarette is a "wonderfully efficient nicotine delivery device" providing rapid satisfaction to an addicted smoker.
In the Bloodstream
Nicotine remains in your body for six to eight hours after you take your last puff, as reported by the American Heart Association. It is excreted in your urine after it is metabolized by the liver. Nicotine has a half-life in the bloodstream of two hours. However, the process of cigarette smoking, inhaling many times in a short duration of time, causes multiple dosing, which allows the nicotine to persist in the bloodstream.
Nicotine causes immediate harmful changes in your body. The American Heart Association warns effects include short-term increase in blood pressure and heart rate, as well as a narrowing of the arteries.
Teens and the Nicotine Patch
Nicotine replacement therapies double the quit rates in adults, Moxam says. However, the nicotine patch in conjunction with brief counseling does not effectively help teens overcome their nicotine addiction, according to a study conducted by the Nicotine Dependence Center in the Division of Community Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. One hundred one teens aged 13 through 17 who admitted to smoking a minimum of 10 cigarettes daily for a median of three years used nicotine patch therapy for six weeks, and returned for follow-up visits at six weeks and 12 weeks. The results, published in the "Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine," found by the third week 14.9 percent stopped smoking, at the end of six weeks 11 percent still had not smoked and at 12 weeks only 5 percent remained abstinent.
