Dependence on nicotine, a drug found naturally in tobacco, can create a variety of adverse health effects for those who are both mentally and physically addicted. Not only is the nicotine responsible for the initial addiction, it is responsible for a multitude of adverse health effects.
Effects on the Brain
In the brain, there are neurotransmitters, or chemicals, responsible for many jobs. One of these chemicals is dopamine, a chemical responsible for regulating mood and behavior, according to the Mayo Clinic. It is a neurotransmitter that makes you feel good.
When you inhale nicotine, it is instantly absorbed by your lungs and quickly travels through your bloodstream, where it is taken to your brain. This is where it boosts your dopamine levels, making you feel good, increasing your feelings of pleasure.
The problem is that nicotine does not have a very long half-life. This means it doesn't remain long in your system. So to achieve this feeling of pleasure again, you need to smoke another cigarette. Over time, your tolerance for this drug increases, forcing you to smoke more cigarettes. Eventually, you become addicted to nicotine and begin suffering from the adverse health affects of both the nicotine and the cigarettes.
Withdrawal Effects
The American Cancer Society (ACS) states that smokers who want to quit smoking or reduce the amount of cigarettes they smoke have a difficult time doing so because of the withdrawal symptoms they suffer. These withdrawal symptoms are a direct result of of the lack of nicotine in the body.
Symptoms typically last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. The good news is that they begin to subside the longer you remain smoke-free. These symptoms include, but are not limited to, dizziness, anxiety, irritability, headaches, weight gain, increased appetite, frustration, anger, feeling tired and tightness in the chest.
Effects on Newborns
ScienceDaily, a site dedicated to providing consumers with research news, states that women who smoke six to seven cigarettes a day give birth to babies who are stiffer, more excitable, harder to console and more jittery than women who do not smoke during their pregnancy. These findings are issued from researchers at Brown Medical School who state that the higher the dose of nicotine in the mother during her pregnancy, the worse the stress on her newborn after birth.
The findings of these researchers state that these withdrawal symptoms of newborns exposed to nicotine while in the womb mirror the withdrawal symptoms of newborns exposed to crack cocaine or heroin.
Karen L. Law, who led the study, states that although nicotine is a legal drug, it has the same affect on newborns as drugs that are illegal.
Effect on Breastfeeding Children
Julie A. Menella, PhD, psychobiologist at Monell, a chemical senses center, conducted a study on nicotine's affects on babies who breastfeed.
During the study, Menella studied the sleeping behaviors of infants between the ages of 2 months and 7 months. It was conducted over a period of two days and included 15 infants. On one day, the mothers--all current smokers--smoked between one and three cigarettes immediately prior to breastfeeding their child. The next day, the mothers refrained from smoking 12 hours prior to feeding.
The results during observation showed that when the mothers fed their infants immediately after smoking, the children, on average, slept for 53 minutes. The day the mothers refrained, the children slept an average of 84 minutes. This shows a decline of 37 percent of sleep time in infants exposed to nicotine through breast milk.
Mennella goes on to state that additional studies are needed to determine the long-term developmental effects of nicotine when received through breast milk.
