Preface
In the process of cigarette burning, more than 4,000 chemical components are released, of which hundreds are harmful substances, including 69 carcinogens. Nicotine has long been considered a major contributor to health problems caused by smoking.
But in 2023, the Chinese Academy of Sciences published an article that subverted people's cognition: nicotine can reverse aging!
So, can smoking lead to longevity? Is this Qi Dongye's language, or is this really the case?
The dangers of smoking
In the process of cigarette combustion, more than 4,000 kinds of chemical components will be released, and the chemical components in the smoke of cigarette combustion mainly include tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, carcinogens and other toxic substances.
Long-term smoking can also lead to a decrease in the immunity of our body's lungs to bacteria and viruses.
The reason for this is that smoking shortens the cilia of our bronchial epithelial cells, which makes the lungs very susceptible to bacterial and viral infections, which in turn increases the probability of lung cancer.
Smoking not only damages the respiratory organs, but also causes irreversible damage to the mouth, and even induces oral and laryngeal cancer.
Long-term smoking can also cause our salivary glands to become "delicate" and prone to inflammation.
This is because the presence of tar and other substances in tobacco, combined with the heat generated when smoking, impairs the sense of taste and smell. In the next case, it can lead to the development of oral cancer.
In addition, because the heat generated by smoking will also make the temperature in our throat higher than usual, and the high temperature caused by long-term smoking will cause slight burns to the laryngeal mucosa, so it is very easy to cause chronic heat trauma in the throat, and ultimately increase the probability of laryngeal cancer.
In addition, because nicotine is the main ingredient in tobacco, long-term use of nicotine will increase people's heart rate and blood pressure, thereby reducing the load carrying capacity of the human heart, resulting in myocardial hypoxia in the human body, thereby causing coronary artery infarction.
These are well-known problems that smoking is harmful to health, but in 2023, the Chinese Academy of Sciences published a study in the journal Nature that showed that nicotine can affect the metabolic activity and DNA repair ability of cells by regulating specific biochemical pathways, thereby achieving the purpose of delaying aging.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences said in the study that they fed a part of the mice with a small amount of nicotine water for a long time, and compared with the mice that did not drink nicotine water, through observation and detection, the metabolism of mice that drank nicotine water for a long time was improved, and the aging condition was alleviated.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences also found that compared with ordinary mice, those mice who drank nicotine water for a long time had their anxiety greatly relieved, and the brain's learning and memory function was also enhanced.
The release of this research result has attracted the attention of the majority of smokers, and at the same time, it has also become a "legitimate reason" for many smokers to smoke, so they began to smoke more "unscrupulously".
At the same time, the findings have led to a rethinking of the relationship between smoking and longevity. Since nicotine can reverse aging, can smokers achieve longevity by smoking?
But what exactly is the truth? Is it true that smoking is not only harmless, but can it also lead a long life?
By carefully reading this study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, we can find that this study has only passed clinical trials on mice, and has not carried out human body experiments, and there are still subtle differences between humans and mice.
At the same time, we found that the nicotine contained in the water fed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to the study subjects was traceable, but the nicotine content ingested by smokers during the smoking process was greater than the content during the experiment.
In the experiment, the researchers added 2 micrograms of nicotine to the water, and the nicotine content of a cigarette was 3 milligrams, and the smoker had to smoke several cigarettes a day, which is very different from the dose used in the experiment.
Is nicotine the culprit of lung cancer? What are the effects of nicotine on the human body?
Nicotine is the main chemical component contained in cigarette smoke, which is absorbed by the lungs, diffuses from the lungs into the circulation, and finally enters the human brain, accelerating the release of dopamine and making smokers feel happy, which is why nicotine is considered the main factor of addiction, but nicotine does not cause cancer.
Regarding whether nicotine causes cancer, the British National Health Service has clearly stated in a report that nicotine itself is not directly related to the occurrence of cancer, but long-term nicotine use can lead to addictive reactions.
Therefore, the exact mechanism of nicotine for the aging process still needs to be verified by more in-depth research.
Although the results of the Chinese Academy of Sciences show that nicotine may have a certain anti-aging effect, this does not mean that smoking can lead to longevity, only that nicotine has benefits for the body.
Although cigarettes contain nicotine and have certain benefits for the body, there are also many other harmful chemicals in cigarettes. Therefore, it is an indisputable fact that smoking is harmful to your health.
Therefore, if you want to maintain a healthy and long-lived body, you still need to quit smoking as soon as possible. However, there are two widely circulated methods that are not effective in helping us quit smoking at all, and can even be counterproductive.
First, use a substitute that contains nicotine. Many people are addicted to nicotine gum and nicotine oral sprays, and they don't quit smoking nicotine and fall from one trap to another.
The second is the substitution method of e-cigarettes and cigarette holders. Researchers have found that not only do e-cigarettes not help smokers quit, but may also lead to an increase in their need for nicotine because e-cigarettes contain higher concentrations of nicotine than in cigarettes.
How can we quit smoking properly?
During the period of quitting smoking, it is best to be able to stick to half an hour of outdoor aerobic exercise every day, and it is most appropriate to insist on increasing your heart rate to about 130 beats per minute.
In the process of quitting smoking, it should be noted that the daily diet should be low in salt, fat and sugar, and it is necessary to develop a healthy and green eating habit and keep the daily diet light.
During the onset of cravings, take deep breathing exercises and chew gum without sugar to divert attention and relieve cravings.
If you want to quit smoking, the key is to establish strong confidence and belief, have a strong will and perseverance, and believe that you can successfully quit smoking.
What are the benefits of quitting smoking?
Because the skin of non-smokers is much higher than that of smokers, the absorption of beneficial substances to the body, including oxygen. Therefore, quitting smoking can be very effective in alleviating the aging of the face, and it can also delay the appearance of facial wrinkles.
At the same time, after quitting smoking, people's lung capacity will also be significantly improved, and after quitting smoking, the daily breathing of smokers will be smoother, and the usual cough will be reduced.
At the same time, quitting smoking also protects the health of your family and friends. Because inhaling second-hand smoke can also cause great harm to our body, long-term inhalation of second-hand smoke will also increase people's risk of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.
At the same time, quitting smoking can also help improve people's conception because people who don't smoke are more likely to get pregnant than people who smoke. This is because quitting smoking can effectively improve the condition of the endometrium and improve the survival rate of sperm.
epilogue
The harm of smoking is far more than nicotine, but the result of the combined action of a variety of harmful substances in tobacco. Therefore, whether nicotine has an anti-aging effect or not, it cannot counteract the damage caused to the body by other chemicals in cigarettes.
For the sake of the health and longevity of our families and ourselves, we should cherish life and stay away from cigarettes.