All of the statements in this article are based on reliable sources and are reproduced at the end of this article
Smoking is harmful to health, this is a fact that everyone knows, because the smoke produced in tobacco contains nearly 5,000 chemicals, including more than 60 carcinogens!
A big reason for smoking addiction is that tobacco contains "nicotine", but last year, in the Shenzhen Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in mainland China, a study on tobacco showed that nicotine has a certain effect on delaying aging.
As soon as the results of this study are made public, many old smokers have more reason to smoke blatantly, so what is nicotine like? Does Smoking Really Prolong Aging?
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Nicotine in cigarettes
In 2022, the mainland has made statistics on the number of smokers in the country, of which the number of smokers in the mainland exceeds 350 million, and the smoking rate of adult men is as high as 50.5%, and a large number of studies have shown that smoking has become a high-risk factor for lung cancer.
The fatality rate of lung cancer in the mainland is extremely high, which seriously affects human health, but despite this, the mainland is still the world's largest tobacco market, and there are thousands of chemicals in cigarettes, including tobacco tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, acetone, arsenic, cyanide and hundreds of other harmful substances.
Regular smoking will affect the body's respiratory tract, cardiovascular, nervous system, gastrointestinal, liver, kidney and other organs.
Since cigarettes are so harmful to the body, why not quit as soon as possible? This is mainly because tobacco contains the addictive nicotine, which stimulates the release of dopamine when it enters the body, keeping the brain in a state of excitement at all times.
The nicotine in tobacco products is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream after being smoked, which stimulates adrenaline and the central nervous system.
When smoking, nicotine will be inhaled into the lungs with the smoke, and quickly enter the brain through blood circulation, and the brain will release dopamine for a short time, which can make people feel relaxed and happy, and when the nicotine metabolism in the body is completed, the dopamine in the body will be reduced.
Nicotine is like a gentle and terrible "addictive drug", very addictive but difficult to quit, long-term smokers have their brains used to smoking, such as when we go to the toilet to look at our mobile phones.
Once the habit is formed, it is very quit, not to mention the simple and convenient purchase of cigarettes, which are difficult to quit after addiction, and if you want to quit smoking, you must first forget the habit of smoking.
It has become a well-established fact that cigarettes are harmful to health, but in 2023, a study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences has subverted many people's perception that nicotine can slow aging.
Is nicotine really good-for-nothing?
In 2023, Li Xiang's research team from mainland China published an article related to nicotine in the journal Nature, in which it was written that letting mice drink low-dose nicotine water for a long time would effectively improve glucose metabolism, cognitive function and aging symptoms in male mice.
World Life Sciences Congress
This study also shows that nicotine is not useless, and that NAD+ is an important coenzyme in many cells in our body, and they are involved in many biological processes in the body, including energy improvement, DNA repair, and cell repair.
As we age, NDA+ levels become lower and lower, so there is a risk of many diseases such as aging, and mice will have anti-aging phenomena precisely because low doses of nicotine regulate aging symptoms.
DNA+ in nicotine is a metabolite of metabolic pathways, and studies have found that nicotine can improve aging-related symptoms by enhancing NAMPT activity and increasing NAD+ levels.
The researchers also found that when mice drank a low dose of nicotine, they not only relieved anxiety, but also increased their learning and memory function.
Although there are various indications that the physical condition of mice will develop in a better direction after nicotine is taken orally by mice, this data is only an experimental result and does not prove that nicotine can play a role in prolonging life.
Improving aging and delaying aging are two different things, nicotine in the study only improves the DNA + cells in mice, and does not delay aging, and it may not be successful in human experiments after successful animal experiments.
When we smoke a cigarette, the nicotine content is about 1,000 milligrams, which is much larger than the intake of mice, and the harmful substances in cigarettes are far greater than the beneficial substances, not to mention those who smoke many cigarettes a day.
Mice and humans ingest nicotine in different ways, mice ingest nicotine by drinking water, while the human body ingests nicotine by smoking, there is a huge difference between the two, the chance of nicotine in water entering the lungs is very small, and smoking is mostly into the lungs, so the two cannot be compared.
Smoking not only does not delay aging, but also directly affects the appearance of the body, because the toxic substances produced by smoking will act on the skin with the smoke even if they are not inhaled into the lungs, and on the other hand, they will act indirectly on the skin by entering the body.
Once inhaled, these chemicals will enter the body's organs with the blood circulation, thereby accelerating the aging of the skin.
And in the process of smoking, repeated smoking action will also make the cheeks of the face inverted, sometimes the smoke of cigarettes will smoke the eyes, the eyes will subconsciously close the eyes, long-term occurrence of this process, not only for our eyes is not good, but also around the eyes will produce a lot of wrinkles.
For the sake of our health, quit cigarettes as soon as possible, because the harmful substances in them are very harmful to our body.
Quit smoking scientifically
Although every smoker knows that "smoking is bad for your health", not everyone can successfully quit smoking, and how many people can't stand it after a few days in the process of quitting smoking.
Because when they see others smoking, they continue to seduce them, so they can't help but take a few puffs, as long as they smoke in the process of quitting smoking, it means that they have failed to quit smoking.
According to research, if you quit smoking between the age of 40, the risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease can be reduced by 90%, and the sooner you quit smoking, the better for your health.
Quitting smoking can be divided into four steps, smoking habits are long-term development, by no means a day or two can be quit, first of all, write a "quit smoking commitment", if you just hold a whim, then quitting smoking will fail.
When writing a pledge to quit smoking, you should write down all the pros and cons of smoking, make a specific list of pros and cons, and then keep the pledge, and observe your smoking in detail for a week in the following days, and record the time and place of smoking.
Set yourself a 14-day quit smoking goal, such as finding something interesting to do whenever you want to smoke, such as watching movies, exercising, listening to music, etc., so as to distract yourself, and stay away from smoking places when quitting smoking, because it is easy to have thoughts of smoking when you see others quit smoking.
In the process of quitting smoking, try to avoid going to those places that are easy to smoke, such as some parties, socializing and other places, once you have the idea of smoking, you can drink some cold water, chew gum, etc., if you successfully quit smoking for a week, you can treat yourself to eat something delicious, so as to treat yourself.
In the process of quitting smoking, smokers can no longer experience the pleasure brought by smoking, especially at the usual time, the desire to smoke will continue to appear in their minds, and at the same time, anxiety, depression, restlessness, and headaches will occur, which is actually a normal phenomenon of smoking addiction and will not cause any harm to the body.
It's good to be able to muster up the courage to quit smoking, and sometimes there will be behaviors that are not clear about the will to quit, so don't be too yourself, because smoking addiction is a chronic addiction disease, and quitting smoking itself is a chronic process.
In fact, the process of quitting smoking is a slow process, and you must not be in a hurry, due to the different environments and different personal willpower, so the time to quit smoking will be different.
In general, you can quit smoking for three to six months, and as long as you don't smoke a cigarette and insist on occasional smoking, you can eventually quit smoking.
Ex-smokers not only can't smoke themselves, try not to smoke second-hand smoke, the harm of second-hand smoke is no less than first-hand smoke, the diameter of harmful substances in second-hand smoke smoke is only 0.35~0.45 microns, much smaller than PM2.5 particles, harmful substances are easier to enter the human body, especially pregnant women and babies at home, do not let them inhale second-hand smoke.
In our lives, thirdhand smoke is also very harmful, thirdhand smoke refers to the smell of smoke that is difficult to clean on the walls of clothes, thirdhand smoke contains a lot of alkane, toluene, arsenic, lead, carbon monoxide and eleven highly carcinogenic compounds.
Compared with first-hand smoke and second-hand smoke, third-hand smoke exists in the house for a very long time, even if the smell of third-hand smoke persists six hours after the cigarette is extinguished, our attitude towards tobacco should be: no smoking, less smoking. It's about respecting the health of oneself and others, and it's also about the quality of life.
summary
For smokers, no matter when it is not too late to quit smoking, it is not only for the health of your family, but also for your own health.
References
Beijing News2024-05-31 "News is one more degree| World No Tobacco Day Have you "extinguished" your cigarettes? 》
Taojiang County People's Government2013-05-19 [Tobacco Control Knowledge Publicity] Nicotine Can Delay Aging? Let's get to know it deeply! 》
People's Daily Online2018-08-31Do you know that you can live longer after quitting smoking? 》