Almost everyone knows that "smoking is bad for health", and the cigarette boxes sold on the market are clearly printed with these words, but even so, there are still many smokers, especially men.
The reason why smoking is harmful to the human body is mainly because it contains too many harmful substances, many of which are carcinogens. At this time, there must be a lot of people thinking about nicotine.
Yes, nicotine is one of the most common harmful ingredients in cigarettes, and most people would equate it with cancer. So, is this really the case?
1. Nicotine is not carcinogenic at all? Is smoking harmful to health a "big scam"?
Smoking is harmful and has a high carcinogenic rate, especially lung cancer, and the proportion of smokers in many patients with lung malignant tumors is quite high.
The most discussed harmful substance about the carcinogenesis of smoking is nicotine, which most people believe to be the main culprit in cigarette cancer.
For many years, almost no one doubted this conclusion, even some professional doctors, who were convinced of the idea that it could cause cancer.
However, if you take a closer look at the list of cancers published by the WHO, you will find that there is no nicotine at all.
Since it is on the list of carcinogens, nicotine is an extremely common substance in cigarettes, and if it is really carcinogenic, it must be indispensable.
But now there is no nicotine in this list, which only shows that nicotine is not really a carcinogen.
Not only that, many countries have done clinical studies on the carcinogenicity of nicotine, but they have never found a close relationship between nicotine and cancer, which further confirms the inaccuracy of nicotine carcinogenicity.
In fact, nicotine is not only found in cigarettes, but can also be found in many plants, such as eggplants, potatoes and other vegetables. It's just that among these plants, the nicotine content is relatively small, much lower than that of cigarettes.
Since nicotine does not directly cause cancer, does it mean that this substance is not harmful and smoking is harmless to health? Of course not!
It's not easy to create, Xiaobian works overtime until midnight every day, the keyboard is smoking, the income is only a few dozen yuan a day, and the text is unlocked with 5 seconds of advertising, just to support the family for a few more dollars, I hope the audience will stop scolding, thank you for your understanding!
You must know that the number of ingredients in cigarettes has long exceeded our imagination, at least 7,000 kinds, including more than 60 carcinogens, such as carbon monoxide, phenylpropylpyrene, tar, etc.
In addition, nicotine may not really be related to the occurrence of cancer, but it is extremely addictive, which has long been confirmed by relevant studies. Many people are addicted to smoking, and in fact, nicotine is at work!
Every time you smoke, nicotine will follow the breath into the body, and some of it may be integrated into the bloodstream and constantly stimulate the brain, causing the brain to secrete a large amount of dopamine. Dopamine is a substance that tends to make people feel happy, and if you are in a bad mood, your mood will usually be relieved after smoking, which is actually dopamine at work.
When smoking becomes addicted, the amount of cigarettes smoked will also increase significantly, and many people smoke at least one box a day. When the amount of cigarette smoking increases, the accumulation of other toxic and harmful substances in cigarettes, such as carcinogens, will also increase in the body. As a result, normal cells are damaged, causing cells to mutate and become cancerous.
It can be seen that nicotine is not the culprit of direct carcinogenesis, but it is definitely not innocent. It is precisely because of its existence that other carcinogens can enter people's bodies in a grand manner, seriously damaging physical health and leading to the occurrence of various cancers.
2. What are the disadvantages of nicotine?
The nicotine contained in cigarettes is not only responsible for smoking addiction, but also has many other harms. When people smoke, the first place where nicotine enters is the respiratory tract.
The mucous membrane of the respiratory tract itself is very sensitive, and when it is stimulated by nicotine, it will produce a series of uncomfortable reactions, such as itchy throat, dry throat, shortness of breath, cough and other sputum in the trachea.
In this way, the resistance and immunity of the respiratory tract will be significantly reduced, and the possibility of suffering from upper respiratory diseases will also increase accordingly, including chronic pharyngitis, chronic bronchitis, etc.
If the patient continues to smoke during the illness, the control of the disease will be greatly affected or even aggravated.
If you smoke a lot for a long time, you often suffer from very serious respiratory diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema.
In addition to the respiratory system, nicotine can also affect the health of a person's cardiovascular system. When nicotine enters the body through the respiratory tract, it quickly spreads to various organs and tissues.
As one of the most important and fragile organs, the heart is sensitive to nicotine, and when stimulated, the workload will increase significantly, which will affect cardiovascular health, and will also increase the incidence of cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction.
For patients with pre-existing cardiovascular problems, smoking is a big no-no. In the process of smoking, especially when excessive smoking, the ingestion of nicotine can produce strong irritation of the already fragile cardiovascular system, which can cause a heart attack or stroke.
The digestive system can also be affected by nicotine ingestion from smoking. In the eyes of many people, when smoking, smoke only enters the airways and does not enter the esophagus, how can it affect the digestive system? Don't forget, nicotine is quite permeable.
Although it enters the respiratory tract, it still escapes into the bloodstream, causing blood circulation to slow down. Blood vessels in all parts of the body are affected, including those in the stomach.
When the blood supply of the blood vessels of the stomach body is sufficient, the digestive function of the stomach is also relatively strong, but once the blood circulation slows down, the digestive ability is bound to be affected, and it is easy to have indigestion.
Excessive intake of nicotine in smokers for a long time may also directly irritate the gastric mucosa, resulting in a large amount of gastric acid secretion, which will cause stomach pain, acid reflux and other abnormalities, and will also increase the incidence of digestive diseases such as gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer.
3. Smoking is harmful to health, so don't take chances
Even if nicotine is not carcinogenic, it is an indisputable fact that smoking is harmful to health, after all, there are too many toxic and harmful substances in cigarettes, which are harmful to various tissues and systems of the human body. Even if it does not cause cancer, it can cause other pathologies.
Many old smokers always look indifferent when faced with the admonition of their relatives, and will retort that many people have smoked all their lives, but in the end they still live to be 100 years old in good health.
I have to admit that there are indeed some people who smoke regularly, but they do not suffer from very serious diseases, and they live a relatively long life. But such cases are in the minority, after all, survivors. It's like a group of people who have encountered a storm at sea, most of them are buried in the sea, and only a few are lucky enough to survive.
In the end, it's just a gamble, and it's your own health and life. It's true that this bet won't necessarily lose, but the probability of losing is much higher than the probability of winning.
If all smokers are lucky and think that they are one of those few people, and no longer moderate the amount of smoking and no longer quit smoking, then in the future, the incidence of lung cancer, coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction and other diseases may skyrocket.
If you want to reduce the damage caused by cigarettes, you must quit smoking. Not only that, but you also need to stay away from environments with secondhand smoke.
Although second-hand smoke is not direct smoking, second-hand smoke also contains a large amount of nicotine, carbon monoxide and other harmful substances.
Many studies have been conducted in medicine that show that when smokers quit smoking, their health will gradually improve. Not only will the heart rate, blood pressure and other indicators gradually return to normal, the respiratory function will improve, and even the person's physical strength and energy will increase accordingly.
If you quit smoking for more than 5 years, the probability of developing lung cancer will be greatly reduced. The earlier you quit smoking, the lower the incidence of malignant tumors such as lung cancer.
Of course, as mentioned earlier, it is clear that cigarettes contain more nicotine, and they are obviously addictive. When smoking addiction occurs, the process of quitting is very painful, and if you don't find a proven way, it will only lead to failure to quit smoking, and it won't really solve the problem.
So, what exactly can be done to quit smoking?
First of all, in this process, corresponding psychological intervention needs to be carried out in combination with the actual situation. As a relative, it is important to give adequate encouragement and support to the patient. If the patient is very resistant to quitting smoking, or even has psychological problems as a result, it is necessary to see a psychologist in time and intervene through some psychotherapy.
Secondly, it is necessary to pay attention to whether there is a withdrawal reaction in the body, so as to take corresponding behaviors to intervene in response to different withdrawal reactions. For example, when people are feeling extremely irritable, they may consider listening to soothing music or engaging in appropriate physical activity. These methods can divert attention and thus relieve irritability.
Finally, medication may be considered as an adjunct. For example, some smokers do not have firm willpower at all, and their addiction to smoking is very large, so it is extremely difficult to get them to quit smoking, so they need to seek help from a professional doctor at this time. The doctor will prescribe the corresponding medication according to the actual situation of the help-seeker and formulate a medication plan, so as to achieve the goal of quitting smoking quickly.
All in all, smoking is not a good thing, and nicotine is not a good thing, so it's important to quit smoking in time. Even if you can't quit completely, it's okay to reduce the amount of cigarettes you smoke, at least to reduce the harm to your health.
Resources:
1. Dr. Sun talks about popular science2024-04-22 "Smoking is harmful to health is a "big scam", nicotine does not cause cancer at all? Tell You the Truth
2. Dr. Xiong talks about health2024-01-07 BBC: Nicotine in cigarettes is not carcinogenic, is smoking harmful to health? Here Comes the Truth
3. 39 Health Network2023-11-16 "Subverting Cognition: Nicotine May Prolong Life by 40%!" Is it a "big hoax" that cigarettes are harmful to health? 》