Tobacco smoking: history, causes, consequences and overcoming

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Tobacco smoking: history, causes, consequences and overcomingIn recent years, serious scientific research has been carried out on the effect of tobacco smoking on human health, and in particular on the still fragile child's body. But before talking about the dangers of smoking, it is necessary at least briefly to highlight the history of the emergence of this type of drug addiction - nicotinism, to talk about its prevalence.

Back in the 5th century BC, the Greek scientist Herodotus mentioned that the Scythians and Africans "inhale the smoke of burning herbs." The time of penetration of tobacco into Europe is known for sure - 1496, when after Columbus's second voyage to America, not only the leaves, but also the seeds of this plant were brought to Spain. In France, tobacco has been cultivated since 1560; it came to Russia in the second half of the 16th century.

For five hundred years, tobacco smoking has turned into a national disaster, which can truly be compared only with an epidemic that is constantly increasing its possession.

Tobacco crops cover 4 million hectares of beautiful arable land around the globe, which could relieve many millions of disadvantaged people from hunger.

Smoking is one of the most common bad habits. Infected with it, according to international statistics, more than half of the male population of the planet and a quarter of all women.

Why and how does a person start smoking?

It is difficult to give a definite answer to these questions. First of all, one should recall the inherent cognitive interest of a person - the desire to find out for himself why the process of smoking is so attractive. In childhood and adolescence, in addition, I really want to become older, acquire the "beautiful" habits of adults — independent and business people. The environment in the family, school, attitude to tobacco smoking of others is of great importance.

It is no secret to miscalculate the world, and in particular ours, cinematography and television, when such an attribute as a pile of smoking cigarette butts in an ashtray was on the screens for a long time - evidence of a large and long mental work performed by the heroes of the film in solving a difficult production problem. Even now, scenes are not uncommon where a character we like (and even worse, a young charming modern heroine) in tense situations smokes several cigarettes one after another.

At an older age, nicotine lovers often refer to the special intimate atmosphere created by joint smoking, to the resulting mutual understanding, to facilitate the establishment of business and personal contacts, to the ability of tobacco to “comfort” a person, to a greater disposition to the interlocutor in an environment “reminiscent sitting by the fire at dusk. " One can only be surprised at the rich imagination of other adherents of tobacco smoke, thus defending the right to self-poisoning.

Tobacco smoking: history, causes, consequences and overcomingMost often, a person starts smoking in childhood. World Health Magazine, published by the World Health Organization (WHO), states: "If a teenager smokes at least two cigarettes, 70 out of 100 cases will smoke for life." According to other data, 80% of children who smoke regularly retain this habit as adults.

Research from the Central Research Institute for Health Education shows that 17% of adolescents and children take their first cigarette at 8-9 years of age. D. Loransky, Doctor of Medicine, reported on similar studies among student youth in Soviet universities: in 20-30% of cases, men are introduced to a cigarette even before entering college, the bulk of students begins to get involved in tobacco smoking at a university, and if at first On courses, 20-40% of men and 4% of women have this bad habit, while on older ones - up to 90% of men and 60% of women.

What is the danger?

The following statistics are perplexing: 34% of smokers do not consider this habit harmful. The same opinion is shared by 12% of nonsmokers. Significantly more respondents are unaware of the harm caused by cigarette smoke in the environment.This information forces us to return to the description of the troubles caused to humans by tobacco poisons.

More than 200 substances harmful to the human body were found in the smoke of a cigarette, and the total toxicity (pollution) of tobacco smoke is 4.25 times higher than that for the exhaust gas of a car. In terms of toxicity, smoking only one cigarette corresponds to inhalation of 17.4 m3 of polluted air on a highway, which is possible if one is on it for 20-30 hours. When smoking 20 cigarettes a day, a person actually breathes air, which is 580-1100 times (!) More polluted than hygienic standards.

The main toxic components of tobacco smoke (a product of dry distillation of tobacco leaves) are nicotine (a narcotic substance that has a selective multilateral effect on the central nervous system, causing addiction to tobacco smoking), carbon monoxide and tobacco tar; the latter contains several carcinogenic resins that contribute to the development of lung cancer and other internal organs.

Almost everyone knows about the toxicity of nicotine, but I would like to mention such an extremely illustrative biological experiment: a leech delivered to an inveterate smoker, having sucked his blood, dies.

The lethal dose of nicotine for a newborn child is 1 mg per 1 kg of its weight, while in 1 liter of milk of a smoking woman, the amount of this poison can reach 0.5 mg.

Tobacco smoking: history, causes, consequences and overcomingNicotine has a harmful effect on many vital functions of the body. Its effect on the body in childhood and adolescence is especially undesirable, when the normal course of physiological processes can be easily disturbed by various unfavorable environmental factors. Like hormones (adrenaline and norepinephrine) released by the body into the bloodstream during stressful situations, nicotine causes a sharp constriction of blood vessels. Blood pressure rises, heart rate increases significantly (by 10-20 beats per minute). In such a situation, the heart is forced to pump 1500 ml more blood per day than is necessary under normal conditions. An additional load on the heart muscle is accompanied by a simultaneous narrowing of the lumen of the cardiac vessels. This combination of negative effects on the cardiovascular system cannot pass without a trace, it only remains hidden until a certain time due to the large general reserve capabilities of a healthy organism.

Experimentally, under the influence of nicotine, there is a narrowing of the vessels of the heart, stomach, limbs, uterus in pregnant animals.

We often hear that smoking helps a person with anxiety, effectively soothes. However, consideration of the mechanism of action of nicotine on the body suggests the opposite. In stressful situations, as we already know, a large amount of "anxiety hormones" - adrenaline and norepinephrine - enter the bloodstream. In modern conditions of human existence, they are not used quickly enough, which is an undesirable pathophysiological moment for the body, which plays an important role in the development of hypertension. Nicotine, possessing properties close to adrenaline and norepinephrine, causes an even greater and prolonged narrowing of the vascular bed, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, etc.

Therefore, smoking is contraindicated during excitement.

The effect of nicotine on the body is accompanied by an ever-increasing tolerance (tolerance) to poison, the inability to do without it, and to achieve the desired effect from smoking, more and more intake of this drug is required. The smoker is forced to constantly increase the number of cigarettes smoked or to use stronger types of tobacco.If this requirement is not followed or smoking cessation, the so-called abstinence (abstinence syndrome) occurs, characterized by a number of painful symptoms (weakness, palpitations, trembling of fingers, feelings of anxiety and anxiety, the desire to smoke at all costs). It is precisely in abstinence that many smokers find it difficult to quit this bad habit, sometimes referred to in the literature as a small addiction.

Inhalation of carbon monoxide (carbon monoxide) has a harmful effect on the body. In the lungs of a person, it forms a strong bond with hemoglobin faster than oxygen, which for a long time deprives red blood cells of their normal function of transporting oxygen to tissues. The hemoglobin associated with carbon monoxide is called carboxyhemoglobin. In heavy smokers, the concentration of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood reaches 7-10%, which leads to a sharp drop in the reserve capacity of the blood; under certain conditions (illness, stay in an atmosphere with a low oxygen content), they may not be enough. All this leads to the fact that in a young man who smokes 20 cigarettes a day, healthy lungs function in the same way as in a nonsmoking man 20 years older than him.

Chronic oxygen starvation is especially dangerous for the body in adolescence. It is the reason for the insufficient development of many organs and systems of the body, has a negative effect on endocrine and sexual functions. Smoking during pregnancy leads to a sharp decrease in the supply of oxygen to the fetus, the consequences of which will be highlighted below.

The third main product of tobacco sublimation is the so-called tobacco tar. Smokers who have used a mouthpiece are familiar with this tobacco product, which causes a complete blockage of the mouthpiece lumen already within a few days of smoking. It is a dark brown thick viscous mass of bitter taste with an unpleasant pungent odor. Within a year, 700-800 g (!) Of this by no means harmless substance penetrates into the smoker's body. It contains a whole set of carcinogenic resins, the chronic effect of which on the body contributes to the occurrence of skin and internal organ cancer.

In addition to these ingredients, tobacco smoke contains ammonia, hydrocyanic, acetic, butyric and formic acids, hydrogen sulfide, arsenic, chromium, nickel, radioactive polonium, cresol, phenol, etc. The intake of these substances in the human body in increased amounts does not pass without leaving a trace.

Than humanity pays for a bad habit

Even an incomplete list of the constituent parts of tobacco smoke explains the appearance of many clinical symptoms of nicotinism, which leads the body to serious illnesses with very frequent tragic outcomes. World statistics have indicative data, the knowledge of which is necessary for everyone in order to soberly assess all the absurdity and danger of the habit of smoking.

American scientists Hammond and Horn, as a result of a special survey and constant monitoring of 187 thousand people, found that mortality from lung cancer for those who do not suffer from household nicotine addiction is 3.4 per 100 thousand people, among those who smoke less than a pack of cigarettes a day this figure is 57, 6, and in those who smoke more than one pack, it sharply increases to 157. According to other data, 96% of lung cancer patients are people who smoke. Now mortality from lung cancer is in the first place among all other cancers, and recently cancer has significantly "younger". An explanation for this is involuntarily suggested by the increased prevalence of smoking among young people. The causal dependence of the emergence of lung cancer from smoking is clearly evidenced by experiments on animals: for the appearance of a cancerous tumor in the bronchi of a dog, only two years of blowing tobacco smoke into its respiratory tract was sufficient.If a person started smoking at the age of 12, the risk of lung cancer for him is real already at the age of 30-40. In addition, there is a direct link between the incidence of the disease under consideration and the number of cigarettes smoked: a person who smokes 30 cigarettes a day, compared with those who do not have this addiction, increases their risk of contracting cancer by 15-30 times (depending on age, profession and living conditions the named indicator changes). At the same time, the withdrawal from nicotine gradually (over 8-10 years) levels this difference.

Tobacco smoking: history, causes, consequences and overcomingThe causal link between smoking and lung cancer is so firmly established that an English magazine made a grim joke: "Last year more than 30,000 Britons quit smoking - they died of lung cancer." Many researchers associate the emergence of cancer diseases with the radioactive polonium-210 present in tobacco smoke (it is interesting to recall that it is polonium-210 that is the main radioactive substance formed as a result of the explosion of a neutron bomb). In the urine of smokers, it is 6 times more, and in the lung tissue - 7 times more than in non-smokers. This is probably the reason for the high (2 times) incidence of bladder cancer in smokers. Dysfunction of various organs and systems in nicotine addicts also explains the high probability of cancer in other localizations (skin, mouth, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas).

The effect of nicotine on the human cardiovascular system has already been discussed. It should be added that smokers 2 times more often than nonsmokers have angina pectoris and myocardial infarction, sclerotic changes in the vessels of the heart and brain appear earlier. Professor N. A. Mazur cites the following data: those who smoke 38 packs of cigarettes a month on average have one artery of the heart, 45 packs - two, 67 packs - 3 arteries. Almost exclusively in nicotine addicts, there is such a severe vascular disease of the extremities as obliterating endarteritis (intermittent claudication), often leading to gangrene and subsequent severe disability.

Tobacco smoke destroys tooth enamel, causing dental caries, and contributes to a common gum disease - periodontal disease, characterized by bleeding, malnutrition and loss of teeth. Heavy smokers often complain of headaches, fatigue, memory impairment and irritability.

It is well known the negative effect of tobacco smoking on the respiratory organs, which take the first blow of tobacco smoke, and have direct contact with it. There is even a special term in medicine -

"Chronic bronchitis of a smoker". The disease is characterized by a constant cough, worse in the morning, profuse secretion of sputum. Against this background, many smokers develop pulmonary emphysema with severe shortness of breath. In the future, diseases of the lungs and cardiovascular system, mutually complicating the course of each other, often lead to fatal consequences for a person.

According to the WHO, in 20% of residents of industrialized countries, mortality is directly or indirectly related to smoking. Japanese researchers found that among smokers of all age groups, the mortality rate is 22% higher than among the non-smoking population of the country (Japan is one of the countries in which the vast majority of residents are involved in this addiction). Cases of sudden death are observed in male smokers aged 20-59 years 3-4 times more often than among nonsmokers. In the United States, it is estimated that nicotine lovers have 77 million more days of disability per year than nonsmokers.

Reluctant smoking

Consideration of the issue of passive tobacco smoking deserves special attention. Many parents do not attach much importance to this factor in everyday life, although it is capable of inflicting a tangible blow on the health of the child.When analyzing the smoke from the combustion of the end of the cigarette (sidestream smoke), it was found that in comparison with the main smoke absorbed by the smoker, it contains 5 times more carbon monoxide, 3 times more tar and nicotine, 46 times more ammonia. A smoky room contains the most sidestream smoke. In a poorly ventilated room for an hour, a non-smoker — a passive smoker — receives as many poisons as a smoker from one cigarette. When you smoke a cigarette, only a quarter of the harmful substances pass into the body of an active smoker, 25% of the poisons burns out, and 50% gets into the air that others breathe.

According to British researchers, in passive smokers, even in a well-ventilated room, by 22% (and in a poorly ventilated room by 38%) the duration of the load leading to an attack of angina pectoris decreases.

The risk of staying in a contaminated room for children, pregnant women and persons suffering from cardiovascular and allergic diseases, bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema is increased.

Smoking in the home causes chronic tobacco poisoning of others; their health worsens, headaches appear, memory and working capacity decrease, fatigue and susceptibility to disease increase. An increase in blood pressure is noted. Neuralgia, rheumatism, gastric ulcer, pneumonia, tonsillitis, flu and other respiratory diseases occur more often, and sexual potency in men decreases. Some particularly sensitive people experience symptoms of choking and fainting. Therefore, passive smoking leads to the same ailments as active smoking.

Tobacco smoking: history, causes, consequences and overcomingIn addition, tobacco smoke has a direct toxic effect on passive smokers. In their blood and urine, as a rule, a significant content of nicotine, carbon monoxide and other substances is found. If there is one smoked cigarette per 10 m3 of air, then its toxicity in a closed room approaches the level of toxicity of the most harmful substances (MT Dmitriev).

It is advisable to cite here an excerpt from the lecture of Professor N.N. Blokhin:

... they say, for example, a lot about dirty air in cities. But how many people are there for whom this dirt is not enough, and they definitely want to introduce more dirt into themselves, into their body by smoking. And not only smoke themselves, but stubbornly and unceremoniously fumigate others. Do they write little about this? This is a very serious factor. Take, for example, a small family in a one-room apartment with a mother, child, and father. And here he, this head of the family, smokes himself, and fumigates his wife and child. And what this is leading to is convincingly evidenced by medical statistics. Fumigated children suffer not only from tumors, but also other diseases: all sorts of sore throats, tonsillitis, as you wish, but more often and more than children who are not fumigated.

And if I tell you that in the urine of children who are mercilessly fumigated, you can find carcinogenic substances ?! After all, this means that they have passed through the entire body and are now excreted in the urine. And who knows what they, these carcinogenic substances, have done there, on the way? I think that the most familiar habit is not only smoking, but also fumigating others, forcing the masses of people - from healthy to sick, from strong to weak, from young to old - to force everyone to breathe tobacco smoke, this is such a habit that must be fought in the most categorical way, by the most decisive means. It is a habit that runs counter to core culture, if not more drastically.

The foregoing requires from every nicotine lover a caring attitude to the environment, to the people with whom he communicates. Smoking is unacceptable in rooms where other family members are at the same time. You cannot, respecting others, smoke in their presence, especially if they are women and children.

Tobacco poison, mother, child

The physical development and health of a newborn child and adolescent largely depend on the health status of their parents. Therefore, the prevention of diseases in children should always begin with the recovery of his future father and mother, with the creation of favorable conditions for the intrauterine development of the fetus and the external environment surrounding the family.

For many years, smoking, like alcoholism, was considered mainly a disadvantage of men. Recently, however, unfortunately, it is gaining more and more adherents among girls and women. The female body, in comparison with the male, is more vulnerable to the influence of harmful agents on it. So, for example, if in men cirrhosis of the liver develops as a result of daily consumption of an average of 132 g of pure alcohol, then to achieve the same effect for women, a dose of poison 2.5 times less is sufficient. Because of this, all the negative effects of tobacco poisons affect the female body to a greater extent than the male. This primarily refers to the appearance of the tobacco smoker. After a few years of nicotine abuse, the female body acquires characteristic features by which it is easy to distinguish a smoking woman from a nonsmoker. Really, flabby skin with a grayish tint, damaged teeth, a hoarse voice and the smell of tobacco fumes from the mouth do not adorn a woman at any age. There comes a time when the costs of a fashion habit are harder and harder to hide with makeup. During this period (alas, with a delay!), Smoking, even in the eyes of flirtatious admirers of tobacco potion and "beautiful life", loses its former attractiveness and elegance.

When creating optimal environmental conditions for the child's body, first of all, it is necessary to completely isolate it from the influence of tobacco smoking. A pregnant woman who smokes or is in a smoky room puts at great risk not only herself, but also the health of her unborn baby. From her blood, poisonous substances enter the fetus, poisoning it already in the early stages of development. Experiments on animals have shown that under the influence of nicotine, the blood flow in the vessels of the uterus feeding the ovum significantly decreases (by 38%). This leads to chronic oxygen starvation of the fetus and, as a result, a slowdown in its development. The content of carbon monoxide (carbon monoxide) in the blood of the umbilical cord (that is, in the blood of the fetus) is higher than in the blood of the mother. This means that we can rightfully speak about the predominant and more pronounced oxygen starvation of the fetus, and not the mother. Even a direct effect of the mother's smoking on the fetus was found, which is expressed in an increase in the heart rate and respiratory movements of the fetus, a decrease in its motor activity.

According to British scientists (Davis et al.), Stopping smoking by a pregnant woman within 48 hours increases the supply of oxygen from the blood to the tissues by 8%, and this significantly improves the supply of oxygen to the fetus.

Tobacco smoking: history, causes, consequences and overcomingA lot of studies have been carried out to study the effect of maternal tobacco smoking on the physical development of newborns. Unambiguous results have been obtained - babies of smoking mothers weigh on average 200-400 g less than mothers who do not abuse nicotine. They have smaller head sizes, which may indirectly indicate a delay in brain development.

The baby's weight deficit is in direct proportion to the number of cigarettes smoked by the mother during pregnancy. If a mother gives up this addiction in the early stages of fetal development, the average weight of a newborn may be the same as that of a nonsmoking woman's baby. When delivering on time, a smoking woman's baby often weighs less than a premature baby. By the way, miscarriage is one of the characteristic sufferings of a woman who abuses smoking or is in a smoky room.

The physical development and health of the newborn is influenced not only by the mother's smoking and staying in an atmosphere of tobacco smoke, but also by the fathers' adherence to nicotine. Japanese researchers have found that babies whose fathers smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day weigh, on average, 125 g less than newborns from non-smoking fathers.

The reasons for all the above violations of the normal course of pregnancy and fetal development are considered (along with the direct toxic effect of the poisons of tobacco smoke) an increase in the blood of women of the uterine-contracting substance (oxytocin) and changes in the metabolism of vitamins B12 and C, their content decreases with nicotinism in the body.

Perinatal mortality (the total value of prenatal fetal death, mortality during childbirth and in the first week of life) in children of mothers who smoke is 28% higher than in nonsmokers.

The adverse effect of smoking is aggravated by the presence of other pathological changes in the woman's body and low socio-economic living conditions. Among newborns from mothers who quit smoking at the beginning of pregnancy, perinatal mortality remains at the same level as among nonsmokers. Since when assessing the health of a child, the corresponding indicators of his parents must be taken into account, infants from families that abuse nicotine are at risk of developing certain diseases. Moreover, the great susceptibility of these children to the action of disease-causing agents haunts them for many years of their lives.

The body of a child who smokes or is often in a smoky room, the mother, even in the period of intrauterine development, is attached to nicotine. Immediately after childbirth, when the flow of nicotine through the placenta with the mother's blood to the newborn stops, he develops peculiar symptoms of withdrawal symptoms. The child does not sleep well, becomes restless, especially at night, his appetite decreases, and intestinal disorders often appear.

In smoking mothers, the process of milk formation is inhibited, they lose the ability to adequately provide the baby with breast milk, which is not only a food product, but also protection against diseases due to the content of special factors - immunoglobulins - in it. In addition, in mothers who abstain from the addiction during pregnancy and begin to smoke after childbirth, children often refuse to take breast milk because of its specific taste, which appears due to the presence of nicotine in it.

In newborns, whose parents abused nicotine, malformations of internal organs are often found, these children are more susceptible to bronchial asthma, allergic and colds. The risk of bronchial asthma or pneumonia for a child in the first year of life doubles if his parents smoke. This risk is further increased if parents cough and expel phlegm.

The negative impact of tobacco smoking on the health of children extends beyond their early childhood. There is evidence that even at the age of seven, the children of mothers who did not leave addiction to nicotine during pregnancy have a smaller height than the children of non-smoking women.

For parents who smoke, children start smoking themselves very early. First, they have more "moral rights" to do this, since they take an example from adults close to them. Second, adolescents in such families have much easier access to tobacco and the opportunity to experience its effects on themselves. Thirdly, their body gets used to nicotine faster as a result of years of passive smoking. Statistics show that children from families who smoke are 2 times more likely to become smokers than adolescents whose parents do not smoke.

Tobacco smoking: history, causes, consequences and overcomingThe undesirable effect of household nicotine addiction on the adolescent's body is more pronounced than that of an adult, due to its lower resistance and greater sensitivity to poisons in general and to nicotine in particular. Of no small importance are some factors associated with the very process of smoking in children: they usually smoke secretly, in a hurry, absorbing the tobacco poison of a cigarette in a fairly short time and in high concentrations - with the rapid combustion of tobacco, the output of nicotine into the main smoke increases almost twice. In addition, children tend to smoke cheap brands of cigarettes, and their nicotine content is much higher than that of expensive tobacco cigarettes. Children and adolescents smoke a cigarette to the end, and the part of the cigarette close to the butt contains more nicotine than at the beginning.

It is known that the earlier a child starts smoking, the faster the unfavorable effect of tobacco poisons begins to appear in him, and this happens much more pronounced than in adults. Almost all life support systems of the body suffer, especially the nervous, cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

Only in one way does the organism of a child and a young man surpass that of an adult - in youth, the impaired functions of organs are easier to recover after quitting smoking. With the cessation of smoking, the respiratory function of 17-year-old boys improves within a few weeks: coughing quickly stops, phlegm disappears, and the activity of the cardiovascular system normalizes.

Harmonious development of a child and adolescent is unthinkable without physical education and sports, which, in turn, are incompatible with smoking. Passion for sports requires constant training tension of the vital functions of the body, the operational use of its reserve capabilities. Smoking, as we have already said, significantly reduces the available reserves of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Due to the accumulation of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood of a smoker, the respiratory function of a person is weakened, which can lead to severe shortness of breath during physical exertion, which also occurs against the background of narrowing of the small airways of the lungs. The toxic effect of tobacco poisons, primarily nicotine, causes an increase in heart rate and an increase in arterial blood pressure, which negatively affects athletic performance. In a smoker, the threshold of excitation of the nervous system is reduced, the ability to quickly respond to external stimuli and timely execute the necessary commands is lost. Fine coordination of movements is significantly impaired, without which it is difficult to achieve success in team sports.

A decrease in human mental activity during smoking was noted by the world chess champion A.A. Alekhin

Nicotine has a debilitating effect on memory and weakens willpower - abilities so necessary for a chess master.

"Secrets" of a successful fight against smoking

Humanity has appreciated the costs associated with widespread smoking. In most countries of the world, much more attention is paid to this issue than before. So, in Sweden, the fight against smoking is conducted under the motto: "Not a single smoker in the country, born in 1975 and later!" The dissemination of the experience of the city of Sochi, which announced a campaign to eradicate tobacco smoking among all residents and visitors to the resort, deserves attention. Many higher educational institutions in our country are fighting to ensure that there is not a single person abusing nicotine in the team.

An objective analysis of the undesirable consequences of smoking causes a natural thought for every smoker about the possible and most correct ways to get rid of the bad habit. Unfortunately, the long latent (latent) period of smoking disease (nikotinism) complicates the fight against this "plague of our time", as it is often called in foreign literature.

Most often, a person seriously begins to think about stopping smoking after the appearance of harbingers or obvious signs of the disease and its complications, and as you know, the disease is much easier to prevent than to cure. Therefore, it is very important to quit this habit as early and permanently as possible.

The basis of success in every case of smoking cessation is the inexorable desire of the smoker himself. The emerging phenomena of abstinence can be overcome in most cases even without minimal outside help, since it has been established that only 30% of smokers develop a true dependence on tobacco, which is difficult to overcome.

Tobacco smoking: history, causes, consequences and overcomingIndividual ways to combat smoking are divided into two large groups. In one, gradual weaning is recommended by slowly reducing the number of cigarettes smoked and using varieties of tobacco with a low nicotine content, the other is based on the complete exclusion of nicotine from entering the body without prior restriction.

Here are the methods offered by experts.

Method 1.

  1. Decide to smoke one cigarette per hour or not smoke for an hour, and then gradually increase this interval by half an hour.
  2. Make it difficult for yourself to access cigarettes. Additionally, wrap the stack and seal it with duct tape. If you normally hold the cigarette with your right hand, hold it with your left.
  3. Start smoking the type of cigarette you don't like. Buy no more than one pack of cigarettes at a time.
  4. If you smoke over a cup of coffee, drink tea or fruit juice instead of coffee.
  5. Start training your body to stay fit. Exercise is the best way to relax.
  6. Call your friends and announce your intention to quit smoking.
  7. If you don't smoke one day, you can stop smoking another day. Try it!
  8. Set aside the money you saved on cigarettes and buy yourself something. You deserve it.
  9. If you broke down and lit a cigarette, do not be upset. Some people try several times before quitting smoking completely.

Method 2.

  1. Smoke one less cigarette per day.
  2. Before you light a cigarette, make a special decision and hesitate to implement it.
  3. Don't give up cigarettes entirely - always have one with you in case of emergency. You will make sure to constantly try not to waste it.
  4. Don't quit smoking "forever". Give up smoking for just a day, then another day, and so on day after day.
  5. Tell your friends and yourself that you are quitting smoking. Making a public statement will strengthen your will.
  6. Set yourself a day to quit smoking, and do it.
  7. Hide everything associated with smoking - cigarettes, ashtrays, matches, so that they do not remind you of this habit.
  8. Stock up on chewing gum, mints, or nuts and use them whenever you feel like smoking.

There is a third recipe for smoking cessation:

  1. Strictly control the number of cigarettes smoked per day and, if possible, smoke less on each subsequent day.
  2. Smoke slowly, in contrast to how some people do it, for example, those who are waiting for transport at a bus stop: at the moment it arrives, they strive to finish their cigarette at all costs; take fewer puffs, do not take that deep.
  3. Do not smoke the cigarette to the end (there are more toxic substances in this part of it).
  4. Use more expensive types of cigarettes that contain less nicotine and have better filters (cotton filters retain 50% of nicotine, paper filters only 20%).

Tobacco smoking: history, causes, consequences and overcomingAll recommendations are based on knowledge of the characteristics of the effect of tobacco smoke on the human body, the mechanisms of addiction to tobacco smoking and the development of withdrawal symptoms when quitting this habit. The recommendations are designed for a person who has firmly decided to abandon the addiction, although this is not specifically focused on attention.

We believe that the first point of any advice should be the following: "Make a firm decision to quit smoking in the near future!" Only in the observance of this condition is the guarantee of the success of the struggle begun.

The fight against smoking is strictly individual (it must be said that this statement does not exclude its collective methods), because getting rid of a bad habit is, first of all, the victory of each person over his weakness.

It seems that you should not advertise your smoking cessation publicly, since if you fail to quit smoking the first time, your reputation as a person who keeps his word will suffer. Make a decision only for yourself. Then your friends will find out that you have quit smoking after 1-2 months, when the fight against nicotinism will no longer be a big deal for you (the most difficult thing is to hold out for the first 3-4 days). If the first time you cannot completely quit smoking, a new attempt can be resumed at any suitable moment without damage to your reputation.

It is advisable to start quitting smoking in a changed environment (on vacation, on a hike, on vacation, on a long business trip, etc.), when ties with smoking friends are temporarily broken, who can, willingly or unwittingly, nullify the initial success. For an experienced smoker, the desire to smoke, albeit largely muted, can persist for a long time (up to a year), but it becomes easier and easier to fight it day by day, and the consciousness of acquired willpower serves as a significant moral supplement to the constantly improving state of health ...

A large selection of cigarette varieties with different nicotine content in their tobacco helps the gradual weaning. The use of tobacco varieties with a lower content of this toxic product promotes the gradual weaning from its intake. The transition to the use of cigarettes with improved and additional filters significantly reduces their toxicity and thus also contributes to the fight against nicotinism.

With a complete cessation of smoking, abstinence phenomena are more pronounced, the fight against the addiction to nicotine is more acute and uncompromising. However, this method provides more rapid and reliable results than gradual weaning from the cigarette. The phased limitation of smoking can be compared to the siege of the enemy's fortress, while the complete rejection of it - with the capture of this fortress by storm. In the first case, a protracted struggle can exhaust the attacker so much that he lifts the siege, exhausting himself morally and physically. The assault on the fortress after a good psychological preparation for it, with knowledge of all the weaknesses of the enemy and his vulnerabilities, can give a quick positive result. Therefore, an increasing number of researchers come to the conclusion that it is necessary to quit smoking immediately, seriously and forever. However, there are people who are more impressed by the gradual abstinence from smoking. It is advisable to recommend it in cases where smoking cessation is accompanied by a violent reaction in the form of insomnia, depressive states with refusal to eat, etc.

Weaning from this bad habit is often helped by physical education and sports, special techniques based on self-hypnosis, distracting procedures, a sharp increase (within reasonable limits) of a single dose of smoked tobacco, performing medication and medical procedures as recommended by a doctor.

During the smoking cessation period, great importance is attached to physical exercises in the fresh air, especially breathing exercises, long walks, and intensive water procedures. Before self-hypnosis, you should familiarize yourself in detail with the negative sides of tobacco smoking, paying attention to their manifestations in your own body, clearly understand the consequences of further poisoning of the body, which can cause a possible collapse of life plans.The result of self-hypnosis should be a firmly made decision - to quit smoking and not to start again under any circumstances, especially in moments of negative emotions. The actively promoted individual and collective autogenic training, which creates a favorable psychological background and in this regard, significantly increases the effectiveness of anti-nicotine activities, deserves attention.

The method of tobacco overdose is based on observation: if a novice smoker immediately smokes a large amount of tobacco for him, he develops acute nicotine poisoning, followed by a persistent negative attitude to tobacco smoking. To achieve the "super dose" effect, a person must force himself to smoke 2-3 cigarettes in a row from a cheap type of tobacco he does not like. As a result, he develops symptoms of acute tobacco poisoning and a more or less prolonged aversion to tobacco smoke. Maintaining a negative attitude towards smoking in the future is carried out by other means of combating nicotinism. It should be remembered that this method, in order to avoid serious consequences, should be used taking into account the individual characteristics of the organism.

Successful smoking cessation after sessions of hypnosis, psycho- and reflexotherapy, acupuncture has been described, but their use is entirely within the competence of the doctor.

From the arsenal of medications, the most effective are lobelia and cytiton (subcutaneous injections) and the Bulgarian drug Tabeks, which is similar in effect on the body, containing a chemical substance that is similar in structure to nicotine. With its help, it is possible to "trick" the cells of the body, replacing toxic nicotine with a harmless chemical substance. Tabeks-like tablets are produced by the Yugoslav pharmaceutical industry (Kuzmanovich's tablets).

The use of the domestic drug anabazine hydrochloride, which is also a non-toxic twin of nicotine, is very promising. Anabazine hydrochloride in many cases allows you to accustom the body to do without nicotine within 2-3 weeks.

A chewing gum containing anabazine hydrochloride proposed by the Belarusian Scientific Research Sanitary and Hygienic Institute is undergoing successful clinical trials. Its use makes it possible to significantly reduce the therapeutic dose of the drug while increasing the effectiveness of its action due to the fact that the drug is absorbed into oral cavity, is not delayed by the liver. Along with this, chewing gum creates the so-called effect of a busy mouth, because chewing and smoking at the same time are poorly compatible actions (for the same reason, it is recommended to suck lollipops or mint candies when quitting smoking).

Tobacco smoking: history, causes, consequences and overcomingTopical preparations include tablets containing silver nitrate. In combination with tobacco smoke, it causes unpleasant sensations in the mouth, nausea, thereby contributing to the development of a negative reflex to the act of smoking. The same effect is characteristic of a dental elixir and weak solutions of copper sulfate, protargol and collargol, tannin. All of the above measures are aimed only at facilitating the withdrawal process, they are additional measures to the main condition - a rapid or gradual cessation of the intake of nicotine into the human body. Therefore, their isolated use usually does not give a long-term positive result.

Conclusion

Until now, unfortunately, an atmosphere of condemnation and intolerance towards tobacco smoke adherents has not yet been created. A person who smokes is not considered a social renegade, which is alcoholics and drug addicts. The vast majority of smokers are not even shy about their addiction to tobacco.

Knowledge of the destructive properties of tobacco poisons gives grounds to step up the fight against this completely removable bad habit day by day.One of the main directions of the struggle should be the "deheroization" of the smoking person, the universal recognition of his addictions, undoubtedly harmful not only for him, but also for those around him.

Some teens and their parents may find the danger in tobacco smoke exaggerated. Therefore, it is necessary to remind that all the data presented by us is the result of serious scientific and statistical research.

It can be said that many outstanding representatives of science, art, prominent statesmen and military leaders smoked and nevertheless achieved amazing success in their lives. So is it worth quitting smoking? There is only one answer - it is, because this habit was their misfortune, not their dignity. Without constant poisoning of the body with tobacco poisons, they could live much longer, their talent would have manifested itself to an even greater extent, sparkled with additional beautiful facets unknown to us. Who knows what masterpieces humanity has lost, seduced by the dubious pleasures of smoking?

The fight against smoking is a task of paramount importance, which has long grown from a private hygienic problem to a social and economic problem. This is a struggle for a clean environment, a struggle for human health.

Zubovich V.K.


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