Smoking is harmful to health, but why is it so difficult to quit smoking?

Everyone knows that smoking is harmful to health; even tobacco companies’ slogans state this, and tobacco has gradually become the leading cause of poverty, disease, and death around the world.

But why is it so difficult to quit smoking when everyone knows that smoking is harmful to health? In fact, the smoker's motivation to quit smoking is a key factor in determining whether he or she will succeed in quitting smoking, and the smoker's awareness of the harm caused by smoking determines his or her motivation to quit smoking.

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How harmful is smoking to your health?

1. Impact on the respiratory system

The harmful substances in cigarette smoke can irritate and damage the respiratory mucosa, making it easy for bacteria and other microorganisms to enter and cause respiratory diseases. It is currently believed that smoking is one of the main causes of respiratory diseases such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

2. Effects on the cardiovascular system

Nicotine in tobacco can excite the adrenal medulla, leading to increased blood pressure. Carbon monoxide in smoke can bind to red blood cells, causing them to lose their oxygen-carrying capacity, leading to a decrease in the amount of oxygen available to myocardial cells, ultimately increasing the incidence of coronary atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction.

3. Impact on the reproductive system

Cadmium in tobacco stimulates male testicular metabolism and changes the secretion balance of male sex hormones. This change causes changes in local penile hemodynamics, which may be the main cause of erectile dysfunction and other diseases. For women, cadmium and its metabolites in tobacco can cause women's ovarian function to decline, fertility to decrease, and can also lead to a decrease in ovarian blood vessels and ovarian response.

4. Induce cancer

Smoking is the primary risk factor for lung cancer in humans. It increases the incidence of cancer because "benzopyrene" in smoke is a primary carcinogen. In addition, smoking can also induce oral and pharyngeal cancers, and affect bladder cancer, uterine cancer, pancreatic cancer, etc. Only when we realize the serious harm of smoking to health can we be more determined to quit smoking.

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Dizziness and nausea, why is it so difficult to quit smoking?

As we all know, smoking is harmful but not beneficial, but why is it so difficult to quit smoking? Because smoking addiction belongs to tobacco dependence, and its dependence is related to the addictive substance in cigarettes - nicotine. Nicotine can be absorbed by the lung mucosa and directly enter the blood, then flow with the blood, and finally enter the brain through the blood-brain barrier, which has a complex effect on the physiological activities of brain nerves and promotes the production of more dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter that can increase the transmission speed of nerve signals and make people's thinking activities more agile. This may be related to the fact that smoking can improve the efficiency of thinking activities. The brains of long-term smokers have become accustomed to the stimulation of nicotine.

When quitting smoking, the lack of nicotine in the brain seriously affects the secretion of dopamine, and various symptoms such as discomfort, dizziness, nausea and mental depression will appear, which is medically called "withdrawal syndrome". If someone around you hands you a cigarette at this time, the quitting smoker will take a few deep puffs, and the nicotine will enter the brain, and the above symptoms will disappear, and the efforts to quit smoking will also fail. This is the main reason why quitting smoking is not easy to succeed.

The withdrawal symptoms mentioned above are most intense within the first two weeks of quitting smoking, and then gradually subside. This is why most people who quit smoking can only persist for about a week.

There are many ways to quit smoking. How to quit smoking scientifically?

Because of the dependence and addiction of smoking and the unbearable withdrawal symptoms, scientific methods are needed to help people quit smoking. At present, the main scientific methods for quitting smoking are as follows: behavioral intervention, smoking cessation clinics, drug therapy, traditional Chinese medicine, e-cigarettes and the latest nicotine vaccine, etc. Now, a comprehensive treatment combining multiple smoking cessation methods may be a new model for smoking cessation treatment.

According to research, acupuncture has certain advantages in short-term quitting smoking, but the long-term quitting rate still needs to be further verified by high-quality, large-sample, multi-center randomized clinical research. It has been reported that chewing glucose tablets or eating fruit can alleviate "withdrawal syndrome" and thus help quit smoking successfully. When the urge to smoke comes, you can use fruit, sugar-free chewing gum or drink water to divert your attention and gradually reduce your dependence on tobacco.

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Quit smoking now

Smoking not only harms smokers, but also their family and friends who are exposed to secondhand smoke. From now on, throw away your lighters and ashtrays, inspire your determination to quit smoking, and say goodbye to tobacco with the help of external coercive measures and scientific methods. Successfully quit smoking, gain health, and benefit for life!

References:

[1] Miao Weifang. Harm of smoking to adolescent health[J]. Electronic Journal of Clinical Medical Literature, 2017, 4(47):9306-9306.

[2] Zhang Lei. What is so difficult about quitting smoking?[J]. Modern Health Preservation, 2015(14):67-68.

[3] Guo Shitian, Lin Hui, Chi Jufang. Methods and new progress in smoking cessation treatment[J]. Chinese General Practice, 2017(30):117-121.

[4] Liu Chao, Wang Yingying, Wu Yuan, et al. Analysis of the current status and efficacy evaluation of acupuncture for smoking cessation[J]. Chinese Journal of Acupuncture, 2015, 35(8):851-857.