How to Quit Smoking – Affects of Nicotine
All tobacco contains nicotine, which is a powerful substance. If you smoke cigarettes over a period of time, your body gets used to having a certain level of nicotine in the bloodstream, and when the level drops, you develop a craving to smoke again.
Nicotine affects the body in many ways and will fulfill many of your bodies needs. Smoking will calm you down when you feel angry. People can relieve chronic stress from work by smoking. Smoking also can relieve physical and emotional pain.
You may have found that it helps you think clearly and focus. You smoke to reward yourself after you finish a job. Nicotine has helped to fill your time when you are bored, and it is a faithful companion when no one else is there for you. It has been a great stress reliever. It sounds like a miracle drug! No other substance gives you all the effects that you want.
Nicotine travels to your brain rapidly. With just one drag off a cigarette, the chemicals in your brain activate to give you the effects you seek. Harmful physical effects are occurring at the same time: your heart to works harder, your blood pressure increases, your arteries constrict, and your red blood cells become sticky, causing clots to form more easily. Your craving for a cigarette is satisfied because the level of nicotine in your blood increases. After awhile, you become dependent on a certain level of nicotine.
Nicotine cravings are so powerful that it might control your life. Have you been on vacation and have decided to go somewhere else because smoking was not allowed? How about the time you went out into a snowstorm to buy a pack of cigarettes. Your cravings can start to control your life even if you don’t know it.
Learn how powerful nicotine is and you can start taking control of your life. If you try to quit cold turkey, you might experience nicotine withdrawal. It takes 72 hours for nicotine to excrete from your body. If you quit without nicotine replacement therapy, you will discover withdrawal symptoms. Fight these withdrawal symptoms by finding healthy alternatives to smoking.