Can tobacco affect our brain?

I read about tobacco and brain from NIDA Info Facts. Everybody must read this. How Does Tobacco Affect the Brain?

Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco—including cigars, pipe tobacco, snuff, and chewing tobacco—contain the addictive drug nicotine. Nicotine is readily absorbed into the bloodstream when a tobacco product is chewed, inhaled, or smoked. A typical smoker will take 10 puffs on a cigarette over a period of 5 minutes that the cigarette is lit. Thus, a person who smokes about 1 1/2 packs (30 cigarettes) daily gets 300 “hits” of nicotine each day.

Upon entering the bloodstream, nicotine immediately stimulates the adrenal glands to release the hormone epinephrine (adrenaline). Epinephrine stimulates the central nervous system and increases blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate. Glucose is released into the blood while nicotine suppresses insulin output from the pancreas, which means that smokers have chronically elevated blood sugar levels.

Like cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, nicotine increases levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which affects the brain pathways that control reward and pleasure. For many tobacco users, long-term brain changes induced by continued nicotine exposure result in addiction—a condition of compulsive drug seeking and use, even in the face of negative consequences. Studies suggest that additional compounds in tobacco smoke, such as acetaldehyde, may enhance nicotine’s effects on the brain. A number of studies indicate that adolescents are especially vulnerable to these effects and may be more likely than adults to develop an addiction to tobacco.

When an addicted user tries to quit, he or she experiences withdrawal symptoms including powerful cravings for tobacco, irritability, difficulty paying attention, sleep disturbances, and increased appetite. Treatments can help smokers manage these symptoms and improve the likelihood of successfully quitting.

Apart from this the risk of lung cancer and other cancers are also there. All these are good arguments to stop smoking or to avoid all forms of tobacco.

Chewing Tobacco, Smokeless Tobacco, Dip, Snuff, Oral Tobacco & Spit Tobacco

Is this form of tobacco consumption safer than smoking? No, it is not at all safer than smoking. All forms of tobacco consumption are dangerous to our health.

Chewing or dipping has the risks like mouth cancer, pulling away of the gum from the tooth, decay of the exposed roots and white patches or red sores in the mouth which may turn to cancer. It plays also a vital role in heart disease, stroke and in other cancers.

Chewing tobacco brings more nicotine into blood because they reach the stomach and the absorption takes place in the intestines. It is much more efficient than from the inhalation of the smoke.

The different kinds of smokeless tobacco include:

Chewing tobacco is a loose leaf, twists or plugs and it is chewed.

Snuff is the dry or moist loose leaf or in small pouches like tea bags and a pinch of snuff is placed between lower lips and gum or the cheek and the gum. It is inhaled also into the nostrils.

Betel quid is a product of India, Asia and Africa. It consists of a dried paste which includes tobacco, areca nuts, catechu and different scent or flavouring. It is placed in the mouth, between the cheek and gum and gently chewed or sucked.

In India many are addicted to chewing tobacco wrapped in betel leaves, all social categories are represented here in large numbers. Even the majority of the college students have this bad habits and the health risk is high.

Even doctors use this and this is a bad habit which we export very well because the young Indian migrating to other countries use this also throughout the world.

Gutka is industrially manufactured smokeless tobacco product which is a specifically an Indian problem. Areca nut, an important constituent of gutka causes oral mucous fibrosis, a dangerous disease with no cure, which also the precursor of oral cancer.

In cigarette smoking this may take years to reach this but in gutka this happens within short time and with the popularization of gutka the oral cancer rate among young persons are increasing in India. It is never too late to stop using tobacco.

It is difficult to ban because they get their rights from the court of law because we do not have strict laws. The public must ask for the ban and put pressure on the political parties for which they vote. It is also advisable to put extra tax which could be used to patients for their medical treatments and rehabilitation. Increase the prices of the ingredients so drastically that gutka becomes very costly for many people.

There is no safe tobacco product in our world.

What are dangerous, smoking cigarettes, pipes, cigars, beedies or use of chewing tobacco?

All are dangerous to our health. It depends how much and how often you smoke. With cigars, beedies or chewing tobacco you absorb more nicotine than cigarettes. Pipes are usually not smoked very often and so the absorption of nicotine is low compared to other forms. If the tobacco reaches our stomach most of the nicotine is absorbed in the intestine and this is the case with chewing tobacco.

Nicotine is one among several substances and tar which is a mixture of several active chemical compounds in tobacco smoke. There are about 3000 chemicals which are found in tobacco smoke and many are dangerous to our health. Out of these 50 are considered cancerous. Long time exposure to the substances like carbon monoxide, cyanide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons cause the damage of lungs, arteries and responsible for several other complications including cancer.

The poisonous metal cadmium is present in tobacco and it is deposited in kidneys and bad to our health. There are radioactive carcinogens also present in tobacco smoke and they are lead-210 and polonium-210.

Although the paper is bad in cigarettes beedi is worse than cigarettes. In many countries beedies are banned. Beedies are more dangerous than cigarettes because they contain more tar, nicotine and other cancer producing substances, carbon monoxide, ammonia and also contain the cancer producing nitrosamines. One third of 6,00,000 TB deaths in India go to the account of Beedi smoking. But, surprisingly, they have less tobacco than in cigarettes.

Beedies have three times more nicotine, produce three times more carbon monoxide and have 5 times more tar than cigarettes. The lack of filter and also the lack of porosity of the leaves used for wrapping may be the reason for this.

Passive smoking is more dangerous than active smoking. Do not smoke when there are non-smokers. If children are present then smoking should be avoided completely. This is applicable strictly to your visitors also.