Tobacco was smoked in the form of cigars before World War I. They were chiefly smoked by the wealthy. The less fortunate smoked cigarettes, which are basically leftovers of the cigar making process. When tobacco companies started to mass-produce cigarettes, the number of people who smoked cigarettes suddenly increased. Their customers were soldiers of World War I.

About 20 to 50 percent of cigarettes are smoked for an explicit, expressed need like a sense of insecurity, an inferiority complex, and low self-esteem tend to insulate themselves from the world through this habit. If these individuals are relatively healthy, it is very difficult to convince them to stop smoking. These smokers demand advanced assurances that they can survive without smoking before their last cigarette.

Nicotine is the most common ingredient in cigarettes. Nicotine is more addictive than heroine. In terms of dependence, aside from heroine, doctors ranked nicotine ahead of alcohol and cocaine. Researches have proved that smoking four cigarettes a day can induce life-long addiction to nicotine. People who smoke tend to see smoking as a part of their personality, as something that they cannot live without. This is called the addiction. The addiction in the case of nicotine is considered a sickness. What adds to the addiction to smoke cigarettes is satisfaction a smoker gains when puffing a cigarette or the psychological pleasure.

Studies have also shown that depression is twice as common to smokers against non-smokers. Some also use cigarettes as an artificial action to pass time and be patient.

Nicotine reduces anxiety and generates joy. Nicotine triggers the smoker’s brain to be more capable in processing information. Researches have also shown that based on the dose of nicotine intake, it induces sedation and relaxation, and alertness and arousal.

Aside from nicotine, smokers rarely know that a cigarette contains carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, acetylene, and cyanide, all of which are harmful chemicals. These chemicals are also used as poison. These ingredients of cigarette caused many health hazards like breathing infections, heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer.

Psychosocial factors also contribute on why people continue to smoke. Persons surrounded by smokers, like family and friends, can soon develop the habit of smoking. The smoker will have a hard time quitting the habit because of the addictive nature. Hence it is advisable for the smokers to have a smoke free environment.

Therefore these are few important aspects of smoking that every smoker has to be wary of and should focus on quitting smoking at the earliest. It is never an impossible task with the correct mind set and the determination to get rid of the dangerous habit and to start leading a healthy life.

There are many ways in which people can come out of nicotine addiction. However before we even start with, the smoker has to have the will power and determination to quit smoking. It is this drive that is going to make any treatment for tobacco addiction a success.  Nicotine Replacement Treatments Nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs), such as nicotine gum and nicotine patch, were the first pharmacological treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in smoking cessation therapy. NRTs are used to relieve withdrawal symptoms. An added benefit is that these forms of nicotine have little abuse potential since they do not produce the pleasurable effects of tobacco products, nor do they contain the carcinogens and gases associated with tobacco smoke.

Nicotine gum provides some smokers with the desired control over the dosage and the ability to relieve cravings. In 1996 a nicotine nasal sprays, and in 1998 a nicotine inhaler, also became available by prescription, thus meeting the needs of many additional tobacco users. All the NRT products—gum, patch, spray, and inhaler—appear to be equally effective.

Although the primary focus of pharmacological treatments for tobacco addiction has been nicotine replacement, other treatments are also available. For example, the antidepressant bupropion was approved by the FDA in 1997 to help people quit smoking. Varenicline tartrate (Chantix) is a medication that recently received FDA approval for smoking cessation. This medication, which acts at the sites in the brain affected by nicotine, may help people quit by easing withdrawal symptoms and blocking the effects of nicotine if people resume smoking.

Scientists are also investigating the potential of a vaccine that targets nicotine for use in relapse prevention. The nicotine vaccine is designed to stimulate the production of antibodies that would block access of nicotine to the brain and prevent nicotine’s reinforcing effects.

Behavioural interventions play an integral role in smoking cessation treatment; either it is combined with medication or alone. A variety of methods can assist smokers with quitting, ranging from self-help materials to individual cognitive-behavioural therapy. These involvements teach individuals to recognize high-risk smoking situations, develop alternative coping strategies, manage stress, improve problem solving skills, and increase social support. Research has also shown that the more therapy is customised to a person’s situation, the greater the chances are for success.

Over the past decade, however, researchers have been adapting these behavioural approaches through mail, telephone, and Internet formats, which can be more acceptable and accessible to smokers who are trying to quit. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) established a national toll-free number, to serve as a single access point for smokers seeking information and assistance in quitting. In addition, a new web site (www.smokefree.gov) offers online advice and downloadable information to make cessation easier.

Quitting smoking can be smooth sailing with the correct mind set and attitude for the smoker and with the right guidance .Research has now shown that extending treatment beyond the typical duration of a smoking cessation program can produce quit rates as high as 50 percent at 1 year.

The most important ingredient of cigarette is nicotine. This chemical when inhaled through cigarettes, moves from the lungs, into the bloodstream and reaches the smoker’s brain within 7 to 10 seconds. Once in the brain, nicotine activates a number of chemical reactions that create temporary feelings of pleasure for the smoker, but these sensations are short-lived, subsiding within minutes. As the nicotine level drops in the blood, smokers feel edgy and agitated. So, to get over from the discomforts, smokers light up another cigarette and this process goes on. One cigarette is never enough for a smoker.

When a person inhales cigarette smoke, the nicotine in the smoke is rapidly absorbed into the blood and starts affecting the brain within 10 seconds. The result is the release of adrenaline hormone. The adrenaline increases a person’s heart rate, blood pressure and restricts blood flow to the heart muscle. When the blood flow is restricted, the smoker experiences rapid, shallow breathing and the feeling of a racing heartbeat. Adrenaline also instructs the body to dump excess glucose into the bloodstream.

Nicotine also inhibits the release of insulin from the pancreas, a hormone that is responsible for removing excess sugar from a person’s blood. This means the smoker has more sugar in his or her blood than normal. High blood sugar acts as an appetite suppressant, which may be why smokers think their cigarettes reduce hunger.

Research has shown that nicotine increases the level of dopamine in the brain, a neurotransmitter that is responsible for feelings of pleasure. The acute effects of nicotine wear off within minutes, so people must continue dosing themselves frequently throughout the day to maintain the pleasurable effects of nicotine and to prevent withdrawal symptoms.

In addition to nicotine, cigarette smoke is composed of more than 4000 toxic chemicals and tar. The tar in a cigarette exposes smokers to an increased risk of lung cancer, emphysema, and bronchial disorders. The carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke increases the chance of cardiovascular diseases.

Now, it has been medically proven, recognised and more widely accepted that the reason people continue to smoke, despite the severe health risks smoking entails, is because nicotine is a highly addictive drug. It is this addiction that leads people into the mirage of smoking for a stress free life .Therefore it is very important that people realise the harmful effects of smoking and quit smoking for a healthy life.

Two compounds of cigarette are especially harmful: nicotine and carbon monoxide. Studies have proved that these two toxins account for almost every smoking-related complication in pregnancy. The most serious complications, including stillbirth, premature delivery, and low birth weight are directly the cause of nicotine and carbon monoxide’s work .These two chemicals also cut off the supply of oxygen to the baby in the womb by narrowing blood vessels throughout the body, including the ones in the umbilical cord. To make matters worse, the red blood cells that carry oxygen start to pick up molecules of carbon monoxide instead.

A shortage of oxygen can have devastating effects on the baby’s growth and development. On average, smoking during pregnancy doubles the chances that a baby will be born too early or weigh less.

Every cigarette the woman smokes increases the risks to pregnancy. A smoker’s body is especially sensitive to the first doses of nicotine each day, and even just one or two cigarettes will significantly tighten blood vessels. That’s why even social or occasional smoking can have an outsize effect on the baby’s health.

Undersize babies tend to have underdeveloped bodies. Their lungs may not be ready to work on their own, which means they may spend their first days or weeks attached to a respirator. After they’re breathing on their own, these babies may have continuing breathing problems because of delayed lung development or other adverse effects of nicotine. Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are especially vulnerable to asthma, and have double or even triple the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

Smoking during pregnancy can have lifelong effects on the baby’s brain. Children of pregnant smokers are especially likely to have learning disorders, behavioural problems, and relatively low IQs.

In spite of people being aware of the dangers of smoking, it’s not always easy to give up the habit. The pull of nicotine rules over the intentions and even overrides the love to the child. However, with the correct kind of aid and a strong will power to quit smoking, people have to get rid of the dangerous habit at once. After all, there’s somebody counting on the mother from the womb.

They analyzed data from a Norwegian case-control study including 954 subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and all were current- or ex-smokers, and the COPD subjects had moderate or severe COPD.

It has long been suspected that the effect of smoking on lung function may be modified by gender. Interaction analysis confirmed that being female represents a higher risk of reduced lung function and severe COPD, but this gender effect was most pronounced when the level of smoking exposure was low. The reason why women are more susceptible to the effects of cigarette smoke is not quite clearly understood, however the possible reasons may be because of the smaller airways; therefore each cigarette may do more harm. Also, there are gender differences in the metabolism of cigarette smoke. Genes and hormones could also be important.

Many women believe that their own smoking is too limited to be harmful–that a few cigarettes a day causes only a minimal risk. However, in the low exposure group in this study, half of the women actually had severe COPD. Clearly, there is no such thing as a safe exposure to cigarette smoke.

Everyone knows the dangers of tobacco smoke, but until recently experts believed the danger to be equal for men and women. Now new research is showing that the effects of smoking cigarettes are different for women. It appears that the cancer causing agents in cigarettes may be more dangerous to women than men, according to a new Swiss study.

The researchers noticed that female patients tended to be younger when they were diagnosed, which seemed strange since these women hadn’t had the time to smoke the same number of cigarettes as the male patients in the study. Thus the findings suggest that women may have an increased susceptibility to tobacco carcinogens.

Lung cancer was once a disease almost unheard of in women, but since the 1960s, the rates have been climbing steadily. Today lung cancer has claimed the title of leading cause of cancer deaths in U.S. women.

The highest rates of cigarette smoking were among American Indian and native Alaskan women, followed closely by whites, African Americans, Hispanics and lastly Asian women.

Surveys have found that smoking is more popular among less educated, younger women who almost always start as teens. Therefore it is important that people should stop smoking at the earliest and especially women who are prone to lung cancer risk.

Among the many reasons women shouldn’t smoke when they’re pregnant is that it could cause the baby to experience sudden infant death syndrome. Women who smoke during pregnancy expose their babies to the harmful substance content of the cigarette which is too strong to be handled by the fragile and delicate infant. Stillbirth is also another factor that occurs when a pregnant woman smokes.

To look at the other damages caused due to smoking during pregnancy, the nicotine, tar and tobacco of a single cigarette can cause low birth weight of the foetus. Low birth weight can lead to a great many complications including prenatal death. During pregnancy, the carcinogen content of the cigarette could also affect the placenta that protects the foetus causing placenta abrasion.

Apart from the many physical symptoms that can occur due to smoking while bearing the child, the baby would suffer from terrible respiratory problems and infections. Not only would they find it hard to breathe, the chances of them developing asthma also increases. A baby born of a mother who used to smoke during pregnancy is more likely to have colic (stomach pain and indigestion).

When a pregnant woman smokes, the nicotine and other compounds found in tobacco pose both an immediate and an extended threat to the health of her developing child. Sometimes, smoking even reduces a woman’s fertility.

There is other constituents of cigarette smoke, carbon monoxide (CO), which can also change or interrupt basic physiological processes. CO is an odourless, colourless gas produced by burning carbon containing compounds. CO displaces oxygen from the molecule that normally carries it through the bloodstream to the organs and tissues. High levels of CO can be deadly. When a pregnant woman smokes, the trace amounts of CO that she inhales mean less oxygen will be delivered to her tissues and to her foetus.

Therefore, it is very important that every woman realises her responsibility in delivering a healthy child to the world. Smoking during pregnancy is a very harmful habit and can completely alter the health condition of the baby for the worse.

With some changes in the everyday food habit also, a person can stop smoking to a great extent. For instance, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, as opposed to dairy, meat, and sweet food products will aid in stopping to smoke. A study at Duke University has shown that eating fruits and vegetables help flush nicotine from the body faster. They also make cigarettes taste much worse than normal. So in order to quit smoking, one has to develop the habit of snacking on carrots, celery, and apples. Smokers have to incorporate more fresh fruits and vegetables into their diet, especially at the end of a meal and during key craving periods.

In concurrence with the intake of fruits and vegetables, one needs to concentrate on the physical activity of the people. Raising the heart rate, breathing rate and energy consumption through exercise and physical activity is a biological helper to curb nicotine cravings. Not only will the body be busy jogging, walking, rollerblading, or just picking weeds in the yard as a hobby to stay away from smoking cigarettes, but the endorphins, as well as the myriad of other hormones and chemicals exercise releases help to directly curb nicotine cravings and lower the body’s dependence on chemicals.

Physical activity and exercise is a great way to keep the mind and body busy and not to smoke during key craving times of the day as well as lower the nicotine dependence in general through an innumerable of extra endorphins and hormones. Physical exercise can also minimize the sudden weight gain typical with people who quit smoking.

After resorting to these kinds of mind and body change, one also has to ensure that he or she is not reminded again about cigarettes in the future to avoid temptations to smoke. To achieve this, a person has to take out anything in the surroundings and life that reminds of smoking. Only when a person takes smoking out of their mind, can he or she flush out the nicotine out of the body. It is better to wash, dry clean, vacuum, and scrub anything that might smell like cigarettes. One also has to be wary of the TV shows with cigarettes in them.

Like the famous saying, ‘Out of sight, out of mind’, one has to eradicate smoking out of their life as much as possible. As soon as the person see a cigarette, hear the sound of a lighter, smell tobacco smoke, taste something similar to smoking, the numerous subconscious trained physical responses will kick in inside the brain and body. Any reminders of smoking trigger nicotine cravings from the way the body has been heavily trained and conditioned from many years of nicotine addiction. Thus to eliminate cigarette from one’s life style, one has to remove over half of the cravings that would have triggered responses to references in the brain.

Smoking cigarettes are one such addiction that people fall a prey to and find it very difficult to get rid of the habitual addiction. There are many harmful chemicals that are present in cigarettes and one most important ingredient is Nicotine. In fact, nicotine is regarded as one of the toughest stimulants ever identified. So, nicotine is one of the most common factors that lead to smoking addiction.

Basically the nicotine level is directly infused into the brain, when a person smokes. This helps the smokers to have some relief from tension. The problem is that the anxiety sets back in with greater intensity after several tension-free minutes, and demands for more doses of stress-relievers i.e. nicotine.

Nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction. It is absorbed and enters the bloodstream, through the lungs when smoke is inhaled. Nicotine is a psychoactive drug with stimulant effects on the electrical activity of the brain. It also has calming effects, especially at times of stress, as well as effects on hormonal and other systems throughout the body.

The satisfaction a person gets whenever they inhale nicotine is totally rewarding for the smoker. This is because the discharge of the dopamine, which is the “pleasure hormone”. Dopamine is very abrupt and immediate. For this reason people get immediate relief from tension whenever they smoke.

Studies even revealed how nicotine is even more powerful than the other drugs. They said that when a person injects heroin into his or her body, they may only burst up four times a day and may experience unstable conditions.

In this way the smoking addiction starts. People who smoke as a way to release tension are already addicted to smoking. They slowly increase the number of cigarettes. This shows the person’s dependency on the cigarette already.

Smokers develop tolerance to nicotine and can take higher doses without feeling sick than when they first started smoking. Many of the unpleasant effects of cigarette withdrawal are due to lack of nicotine and are reversed or alleviated by nicotine replacement (for example, nicotine chewing gum or the nicotine patch).

As with other addictions, it is difficult to give up smoking, and without help most smokers fail despite trying many times. Even after stopping successfully for a while, most relapse within 2 to 3 months. More alarming perhaps than the strength of the addiction is the ease with which it develops.

Smoking addiction is a point of concern, since it is a cause for many cancers, heart diseases and other health ailments. It is important for people to give immediate priority to smoking addiction and quit as early as possible for a healthy today, tomorrow!

There are many products out there to help you quit smoking, but when they only address one side of quitting, such as the physical side, you end up having a greater chance of failure.

To reduce this chance it is important to find a program that has products that contain ingredients designed to help you fight the physical withdrawals of quitting and that help you combat the emotional and behavioral side of quitting as well.

Natural ways to deal with nicotine withdrawals include exercise and getting more rest. Try taking a multi vitamin like CigArrest VitaGuard Smoker’s Vitamins that can help offset nicotine withdrawal symptoms and replenish depleted nutrients. Try CigArrest all natural tablets that include ingredients like Peruvian Bark (which helps to treat edginess, nervousness, and indigestion), Spurge Laurel (which helps sleeping problems), Calcium Phosphate (which helps treat headaches), and Nux Vomica (which helps treat insomnia and irritability). Also, chewing gum like CigArrest Gum, which also has ingredients to help offset nicotine cravings, can help you replace the oral fixation of smoking.