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.

People believe or at least tend to believe that smoking is a form of relaxation or a stress buster; however the so called relaxing feeling of nicotine wears off shortly leaving a person with a very harmful and costly habit or to put it in other words, an addiction. Smoking has a lot of strange effects on a human body and mind. Smoking cigarettes lead to lung cancer and other breathing or respiratory diseases.

The strangeness continues as just the lung cancer or the respiratory diseases are just the two most common effects that are cited and quoted world over. However, smoking is also known for increasing the chance of a stroke and heart sicknesses. If the exposure to cigarette has been done in one’s childhood then, there’s a good chance of developing grim asthma and allergies as well as nose, throat and ear infections. These do not cause death, but, their effects in a human body are much worse.

Smoking not only leads to one’s death, eventually, but also makes the person look ugly before the grand finale .Smoking causes yellowing of the teeth which slowly turns brown. Cigarette smoke prevents gums from receiving all necessary nutrients, making them weaker and eventually resulting in inadequate periodontal support for your teeth.. About 18-year-old smokers lose 5 teeth before they turn 35. Smoking slows down the healing as inhaling the smoke prevents blood from circulating openly in the gums and mouth.

The damage smoking does to the physical appearance of a person is beyond repair as nicotine has negative effect on blood circulation. A person’s skin and hair suffer first when the nutrients don’t arrive there in enough quantities. The skin changes colour into a paler and duller shade, and hair start breaking and getting thinner. The effect takes a few years, so many smokers don’t attribute their hair issues to smoking, but in truth the only reason for hairs breaking ups is the smoke.

So to put an end to all these strange and disastrous effects that is caused by smoking cigarettes, one has to give up smoking as soon as possible, before it’s too late. By stopping to smoke, one regains all the necessary nutrients to get the body back to life in no time. Smoking cigarette is just not worth anybody’s life.