What is the history of tobacco?
About 5,000 years ago, the ancient Mayans thought that cigarettes could bring them closer to God and were a medium for communication. The Mayans placed cigarettes on the altar to worship God, and they smoked together. The Mayans relaxed through cigarettes because cigarettes played a role in relieving tension. Tobacco’s nicotine stimulated the sympathetic nerves, causing an awakening effect, and the Mayans believed hallucinations were a way to communicate with God (Boyle, 2012). Then Christopher Columbus arrived at the Mayan island and discovered cigarettes. As a result of Columbus bringing cigarettes back to Europe, the history of tobacco began (Alexander, 2017).
Do cigarettes really help relieve stress?
One of the main reasons people smoke is to relieve stress. Cigarettes are both thrilling and tensile. In other words, cigarettes cause immediate tension relaxation, resulting in decreased anxiety and stress. In addition, when we smoke, our brain produces a large amount of dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical found in our bodies that causes positive emotions such as laughter and pleasure (Brennan, 2021). As a result, we experience laughter and pleasure through dopamine and temporarily forget about stress, giving us the impression that stress has been reduced. However, while stress is temporarily relieved, dopamine levels gradually decline, resulting in increased stress.
Why do cigarettes cause addiction?
Nicotine, a cigarette substance, takes only 10 seconds to enter our brains via the blood vessels (Wright, 2022). This nicotine makes us feel better, more relaxed, and less stressed. However, nicotine-containing substances cause addiction if we smoke for an extended period of time. In other words, as the nicotine inhalation cycle slows, so do dopamine levels, resulting in negative emotions and withdrawal. That is why, even after quitting smoking, people relapse.
How are cigarettes related to disease?
Cigarettes have numerous harmful effects on the human body. All cigarettes, in particular, can be a gateway drug that can lead to disease. To begin, when carcinogens from cigarettes enter the body, they cause mutations in our DNA, resulting in cancer (Tontonoz, 2018). Furthermore, there is a high risk of cancer developing as a result of cigarette-caused damage to the lungs and larynx. Second, smoking has been linked to heart disease. Cigarette nicotine reduces the oxygen supply to the heart and raises blood pressure. Furthermore, the prevalence of heart disease may rise as a result of blood clotting and vascular cell damage (Beckerman, 2021).
What are some ways to quit smoking?
Nicotine, a component of tobacco, makes quitting smoking difficult. That is why we must identify the source of smoking and resolve it through means other than cigarettes. The majority of people smoke to relieve stress. That is why, instead of smoking, we should use methods to relieve tension and stress, such as taking a break. However, if we are resistant to nicotine addiction, we can use nicotine-containing gum and patches to help us quit smoking (Robinson, 2019).
Conclusion
Many people smoke to cope with stress, although they believe that their stress has been relieved only temporarily, so they continue to smoke to alleviate stronger pleasure and anxiety. However, cigarettes are harmful to our health. We can’t easily quit smoking due to nicotine addiction. We should, however, try to quit smoking and live a healthy lifestyle because cigarettes cause serious diseases such as cancer and heart disease.
References
Alexander, B. (2017). The History of Cigars: When Were Cigars Invented? [online] Holt’s Clubhouse. Available at: https://www.holts.com/clubhouse/cigar-culture/the-history-of-cigars-when-were-cigars-invented [Accessed 9 December 2022].
Beckerman, J. (2021). Smoking and Heart Disease. [online] WebMD. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/smoking-heart-disease [Accessed 9 December 2022].
Boyle, A. (2012). Nicotine buzz from 1,300 years ago. [online] NBC News. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/cosmic-log/nicotine-buzz-1-300-years-ago-flna6c10402483 [Accessed 9 December 2022].
Robinson, J. (2019). Slideshow: 13 Best Quit-Smoking Tips Ever. [online] WebMD. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/ss/slideshow-13-best-quit-smoking-tips-ever [Accessed 9 December 2022].
Tontonoz, M. (2018). How Do Cigarettes Cause Cancer? | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. [online] www.mskcc.org. Available at: https://www.mskcc.org/news/how-do-cigarettes-cause-cancer [Accessed 9 December 2022].
Wright, S. (2022). Nicotine and Tobacco Addiction: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment. [online] WebMD. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/treat-nicotine-addiction [Accessed 9 December 2022].
