Puff puff vegetable puff
Puff puff cheese puff
Puff puff cigarette puff
Cough cough coughcoughcough

Didn’t understand?

Let me explain.. this post is dedicated to cigarette smoking.

I’ll get down to the facts straight away shall I?

Right

Its common knowledge that cigarette smoking is an addictive habit due to the presence of nicotine. infact, nicotine is far more addictive than heroin and cocaine..don’t believe me? As an instance of its addictivity its been found that even gorillas who learnt to smoke from the supposedly superior version-humans couldn’t give it up? Funny eh? To imagine a gorilla smoking? However, how many of you, the smoker (pardon me if you aren’t one) know that you are addicted to something which was earlier used as insecticide??

Shocked?

Don’t be. You asked for it.

A lot of people are aware of the comments one receives from a smoker when asked the reason as to why they smoke the instant reply- “ its relaxing, reduces stress, feels good blah blah blah” why my dear b**d (sorry for the foul language but lets say smokers don’t feature in my favourites) have you ever bothered to wonder why you find it so? And has it ever struck you that a small part of the “relaxing” feel you get is because you for a change actually deep breathe? I accept that nicotine too does have its effect and this I shall attempt to enlighten by providing an excerpt from Wikipedia-

“When a cigarette is smoked, nicotine-rich blood passes from the lungs to the brain within seven seconds and immediately stimulates the release of many chemical messengers including acetylcholine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, vasopressin, arginine, dopamine, and beta-endorphin. This results in enhanced pleasure, decreased anxiety, and a state of alert relaxation.”

Also, I found this bit which describes the breathing habits of the smoker while puffing a cigarette –

“Reasearch suggests that when smokers wish to acheive a stimulating effect, they take short quick puffs, which produces a low level of blood nicotine. This stimulates nerve transmission. When they wish to relax, they take deep puffs, which produce a high level of blood nicotine, which depresses the passage of nerve impulses, producing a mild sedative effect”
Understood now? Hopefully yes.

Please people, I know that a stranger’s appeal and explanation wouldn’t help the cause- that’s exactly the reason why I have included excerpts from Wikipedia in case you doubt the facts presented here.

Its very well known that smoking leads to cancer. No question or doubts about that but just to make things clearer let me tell you that it is not nicotine which induces the possibility of cancer but other substances in your beloved cigarette. Also, I have this tiny question to pose to you, smokers.. why do you want to smoke with all its negatives(as iv mentioned below) plus bad breath plus health hazards plus looking absolutely foolish and dumb plus lose respect all for that hardly three inch thing filled with tobacco?

In small concentrations nicotine increases the activity of receptors, among other things leading to an increased flow of adrenaline , a stimulating hormone. The release of adrenaline causes an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and respiration, as well as higher glucose levels in the blood. This explains the alertness and te request of doctors to diabetics and blood pressure patients to quit smoking. Doesn’t it? Don’t you have a loved one who smokes? Even if he or she doesn’t have diabetes or blood pressure problems, they are definitely on their way to get it.
First causing a release of glucose from the liver and adrenaline from the adrenal medulla, it causes stimulation. Subjectively, users report feelings of relaxation, calmness, and alertness. It is even reported to produce a mildly euphoric state. By reducing the appetite and raising the metabolism, some smokers may lose weight as a consequence. It also allows the mouth to be stimulated without food and the taste of tobacco smoke may curb the appetite as a result of which the unhealthy weight loss occurs.

In addition, nicotine increases dopamine ( a neurotransmitter related to aroma ie neurons which transmit the electric signals to identify aroma) levels in the reward circuits of the brain. Studies have shown that smoking tobacco inhibits monoamine oxidase (MAO), an enzyme responsible for breaking down monoaminergic neurotransmitters such as dopamine, in the brain. It is currently believed that nicotine by itself does not inhibit the production of monoamine oxidase (MAO), but that other ingredients in inhaled tobacco smoke are believed to be responsible for this activity. In this way, it generates feelings of pleasure, similar to that caused by cocaine and heroin, thus causing the addiction associated with the need to sustain high dopamine levels.

We all know that nicotine may be absorbed in the body through smoking but the actual process is as follows –

As nicotine enters the body, it is distributed quickly through the bloodstream and can cross the blood-brain barrier. On average it takes about seven seconds for the substance to reach the brain when inhaled. The half life of nicotine in the body is around two hours[2]. The amount of nicotine inhaled with tobacco smoke is a fraction of the amount contained in the tobacco leaves. The amount of nicotine absorbed by the body from smoking depends on many factors, including the type of tobacco, whether the smoke is inhaled, and whether a filter is used.

Smokers you may have noticed don’t stop with just one a day. If that’s the case then definitely the damage will take a looong time to occur. However they go onto smoke upto a minimum of 15-20 cigarettes a day. The reason for this is their attempt to make sure they experience pleasure right through the day. The effect of nicotine may last for any period between five minutes and two hours.

2 facts about smoking which gets my blood boiling are 1.the fact that the smoke exhaled by these balsted smokers not only kill them but kill those around aswell only much slower. And 2. the to-be-mothers who smoke! Shame on you! You who is supposed to take care of your child(even if unborn its still your child) are killing it or atleast giving it a possibility to be born with abnormalities. And most probably if your baby is born abnormally then you would dispose of it by throwing it into the cradles of the considerate orphanages. Shame on you. And would-be-fathers, if you think that the responsibility of not smoking lies only on the woman, I pity you for your ignorance. Do you, my men have the knowledge that your smoking is endangering your chances of fathering a child by reducing your sperm count? If not.. now you know J

Since iv mentioned all the possible ill effects of smoking, maybe its rightful for me to outline the only possible positive of smoking- the increased state of alertness increases memory. That’s it. The only positive.

The effects of smoking iv covered but what had me interested and thinking about this apart from the health aspect was to figure out why people really smoke. I could unfortunately come up with only one point- to be a part of the crowd who believed themselves to be cool unfortunately not realizing that theres nothing cooler than sticking up for the right kinda stuff and being healthy..sad sad.. sigh.. what would happen to the numerous youngsters who fall prey to this malicious fictitious belief? Pity pity

aaah.. now I shall rest in peace.. in all honesty, this is one topic which iv wanted to address for quite some time and create awareness amongst smokers and people in general.. finally iv done so (atleast i hope so).. please do remember what iv mentioned here and maybe all of us can persuade those smokers to quit smoking. Please, this is our world with our people. Lets make it a better place to live in with healthier and happier people!!

Ps- sorry for the humungous post but I wanted all the info I knew and found to be shared!
Thanks for reading! do comment!