Why is it so hard for poeple to quit smoking? What happens inside the brain? -
I know it-s because of nicotine... but what-s happening inside the brain?
It really isn-t hard to quit if you have the right kind of help.
Visit http://www.mytimetoquit-tv.com to find out how.
It sure helped me. I hope it helps you as well.
Good Luck!
Nicotine is a powerful drug found in all tobacco products. It is a highly addictive drug like cocaine and heroine! Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals in addition to nicotine, some toxic and known to cause cancer.Over 4000,000 Americans die each year from smoking related illnesses.Over 50,000 Americans die each year from illnesses caused by second hand smoke.Many people will quit 5 to 7 times before quitting for good.Nicotine releases certain hormones in the brain which give senses of a high! These hormones give you a sense of euphoria like other drugs! I am trying to quit there is much help out there today! GL
It is hard because, nicotine is an addictive drug.You just want more and more.the chemicals in nicotine are also killing the brain cells.
Smoking alters brain -like drugs-
Cigarettes were found to affect brain chemicals
Smoking cigarettes causes the same changes to the brain as using illicit drugs like cocaine, a study suggests.
US researchers compared post-mortem brain tissue samples from smokers, former smokers and non-smokers.
Their findings, published in Journal of Neuroscience, suggested smoking causes changes to the brain which are evident years after someone has quit.
A UK expert said the changes might explain why smokers found it hard to stop - and why they then relapsed.
The researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Nida) looked at samples of human brain tissue from the nucleus accumbens and the ventral midbrain - brain regions that play a part in controlling addictive behaviours.
Eight samples were taken from people who had smoked until their deaths, eight from people who had smoked for up to 25 years before their death and eight non-smokers.
All died of causes unrelated to smoking.
Relapse
The scientists looked at levels of two enzymes - protein kinase A and adenylate cyclase. Both translate chemical signals, such as dopamine, which exist outside the cells, into a form that can be understood inside.
It would be surprising if taking large doses of a drug such as nicotine many times a day over many years did not result in lasting changes in the brain
Dr John Stapleton, National Addictions Centre
Smokers were found to have higher levels of these enzymes in the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain that processes information related to motivation and reward, which virtually all illicit drugs act upon.
But levels of both enzymes were also found to be high in the area of the midbrain that responds to dopamine, which acts as a -reward chemical- in smokers and former smokers.
The same changes had previously been seen in the brains of rats given repeated injections of cocaine and morphine.
Writing in the Journal of Neuroscience, the team led by Dr Bruce Hope, said: -The present study confirms that drug-induced neuroadaptations [brain changes] observed in animals can also be observed in humans.-
The researchers suggest that the differences seen in both smokers- and non-smokers- brains -may contribute to long-lasting alterations in nicotine-induced reward and addiction in humans-.
The researchers say this suggests that the changes persist long after smoking has ceased and could contribute to drug relapse.
Dr John Stapleton, of the National Addictions Centre at King-s College London, said: -It would be surprising if taking large doses of a drug such as nicotine many times a day over many years did not result in lasting changes in the brain.
-The new results may take us closer to understanding these changes.
-The key question remains as to whether such changes are partly responsible for the intractable nature of smoking and relapse after many months or years of stopping.-
Nicotine acts on Acetylcholine receptors in the brain.
Our brain cells and nerves often use Acetylcholine to tell the other cells around them to turn on.
As we smoke nicotine, it makes our body adjust to the action by reducing its own Acetylcholine out put to avoid over stimulation.
So when we stop smoking nicotine we have a deficient of nerve and brain action causing a bad mood and sick feeling.
This is what makes it so so addicting.
its partly because of the nicotine, but alot of it is the ritual itself. Smokers get used to the ritual of having a cig after every meal, etc. and it becomes hard to stop.
Quitting smoking is like trying to quit heroin. Receptors in the brain make you crave the nicotine. Nicotine patches slowly release nicotine to keep the receptors from driving you crazy with desire to smoke to give them the nicotine they are craving. Check out www.mytimetoquit.com.
In addition to nicotine, you are taking up to 4000 other chemicals into your body with the smoke. We don-t know the addictive affects of them yet. Also, doing the same thing repettively 10 or more times a day, forms a habit. And even further, we use tobacco to reward ourselves, soothe our nerves, etc.
So, basically we develop links with tobacco to almost everything we do. The addiction goes real deep and is very hard to break up, but you can do it.
well there addited and its hard to stop.