One of the most dangerous and widespread addictions of mankind is smoking. Many men and women every day, smoking a cigarette after a cigarette, lose their health. Of course, smoking or not smoking, on the one hand, is everyone’s personal business, but, on the other hand, the nation is becoming more and more sick every year, and smoking plays a significant role here. The main thing is that no one denies that smoking kills sooner or later, but not everyone can end this dangerous habit. As a result, while millions of people die from cancer and chronic bronchitis, someone receives huge incomes from the production and sale of tobacco products, without thinking about the moral side of such a business.
The concept of secondhand smoke
In addition, when deciding to smoke or not smoke, think about loved ones, because cigarette smoke negatively affects not only the person who smokes, but also causes irreparable damage to the health of people nearby. So, to date, it has already been proved that people around a smoking person, breathing in smoke, can get all the diseases characteristic of a smoker. This is due to the fact that only a quarter of harmful tobacco smoke enters the smoker's body, while the rest of it flies into the air, harming loved ones. To this phenomenon, scientists gave the name "second-hand smoke".
In rooms with closed windows, a dangerous concentration of smoke for the body of non-smokers is achieved by smoking only two cigarettes. Thus, even if only one person smokes, the remaining family members passively “smoke” about ten cigarettes per day.
The history of tobacco in Russia
In Russia, tobacco addiction was not encouraged for a long time. So, at the beginning of the 17th century, tobacco smoking was punishable by corporal punishment, and at the end of the century, smokers were threatened with the death penalty or cutting off their nose. Moreover, tobacco could not only be smoked, but also traded and stored at home. Tobacco use was banned until Peter the Great came to power. As you know, the emperor loved European customs and tried to bring them to Russian soil, and in relation to tobacco, he also lifted all the bans. Peter himself was also addicted to nicotine, as a result of which smoking very quickly became fashionable. He even created a series of decrees regulating the distribution and smoking of tobacco. For example, inhaling and exhaling smoke was allowed only through special pipes designed for smoking. This situation of tobacco in Russia persisted until the end of the 20th century.
The first tobacco processing factories were built in 1705 in St. Petersburg and Akhtyrka. In addition, in the same year, a decree was issued on the distribution of tobacco through burmistra.
By the middle of the 18th century, smoking in Russia was already widespread. Not a single holiday or meeting was complete without this drug.
Catherine continued to promote tobacco use by allowing free sale, which led to the establishment of private tobacco workshops. By the way, at that time the question of smoking or not smoking was especially relevant, since tobacco was not only smoked, but also sniffed.
It should be noted that imported tobacco was first used, but by the end of the 18th century local tobacco was no worse than foreign tobacco. The most popular type of smoking mixture was Ammersford tobacco, popularly called "shag".
Since then, smoking in Russia is constantly gaining momentum, subordinating drug addiction to new people.
Reasons for people to smoke
Most often, people start smoking, imitating friends and acquaintances, then a conditioned reflex is developed . If we talk about long-term smoking, then here we are talking about drug addiction.
Most people smoke simply because they are used to it. They do not get any pleasure from nicotine, however quitting this habit lacks willpower. In reality, they simply do not have enough reasons to refuse cigarettes. This is proved by the fact that people who receive treatment with serious illnesses caused by smoking instantly forget about their bad habit. About 70% of people do not have a real need for tobacco, and therefore can easily quit smoking. This is also evidenced by the numerous reviews of previously smokers who parted with this habit, quite easily. Therefore, you need to realize the danger of this hobby and quit smoking as soon as possible.
Smoking narcotic herb
For the first time, hemp for smoking began to be used in America in the 70s. Prior to this, the plant was used exclusively in medicine and for the manufacture of hemp oil. The young people who created the hippie movement began to practice smoking marijuana as a means of relaxation. As a result, this drug takes the second place in the world in use, giving way only to tobacco.
If you recall the Soviet era, then hemp freely grew in the gardens of rural residents as weed and bird food. To date, the cultivation of this plant is prosecuted by law, as it turned out that the cannabis contains narcotic substances that can change the mind and psyche of the smoker. In addition, after they enter the human body, there is a decrease in blood pressure, heart pain, memory loss, rapid pulse, which can lead to death. Also, long-term smoking of marijuana causes lung and larynx cancer, infertility, mental disorder, a sense of meaninglessness in life, which ends in deep depression and often suicide. The existing opinion that smoking cannabis is safe is nothing but a myth.
How tobacco affects human health
Before deciding whether or not to smoke, you need to know that there are no organs in the human body that tobacco smoke would not have a negative effect on.
Since the oxygen content is lowered in the smoker's blood, a spasm of the vessels of the brain occurs, which affects memory, performance and the state of the nervous system. A person feels irritability, suffers from headaches and insomnia.
Passing through the respiratory system, smoke containing harmful substances negatively affects all respiratory organs, irritating the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth, larynx, bronchi. The most harmless consequences of this effect can be frequent colds, in more serious cases, smoking leads to cancer.
In addition, with prolonged smoking, the glottis narrows and the voice, losing its sonority, becomes hoarse.
Also, constantly smoking people are characterized by a characteristic cough, which indicates inflammation of the airways, which eventually becomes chronic, causing pneumonia and bronchial asthma.
In addition, a systematically smoked person suffers from various diseases of the circulatory system: he may experience high blood pressure, as well as impaired cardiac activity, including the onset of heart attacks.
The smoker's gastrointestinal system suffers no less from the toxic substances contained in nicotine. Tobacco smoke irritates the salivary glands, causing an increased separation of saliva, which, when ingested, has a harmful effect on the digestive system. In addition, a person's teeth turn yellow, gums bleed, caries and bad breath appear.
In addition, the negative effect of smoking on the sexual activity and reproductive function of men is known.
The effect of cigarettes on the appearance of girls
It is proved that the harmful elements contained in tobacco negatively affect not only the internal organs, but also the appearance of a person. First of all, women are exposed to nicotine, on whose skin the drug leaves visible traces. It is scientifically proven that smoking girls have dry, earthy-colored skin, prone to early wrinkles. In addition, the skin loses its elasticity, nasolabial folds and bags appear under the eyes, cheeks flow, the aging process begins. In women suffering from this addiction, teeth deteriorate, split and tarnish hair, nails turn yellow and flake.
In addition, smoking significantly reduces the production of estrogen hormones, the lack of which not only promotes rapid aging, but also disrupts the menstrual cycle, leading to infertility.
Smoking girls should be careful with the sun, their skin under the influence of the sun in a few minutes undergoes oxidative processes. For the same reason, a tanning bed is contraindicated for them, as well as some cosmetic procedures. For example, smoking girls can not do face peeling using abrasive particles and various acids, as it is possible to severely injure thinned skin.
Smoking while carrying a child
Smoking, in principle, is a very bad habit for any girl. Moreover, it is dangerous if a woman is expecting a baby, since in this case she puts unjustified risk not only her own health, but also risks precious health, and often the life of an unborn baby. Doctors have proven that while the pregnant woman smokes, the baby in her womb coughs and sneezes, gasping for breath. As a result of this, oxygen in an amount sufficient for normal development ceases to flow to it, which leads not only to childbirth earlier than the due date, but can also contribute to fetal death. In addition, smoking mothers face the birth of an unhealthy child with insufficient weight.
It is believed that if a girl smoked before pregnancy, then stopping the intake of nicotine in the body can have a negative effect. Adhering to this theory, many girls in the position continue to smoke, at best, slightly reducing the number of cigarettes. In fact, if a pregnant smokes, then this can always have more dangerous consequences for the child than a sharp rejection of nicotine.
Smoking among children and youth
Since the majority of people start smoking even in childhood and school age, the fight against smoking must be started from a very early age. Children should be aware of the harmful effects of nicotine on smokers. Talking about the harmful effects of tobacco, it is necessary to convince children that smoking is very dangerous for health, for which it is advisable not only to conduct conversations, but also to use photographs and posters, as well as to show documentaries devoted to this topic.
Work should be carried out in close cooperation between parents, teachers and public organizations. As a result, students should understand that smoking is not an indicator of adulthood and prestige, but a suicide that spans over time.
Disappointing statistics
In the modern world, about three million people die every year from smoking, and according to estimates, in thirty years this figure will increase to ten million. Scientists calculated that, starting in 1950, smoking took the lives of sixty-two million people, which is much more than died in the Second World War. The most acute smoking problem is in Central and Eastern Europe, where about 700 thousand people die in a year from this addiction, which is a quarter of all deaths in the world.
In Russia, the use of nicotine is also growing every year. So, over the past seventeen years, the number of cigarettes consumed by the population has grown from one hundred and seventy to seven hundred billion a year.
Getting rid of tobacco addiction
The longer a person smokes, the stronger he turns out to be dependent on nicotine. In addition, every year the likelihood of self-disposal of addiction is significantly reduced. Many people, unable to get rid of addiction, smoke for decades in a row. And the point is not at all that they don’t understand that smoking and health are incompatible concepts, but just at first there isn’t enough strength of mind, then there comes a drug addiction to tobacco, with which only medical treatment can help.
Undoubtedly, there is a small percentage of people who, having once decided to give up tobacco, no longer return to smoking. In most cases, a smoker refuses nicotine only for a while, and at the slightest stress, or once in the appropriate company, returns to cigarettes again. In addition, a relapse of tobacco dependence can occur even several years after the last cigarette was smoked. Most often this happens under the influence of alcohol or stressful situations. Moreover, for the habit to return, just one cigarette is enough.
If for a person the answer to the question. smoking or not smoking, it’s definitely negative, but you can’t get rid of addiction on your own, do not waste time and put off visiting a medical institution.
Of course, there are various drugs that without a prescription and doctor’s prescription can be bought at any pharmacy, but they do not always help to get rid of addiction, in addition, some drugs have contraindications and serious side effects. Therefore, it is safer and more reliable to contact specialists. As a rule, clinics that relieve nicotine addiction use not only medications, but also hypnotics, as well as psychotherapeutic methods. Working with psychologists is especially important, since suggestion sessions allow you to rebuild the smoker's mindset and teach you to enjoy life without nicotine. It is such an integrated approach that allows you to permanently rid a person of tobacco dependence and restore lost health.