From childhood, parents, teachers, educators have warned us about the harmful effects and toxic properties of such a bad habit as smoking. Nicotine, which is part of tobacco products, has a negative effect not only on a person’s voice and appearance from an aesthetic point of view, but also in the most negative way affects his health. The lungs, the circulatory system, the cardiovascular system, and the brain cells are affected.
In the most severe and neglected cases, smoking turns into a gangrene for a smoker with amputation of limbs, blood poisoning, strokes, heart attacks and, ultimately, leads to death. Not the least role in this regard is played by the effect of nicotine on blood vessels. How does smoking affect their functionality and purpose in the body?
Blood vessels and their role in the circulatory system
Narrows or dilates nicotine vessels? We all repeatedly listened to lectures, read in newspapers and browsed the net for information on how dangerous smoking is for any organism. But few of us really delve into the essence of the problem and try to establish causal relationships that cause specific harm to human health. But under attack is one of the most important components of the cardiovascular system - blood vessels. What is their significance and what is their role?
Blood vessels are represented by tubular formations that extend throughout the human body and are the location location for the movement of blood. That is, it is an organic widely branched network along which it is transported from one organ to another. Based on the fact that this is a closed system, the pressure here is quite high, which ensures a fairly quick circulation of blood.
It so happens that over time, these paths in the form of vessels become clogged, like a water supply system, which is overgrown with rust and contamination from the inside due to the user factor. Everything is the same here: a person consumes the food and those substances that, due to the high concentration of harmful compounds in them, provoke the accumulation of deposits in blood vessels. And the higher the degree of consumption of such substances, the faster the blood network wears out.
However, how does nicotine affect blood vessels - expand or narrow them?
Nicotine nature
Nicotine contained in cigarettes is physically presented as an oily liquid with a bitter aftertaste. It is quite easy to mix with water, since its density is almost equal to the density of water, which is 1.01 g / cm 3 .
Nicotine is formed molecularly from two cycles: pyrrolidine and pyridine. This allows nicotine to form solid and water-soluble salts in reactions with acids. Pharmacologically, when ingested, this ability ensures the rapid spread of the substance through the blood. What does this mean in plain language? This suggests that even seven seconds after the initial inhalation of tobacco smoke is enough for the harmful substance to reach the brain. It is also noteworthy that in the case of chewing or snuffing tobacco, the level of nicotine in the body is much higher than with smoking procedures. The half-life from the body after the next cigarette smoking occurs after a two-hour time interval.
Nicotinic acid and nicotine: effect on blood vessels
Does the harmful component of the tobacco product expand or narrow the transport circulatory system of the body?
There is a misconception that nicotine is able to dilate blood vessels. If this were true, then, probably, pharmacists in drugstalls instead of a medication sold to customers with clogged vessels of cigarettes, and all the social advertisements, postings and numerous propaganda lectures would stop blowing the dangers of nicotine. Why do people mistakenly determine the effect of nicotine and interpret its effect in the completely opposite sense?
The thing is that it is confused with a substance such as nicotinic acid. And although the names of these compounds sound almost the same, their contents and orientation carry completely different meanings from each other. Nicotinic acid is a pharmacological drug, implemented in the form of capsules with liquid and called vitamin B3 in its pure form (otherwise it is also called as vitamin PP). Nicotinic acid is really capable of expanding blood vessels, it is found in many food products and is actively attached to the daily human diet for intake into the body in the form of meat, fish and other food items.
While nicotine works in the opposite direction: when you inhale tobacco smoke, it provokes a spasmodic reaction of blood vessels, they contract and form the narrowest passage for blood flow. It is precisely because of the confusion with the similar names of two completely different substances that many incorrectly interpret the functional side of each of them and when asked whether the nicotine dilates or narrows the vessels, they answer radically incorrectly.
Let's continue. There is another feature: if we talk about the brain and blood vessels, nicotine causes the arteries to expand literally for a split second so that then the spasmodic rush instantly narrows them even more intensely. And yet it is more likely a reflex of blood vessels to a spasm, which, however it may be, results in their narrowing.
The harmful effects of nicotine
Let's see what happens to the vessels at the moment when the smoking process is carried out.
Imagine a workable water pump operating under the influence of a motor. He pumps water and transports it from one point to another. During normal operation, its walls contract and are reflected externally by pulsating dynamic movements. The same thing happens with arteries during their normal performance: they perform the transporting function of blood from one organ to another, saturating them with oxygen and useful nutrients. At the moment when a person takes a puff, part of the nicotine formed during the pyrolysis process (burned under the influence of high temperature smoke) enters the lungs, and already in a moment by seeping through the alveoli into the blood, it is deployed in the vessels of the brain.
What happens with this? The vessels are spasmodic, and the spasms themselves provoke their narrowing and expansion. Craving for craving, vascular contraction is carried out more intensively and intensively. Constantly narrowing arteries impede the movement of blood flow, oxygen starvation occurs. At some point, the smoker feels a slight euphoria, relaxation, a slightly noticeable intoxication. Meanwhile, the water moved through the previously mentioned water pump undergoes obstacles in its way, the load on the motor doubles, it starts to work more actively and uses the reserve power. The heart has no reserve. His intensive work and the load exerted on him are accompanied by heart palpitations, high blood pressure and high-frequency pulsation. This is how hypertension develops.
Obliteration and Gangrene
It also happens that during the active inhalation of tobacco smoke and the introduction of nicotine into the cardiovascular system, the walls of the arteries are so strongly spasmed and narrowed that they literally collapse together, forming an impenetrable “plug” inside the vessel. This is called obliteration. If such a collapse is formed somewhere in the internal organ, the body is able to supply blood from the other side and supply it with blood and oxygen, as this allows a branched vascular system. But if obliteration occurs in the fingers of the limbs, there is nowhere to take from the end of the phalanx of blood. The vessels collapse and a very serious disease called “obliterating endarteritis” develops. The popular name for this ailment is “smoker's legs” (“smoker's hands”). The last stage of this disease is called gangrene. When the legs of the gangrene limb are affected, amputations are performed. If the amputation operation is not timely performed, this threatens the smoker with blood poisoning and death.
You ask how nicotine acts on blood vessels, how it affects human health? The answer is disappointing: in the most pernicious way, even fatal.
Atherosclerosis
The harmful effects of nicotine on blood vessels and the effect on the circulatory system as a whole do not end with just a possible obliteration or gangrene. In fact, there are many truly serious diseases, and the degree of danger to the human body is not inferior to one another.
Let's turn to analog thinking again. Imagine a water pipe. If purified, filtered water flows through it, it will not be able to expose the pipe to deformations for a long time. But if water containing harmful elements is launched into it, it will lead to metal corrosion on the pipe walls and become overgrown with salt and mud deposits, narrowing the diameter of the pipe and preventing the water from freely passing, slowing down its course.
A similar situation occurs with arteries in which nicotine has fallen. Does this malignant substance expand or contract the vessels of the brain? In addition to the fact that it significantly spasms and thereby narrows them in diameter, it also causes oxygen starvation of vascular cell walls. This contributes to their partial necrosis - withering away, and holes form in their places (like rust in a water pipe). To make up for the dead areas, growths are formed in their place. These are atherosclerotic cholesterol plaques. Gradually, these growths increase in volume and lead to further blockage of blood vessels. As a result, atherosclerosis develops, and hence the heart attack and stroke.
There is no doubt: nicotine, getting into the blood stream, constricts blood vessels.
Angina pectoris
Among other things, the detrimental effect of nicotine on blood vessels is also manifested in damage to the heart muscle - myocardium. Two coronary arteries, which are branches of the aorta, supply the main “motor” of the body with oxygen and nutrients. Like plants, these two arteries wrap around the heart and go deep into the heart muscle. During smoking, the coronary vessels are also subject to narrowing, while the heart muscle at the same time works with increased load. When patency of the coronary bed is impaired, the muscle lacks arterial blood, resulting in oxygen starvation. In response to it, a sharp sharp pain instantly manifests itself - such a reaction is called angina pectoris. This is not only a separate ailment that proceeds on its own and does not pass into other forms. On the contrary, angina pectoris (or, as it is also called, angina pectoris) can lead to subsequent diseases such as atherosclerotic cardiosclerosis, myocardial infarction, and thromboembolism. And the reason for everything is what nicotine does with blood vessels: it provokes a lack of blood flow to the heart muscle.
Stroke
If we talk about the vessels of the brain, the effect of nicotine on them is reflected in no less complex forms. As in the case of two coronary arteries of the heart, here the two cerebral arteries are divided into many private vessels encircling the brain. Nicotine, which, due to frequent and prolonged smoking, causes the viscosity of the blood and makes it thicker, can lead to the formation of a blood clot - a blood clot. A blood clot moves with blood flow through the vessels, but the point is that blood clots tend to get stuck in narrowed places. Clogging the passage for blood flow, a blood clot blocks its entry into individual parts of the brain. In some cases, it contributes to rupture of the vessel and hemorrhage in the brain. This is a stroke.
Stroke areas of the brain that are not saturated for some time with nutrients and oxygen die off. So, some functions of the musculoskeletal system of a person (partial paralysis), speech apparatus, etc. disappear.
Thus, the effect of nicotine on the vessels of the brain is no less dangerous than on the cardiovascular system.
Side effects
What does nicotine do with blood vessels? In addition, in the process of smoking in a person, a lot of changes are made in the body. Together with toxins, carcinogens, resins, nicotine, when ingested, has irreparable harm to the health of the smoker himself. How is this manifested? What is the effect of nicotine on blood vessels?
- An increase in blood pressure is noted.
- The risk of sudden cerebral hemorrhage increases.
- The accumulation of growths (cholesterol plaques) on the walls of blood vessels increases, the total level of cholesterol in the blood increases.
- Due to clogging of blood vessels by blood clots, a significant risk of ischemic stroke increases at times.
- Blood acquires a viscous structure, becomes thicker, which contributes to the direct formation of blood clots.
- Vessels lose their elasticity, become incredibly fragile due to total thinning, which is almost irreversible.
If we talk about the more obvious consequences of the ingress of nicotine into the body, it is worth noting serious deterioration in the processes of memory transformation, brain cell regeneration and holistic mental development. That is, smoking contributes to the death of brain cells and provokes the start of the degradation process.
Nervous system and nicotine
Since nicotine is considered a neurotoxic poison that can destroy the harmonious flow of the central nervous system (CNS), it often causes the death of neurons. When people talk about addiction to cigarettes, they mean organic addiction to nicotine.
As you know, this harmful substance has a stimulating effect on the human central nervous system, being a specific pathogen. As mentioned earlier, initially a smoker experiences a feeling of high spirits, lightness, and euphoria. But subsequently, these sensations are sharply replaced by a state of oppression. This is due to the fact that blood vessels narrow under the influence of nicotine. Nicotine stimulates and accelerates the conduction of nerve impulses. However, subsequently, the brain process is greatly inhibited, the brain includes the function of rest, this is its physiological need.
All these interconnections lead to the fact that in the future the brain is already getting used to and requires the next portion of nicotine, since it is "lazy" to work independently, without doping. Therefore, there is such a familiar feeling of anxiety and nervousness in a person who has not smoked for a long time: his attention is scattered, his concentration on zero, and his irritability increased.
Under regular exposure to nicotine, a person receives, as a result, nervous overwork and neurasthenia. Something like a vicious circle is forming: people who smoke a lot of work start smoking even more often, in order to give an stimulus to the body, and as a result they get even more overwork. It is followed by memory disorders, headaches, sleep disturbances, frequent mood swings and decreased performance. Hence the more serious diseases: sciatica, neuritis, polyneuritis.
The autonomic nervous system also suffers, giving results in the form of disorders of the cardiovascular system and impaired functioning of the digestive system. Sensory organs also suffer: nicotine affects visual acuity (sharply decreases), hearing (similar to vision), taste and smell (significantly worsen). So, acting on the nervous system as a drug, nicotine can make a person completely dependent on a bad habit, directly affecting the strength of his will and practically depriving him of the ability to resist. After all, it is not only memory and attention that suffers, the perniciousness of its influence is reflected in mental and intellectual activity, on logical thinking.
How smoking cessation is reflected in the vessels
Attempts to quit addiction promise a smoker to get rid of problems with many body functions, because the dependence of the duration of smoking and aggravation of the state of health are directly proportional to each other.
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- A month without nicotine is accompanied by a complete cleansing of accumulated chemical components and toxins, as well as a significant improvement in well-being and the return of taste and olfactory receptors to normal.
- A year without nicotine is marked by an increase in muscle mass, strengthening immunity and the absence of lethargy.
Specifically, the vessels are restored in part of the endothelial layer - microcracks are tightened. Blood thickened as a result of prolonged smoking becomes less viscous, and the risk of platelets is significantly reduced.
Blood pressure is restored, the heart is no longer overloaded with excessive efforts of pushing blood through narrowed vessels. Accordingly, the osmotic pressure also does not increase.