Why is smoking addictive?

Before giving explanations, let's start with some depressing figures!

An addict person smoking his cigarette

• “Tobacco kills up to half of its users”
• “Tobacco kills around 6 million people each year. More than 5 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke”. (World Health Organisation, 2015)

Now you're warned, so we can move on!

Firstly you have to know that there are two main kind of addiction: physical and psychological.

The physical addiction comes from the nicotine contained in the tobacco. This molecule is able to imitate a natural neurotransmitter named acetylcholine by biding itself to dopaminergic receptors. Once those receptors activated, a hormone named dopamine is released and create a similar feeling of pleasure as we feel when we are doing sport or when we are laughing, for example.

When a smoker quits smoking, his body needs its dose of nicotine to satisfy this feeling, otherwise, withdrawal symptoms will appear such as dizziness, insomnia, constipation, cough, hunger and temper.

Some animal experimentations show that the nicotine is not the only one cigarette component which create addiction. The cigarette smoke contains more than 4000 different substances. Two of them are able to block molecules in charge of degrading dopamine contained in the blood. So the more dopamine stays in the blood, the more feeling of pleasure will last. And we don’t even know yet how many of the other substances create addiction too…

The psychological addiction consists in assimilate the cigarette as a solution to fight against stress, sadness, boredom, anger etc. Moreover, a smoker’s brain positively associates the cigarette with all he lives so smoking become a habit and even a reflex. That is why for example, some smokers can’t drink their coffee or finish a good meal without smoking.

For further information and advice to stop smoking, you can read the report published by Action on Smoking on Health organisation in January 2016 ;)

Do you know benefits of quitting smoking?

• After 48 hours : Senses of taste and smell are improving
• After between 2 weeks and 3 months: The functioning of the lungs can be improved up to 30%
• After 1 year: The risk of cardiovascular disease is reduced by half
• After 5 years: The risk of mouth, lung, throat and esophageal cancers is reduced by half
• After 10 years: The risk of a lung cancer is similar to the one of a non-smoker