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n death, there is nothing new and surprising.  Nicotine is a natural stimulant found mainly in tobacco, and it one of the most widely used psychoactive drugs in the World, nicotine is also a carcinogen. How does nicotine compare with other stimulants? Nicotine is a potent drug. It is so toxic that it sometimes used as an insecticide! In large doses it causes stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea, cold sweats, dizziness, confusions, and tremors. In very large doses, nicotine may cause convulsions, respiratory failure, and death. For a nonsmoker, 50 to 75 milligrams of nicotine taken in a single dose could be lethal. (Chain smoking, which means one smokes anywhere from 17 to 25 cigarettes a day, will produce this deadly dosage.) Most first-time smokers get sick on 1 or 2 cigarettes. In contrast, heavy smokers may inhale 40 cigarettes a day without feeling it, but it is having a devastating impact on their mind, body and lungs.  However, this indicates that smokers build a tolerance for nicotine, but that does not negate the fact that it is hurting your body.  Cigarettes contain over 4,000 poisonous chemicals including formaldehyde, arsenic, tar, cyanide, carbon monoxide, nicotine, ammonia, benzene, acetone, and thousands of others that have never been studied. Smoking also causes your skin to wrinkle and you may prematurely age.

Is it true that nicotine can be addicting? Abuse—a vast array of evidence confirms that nicotine is extremely addictive, and for many smokers, withdrawal from nicotine causes headaches, sweating, cramps, insomnia, digestive upset, irritability, and sharp cravings for cigarettes. These symptoms last from 2 to 6 weeks and can be worse than heroin withdrawal.  So you can get an idea of how powerful nicotine is, we need to discuss heroin for a moment. Heroin (discetylmorphine) is derived from the morphine alkaloid found in opium and is roughly 2-3 times more potent. Heroin is highly addictive; so just because nicotine is legal, does not mean it is safe, as it is more addictive than some other powerful illegal drugs. While on the topic of heroin, just to show you how dangerous nicotine and heroin is we need to talk about a current event.  Just today, 13 January 2015, law enforcement officials arrested 23 drug dealers for selling heroin in the Northern Westchester area, and seized more than $1 million dollars’ worth of drugs.  Also, you have to be very careful with nicotine because sometimes it is laced with heroin. Quitting smoking can be very difficult, but it is possible. Nicotine is so addictive that relapse patterns are nearly identical for alcoholics, heroin addicts, cocaine abusers, and tobacco users. A staggering 80 percent of people who quit smoking relapse within a year, but it is possible to quit, you just have to be determined. And if you are not a smoke, please do not try any kind of drugs, as it can be a battle to let them go. Impact on healthy—a burning cigarette releases a variety of potent carcinogens, which are cancer causing substances.

Lung cancer and other cancers caused by smoking are not considered the single most preventable cause of death in North America. Among men, 97 percent of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking. For women, 74 percent of all lung cancers are due to smoking. Here are some facts about smoking: every cigarette reduces a smoker’s life expectancy by 7 minutes. Something is the number one cause of death in North America—more than the number of deaths from alcohol, drugs, car accident and AIDS combined. In the United States of America alone, smoking related deaths cost total $50 billion a year, and taxpayers pick up 43 percent of the bill, which equals about $21.5 billion a year. Nicotine is so addictive that 40 percent of the people who develop throat cancers try smoking again. The good news, each year, 25 percent of the people stop smoking are successful.  The reason it is so hard to stop smoking is because many tobacco companies manipulate nicotine levels in their cigarettes to keep the smokers addicted. Daily exposure to second-hand smoke, at home or work, causes a 24 to 39 percent increase in cancer risk to non-smokers.  One billion people around the World smoke and 5 million people die each year from tobacco related illness, and secondhand smoke kills 600,000 people each year. Smoking can also cause babies to born with defects, low birth weight and unformed lungs, so it can also kill your unborn baby.

If you think smoking is harmless, or that there is no connection between smoking and cancer, you are kidding yourself. The link between tobacco smoking and cancer is undeniable. Skeptics please note: Wayne McLaren, who portrayed the rugged Marlboro Man, in cigarette advertisements, died of lung cancer at age 51. Smokers do not just risk their own health, they also endanger those nearby. Secondary smoke causes 20 percent of all lung cancers. Non-smoking women, who are married to smokers, suffer a 30 percent increase in their risk of developing lung cancer. Babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are three times more likely to die of sudden infant death syndrome. It is highly irresponsible of smokers to expose young children to second-hand smoke. And more people die from fires caused by people, who fall asleep smoking, than fires caused by anything else. Is it better for a person to quit smoking abruptly (cold turkey) or taper down gradually? Quitting smoking—for many years, smokers were advised to quit cold turkey. We know that quitting all at once is not always better than tapering off. Going cold turkey makes quitting an all-or-nothing proposition. Smokers who smoke even one cigarette after they have quit tend to feel they have failed. Many figure they may as well continue smoking. Those who quit gradually accept that success may take many attempts, spread over several months. Sometimes it may take years to successfully stop smoking.

Sometimes people only smoke out of peer pressure or to fit in. There was once a guy who had no friends, and the one he did have smoke daily, so in order to hang out with them and fit in, he started smoking, too. Then it became a habit. It took him 13 years to drop the habit because everyone thought that it was cool to smoke. If you have friends who smoke, and you are trying to stop, I suggest you stay away from them, and spend time with them where you all cannot smoke, so you do not relapse. New strategies to stop smoking—if you smoke, and would like to quit, here are some basic steps you can take: delay having that first cigarette of the day. Then try to delay a little longer each day. Also, when you pick up the cigarette think about all the black tar that you are ingesting in your lungs, then gradually reduce the total number of cigarettes you smoke each day. Quit smoking completely, but for just one week. Then quit again, a week at a time, for as many times necessary to make it stick. You may find that your nerves are bad, after you stop smoking, so consider meditation, religion, or even an anti-anxiety medication, until you are able to deal with the stress of day-to-day life.

Gradually stretching the time periods between cigarettes is the key part of the program. Immediately after you stop smoking, your body and lungs start to heal and repair. You blood pressure will go down, carbon monoxide levels in the blood reduce to about half and oxygen levels return to normal in just 8 hours after you stop smoking. After 48 hours, your chances of having a heart attack will already have decreased. All nicotine will have been purged from the body and sense of taste and smell begin to return. After 72 hours, of quitting smoking, bronchial tubes will relax and energy levels increase. Lung capacity will also increase.  After two weeks of being smoke free, circulation is greatly improved and will continue to improve for about 10 weeks. Within 3 to 9 months, lung capacity will improve by about 10 percent and coughing, wheezing, and breathing problems related to smoking will resolver. Cilia in the lungs regenerate. There is also an increased ability to detoxify the lungs and reduced risk of infection.

Pregnant women who quit before the fourth month of pregnancy greatly reduce the risk of stillbirth and low birth weight associated with smoking. After 1 year, chances of having a heart attack will have decreased by 50 percent. After 5 years, chances of having a stroke will be that of a non-smoker, and chances of mouth and bladder cancer will decline as well. In 10 years, chances of lung cancer will be the same of a non-smoker, and after 15 years of not smoking, chances of having a heart attack will decrease to that of a nonsmoker. So save your lungs and body and reduce your health care cost by not smoking, and you will also save money. Pack a day smokers will save $180.00 a month, once they stop smoking. The LORD will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior, he will stir up zeal; with a shout, he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies. However, now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools. I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths, I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. There are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. –The Bible