Substance Abuse: -Smoking

Substance abuse is commonly called as Drug abuse .The topic I have chosen for Substance abuse is smoking tobacco. Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practiced as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them available for absorption through the lungs. The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes, primarily industrially manufactured but also hand-rolled from loose tobacco and rolling paper. Other smoking tools includes pipes, cigars, bidis, hookahs and bongs. It has been suggested that smoking related disease kills one half of all long term smokers but these diseases may also be contracted by non-smokers. A 2007 report states that about 4.9 million people worldwide each year die as a result of smoking.When people get addicted to smoking it is difficult for them to quit smoking as they feel it as an inner part of their life and it becomes difficult for them from to stay away from cigarettes. There are a few people who sometimes smoke when they are bored or there are some people who skip a meal and smoke cigarettes. Smoking cigarettes and hookah is quite common in the present day youth as few people get addicted to it or start it because they think it is another way to make friends easily. Every cigarette is doing you damage. It’s not just a risk—it’s a certainty that smoking will damage your health. Smoking damages your arteries, lungs and eyesight. A young man lights a cigarette from the stove. As he inhales, smoke swirls past his lips and down his trachea. We see a section of human aorta on a kidney dish. Every cigarette is doing you damage. This is part of an aorta the main artery from the heart. Smoking makes the artery walls sticky and collect dangerous deposits. This much was found in the aorta of a typical smoker, smoking also creates blood clots and damaged brain tissue.

Lungs are made of millions of tiny air sacs, which are destroyed by tobacco smoke, and that nearly every smoker has emphysema in its early stages. This is as same as the we burn a bubble wrap is burnt

Carotid is the main artery to the brain which can get blocked by smoking. Smoking makes fatty deposits stick to its walls. If they stop blood flow to your brain, or if a piece breaks off, it can cause a stroke that can kill, blind or paralyze. Not all smokers have strokes, but all smokers do have fatty deposits in their arteries that can cause the stroke at any time.

That smoking eats away at nearly every vital organ and tissue of the body. Cut to a shot of a real human heart beating faster and faster, then a healthy lung that quickly turns black from smoking, followed by a cancerous mouth, rotting teeth, and a cancerous throat. Next, cut to an image of a brain, then stroke-inducing clogged arteries. Human lungs are like sponges designed to soak up air. But some people use their lungs to soak up cigarette smoke. If you could wring out the cancer-producing tar that goes into the average pack-a-day smoker’s lungs every year, this is how much you’d get. It’s enough to make you sick. Very sick.

Here is a list of harmful health effects smoking can have throughout one’s life:

§  Cancers

§  Lung diseases

§  Heart disease

§  Cardiovascular diseases

§  Stroke

§  Osteoporosis and weakened bones

§  Circulatory problems

§  Ulcers

§  Premature aging

§  Damage to the fetus

§  Low sperm count and impotence

§  Spontaneous abortion (miscarriage)

§  Decreased lung function

§  Bronchitis

§  Infections

§  Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

 Both short and long term effects are Taken from:

Short term effects

§  - Increased blood pressure

§  Increased heart rate

§  Narrowing of the arteries

§  Reduced amount of oxygen the blood can carry

§  Carbon monoxide levels in the blood rise

§  Creates an imbalance in the demand for oxygen by the cells

Prescription misuse has been variably and inconsistently defined based on drug prescription status, the uses that occur without a prescription, intentional use to achieve intoxicating effects, route of administration, co-ingestion with alcohol, and the presence or absence of abuse or dependence symptoms. The reasons believed to cause the increased risk of suicide include the long-term abuse of alcohol and drugs causing physiological distortion of brain chemistry as well as the social isolation. Another factor is the acute intoxicating effects of the drugs may make suicide more likely to occur. Suicide is also very common in adolescent alcohol abusers, with 1 in 4 suicides in adolescents being related to alcohol abuse.

References

1.      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking

2.      http://stopsmokingonlinetoday.com/quit/effects-of-smoking/

3.      http://67.199.72.89/Mmrnew/eng_ad_bubblewrap.html

Vignesh Nathan