Chain smoking involves smoking one cigarette after another, often using the old cigarette to light a new one, and is a sign of addiction. Nicotine is highly addictive, but quitting smoking has immediate health benefits and reduces the risk of cancer by up to 90%. Safer nicotine products are available to help smokers quit.
Chain smoking generally refers to individuals who smoke frequently. A more accurate definition is someone who smokes one cigarette after another, often using the old cigarette to light a new one. Chain smoking most often refers to cigarettes, but can include pipes and cigars.
Chain smoking is often a sign of addiction. Smoking addictions, like all addictions, are hard to beat. Nicotine is the most addictive chemical by stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain on multiple levels. While the effects of smoking are at a much lower level than other addictive drugs, users will build up a tolerance that allows them to take in larger amounts of nicotine without getting sick. Chain smoking offers the user a constant source of nicotine that users find both calming and stimulating.
Most smokers, including those involved in chain smoking, want to quit. In fact, those who do eventually quit are estimated to have tried up to seven times before finally quitting. Non-smokers should understand that smoking is not a habit, it’s an addiction.
Nicotine, the cause of smoking addiction, is an insecticide and is just as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Despite this, it is not carcinogenic. Cancer, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease and other circulatory diseases are caused by the consumption of tobacco, tar and carbon monoxide in cigarettes.
Physical and psychological factors play an important role in smoking addiction. Nicotine acts on the brain by disrupting the normal flow of information. The brain will counteract this disruption, but adaptation is often slow. Without nicotine, the brain needs time to return to normal function. This adjustment period is called the withdrawal syndrome.
Psychological factors also occur over time as a smoker learns when and how to smoke to get the maximum effect from nicotine. Chain smoking often conditions smokers to feel that the very act of smoking is a constant source of pleasure and relief. This can make it even harder to quit.
Despite the odds, quitting is the healthiest thing a smoker can do. In fact, the benefits of quitting can already be seen 20 minutes after the last cigarette smoked. Smokers who successfully quit before or after age 40 reduce their risk of cancer by up to 90%. The growing industry of safer nicotine products, which provide the fix smokers need, means that no smoker should suffer from the many health problems associated with smoking.
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