Tobacco and Smoking Flashcards
what factors influences smoking
- Social and cultural environment
- Personal environment
- Individual
Why do kids begin smoking
• A parent or elder sibling who smokes
• Living with a single or step parent
• Lower levels of parental supervision & more
nights out with friends
• Truanting, excluded from school, juvenile offending.
–> More common among disadvantaged
Whats in tobacco
- 4000 chemicals, 60 of which are known carcinogens
- Nicotine: Addictive part
- Carbon Monoxide (CO): Poisonous gas, binds to haemoglobin
- Tar: Thick, sticky
Describe nicotine addiction
Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance
Characterised by compulsive drug seeking & use even in the face of negative health consequences
more addictive than heroin and cocaine
What are the effects of smoking on health
• Stimulates adrenal gland -> adrenalin
- increases heart rate, BP, breathing
- release glucose and suppresses insulin
• Binds to ‘nicotinic’ Acetylcholine receptors
- neurotransmitter – chemical messenger
- activates ‘reward pathway’
- perceived rush of Ach, receptors upregulated
- if not activated – cravings
• Releases chemical Dopamine
- pleasure pathway
- enjoyment and relaxation
• Tolerance
- (the body will require a certain amount of nicotine to stop cravings, so people go from using 1 cigarette a day to 15-20 cigarettes a day)
List some complications of smoking
COPD Lung cancer Stroke Cancer of lips, tongue, throat Narrowed arteries- CHD Kidney cancer Reduced fertility cataracts osteoporosis
What are nicotine withdrawal symptoms
depression cravings increased appetite disturbed sleep irritability anxiety poor concentration
describe the services which help people to quit smoking
pharmacotherapy (Nicotine Replacement Therapy / Champix (varenicline) / Zyban (bupropion)
In combination with support groups
smoking cessation
