Smoking and its impact on health. Where did it all start?

The use of tobacco (the main component of cigarettes) dates back to the distant past, being smoked by the Maya as early as 500 BC. In those times, it was mainly used for religious and ritual purposes. It was also used for spiritual purification by the Incas and the Huron Indians.

Tobacco was smoked in the upper classes and at various social events. Pipes and cigars were most common among the diplomats. Later, it also reached the lower classes.

Tobacco was brought to Europe from his travels by a seafarer who was for many years hailed as the discoverer of America, and even in older literature still is - Christopher Columbus.

After that, there was nothing to prevent the nicotine-containing tobacco leaf and its smoking from reaching the people. Incredibly quickly, it spread to its present form. Eventually, it also reached Asia and Africa.

Do big companies and governments have an interest in reducing nicotine addiction?

Smoking not only causes cancer, but also a wide range of diseases that cause premature death in more than one billion people a year.

Most of them are fully aware of the consequences, but nicotine addiction prevents them from quitting. Statistically, up to 70% of smokers would like to quit.

Pharmaceutical companies offer a huge range of products that should help patients eliminate this addiction.

They can buy chewing gum, patches, sprays and various other products containing supposedly small amounts of nicotine and thus reduce the craving for a cigarette. Nicotine is the addictive substance.

But are these products really as effective as the pharmaceutical industry tells us they are?
Is the Food and Drug Administration really objective in its evaluation of these products?
Are governments interested in combating smoking? If so, why are such harmful products as cigarettes still on the market?

Read on to find out how it was just a few decades back and how it is now. Let everyone make up their own mind.

Tobacco products and their rapid rise

Tobacco products spread among people to such an extent that over time, tobacco companies started to form.

Technological innovations and the first machine to produce them in bulk by Lucky Strike caused the cigarette boom. Cigarettes were produced in bulk and were affordable for almost everyone. Today, up to 6 trillion cigarettes are produced every year.

In the early days, tobacco companies had no knowledge of the negative effects of smoking on human health. A smoker was seen as a tough and strong individual.

What did the cigarette manufacturers do when they first suspected that cigarettes were harmful?

When suspicions and hints that smoking could be harmful were first raised, they were not taken seriously. Reduced physical activity in smokers and the effect of cigarettes on the lungs and breathing were first observed as early as 1908. However, the link between smoking and health concerns was not investigated or proven.

In the following decades, the negative health effects of cigarettes were addressed by several experts and expert committees. They proved that they have a significant impact on human health.

Despite the unpleasant findings, companies like R. J. Reynolds, which manufactured Winston cigarettes, continued to promote tobacco products.

The promotion was in the form of advertisements that presented the smoker as a strong man. Winstonman, who enticed the young and foolish to look like him.
They reached second place in the market in terms of sales, just behind the huge and still famous Marlboro corporation.

Interesting:
The first Winstonman, David Goerlitz, publicly declared that he was quitting smoking, prompted by the sudden death of his brother from cancer and a promise to his son that he would not die like his uncle. He is currently a member of the American anti-tobacco propaganda campaign called the Fight for a Billion Lives.

Tobacco - an unstoppable billion-dollar business. Are we buying our own death?

The tobacco companies have put billions and billions into tobacco products. That's why they couldn't allow information about their harmfulness to reach the public.

The real findings were kept secret for a long time in a very subtle way, because the research was paid for by them.

The 1980s were critical, when, despite all the measures, certain reports got out, which caused a negative attitude in society towards cigarettes.

For a long time afterwards, researchers downplayed the health effects of cigarettes and national governments did not intervene. The tax on tobacco revenues and the ownership of tobacco companies by some governments was reason enough for inaction, overriding human health.

The pharmaceutical industry was another one that came into its own and made the most of it. It made a lot of money selling ineffective products that 'help smokers quit'. But did their products really help anyone to recover from addiction?

As the saying goes, "Protecting public health is a billion-dollar business".

Who is getting richest from cigarette sales?

1. Tobacco companies
2. national governments
3. the pharmaceutical industry

E-cigarettes - the biggest threat to the tobacco industry

The term e-cigarette was also known in the 1960s, but it did not have the form it has today. It was a static desktop device that was not portable.

In 2002, the first experiments took place, which 3 years later helped to bring portable healthy cigarette substitutes to the market.

The first electronic cigarette as we know it today is thanks to Chinese pharmacist Hon Link.

E-cigarettes, electronic cigarettes or In Joy are vaporising devices that atomize liquid and allow inhalation of pure nicotine without inhaling other harmful substances and combustion products.

The birth of e-cigarettes was turbulent and not without its problems, because there were still large corporations that would lose their investment once e-cigarettes were on the market. They were the ones who tried to damage their name, which is why this up to 95% healthier substitute was the constant target of conspiracies and deceptions.

The amount of harmful substances in these devices is almost zero. However, they contain nicotine, which is the same amount as in conventional cigarettes.

Nicotine, as the main alkaloid in tobacco products, causes addiction, but not cancer!

Interesting:
One of the most serious attacks on e-cigarettes was the fabricated information about the formaldehyde content of the device. There were frightening reports in the media about the high risk of poisoning with this very substance. In 2014, the Food and Drug Administration declared them illegal. But interestingly, the officials of the authority were also the central representatives of the pharmaceutical companies, whose healthy substitute limited the sale of their products to combat smoking. Nowadays, similar information is emerging, but formaldehyde has been replaced by glycerin. Where is the truth this time?

Tobacco, cigarettes and the harmful substances produced by the combustion process

Virginia tobacco (lat. Nicotiana tabacum) is a green plant with pink flowers whose dried leaves are used as a filler in tobacco products. It was created by crossing forest tobacco (lat. Nicotiana sylvestris) with felt tobacco (lat. Nicotiana tomentosa).

Its main ingredient is nicotine, named after the French ambassador Jean Nicot, who brought tobacco to France from his travels in Portugal.

Nicotine is a nitrogenous, organic and strongly alkaline compound. It is an alkaloid, i.e. a substance that has a physiological effect on living organisms. Its effects are therapeutic for humans.

Tip: Pancreatic cancer.

Alkaloids related to nicotine include caffeine, quinine, atropine, morphine and even the morphine derivative heroin. This means that nicotine is a highly addictive substance.

It is generally mistaken for a carcinogen, i.e. a cancer-causing substance. However, it has never been shown to be directly harmful to human health.

• Nicotine ⇒ addictive
• Tar ⇒ causes cancer

Cigarettes contain harmful substances, radioactive substances, carcinogens and cocarcinogens

It is well known that cigarettes contain nicotine and tar. However, these two substances are just the tip of the iceberg. One burning cigarette releases more than 4,000 harmful substances into the body, more than 40 confirmed carcinogens and more than 60 cocarcinogens.

TIP: Chronic bronchitis and smoking closely linked

This includes substances that are radioactive or even those that have been shown to harm the fetus.

1. A harmful substance is any substance whose composition, properties and action in the human body are detrimental to health.
2. A teratogenic substance is any substance that causes developmental defects, disfigurement or other damage to the foetus.
3. Radioactive substance is any substance containing one or more radionuclides which decay and release radioactive emissions.
4. A carcinogen is any substance whose composition, properties and action in the human body cause the development of cancer (proliferation of cancer cells).
5. A mutagenic substance is any substance that causes genetic or other mutations. It is a potential carcinogenic substance.
6. A cocarcinogen is any substance whose composition, properties and action in the human body promote and accelerate the development of cancer. It does not cause cancer in isolation.

Table of the most dangerous substances in a cigarette

In many countries, manufacturers are required to put repulsive pictures and warnings about the harmfulness of cigarettes on cigarette packs.
But isn't that not enough, considering that cigarettes are a highly addictive drug and cause a large number of fatal diseases?
By comparison, it's the same as buying heroin packaged with warnings!

All these diseases and much more can be caused by smoking:

• Cancer of the lip
• cancer of the tongue
• oral cancer
• cancer of the pharynx
• oesophageal cancer
• cancer of the larynx
• bronchial cancer
• thyroid cancer
• bronchial asthma
• lung cancer
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• nodular lung disease
• pulmonary embolism
• breast cancer
• heart disease
• damage to blood vessels
• thrombosis
• acute myocardial infarction
• kidney cancer
• liver cancer
• liver damage
• pancreatic cancer
• pancreatitis
• stomach cancer
• prostate cancer
• erectile dysfunction
• vaginal dryness
• infertility
• osteoporosis
• dental caries
• bone cancer
• leukaemia
• Hodkin's and Non Hodkin's lymphoma
• damage to the central nervous system
• stroke
• memory disorders, dementia
• excessive hair loss
• dermatitis, premature skin aging
• fetal damage, mutations, fetal malformations
• miscarriage

Smoking and pregnancy

Smoking during pregnancy has been shown to cause birth defects and fetal malformations. This negative effect is called teratogenic (embryotoxic).

The most serious problem is smoking in the last trimester of pregnancy, when the baby's brain is developing. This can cause not only physical deformities but also mental retardation of varying degrees.

The foetus is particularly sensitive to the toxic and mutagenic substances mentioned above. Pregnancy can therefore end in miscarriage.

Not only are there disturbances during the development of the embryo, but also the newborn's addiction to nicotine. These severe withdrawal symptoms can lead to his or her death or to serious health complications at the time and later in life.

Smoking causes an addiction that is difficult to get rid of

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), addiction is a complex chronic disease of the central nervous system, which is manifested by an urgent need to continuously or repeatedly introduce a substance into the body.

Without the supply of this substance, the individual is unable to exist normally. Addictions are dealt with in psychopathology.

Chronic addiction to tobacco and cigarette products with a tendency to progress is called nicotinism.

Interesting:
People who are addicted to nicotine and other harder drugs at the same time have confirmed that it is easier to quit addictions to harder drugs than to cigarettes.

Table with stages of addiction

Psychological dependence is worse than physical dependence

It has long been thought that physical addiction is worse than psychological addiction. But the latest evidence says otherwise.

Psychological addiction is characterised by compulsive behaviour and a hard-to-suppress desire for a cigarette that takes priority. By compulsive behaviour we mean everything a smoker does to get a cigarette. All other interests are suppressed.

With the impossibility and simultaneous desire and effort to light up, one may behave in an anti-social, rude or even aggressive manner.

Physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms

Physical dependence is actually the response of the physical body that has not received its dose of nicotine. It hides all the manifestations that occur in temporary and unwanted withdrawal. These manifestations are called withdrawal symptoms.

Withdrawal symptoms:

• psychomotor restlessness
• nervousness, irritability
• aggressiveness
• anxiety states
• depression
• mood disorders
• sleep disorders
• concentration disorders
• memory disorders
• tremors
• general weakness
• excessive sweating
• hot flushes, cold flushes
• increased heart rate
• increased blood pressure
• headaches
• nausea

Comorbidity with other addictions

Smokers, especially heavy smokers, are more likely to succumb to other addictions. These are usually alcohol, but also other harder drugs.

This comorbidity with other addictions is often described in the literature.

The specific smoking and alcohol abuse is scientifically proven. Alcoholism is up to twice as high in smokers. This combination also occurs in reverse. Alcoholics are prone to smoking.

Both nicotine and alcohol are dopamine enhancing substances. There are nicotine receptors in the brain, which are quite numerous.

Alcohol therefore activates nicotinic receptors in the absence or low levels of nicotine in the body.

Interesting:
Repeated use of alcohol increases GABA levels but does not increase glutamate levels. Nicotine increases both levels. In the absence of nicotine, glutamate levels decrease, in the absence of alcohol, glutamate levels increase. High glutamate concentrations increase depression. Thus, intake of alcohol and nicotine at the same time temporarily suppresses depressed mood.