Cigarettes And Their Destruction Of The Brain :: essays research papers fc

Cigarettes and Their Destruction of the Brain     Smokers generally have to a greater ex ecstasyt comfortable after that especially importantfirst cigarette of the day. Within just a few seconds of "lighting up," smokingactivates mind-altering changes. Smokers are well aware of the long-term risksof their economic consumption such as lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and other deadlyillnesses. However, smokers are attracted by the immediate effects of smoking"a stimulant that makes them seem to feel more alert, clearheaded and able tofocus on work." Smoking however, does not really have these effects what thesmoker perceives is an illusion. Nicotine begins to act on brain cells withinten seconds of inhalation, fitting into "keyholes" on the surface of the brainthe same "keyholes" as acetylcholine(an important neurotransmitter), andmimicking epinephrine and norepinephrine, giving the smoker a rush, orstimulation. Within 30 m inutes, smokers feel their energy begin to decline, asthe ingested nicotine is reduced. This process continues, as the smokersattention becomes increasingly focused on cigarettes. Nicotine causes smokersbrain cells to grow more nicotinic receptors than normal therefore, the brain may function normally despite the irregular amount of acetylcholine-likechemical acting upon it. The brain is reshaped the smoker feels normal withnicotine in his system, and abnormal without it. A series of tests wereconducted on nonsmokers, "active" smokers, and "deprived" smokers. The "active"smokers were given a cigarette before each test, while the "deprived" smokerswere not allowed cigarettes before tests.     The tests started simply, and then moved towards more complex problems.In the first test, subjects sat in front of a computer screen and pressed thespace bar when a target letter, among 96, was recognised smokers, deprivedsmokers, and nonsmoker s, performed equally well. The next test involvedscanning orders of 20 identical letters and as one of the letters wastransformed into a distinguishable one, responding with the space bar. Nonsmokersresponded fastest, and active smokers were faster than those who were deprivedfrom smoking. In the third test, subjects were required to memorize a sequenceof letters or numbers, and to respond when they observed the sequence amongflashed groupings on the screen. The purpose of this experiment was to testshort-term memory nonsmokers again ranked highest, however, deprived smokersdefeated the active smokers. Subjects were required to read a career and thenanswer questions about it in the fourth test. "Nonsmokers remembered 19 percentmore of the most important information than active smokers, and deprived smokersbested their counterparts who had smoked a cigarette just before testing.Active smokers tended not only to have poorer memories but also had trouble