[ Post a Response | The Sublime Desire of Cigarette Smoking ]
Posted by M G F on April 14, 2007, 2:53 pm, in reply to "Re: Recent Experiences" Those permanent changes to a smoker’s lung tissue contribute to their addiction more as a trigger of cravings than as the source of them. In the course of our lives as smokers we notice the obvious changes in our breathing such as being shorter-winded, having a smokers cough, varying degrees of congestion, etc. There are also other beautifully subtle changes taking place, many of which medical science is only beginning to understand. Oxygen is absorbed differently, the lungs inflate and deflate differently, and there is an almost constantly elevated level of naturally produced anti-inflammatory chemicals in the pulmonary system. After someone finishes a cigarette, the body begins to “recover” from the assault. The carbon monoxide is slowly flushed from the blood, your cilia begin to recover from their paralysis, your lungs inflation and deflation becomes more smooth and regular, and your lungs begin producing additional mucus to try to cleanse themselves of the tar, soot, and other solid material that has been deposited in them. We aren’t really aware of these changes taking place, but they are one of the signals to which an addicted smoker’s brain is responding when it starts saying it needs another fix. When someone quits smoking, these changes continue, but to a greater extent, and somewhat differently as the lungs begin to recover from the cumulative effects of years of smoking. Even though after as few as 15 pack years one can expect some degree of permanent damage, and we now know that some (very limited) degree of emphysema can be expected after 18-20 pack years; the lungs will constantly strive to recover and strengthen. That is one of the most beautiful aspects of the human body. To the addicted brain, however, those changes are a sign that something “isn’t right.”
One of the most interesting facets of nicotine addiction is its many layered, interconnected, complexity. It its base, of course, are the permanently altered neurorecptors. When a person quits smoking, the brain will adjust to the absence of nicotine to provide the patient with the necessary amount of dopamine and other neuroreceptors; but it is _permanently_altered_ to accept nicotine and the act of smoking as the normal, preferred state. You are correct that the other physical changes that occur from smoking need to be taken into account, and I personally believe that the medical profession would be much more effective in helping people quit smoking if it considered those changes as well. (Perhaps we need more smokers leading smoking cessation classes)
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