MORE on the subject of smoking and nicotine addiction

from

http://www.tobacco.org/resources/doc...tml#aaNicotine



"The hypothalamo-pituitary stimulation of nicotine is the
beneficial mechanism which makes people smoke; in other words,
nicotine helps people to cope with stress. In the beginning of
nicotine consumption, relatively small doses can perform the
desired action. Chronic intake of nicotine tends to restore the
normal physiological functioning of the endocrine system, so that
ever-increasing dose levels of nicotine are necessary to maintain
the desired action. Unlike other dopings, such as morphine, the
demand for increasing dose levels is relatively slow for
nicotine"

"In a chronic smoker the normal equilibrium in the corticotropin
releasing system can be maintained only by continuous nicotine
intake. It means that those individuals are but slightly
different in their aptitude to cope with stress in comparison
with a non-smoker. If nicotine intake, however, is prohibited to
chronic smokers, the corticotropin-releasing ability of the
hypothalamus is greatly reduced, so that these individuals are
left with an unbalanced endocrine system. A body left in this
unbalanced status craves for renewed drug intake in order to
restore the physiological equilibrium. This unconscious desire
explains the addiction of the individual to nicotine."

hope that clears things up.



~Rob