Lately I've been working with these new guys. They smoke a lot during every meeting, at work, and basically everytime as long as they're awake. The job is quite stressfull I admit, and they claim smoke a ciggarete help them relax. But is it true that cigarrete help you relax? Well, personally I think something that pottentially kill you won't help you with anything, other than help you dying faster. Anyway, let's do some research and find out!
1. What is Stress?
Stress is your body's way of responding to any kind of demand. It can be caused by both good and bad experiences. When people feel stressed by something going on around them, their bodies react by releasing chemicals into the blood. These chemicals give people more energy and strength, which can be a good thing if their stress is caused by physical danger. But this can also be a bad thing, if their stress is in response to something emotional and there is no outlet for this extra energy and strength.
Many different things can cause stress, from physical (such as fear of something dangerous) to emotional (such as worry over your family or job).
This kind of stress builds up over a long time and can take a hard toll on your body. It can be caused by working too much or too hard at your job, school, or home. It can also be caused by not knowing how to manage your time well or how to take time out for rest and relaxation. This can be one of the hardest kinds of stress to avoid because many people feel this is out of their control.
2.Tobacco Composition.
Here's the wikipedia page about tobacco. I'm to lazy to write them down (lol). Lot of chemical compound that I can't even pronounce (or write on this matter). Most of them are harmful chemicals for human body and cause several deseases. I doubt any of those death ticket chemicals can help your body relieve the stress, but let's proceed to point number 3.
3. Smoke and Stress.
Cigarettes contain nicotine, a psychoactive or mood altering drug. When a person smokes, nicotine reaches the brain in eight seconds and causes the release of a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine causes feelings of pleasure and relaxation, a sensation the body craves again and again. However, during these feelings of perceived relaxation, the body is actually experiencing increased stress – blood pressure and heart rate increase, muscles become tense, and less oxygen is available to the body and brain. The feelings of relief described by people who smoke may just be relief from short-term symptoms of withdrawal from nicotine.
So well, smoking does not actually relieve stress. In fact, it may even cause more tension and anxiety.
I'd write down an advice for people who currently still smoke a ciggarete, though I have like zero chance they'll listen and change. But I'll write it down anyway.
My advice is simple, stop smoking, or at least decrease the ammount of ciggaretes you smoke daily. It's hard I know, I've witnesses lot of my friends tried to stop, but only few succeeded (and few of them relapsed for some reasons).
Try to think of people you'll leave behind if things turn out to be the worst. It's fine if you're a genius chemist and build a methampetamine empire so you can leave amass of fortune for you family instead of debts. But you're not, well most of you aren't I suppose. Even if you are, it's still illegal so I won't count on it. My point is, cancers aren't pretty mate, if you catch one, you either lose and gone or win and indebted (cancer treatment isn't cheap mate, especially if you live in USA). Eitherway your family will have to suffer the consequences.
If you can't do it for yourself, do it for your family, for the people around you, for those who care about you.
I implore you, consider to stop smoking.
Author note: Those meth empire thing is a reference to AMC series Breaking Bad. Awesome series, you should watch it sometimes.