Nicotine Receptors

     In the world today, Nicotine is one of the most frequently used addictive drugs. The impact it has on society is like no other. It is one of more than 4,000 chemicals found in the smoke of tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. This addictive drug is the primary component in tobacco that acts on the brain.

It is the most common addiction throughout the world with 1.1 trillion people smoking currently, consisting about a third of the population over 15 years old. While nicotine is the addictive substance in the tobacco that causes addiction, tobacco will increase health risks of heart attack and vascular diseases. Nicotine dependency is a complex brain disease, and we need to start thinking of it as such. New ways of ingesting this substance have been created, that try to lure and appeal to demographic, particularly younger, to consume nicotine. Regardless of how many years someone has smoked, stopping at any point will valuable and improve your quality of life. Changing the public’s view on addiction is a subject of importance, so many of others can view this as a brain disease more than a personal decision. To fight this addiction, you have to rewire your behaviors in your brain and have a drive to overcome this horrific addiction. The brain can luckily keep changing and be trained to stop cravings with a multitude of different strategies. Anyone can be affected by addiction, we need start treating addicts with evidence-based practices rather than jailing them. Through more education and laws enforced, we can only hope that the number of tobacco users can decrease more and everyone can learn to live a healthier, full life without addiction and the painful diseases that derive from

The smoking habit is the principal cause of illness, disability and death around the world. More than five million of people in the world die due to smoking habit every year. If we don’t take care of this in 2030 the amount will be ten million. Seven million of these deaths would be in poor countries.

When substances like Acetylcholine (Ach) and norepinephrine which are small- molecular neurotransmitters are released into the body they bind to receptors on tissue or neurons through our ANS and PNS system. Ach is released by many PNS neurons and some CNS neurons. In the PNS Ach is an excitatory neurotransmitter at some synapses, such as the neuromuscular junction where it binds to ionotropic receptors which open cation channels. Ach can also be an inhibitory neurotransmitter at other synapses, where it binds to metabotropic receptors while opening potassium channels. The enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AchE) inactivates Ach by splitting into acetate and choline fragments. Norepinephrine (NE) is a biogenic amine; most biogenic amines may cause

Nicotine replacements and patches are always in advertisements and pushed in stores. While the ads may make it seem easy to quit with a nicotine replacement, they are not actually effective. Recent studies show that smoking cessation drugs like patches and gums do not effectively stop nicotine cravings.

As reported by Heather’s, Nicotine contains a large amount of toxic substance which can lead to several causes and effects to health. The substances in nicotine effects on the brain and its addicted. When a person smokes, the nicotine substance travels to the brain within 10 seconds and changes the function of the brain. “Blood that enters the lungs to picks up oxygen also pickup something else – the nicotine”. It also rises the blood pressure by five to ten points and heart rate by ten to twenty beats per minute. However, nicotine also performs as a sense of feeling of pleasure. Nicotine reaches to brain within a speedy rate and disperses soon conversely, its increases use of cigarettes.

I understand the appeal of smoking as an easy, momentous fix to a person's mood because of the instant result to feel better. Stressed? Smoke a cigarette. Frustrated? Smoke a cigarette. Unhappy? Smoke a cigarette. Nicotine acts on nicotinic cholinergic receptors that triggers the release of neurotransmitters that produce rewarding psychoactive effects. Vani and Shyamaladevi explain, the functional antagonism presented in cigarette smoking is related to desensitization of nicotinic cholinergic receptors because nicotine in cigarette smoke upregulates the nicotinic cholinergic receptors to interact with the noradrenergic, cannabinoid, dopaminergic, cholinergic, and serotonergic systems and increases the levels of norepinephrine, dopamine,

Ach binding to nicotinic receptors has an excitatory effect because it result in the direct opening of the Na channel and the production of action potential (VanPutte, Cinnamon L., and Rod R. Seeley). When Ach binds to The muscarinic receptor, the cell response is mediated through G proteins the response is either excitatory or inhibitory, depending on the effectors.( VanPutte, Cinnamon L., and Rod R. Seeley)

Tobacco is a nervous system stimulant that triggers complex biochemical and neurotransmitter disruptions. It elevates heart rate and blood pressure, constricts blood vessels, irritates lung tissue, and diminishes your ability to taste and smell (Health).

“Nicotine is the leading avoidable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States.” (Psychology Today) People who take different forms of nicotine know that it can be harmful, but they choose to do it anyway. Nicotine is highly addictive, which means that people will do just about anything to get nicotine. “Being addicted to nicotine is distinguished by irresistible drug seeking and use, even at the risk of negative health results.” (Psychology Today)

A Tobacco plant is made up of approximately 5 percent of nicotine by weight. There are two categories of tobacco products cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Nicotine has many effects on the body but the effect it has on the brain is responsible for the so called “good feeling” that is behind the addiction. Nicotine is considered to be addictive because of the psychological and physiological effects on a person. The Center for the Advancement of Health published the results of a study on teenager smokers:

The muscarinic AChRs occur primarily in the CNS, and are part of a large family of G-protein-coupled receptors (‘G proteins’), which use an intracellular secondary messenger system involving an increase of intracellular calcium to transmit signals inside cells. Binding of acetylcholine to a muscarinic AChR causes a conformational change in the receptor that is responsible for its association with and activation of an intracellular G protein, the latter converting GTP to GDP in order to become activated and dissociate from the receptor. The activated G

The body uses chemicals known as neurotransmitters, and according to Dr. C. George Boeree, they are chemicals which allow the transmission of signals from one neuron to the next across synapses. Additionally, neurotransmitters are also responsible for muscle stimulation that are produced by adrenal glands and pituitary glands. One of the first, and most abundant, neurotransmitters to be discovered is acetylcholine, often abbreviated ACh (Cherry). This was first discovered by a German biologist, Otto Loewi, in 1921 who later won a Nobel Prize for his findings (Boeree). Acetylcholine is present in both inhibitory functions as well as excitatory functions, which means that it can both speed up and slow down nerve signals (“Acetylcholine”). Its role in the central nervous system is excitatory, and plays a role in arousal, learning, memory, and neuroplasticity. Other functions include engaging functions such as waking, help sustain focus, maintain rapid eye movement

Nicotine is a powerful substance in controlling brain function. It interacts with specific receptors in brain tissue, and initiates metabolic and electrical activity in the brain.

Smoking is not just a bad habit, but also a complex addiction. Experts believe that nicotine exerts its powerful addictive effects by