Heartsavers - Smoking
Nicotine affects a smoker’s mood very
quickly, it takes about ten seconds after smoke is inhaled to reach the brain.
Prevention of coronary heart disease.
Effects of smoking on the brain
Nicotine affects the brain in several ways and produces both a physical addiction and a psychological addiction.
One of the properties of nicotine is that it can effect the hormones in the brain that control your sense of well being. By acting on these chemicals, nicotine helps a smoker to cope better with stress, making it more difficult to quit. Smokers can subconsciously regulate their intake of nicotine by how much they inhale. Short puffs tend to make the smoker think and concentrate better, whilst long deep inhalations can help the smoker to relax. Smoking is therefore a method of mood control.
The psychological addiction can last for a long time after quitting, many ex-smokers still crave tobacco long after the physical effects of nicotine have worn off. Some even have realistic dreams about smoking.
This makes it hard to quit smoking, but don't get disheartened many hundreds of thousands of smokers throughout the world successfully stop smoking each year, so can you.
Finally, smoking will narrow the arteries in you brain just the same as throughout the rest of your body resulting in less oxygenated blood reaching the brain (which has a high oxygen requirement). The arteries can become more prone to damage and clot formation leading to an increased risk of cerebral hemorrhage and stroke.