What are the benefits of tobacco and what harm does it cause to the body?

There is hardly a person in our time who has not heard about the dangers of tobacco. However, the widespread distribution of tobacco indicates high demand for this product. Tobacco growers grow the plant themselves, wanting to get an environmentally friendly product.

How harmful is tobacco and does it have any beneficial properties? Our article will answer these and other popular questions about smoking.

Tobacco

Tobacco belongs to annual plants from the nightshade family. Today it is grown all over the world, but the wild species is no longer found. This is a house plant that requires care.

Tobacco is distinguished:

• decorative;
• cultural:
  • smoking;
  • chewing;
  • snuff.

Smoking is divided into real tobacco and shag. Mahorka, unlike the real thing, is grown in cold regions, as it is frost-resistant.

Compound

Tobacco products are obtained from plant leaves. It contains:

• nicotine - 1-4%;
• proteins - 1-10%;
• carbohydrates - 2-15%;
• organic acids - 0.2-1.5%;
• essential oils - up to 1.5%.

Tobacco smoke contains up to 40 complex chemical compounds that are hazardous to health and can cause cancer:

• carbon dioxide;
• carbon monoxide;
• arsenic;
• cyanide;
• lead;
• polonium;
• bismuth.

Beneficial features

Along with harmful qualities, tobacco has a number of beneficial properties:

• used in medicine - the leaves have an anti-inflammatory effect, are used at the first signs of seasickness and to stop vomiting;
• enhances concentration;
• eliminates nervous tension and relieves stress - these are the most common reasons for using tobacco products;
• used in everyday life to protect fur products from moths and insect pests in the garden.

The relative benefits of tobacco for men are evidenced by the fact that smokers have a reduced risk of developing Parkinson's disease. The male part of the population is most susceptible to this disease. The risk of Alzheimer's syndrome is also reduced. These diseases are prevented by nornicotine, a byproduct of the breakdown of nicotine.

Tobacco has an antiestrogenic effect on the female body, which prevents diseases associated with an excess of these hormones.

Harm

Most tobacco growers mistakenly believe that home-grown real tobacco is less harmful than store-bought tobacco. Undoubtedly, such a plant environmentally cleaner, but the content of toxic substances is the same.

Most significant harmful effects:

1. Smoking is addictive and addictive, becoming a bad habit that is difficult to eradicate.
2. It has a negative effect on the nervous system, causing irritation and increased fatigue.
3. Harmful to the respiratory system, causes coughing and shortness of breath.
4. It interferes with blood supply due to blockage of blood vessels.
5. Causes inflammation of the salivary glands, reduces taste sensations.
6. Negatively affects tooth enamel and the condition of the oral cavity.
7. Provokes hair loss and thinning of hair follicles.

Smoking is strictly contraindicated during pregnancy due to possible complications in the unborn child.

Read also:

Review of Trapezond 92 tobacco and features of its cultivation.

Growing Turkish tobacco from seeds: instructions for beginners.

Harm and benefits of tobacco depending on its type

Tobacco use is considered a bad habit: in this case, the harm outweighs all possible beneficial properties.

Let us consider in detail how harmful natural pure tobacco is and what properties they have product varieties - snuff and chewing tobacco.

Smoking

Smoking tobacco includes cigarettes, cigarillos and cigars. To make cigarettes, crushed tobacco leaves are used, while for cigars and cigarillos the leaf plates are not crushed.

The cigarillo is slightly smaller in size than a cigar and is most often sold with a mouthpiece and a filter. The composition does not contain substances that accelerate combustion. Typically cigarillos flavor all kinds of additives.

Regular smoking leads to addiction, which is difficult to get rid of. Tobacco smoke settles in the lungs, which leads to the appearance of bronchitis, which over time develops into chronic bronchitis. Also, systematic smoking provokes the development of inflammatory processes in the oral cavity. In addition, exhaled smoke is dangerous to others.

The only positive aspects include the relief of nervous tension due to smoking a cigarette.

Reference! In 1 minute, 10 million cigarettes are sold all over the world.

Chewing

The chewing type includes the whole-leaf samosad. The main difference from other types is the accelerated entry of substances into the blood. It is often used to try to quit smoking.

Sometimes it is called snus, but snus is not chewed, but placed behind the lip and dissolved. It contains flavor enhancers and flavoring agents. The most common additions are mint, lemon, lime and vanilla.

Reference! Snus is powdered tobacco in portions, a type of chewing tobacco.

With this method of consumption, nasopharyngeal diseases and gum inflammation most often occur. However, snus is believed to contain fewer toxic substances.

Snuff

Those who do not like to create a smoke screen around themselves use snuff products. This method of use is practically no different from traditional smoking.

The only plus is safety for others. The powdered leaf is inhaled through the nose. Often the following flavorings are added to it: cinnamon, cloves, orange or lavender.

This is interesting! Until the 17th century, smoking was called dry drunkenness.

Use in folk medicine

The use of tobacco in medicine brings positive results in the fight against many diseases. Treatment with tobacco is indicated for inflammatory processes, sore throat, malaria and even scabies. The leaves of the plant are also used to make ointments for the feet and anti-cold decoctions.

Recipes

The medicinal properties of tobacco and its chemical composition make it possible to use the leaves to get rid of runny nose, colds and dizziness.

Tobacco powder will help cure a runny nose. To do this, fresh leaves are crushed and the powder is inhaled 3-4 times a day. Treatment is continued until nasal congestion is eliminated.

To combat dizziness, use tobacco tincture. 1 tbsp. l. crushed leaf pour ½ cup of vodka. After 10 days, the tincture is ready for use.1 drop of tincture is dissolved in 100 ml of water and taken 3 times a day.

What benefits can there be from smoking?

Numerous studies by scientists have shown that nicotine, when exposed to the brain, helps improve memory. The concentration of attention increases due to which the information received is absorbed more easily.

Scientists from Washington say that smokers have a 70% reduced risk of Parkinson's disease compared to non-smokers. And researchers from New York have proven that nicotine compensates for defects in brain activity in patients with schizophrenia.

Smokers rarely develop herpes and inflammatory skin diseases.

Smoking is considered to prevent obesity. After each cigarette smoked, the body expends additional energy to eliminate toxins, so the extra calories are consumed rather than converted into fat deposits.

This is interesting! 100 years ago, doctors advised pregnant women to smoke to prevent them from gaining weight.

Popular questions

Frequently asked questions concern the harm of smoking and its effect on the human body. The fact that tobacco and tobacco smoke contain toxins that are harmful to health is an undeniable fact. Therefore, you should not abuse tobacco products, no matter for what purpose you use them. After all, as the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus said, poison is dangerous not in quality, but in quantity.

Reference! Paracelsus's real name was Philipp von Hohenheim. The pseudonym Paracelsus means close to Celsus (a famous ancient Roman scientist).

Is self gardening harmful?

Samosad is less toxic than industrial cigarettes. It contains citric acid, nicotinic acid and nicotine. Its content does not exceed 5-7%.If you plant spices next to tobacco, it will absorb their aromatic note, which will remain preserved even in dried leaves.

Reference! Samosad is tobacco grown independently and prepared for use.

An important feature of homemade cigarettes is the absence of industrial preservatives that are added to cigarettes.

How harmful is pure tobacco?

Regardless of whether flavoring is added to the finished product or not, the chemical composition remains unchanged. Therefore, the harm from smoking will be the same as from using any other tobacco product.

Smoking especially has a negative effect on the respiratory system. Long-term smokers often experience chronic bronchitis. The deeper tobacco smoke is inhaled, the more toxins enter the lungs.

How does it affect the heart and the body as a whole?

During the smoking process, the poisons contained in tobacco smoke settle on the walls of blood vessels. This leads to their blockage, disruption of blood supply, which primarily affects the heart.

Under the influence of nicotine, there is a sharp release of adrenaline into the blood, the walls of blood vessels contract, and blood pressure rises. For this reason, there are many hypertensive people among smokers. When carbon dioxide enters the blood, oxygen starvation occurs, which affects the heart and brain.

The influence of tobacco on the human psyche

Nicotine is incorporated into chemical reactions that occur in the brain. It stimulates the receptors that are responsible for the release of adrenaline and dopamine, popularly called the “happiness hormone”. This is how addiction is formed. The psyche cannot relax without nicotine and sends frequent signals to the brain to supply the substance it needs.

Over time, little of your own hormones are produced.You have to increase the nicotine dose, otherwise irritability appears.

All pathological processes caused by smoking develop slowly and will appear no earlier than after 3-4 years of regular use of tobacco products.

Contraindications

Tobacco products are not recommended for mentally unstable people. They are highly addictive, and uncontrolled actions as a result of constant irritability and aggression are dangerous for others.

Hypertensive patients, heart patients, and teenagers should refrain from smoking - this will have a negative impact on the immature psyche and the growing body.

Conclusion

Tobacco does much more harm than good. When smoking a cigarette for pleasure, remember that this prank will develop into a serious addiction and provoke the development of serious diseases. But we should not forget about the benefits that tobacco brings when used for medicinal purposes, for example, in the form of tinctures.