Questions About Cigarettes 

What effect does the nicotine in tobacco have on the body?

Your blood pressure and pulse rate are all increased by smoking, but the main effect is that the nicotine is chemically addictive and has subtle, mood-enhancing effects on the brain.

In fact, if you smoke, your brain actually grows more receptors which thrive on nicotine. When you stop, these receptors are deprived of the nicotine they want. This is why you sometimes have strong cravings for a cigarette that threaten to overwhelm your willpower. Whilst you wean the receptors off nicotine, you will probably also experience withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, fatigue and hunger.

Are lights/low-tar cigarettes better for me than the regular kind?

No. Although machines used to test cigarettes draw less tar and nicotine from low-tar brands, real smokers don’t – instead, they either smoke more of them or inhale more deeply, to get the same effect.

In fact, low-tar is so misleading it’s been banned from cigarette packs. By smoking less or switching to light cigarettes, you’re still putting tar into your lungs and more than 4,000 chemicals and toxins into your body. The only solution is to give up tobacco altogether – whether it’s cigarettes, chewing tobacco or cigars.