You Can Kick the Addiction
A Problem Bigger Than Tobacco
Everyone knows how hazardous tobacco is to your health—particularly smoking it—but tobacco isn’t the only problem. Cigarettes, vapes, and other tobacco products are the delivery vehicles for a powerfully-addictive and harmful drug: nicotine.
It is the craving for nicotine that causes consumers to engage in this life-threatening behavior. Nicotine increases dopamine in your brain, creating a feeling of euphoria and a surge in energy and focus. This in turn makes you more and more addicted with each use.
Accelerates heart rate
Increases blood pressure
Narrows and hardens arteries
Leads to heart-attack
You need to, and can, quit.
Nicotine Is the Real Health Threat
Addiction to nicotine-related products is the biggest health crisis in the US for the past 100 years—and a failure in leadership of our governments and corporations.
Over 7 million deaths per year from smoking tobacco worldwide
In the United States, there are over 480,000 deaths per year, which is more than the total deaths from illegal drugs, alcohol, and car wrecks combined times 2.
#1 cause of preventable deaths
Most people do not know that heart attacks from smoking tobacco are the #1 cause of preventable deaths in the world, and that nicotine’s known effects on the human heart and cardiovascular system play a huge role in that statistic. It’s not just tobacco that’s the problem. Nicotine itself is very harmful to the cardiovascular system.
Deaths from cancers
The unacceptably-high number of other deaths from cancers among users of tobacco and other nicotine-related products simply adds to the grim toll.
Only 5% of users can quit nicotine without assistance
Nicotine’s addictive properties make quitting extremely difficult for most users. Some studies estimate that only 5% of users can quit nicotine without assistance.
Take control of your health.
Over 7 million deaths a year
Get the Facts About the Dangers of Nicotine
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over a billion-and-a-quarter people use tobacco products worldwide. Tobacco consumption alone accounts for more than 7 million deaths each year, and one billion people may die of smoking- and nicotine-related health problems in this century if global tobacco consumption remains at current levels.
The dangers of nicotine are often glossed over by tobacco’s more-visible health risks, such as lung and oral cancers and emphysema. But nicotine is an extremely powerful chemical that isn’t safe to use at all—even though it’s legal.
Unfortunately, the types and availability of nicotine products are greater than ever and only increasing
What's So Dangerous About Nicotine?
Nicotine is known to have serious effects on physical and mental health.
Cardiovascular Risk
Nicotine’s most immediate danger is the potential damage it can do to your circulatory system. Nicotine can increase blood pressure and heart rate, and cause the walls of your arteries to narrow or harden, restricting the vessels and increasing the chance of a plaque rupture causing a clot and heart attack.
Systemic Risk
Nicotine stays in your body for 6–8 hours depending on how often you consume it. In addition to damaging your heart and lungs, nicotine harms the kidneys and reproductive system, and there is growing evidence that nicotine stimulates and supports the onset and growth of various cancers.
Psychological and Physical Dependence
Nicotine can be as addictive as other illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin, and—as with most addictive drugs—there are serious side effects from withdrawal such as irritability and depression, so nicotine creates a powerful urge to consume more so as to relieve those side effects.
Understand what you’re up against.
You Can Quit Nicotine
The vast majority of nicotine users desperately want to quit.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that nearly 70% of current smokers want to quit, and that more than half (55%) have tried to quit at least once in the last year.
That’s just smokers; the numbers don’t include the millions of consumers addicted to other nicotine products such as smokeless tobacco and the increasingly-popular nicotine vaporizers (vape-pens).
Quitting can be a challenge, however, as studies also indicate that the ability to stop using it on one’s own is limited, and that as few as 5% of nicotine users can quit without assistance.
Whether you recently started using nicotine products or have used them for many years, it’s never too late to quit. Some benefits of quitting are felt almost immediately–the chance of sudden cardiac death or having a heart attack start to go down within days of quitting nicotine. And over time, quitting gives you a better chance for good health and a longer life.
There’s every reason to stop using nicotine. You can do it.
Get Help Today to End a Dependence on Nicotine
Be sure to ask your doctor about the various options to quit, including counseling and support groups, and safe, affordable medications such as Varenicline.
Are you aware of nicotine’s danger to your heart?
Have you had a heart attack or other cardiovascular disease from using nicotine products?
Are you concerned about a friend or family member’s use of nicotine products and want to encourage them to quit?