From childhood, parents, teachers, educators warn us about the harmful value and toxic properties of such a bad habit as smoking. Nicotine, which is part of tobacco products, has a negative impact not only on the voice and appearance of a person purely from an aesthetic point of view, but also has the most negative impact on his he alth. The lungs, circulatory system, cardiovascular system, brain cells are affected.
In the most severe and advanced cases, smoking turns into gangrene for the smoker with amputation of limbs, blood poisoning, strokes, heart attacks and, ultimately, leads to death. Not the last role in this regard is the effect of nicotine on blood vessels. How does smoking affect their functionality and purpose in the body?
Blood vessels and their role in the circulatory system
Narrows ordilates nicotine blood vessels? We have all repeatedly listened to lectures, read in newspapers and browsed the Internet for information about how dangerous smoking is for any organism. But few of us really delve into the essence of the problem and try to establish causal relationships that cause specific damage to human he alth. But one of the most important components of the cardiovascular system - the blood vessels - is under attack. What is their significance and what is their role?
Blood vessels are tubular formations that extend throughout the human body and are the location of the movement of blood. That is, it is an organic widely branched network, along which it is transported from one organ to another. Considering that this is a closed system, the pressure here is quite high, which ensures a fairly fast blood circulation.
Sometimes these vessel-like pathways get clogged over time, like a plumbing pipe that gets rusty and dirty from the inside due to user factors. Everything is the same here: a person consumes in the body those foods and those substances that, due to the high concentration of harmful compounds in them, provoke the accumulation of deposits in the blood vessels. And the higher the degree of consumption of such substances, the faster the circulatory network wears out.
However, how does nicotine affect blood vessels - does it expand or narrow them?
Nature of nicotine
Found in cigarettesNicotine is physically presented as an oily liquid with a bitter aftertaste. It is quite easy to mix with water because its density is almost equal to that of water, which is 1.01 g/cm3.
Molecularly, nicotine is formed from two cycles: pyrrolidine and pyridine. This makes it possible for nicotine to form solid and water-soluble s alts in reactions with acids. Pharmacologically, when it enters the body, this ability ensures the rapid distribution of the substance through the blood. What does this mean in simple understandable language? This suggests that even seven seconds after the initial inhalation of tobacco smoke is enough for the harmful substance to reach the brain. It is also noteworthy that in the case of chewing or sniffing tobacco, the level of nicotine content in the body is much higher than during smoking procedures. The elimination half-life from the body after the next cigarette smoking occurs after a two-hour time interval.
Nicotinic acid and nicotine: effects on blood vessels
Expands or constricts the harmful component of the tobacco product transport bloodstream of the body?
There is a misconception that nicotine can dilate blood vessels. If this were true, probably, pharmacists in pharmacy kiosks would sell cigarettes to customers with clogged vessels instead of a medication, and all social advertising, postings and numerous propaganda lectures would stop trumpeting about the dangers of nicotine. Why do people mistakenly determine the effects of nicotine and interpret its effectsin the exact opposite way?
The thing is that it is confused with a substance such as nicotinic acid. And although the names of these compositions sound almost the same, their content and orientation carry completely different meanings from each other. Nicotinic acid is a pharmacological drug sold in the form of liquid capsules and is called vitamin B3 in its pure form (otherwise it is also referred to as vitamin PP). Nicotinic acid is indeed capable of dilating blood vessels, it is found in many foods and is actively included in the daily human diet to be taken into the body in the form of meat, fish and other food items.
While nicotine works in the opposite direction: when you inhale tobacco smoke, it provokes a spasmodic reaction of blood vessels, they shrink and form the narrowest passage for blood flow. It is precisely because of the confusion with the similar names of two completely different substances that many misinterpret the functional side of each of them, and the answer to the question of whether nicotine expands or constricts blood vessels is fundamentally wrong.
Let's continue. There is one more feature: if we talk about the brain and blood vessels, nicotine causes the arteries to dilate for literally a split second, so that then the spasmodic impulse will instantly narrow them even more intensely. And yet it is rather a reflex of the vessels to a spasm, which, be that as it may, narrows them as a result.
The harmful effects of nicotine
Let's see what happens to the vessels at the moment whensmoking process.
Imagine a working water pump powered by a motor. It pumps water and transports it from one point to another. During normal operation, its walls contract and are reflected by externally pulsating dynamic movements. The same thing happens with arteries during their normal performance: they carry out the transporting function of blood from one organ to another, saturating them with oxygen and useful nutrients. At the moment when a person takes a puff, part of the nicotine formed in the process of pyrolysis (burned under the influence of high smoke temperature) enters the lungs, and after a moment, by seeping through the alveoli into the blood, it is deployed in the vessels of the brain.
What happens? The vessels spasm, and the spasms themselves provoke their narrowing and expansion. Thrust after thrust, vascular contraction is carried out more and more intensively. Constantly narrowing arteries impede the movement of blood flow, oxygen starvation occurs. At some point, the smoker feels a slight euphoria, relaxation, slightly noticeable intoxication. Meanwhile, the water moving through the previously mentioned water pump undergoes obstacles in its path, the load on the motor doubles, it begins to work more actively and uses reserve power. The heart has no reserve. His increased work and the load exerted on him are accompanied by a rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure and high-frequency pulsation. This is how it developshypertension.
Obliteration and gangrene
It also happens that in the process of active inhalation of tobacco smoke and the introduction of nicotine into the cardiovascular system, the walls of the arteries spasm and narrow so much that they literally collapse together, forming an impenetrable “plug” inside the vessel. This is called obliteration. If such a collapse occurs somewhere in the internal organ, the body is able to bring blood from the other side and supply it with blood and oxygen, since this is allowed by an extensive vascular system. But if obliteration occurs in the fingers of the limbs, there is nowhere to take blood from the end side of the phalanges. The vessels collapse and a very serious disease called "obliterating endarteritis" develops. The popular name for this disease is "smoker's feet" ("smoker's hands"). The last stage of this disease is called gangrene. When the legs are affected by gangrene, the limbs are amputated. If an amputation operation is not carried out in a timely manner, this threatens the smoker with blood poisoning and death.
You may ask how nicotine acts on blood vessels, how it affects human he alth? The answer is disappointing: in the most detrimental way, even to death.
Atherosclerosis
The harmful effects of nicotine on the blood vessels and the effect on the circulatory system as a whole do not end with just a possible obliteration or gangrene. In fact, there are many truly serious diseases, and one is not inferior to the other in terms of the degree of danger to the human body.
Let's go back to analog thinking. Imagine a water pipe. If purified, filtered water flows through it, it will not be able to subject the pipe to deformations for a long time. But if you run water containing harmful elements into it, it will lead to metal corrosion on the pipe walls and overgrow with s alt and mud deposits, narrowing the pipe in diameter and preventing water from passing freely, slowing it down.
A similar situation occurs with arteries into which nicotine has entered. Does this harmful substance expand or narrow the vessels of the brain? In addition to the fact that it significantly spasms and thereby narrows them in diameter, it also causes oxygen starvation of the cells of the vessel walls. This contributes to their partial necrosis - death, and holes form in their places (like the rust of a water pipe). To replenish dead areas, growths form in their place. These are atherosclerotic plaques. Gradually, these growths increase in volume and lead to further blockage of blood vessels. As a result, atherosclerosis develops, and hence a heart attack and stroke.
There is no doubt: nicotine, entering the bloodstream, constricts blood vessels.
Angina
Among other things, the detrimental effect of nicotine on blood vessels is also manifested in damage to the heart muscle - myocardium. Two coronary arteries, which are branches of the aorta, supply the body's main "motor" with oxygen and nutrients. Like plants, these two arteries twinearound the heart and are rooted deep into the heart muscle. During smoking, the coronary vessels are also subject to narrowing, and the heart muscle at the same time works with an increased load. When the patency of the coronary bed is disturbed, the muscle experiences a lack of arterial blood, resulting in oxygen starvation. In response to it, a sharp sharp pain instantly appears - such a reaction is called angina pectoris. This is not only a separate ailment that proceeds on its own and does not pass into other forms. On the contrary, angina pectoris (or, as it is also called, angina pectoris) can lead to such subsequent diseases as atherosclerotic cardiosclerosis, myocardial infarction, and thromboembolism. And the reason for everything is what nicotine does to the vessels: it provokes a lack of blood flow to the heart muscle.
Stroke
If we talk about the vessels of the brain, the effect of nicotine on them is reflected in no less complex forms. As in the case of the two coronary arteries of the heart, here the two cerebral arteries are divided into many private vessels that wrap around the brain. Nicotine, which, due to frequent and prolonged smoking, causes blood viscosity and makes it thicker, can lead to the formation of a blood clot - a blood clot. The clot moves along with the blood flow through the vessels, but the point is that blood clots tend to get stuck in narrowed places. By blocking the passage for blood flow, a clot blocks its flow to certain parts of the brain. In some cases, it contributes to rupture of the vessel and hemorrhage in the brain. This andhave a stroke.
Stroke affected areas of the brain, not saturated for some time with nutrients and oxygen, die off. This is how some functions of the human musculoskeletal system disappear (partial paralysis), speech apparatus, etc.
Thus, the effect of nicotine on the vessels of the brain is no less dangerous than on the cardiovascular system.
Side effects
What does nicotine do to blood vessels? Among other things, in the process of smoking a person in the body undergoes a lot of changes. Together with toxins, carcinogens, tar, nicotine, when ingested, causes irreparable harm to the he alth of the smoker himself. How does it manifest itself? What is the effect of nicotine on blood vessels?
- There is an increase in blood pressure.
- The risk of sudden cerebral hemorrhage increases.
- The accumulation of growths (cholesterol plaques) on the walls of blood vessels increases, the total level of cholesterol in the blood increases.
- Due to clogging of blood vessels with blood clots, a significant risk of ischemic stroke increases significantly.
- Blood acquires a viscous structure, becomes thicker, which contributes to the direct formation of blood clots.
- Vessels lose their elasticity, become incredibly fragile due to total thinning, which is almost irreversible.
If we talk about the more obvious consequences of nicotine ingestion into the body, it is worth noting serious deterioration in the processes of memory conversion, regeneration of brain cells andholistic mental development. That is, smoking contributes to the death of brain cells and provokes the start of the degradation process.
Nervous system and nicotine
Since nicotine is considered a neurotoxic poison that can destroy the harmonious flow of the central nervous system (central nervous system), it often causes the death of neurons. When people talk about addiction to cigarettes, they mean organic addiction to nicotine.
As you know, this harmful substance has an exciting effect on the human central nervous system, being a specific pathogen. As mentioned earlier, initially the smoker experiences a feeling of high spirits, lightness, euphoria. But later these sensations are abruptly replaced by a state of oppression. This happens just due to the fact that the blood vessels under the influence of nicotine narrow. Nicotine, as it were, stimulates and accelerates the conduction of nerve impulses. However, subsequently the brain process is greatly inhibited, the brain turns on the function of rest, this is its physiological need.
All these relationships lead to the fact that in the future the brain is already getting used to it and requires the next portion of nicotine, because it is “lazy” to work on its own, without doping. Therefore, there is such a familiar feeling of anxiety and nervousness in a person who has not smoked for a long time: his attention is scattered, his focus is at zero, and his irritability is increased.
Under the regular influence of nicotine, a person gets, as a result, nervous overwork andneurasthenia. A kind of vicious circle is formed: smokers who work hard, start smoking even more, even more often, in order to stimulate the body, and as a result they get even more overworked. It is followed by memory disorders, headaches, sleep disturbances, frequent mood swings and decreased performance. Hence more serious diseases: sciatica, neuritis, polyneuritis.
The autonomic nervous system also suffers, giving results in the form of a disorder in the activity of the cardiovascular system and a disruption in the functioning of the digestive organs. The sense organs also suffer: under the influence of nicotine, visual acuity (drastically decreases), hearing (similar to vision), taste and smell (significantly worsen). So, acting on the nervous system like a drug, nicotine is able to make a person completely dependent on a bad habit, directly affecting his willpower and practically depriving him of the ability to resist. After all, not only memory and attention suffer, the perniciousness of its influence is reflected in mental and intellectual activity, in logical thinking.
How smoking cessation affects blood vessels
Attempts to quit addiction promise the smoker getting rid of problems with many body functions, because the dependence of the duration of smoking and the deterioration of he alth are directly proportional to each other.
The bad news is that some of the processes triggered by nicotine addiction are irreversible. This applies to the heart and brain affected by ischemicimpact.
However, not everything is so deplorable. There is also a positive trend in the process of quitting smoking:
- A week without nicotine is characterized by the restoration of the vascular endothelium, the normalization of pressure and the appearance of an expectorant cough.
- A month without nicotine is accompanied by a complete cleansing of accumulated chemical components and toxins, as well as a significant improvement in well-being and the return of taste and olfactory receptors to normal.
- The year without nicotine is marked by an increase in muscle mass, strengthening of the immune system and the absence of lethargy.
Specifically, the vessels are restored in part of the endothelial layer - microcracks are tightened. Thickened blood from prolonged smoking becomes less viscous, and the risk of platelets is significantly reduced.
Blood pressure is restored, the heart is no longer overloaded with excessive efforts to push blood through constricted vessels. Accordingly, the osmotic pressure also does not increase.
