People’s health is a result of internal and external factors. Describe one internal and one external factor and explain their effects on people’s health.

In view of this assignment, I have chosen to focus on nicotine topic that will explain the result of internal and external factors on people’s health. Nicotine and its effect on the body are similar to the action of heroin and cocaine, nicotine increases dopamine production, giving a feeling of pleasure and contributing to the development of addiction. In combination with tobacco smoke, this substance increases the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Nicotine addiction is also visible on the outside; addicts often have a brown coating on the teeth, their skin is less moisturized, dry, earthy and is aging faster due to a deficiency of collagen and elastin.

Nicotine works on the principle that any psychoactive substance – stimulating the receptors in the brain, stimulating or calming organ of the nervous system. Nicotine is a neurotoxin which means that in high doses it impairs the functioning of the nervous system of living organisms and leads to death. At low doses, nicotine stimulates the nervous system. Accelerates heart rate, increases blood pressure, dilates pupils, stimulates the digestive system. The shallow inhalation of cigarette smoke activates the brain for work, improves memory, and increases concentration.

In the case of higher doses of nicotine, the smoker feels loose. A deep inhalation of cigarette smoke calms down and reduces stress; addicted people reach for cigarettes when they feel increased nervous tension. The stimulus, they are able to function better in society, are more composed, do not easily succumb to emotions, and thus easier to concentrate on the tasks entrusted to them.

The most popular form of nicotine addiction is smoking, which has a very bad effect on the body. Cigarettes do not consist of tobacco, in the process of their production a number of substances are used, which have a carcinogenic effect, such as tar, phenols, hydrogen cyanide, which are dangerous for both the smoker and people who inhale cigarette smoke. (Healthline. (2019) ‘Nicotine Addiction: What You Need to Know’)

The effect of smoking are:

• higher incidence of tuberculosis and other lung diseases,
• cancers of the lungs, larynx, throat, esophagus
• heart diseases,
• atherosclerosis,
• aneurysms,
• ulcers of the stomach and duodenum

Smokers are aging faster, and their skin and teeth are yellowed as a result of contact with cigarette smoke. Smoking cigarettes cause the so-called smoker’s wrinkles. It negatively affects the complexion, leading to the development of discolorations and spots on the skin. Smoking causes the skin to lose moisture quickly, it becomes severely dry, flaccid and weakened. Smokers develop skin diseases more often, and wounds are more difficult to heal. Smoking also affects other skin functions. Smoking increases the risk of hyperhidrosis. The same applies to sebaceous glands, especially in young smokers who have acne vulgaris. (Mishra Aseem. (November 2018) ‘Harmful effects of Nicotine’)

It is certain that the most common form of nicotine addiction – smoking – has a very negative impact on health. Tobacco smoke contains a number of substances with carcinogenic activity, including tar substances that accumulate in the airways for years and can cause lung, larynx, throat and esophageal cancers. It also includes toxic carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and phenols that impair respiratory function and increase the incidence of chronic lung disease and tuberculosis. Smoking also has a very negative effect on the cardiovascular system – it contributes to the development of heart disease, including heart attacks, hypertension, atherosclerosis, aneurysms, strokes. People can prevent their own life by quitting smoking by taking medication to organise to attend more active life by going out walking or attending to the gym.

Smoking can also result in a heavy amount of carcinogenic growth and can thus cut short a life due to various infection. However, there is always the danger of passive smoking that not only affects the smoker but also results in the detrimental health condition of the people around him. Many a mothers who go for smoking during their months of pregnancy results in various types of problems in the child even before he is born. Thus this is a true harmful habit that not only affect you but the people around you too. (Mishra Aseem. (November 2018) ‘Harmful effects of Nicotine’)

However, that does not mean nicotine if used in the right quantities and in the right time does not have any sort of healing properties. When prescribed by a doctor the fumes of nicotine and tobacco can result in the removal of many severe cases of mucus diseases, but all this needs to be done in the perfect care and instruction of a knowledgeable individual.

Having said all these, it is perfectly clear that everything can have a positive or a negative side and it is always dependant on the user how he decides to use the substance and whether to improve or decorate the condition he is in.

Reference

Mishra Aseem. (November 2018) ‘Harmful effects of Nicotine’ Retrieved on 13th February 2018

Retrieved from:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4363846/

Healthline. (2019) ‘Nicotine Addiction: What You Need to Know’

’ Retrieved on 13th February 2018

Retrieved from:

https://www.healthline.com/health/nicotine-and-related-disorders