Passive or secondhand smoking is a very tricky thing, and my gratitude goes to the government that has passed new laws prohibiting the inhalation of smoke from lit cigarettes in public places, or rather from exhaling them. The consequences of secondhand inhalation of smoke from other people’s lit cigarettes are very harmful, even more harmful than the inhalation of smoke from a lit cigarette in your hand.

What’s insidious about passive inhalation of smoke from lit cigarettes is that people who do not have a nicotine addiction become nicotine addicts, gradually, day after day inhaling other people’s tobacco smoke. That’s when it seems as if one cigarette could push a person to become a regular smoker, but in reality, it did not happen in one day or all at once. Secondhand smoking (inhalation of smoke from lit cigarettes) quickly brings ex-smokers back to their addiction.

Allen’s book is good, but it does not take into account individual aspects of addiction and the reasons why, in our opinion, we shouldn’t smoke (inhaling smoke from lit cigarettes).

Let’s find out why we still inhale smoke from lit cigarettes. Just like in the “Easy Way to Quit Smoking”, we will influence ourselves carefully, but through many different information reception channels that are used by our consciousness and subconsciousness. We will change our physical condition (reduce the effects of inhaling smoke from lit cigarettes) even before we get rid of our nicotine addiction. This will be done by accounting for a person’s individuality, i.e. each of us will focus their attention on their own features of addiction.

Dopamine (DA) is a neurotransmitter produced in the human brain, its production is localized in the hypothalamus. Dopamine is synthesized from the amino acid tyrosine through a subsequent step of L-dioxyphenylalanine. Then, noradrenaline can be produced from dopamine (also in the hypothalamus). Artificially synthesized dopamine, injected into the blood, acts as an activator of cardiovascular activity along with noradrenaline, but this hormone barely penetrates the central nervous system via blood due to the blood-brain barrier (this is also a scientific definition – author's note).

Dopamine is one of the chemical factors of internal reinforcement (FIR) and serves as an important part of the brain’s “reward system”. Dopamine induces feelings of pleasure (or satisfaction), which affects the processes of motivation and learning. Dopamine is naturally produced in large quantities during subjectively positive experiences such as sex, eating tasty food, and from pleasant bodily sensations. Neurobiological experiments have shown that even reward memories can increase dopamine levels, which is why this neurotransmitter is used by the brain to assess and motivate, reinforcing actions that are important for survival and procreation.

Synthetic analogs. The influence of drugs on dopamine levels

Like most neurotransmitters, dopamine has synthetic analogs as well as stimulators of its release in the brain. In particular, many drugs increase dopamine production and release it into the brain by 5-10 times higher than normal, which allows drug addicts to get a feeling of pleasure through artificial means. Thus, amphetamine directly stimulates dopamine release, affecting the mechanism of its transmission. Other drugs, such as cocaine and some other psychostimulants, block the natural mechanisms of dopamine reuptake, increasing its concentration in the synaptic space. Morphine and nicotine imitate the action of natural neurotransmitters, while alcohol blocks the action of dopamine antagonists. If a patient continues to overstimulate his “reward system”, the brain gradually adapts to the artificially increased dopamine levels, producing less hormone and decreasing the number of receptors in the “reward system”. This is one of the factors that induce an addict to increase the dose to obtain the same effect. Further development of chemical tolerance may gradually lead to metabolic disturbances in the brain and potentially cause serious damage to brain health in the long term.

To illustrate the effect of nicotine on dopamine levels, let’s take a look at their interaction in a graph. Pay particular attention to the yellow line “Degree of dependence on dopamine level stimulation by nicotine”.

Notes to Graph 1.

– Stage 1 begins from the moment of inhaling smoke from that first cigarette or the first instance of secondhand smoke until the first signs of addiction (the appearance of an unconscious rare desire to inhale smoke from a lit cigarette). The duration of the first stage is from one day to a month, depending on the frequency of intake of smoke from lit cigarettes into the human body.

– Stage 2 shows a pronounced, sometimes not yet realized nicotine dependence, which consists of the systematic inhalation of smoke from lit cigarettes (probably, not so frequent – more than once a week), without any noticeable (or pronounced) deterioration to your health. This stage can last for several years.

– Stage 3 shows pronounced features of health deterioration. The duration of this stage depends on the general state of a smoker’s health at the beginning of the “smoking experience”, lifestyle, physical activity, other bad habits, etc. At this stage, changes have already occurred in the smoker’s character and morality: irritation, grumbling, hatred for others, laziness – traits inherent in most smokers, however, laziness is due to physical weakness.