Why do people smoke?
People smoke because they find it enjoyable. And because it’s hard to quit once you start, despite the damaging effects of smoking on your body. This is because of your brain’s cravings for nicotine, which make you feel bad when you don’t get it.
Nicotine releases chemicals in your brain that make you feel good. Smoking might make you feel:
- Relaxed and calm.
- Buzzed and energized.
- More able to focus on tasks.
Smoking is also a social activity and a part of people’s routine, just like morning coffee. You might smoke to have fun, to calm yourself before being around a lot of people, or to focus and work. Some people like the taste or just the feeling of holding a cigarette in their hands.
What does smoking do to your body?
Smoking affects everything from the appearance of your skin and nails to how your tissues, organs and even your DNA work. The effects of smoking on your body start the moment you light up a cigarette. Thousands of chemicals released from burning tobacco start their damaging journey before you’ve even taken a puff.
You light the cigarette and hold it to your mouth
The heat from burning the cigarette releases nicotine and creates tar (tobacco residue). As you bring the cigarette to your lips, the tar stains your nails. The smoke dries out and inflames your skin, deepening wrinkles. Inhaling smoke through your nose damages nerve endings. Over time, this reduces your sense of smell.
You inhale cigarette smoke through your mouth
When you take a puff from the cigarette, it goes through a filter. This mostly keeps you from breathing in large particles, but tar, nicotine and other chemicals still get through. The tar stains your teeth and coats your gums and tongue. It damages your tooth enamel, puts you at risk for tooth decay and gum disease, and reduces your ability to taste foods you love.
Smoke moves through your airways
The tar coats your throat and vocal cords as it moves toward your lungs. This might make you cough. Traveling through your airways, tar and hydrogen cyanide (a poisonous gas) paralyze your cilia. Like bristles on a broom, cilia are hair-like strands whose job is to trap and sweep germs and other harmful particles out of your lungs. When they’re damaged, you’re more likely to get sick with respiratory infections.
Smoke fills your lungs and enters your bloodstream
When the smoke reaches your lungs, it travels to the small air sacs (alveoli) and damages them. This can lead to emphysema, a form of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). From your alveoli, carbon monoxide in the smoke moves into your blood. It bumps oxygen out of your red blood cells, starving your cells and tissues. The lack of oxygen can make you feel short of breath. Your cells sound the alarm to let your body know you need more oxygen, but this causes inflammation and mucus to form, making it even harder to breathe.
While traveling through your bloodstream, nicotine damages the lining of your blood vessels. This thickens and narrows them, and causes blood cells to stick to them, putting you at risk for blood clots, heart attack and stroke. For men, decreased circulation can make it difficult to get an erection (erectile dysfunction).
Chemicals move through your bloodstream to the rest of your body
Once in your blood, chemicals from cigarette smoke travel throughout your body. This damages your:
- Bones. Nicotine decreases the absorption of calcium and the production of bone-forming cells, causing you to have thinner, brittler bones.
- Eyes. The chemicals in cigarettes plus a lack of oxygen damage your eyes. This can lead to macular degeneration, cataracts and vision loss.
- Immune system. Smoking causes constant inflammation and weakens your immune system. This makes you more likely to get sick and develop autoimmune diseases.
- Hormones. Nicotine can cause hormone changes that can affect your fertility.
- DNA. Arsenic, nickel and radioactive polonium damage your DNA and block the tools your body uses to repair it. DNA damage can lead to cancer and fertility problems from damaged sperm.
Nicotine reaches your brain
From your blood, nicotine heads to your brain. There, it activates receptors that release dopamine, adrenaline, endorphins, serotonin and other “feel-good” signals in your brain. This is where a nicotine “buzz” comes from. It’s like nicotine pushing buttons to make you more relaxed, content or energized. It’s only been seconds since you inhaled that first puff of smoke.
You go through withdrawal
Your liver processes nicotine and you pee it out within a few hours of smoking a cigarette. Your body misses the buzz and craves more, encouraging you to have another one. If you don’t, you experience symptoms of withdrawal, like anxiety, depression, restlessness, anger and insomnia. Your body will develop a tolerance to nicotine and eventually need more and more to make you feel good, leading to nicotine dependence.
If you’re pregnant, it travels to the fetus
Narrowed blood vessels in the placenta and umbilical cord restrict blood flow to the fetus. The blood that does flow through carries carbon monoxide, nicotine and other harmful chemicals. This can prevent the fetus from getting enough oxygen and damage its DNA. Women who smoke while they’re pregnant are more likely to have a miscarriage. Babies born to someone who smokes can have low birth weight, heart and lung issues, and developmental delays.
Despite the significant harms of smoking and the difficulty of breaking nicotine addiction, people are still exploring gentler methods to help quit smoking. In addition to traditional withdrawal interventions, natural therapies focusing on physical and mental relaxation are also gaining attention. Aromatherapy, among these, has been gaining traction in recent years. Using the aroma of essential oils, it may help smokers alleviate the discomfort of withdrawal.
Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy uses essential oils extracted from flowers, leaves, seeds, peels, and resins to treat and prevent disease, promote physical and mental well-being, and promote relaxation and stress relief. Aromatherapy involves methods such as aroma inhalation and massage using essential oils diluted in plant oils. Essential oil inhalation offers the advantages of simplicity and non-invasiveness. Once the olfactory receptors receive the aroma components of an essential oil, sensory information is transmitted from the olfactory nerves to the hypothalamus, which then acts on the autonomic nervous system via the brainstem. Furthermore, by influencing mood in the limbic system, aromatherapy has been shown to alleviate anxiety and depression. It has also been shown to improve sleep quality, relieve fatigue and perceived stress, and improve cognitive function.
Current Research on Aromatherapy for Smoking Cessation
Regarding the effectiveness of aromatherapy as a smoking cessation aid, black pepper has been reported to reduce the urge to smoke, and peppermint has been shown to help relieve smoking cessation-related respiratory symptoms such as phlegm and cough. Furthermore, various olfactory stimuli, including essential oils, have been reported to reduce the urge to smoke. However, high-quality research on this topic is limited. Furthermore, while this study was not focused on smoking cessation, a systematic review of aromatherapy's effectiveness for depression concluded that it can reduce depression. In one study investigating aromatherapy as an adjunctive therapy, lavender and rosemary were reported to have anxiolytic effects after quitting smoking. Another study showed that lavender has anxiolytic and antidepressant-like effects, believed to be through modulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and serotonin transporters. Furthermore, inhaled limonene, found in citrus essential oils, has been reported to increase dopamine levels in the brain, and peppermint has a similar mechanism of action, suggesting potential antidepressant therapeutic benefits. Furthermore, aromatherapy has been shown to alleviate depression, and inhalation therapy is considered a particularly effective method.
Using Inhalers as an Aid for Smoking Cessation
A variety of aromatherapy devices are available on the market, such as aromatherapy inhalers, which are simple and affordable and can be integrated into daily life. An aromatherapy inhaler is a portable, plastic, lipstick-like container containing a cotton wick soaked in essential oil. Using an inhaler allows users to inhale the fragrance without getting their hands dirty or spilling the essential oil. Similar "aromatherapy sticks" are used in UK hospitals to manage symptoms such as nausea, insomnia, and anxiety, and to promote relaxation. If aromatherapy inhalers can alleviate psychological and depressive symptoms and reduce cigarette cravings, they could form the basis of a new smoking cessation aid.