Why smoking is so addictive

Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, heart disease, respiratory problems and stroke. Even then approximately 120 million people smoke in India, out of which 10 million lose their life to tobacco use every year.

Most people start smoking in their teens. Teenagers whose parents or friends smoke are more likely to start this habit as compared to others. Some just start accidentally as others think it looks cool. But there is one thing that we all know for sure, that it is not easy to quit smoking once you get habitual of it. 

​Smoking an addiction

A large number of people try to give up smoking, but not all succeed. They try nicotine, seek professionals help, but still can't resist their temptation to smoke. Many even regret starting this habit at the very first place. But why is it so difficult to quit smoking? Have you ever thought about it?

Cigarettes contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. It interferes with the functioning of your brain by altering the balance of two chemicals- dopamine and noradrenaline. Changes in the level of these chemicals affect your mood and concentration level, which smokers find enjoyable. They start feeling happy and stressfree within minutes after taking the first puff.

Nicotine reaches the brain quickly leading to nicotine rush, which smokers enjoy and with time starts becoming too much dependent on it.

​Effect of quitting on brain

When you suddenly quit smoking, the scarcity of nicotine changes the level of dopamine and noradrenaline in the brain. This makes you feel anxious, depressed and irritated. Due to these issues, many people start smoking again after quitting it.
 
​How difficult is it to quit smoking?

2 out of 3 of smokers say they want to quit, but only 1 succeeds. This is because they become physically as well as emotionally dependant on cigarettes. Studies suggest that smoking is more addictive than using cocaine or opiates. In 2012, researchers closely observed 28 different studies carried out on people trying to quit the substance they were addicted to. It was found that about 18 per cent were able to quit drinking, and more than 40 per cent were able to quit opiates or cocaine, but only 8 per cent were able to quit smoking.
 
The bottom line

There are no health benefits of smoking. It can cause several health issues and if you are suffering from any disease, it will make the condition even more complicated. So, try to quit it. Taking professionals advice may help, but more that that, strong determination is important. 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

7 Discoveries Showing How the Brain and Body are Linked

Another brain area affected by stress is the hippocampus, which helps us learn and remember things. Ultimately, chronic stress can even cause mood swings, irritability, mental illness (e.g. anxiety, depression, addiction) and was even found to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. In extreme cases, constant stress was even shown to be able to shrink the brain volume, particularly the cortex. This video further explains how stress affects our brains.

The brain is a part of our body, so of course, it's connected and influenced by our body, you may think. And while this basic assumption is definitely at the heart of the findings we will discuss here, the ways in which our brains are interconnected with the other organs and systems of our body can be quite unexpected, with things like hydration level and specific foods having a profound influence on our mind. But it isn't only our gut or cardiovascular system that can influence how well our brains work: our experiences and habits are just as important to our mental health and cognitive performance. These 7 neuroscientific discoveries illustrate how our brain, our body, and our experiences are all meaningfully interconnected and have a strong effect on our health and well-being.

1. Your Brain’s Health and Functioning is Dependent on Your Gut Health

 
The idea of the gut-brain connection has been around for a while, but the more scientists learn about the specific ways our guts influence our brains, the more we get to understand the holistic importance of a healthy diet. More specifically, we now know that a poor diet is a contributor to mental illness, particularly anxiety and depression, but it may also alter our cognitive abilities.
For example, a diet high in sugar was shown to impair our cognitive abilities in the short term, causing brain fog. The long-term effects of sugar are no less alarming, as there is evidence linking depression and a high-sugar diet. On a more positive note, a healthy diet was shown to have a beneficial effect on depression. Read more about the ways our gut affects our brain and other systems here.

2. Mental Tasks and New Experiences can Boost one’s Brain Health

One of the most significant neuroscience discoveries of the past decade is the idea that our brain is malleable and new experiences, training, and learning can improve its functioning. In neuroscience, this notion is known under the term 'neuroplasticity', and, as you might expect, the human brain is most pliable in childhood, but it continues being shaped by our experiences throughout our lives.

This is why reading, playing and listening to music, painting and many other types of mental training are all so beneficial for our cognitive health and help us maintain a sharp mind for longer. More interestingly, recent scientific research focusing on the ways we can use neuroplasticity to our advantage also showed that we can improve our memory by simply engaging in new enjoyable activities and trying new things. Learn more about this particular study by following this link.

3. Both Too Much and Not Enough Sleep Can Affect Your Cognition
Sleep is one of the favorite topics in neuroscience, with numerous studies suggesting that both too much and not enough sleep can impair our memory, creativity and cognitive tasks, such as concentration and problem-solving. The largest-ever sleep study was conducted in 2017, with over 10.000 participants tested, and it concluded that the previous hypothesis was true and sleep does affect our decision-making and concentration even in the short term.

However, the same study concluded that memory performance is NOT affected by sleep, although admittedly they did not look at the long-term effects of sleep. Still, it’s best to get an average of 7-8 hours of sleep every day to stay in top shape.

4. Healthy Body, Healthy Mind: the Effects of Exercise on Our Brain

Your brain needs exercise, we discussed that in the second point but turns out that regular old exercise, too, can boost your cognitive health and help retain a sharp mind in your senior years. One study even suggested that exercise helps delay dementia by 15 years!

Apart from being an excellent preventative measure of Alzheimer’s and dementia, however, exercise can help us boost our cognitive performance and thinking skills, too. As for the kind of exercise in question, experts suggest that a mixture of cardio, flexibility training, strength and resistance training will give you the greatest cognitive boost, but as long as you exercise regularly, any training you enjoy will benefit your brain as well.

5. Chronic Stress Can Shrink Your Brain

You probably heard that a little stress is useful for our brain from time to time, and it may be true, but most of us don’t get just a little stressed, don’t we? And that’s exactly the problem. When we are stressed out day after day, our prefrontal cortex, the steering wheel of our brain, gets affected, making us less alert and worse at performing cognitive tasks, all because of cortisol, the infamous stress hormone.

Another brain area affected by stress is the hippocampus, which helps us learn and remember things. Ultimately, chronic stress can even cause mood swings, irritability, mental illness (e.g. anxiety, depression, addiction) and was even found to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. In extreme cases, constant stress was even shown to be able to shrink the brain volume, particularly the cortex. This video further explains how stress affects our brains.

6. Mindfulness May Help Keep Your Brain Younger for Longer

Mindfulness training is a hot topic both in psychology and neuroscience nowadays, but it’s not a new invention, as both yoga and meditation rely heavily on the idea of self-awareness and mindfulness. There’s a massive amount of research showing that mindfulness can make you more resistant to pain, help you deal with mental illness and even prevent cortical degeneration caused by dementia and aging.

So if there’s one thing you should start doing, that’s some sort of mindfulness practice, be it yoga, meditation, or mindful breathing. Just for that purpose, here's a great yoga practice suitable for all ages.

7. Your Water Intake Affects your Brain

A dehydrated brain is a sluggish brain, one that can make it difficult for you to focus, maintain attention, and engage in problem-solving tasks. A 2018 study found that losing as little as 2% of body weight for adults can instantly affect all these mental faculties. Keep in mind that losing that much water is not uncommon, especially in the summer weather.

Also, kids and seniors are at a higher risk of suffering from dehydration. The conclusion is simple: always keep a full water bottle on hand, especially if you’re spending time in the sun, but don’t overindulge either. Why? This is because drinking too much water is as dangerous as dehydration, as it can dilute your blood and, in severe cases, can make your brain swell, which can be lethal.

How much water should you drink, then? Doctors generally recommend drinking around half a gallon (2 liters) of water a day for an average adult, which is about 8 glasses of water, but this may differ depending on your weight and diet. 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement 

7 Discoveries Showing How the Brain and Body are Linked

The brain is a part of our body, so of course, it's connected and influenced by our body, you may think. And while this basic assumption is definitely at the heart of the findings we will discuss here, the ways in which our brains are interconnected with the other organs and systems of our body can be quite unexpected, with things like hydration level and specific foods having a profound influence on our mind. But it isn't only our gut or cardiovascular system that can influence how well our brains work: our experiences and habits are just as important to our mental health and cognitive performance. These 7 neuroscientific discoveries illustrate how our brain, our body, and our experiences are all meaningfully interconnected and have a strong effect on our health and well-being.

1. Your Brain’s Health and Functioning is Dependent on Your Gut Health

The idea of the gut-brain connection has been around for a while, but the more scientists learn about the specific ways our guts influence our brains, the more we get to understand the holistic importance of a healthy diet. More specifically, we now know that a poor diet is a contributor to mental illness, particularly anxiety and depression, but it may also alter our cognitive abilities.

For example, a diet high in sugar was shown to impair our cognitive abilities in the short term, causing brain fog. The long-term effects of sugar are no less alarming, as there is evidence linking depression and a high-sugar diet. On a more positive note, a healthy diet was shown to have a beneficial effect on depression. 

2. Mental Tasks and New Experiences can Boost one’s Brain Health

One of the most significant neuroscience discoveries of the past decade is the idea that our brain is malleable and new experiences, training, and learning can improve its functioning. In neuroscience, this notion is known under the term 'neuroplasticity', and, as you might expect, the human brain is most pliable in childhood, but it continues being shaped by our experiences throughout our lives.

This is why reading, playing and listening to music, painting and many other types of mental training are all so beneficial for our cognitive health and help us maintain a sharp mind for longer. More interestingly, recent scientific research focusing on the ways we can use neuroplasticity to our advantage also showed that we can improve our memory by simply engaging in new enjoyable activities and trying new things. 

3. Both Too Much and Not Enough Sleep Can Affect Your Cognition

Sleep is one of the favorite topics in neuroscience, with numerous studies suggesting that both too much and not enough sleep can impair our memory, creativity and cognitive tasks, such as concentration and problem-solving. The largest-ever sleep study was conducted in 2017, with over 10.000 participants tested, and it concluded that the previous hypothesis was true and sleep does affect our decision-making and concentration even in the short term.

However, the same study concluded that memory performance is NOT affected by sleep, although admittedly they did not look at the long-term effects of sleep. Still, it’s best to get an average 7-8 hours of sleep every day to stay in top shape.

4. Healthy Body, Healthy Mind: the Effects of Exercise on Our Brain

Your brain needs exercise, we discussed that in the second point but turns out that regular old exercise, too, can boost your cognitive health and help retain a sharp mind in your senior years. One study even suggested that exercise helps delay dementia by 15 years!

Apart from being an excellent preventative measure of Alzheimer’s and dementia, however, exercise can help us boost our cognitive performance and thinking skills, too. As for the kind of exercise in question, experts suggest that a mixture of cardio, flexibility training, strength and resistance training will give you the greatest cognitive boost, but as long as you exercise regularly, any training you enjoy will benefit your brain as well.

5. Chronic Stress Can Shrink Your Brain

You probably heard that a little stress is useful for our brain from time to time, and it may be true, but most of us don’t get just a little stressed, don’t we? And that’s exactly the problem. When we are stressed out day after day, our prefrontal cortex, the steering wheel of our brain, gets affected, making us less alert and worse at performing cognitive tasks, all because of cortisol, the infamous stress hormone.

Another brain area affected by stress is the hippocampus, which helps us learn and remember things. Ultimately, chronic stress can even cause mood swings, irritability, mental illness (e.g. anxiety, depression, addiction) and was even found to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. In extreme cases, constant stress was even shown to be able to shrink the brain volume, particularly the cortex.

6. Mindfulness May Help Keep Your Brain Younger for Longer

Mindfulness training is the hot topic both in psychology and neuroscience nowadays, but it’s not a new invention, as both yoga and meditation rely heavily on the idea of self-awareness and mindfulness. There’s a massive amount of research showing that mindfulness can make you more resistant to pain, help you deal with mental illness and even prevent cortical degeneration caused by dementia and aging.

So if there’s one thing you should start doing, that’s some sort of mindfulness practice, be it yoga, meditation, or mindful breathing.

7. Your Water Intake Affects your Brain

A dehydrated brain is a sluggish brain, one that can make it difficult for you to focus, maintain attention, and engage in problem-solving tasks. A 2018 study found that losing as little as 2% of body weight for adults can instantly affect all these mental faculties. Keep in mind that losing that much water is not uncommon, especially in the summer weather.

Also, kids and seniors are at a higher risk of suffering from dehydration. The conclusion is simple: always keep a full water bottle on hand, especially if you’re spending time in the sun, but don’t overindulge either. Why? This is because drinking too much water is as dangerous as dehydration, as it can dilute your blood and, in severe cases, can make your brain swell, which can be lethal.

How much water should you drink, then? Doctors generally recommend drinking around half a gallon (2 liters) of water a day for an average adult, which is about 8 glasses of water, but this may differ depending on your weight and diet.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement       

Don't be dependent on your smartphone

In a bid to rest the debate on what comes first -- smartphone addiction or depression -- a new study has found that young people who are hooked on to their smartphones may be at an increased risk of depression and loneliness. A growing body of research has identified a link between smartphone dependency and symptoms of depression and loneliness.

However, it's been unclear whether reliance on smartphones precedes those symptoms, or whether the reverse is true -- that depressed or lonely people are more likely to become dependent on their phones.

In a study of 346 participants, ages 18-20, researchers found that smartphone dependency predicts higher reports of depressive symptoms and loneliness, rather than the other way around. "The main takeaway is that smartphone dependency directly predicts later depressive symptoms," said an assistant professor in the department of communication.

"There's an issue where people are entirely too reliant on the device, in terms of feeling anxious if they don't have it accessible, and they're using it to the detriment of their day-to-day life." In the study, researchers focus on smartphone dependency rather than on general smartphone use, which can actually provide benefits.

Understanding the direction of the relationship between smartphone dependency and poor psychological outcomes is critical for knowing how best to address the problem, said one of the authors of the study. "If depression and loneliness lead to smartphone dependency, we could reduce dependency by adjusting people's mental health," he said. "But if smartphone dependency (precedes depression and loneliness), which is what we found, we can reduce smartphone dependency to maintain or improve well-being."

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement