Smoking Kills in More Ways

Of course you already know that smoking is like standing on a busy highway waiting for a truck to run you down. But what you don’t know is that it actually does something else to your body, your brain in particular, while you are waiting for your bus trip to the after life.

Current research on the effects of smoking in the brain reveals that, among other harmful things, smoking changes the chemistry of the part of the brain responsible for processing pleasure and pain. According to the German study, the amount of the amino acid N-acetylaspartate (NAA) is reduced in the brain of a smoker. Although the study doesn’t specify how this chemical imbalance specifically manifests, I assume that it probably reduces the sensation of pain, which is ok, but also of pleasure, which is totally not good. I can bear not feeling the hurt of a punch in the face, but really, does the pleasure of sex have to go with it? Previous studies reveal that this condition was observed in persons with psychiatric and mood disorders like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and dementia, as well as alcohol dependence.

So how do you get around it? The study offers just one solution: quit smoking.

Read more about it here:

Smoking Upsets Pain/Pleasure Neurochemistry
Heavy Smokers Must Quit Totally

Note: Baby, the bottom line is that I love you and I don't want you to die on me.