The World Health Organization (WHO) did begin promoting “nicotine replacement therapy” globally in the 1990s to help people quit smoking. These therapies are designed to reduce withdrawal symptoms when quitting smoking by delivering nicotine but avoiding the harmful substances produced by burning tobacco.
E-cigarettes, as a form of nicotine delivery, are viewed as an advisable harm-reducing smoking cessation aid. This claim is well-recognized by many health organizations. Compared to traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes are usually considered less harmful. Most e-liquids usually contain ingredients such as nicotine, glycerin, and vegetable flavors, and these liquids are heated to produce vapor for users to inhale. The vapor produced usually does not contain harmful substances like tar and soot, which are found in traditional cigarettes and relatively harm to humans.
Smoking is known to be bad for your physical health. A controversial issue arises: Does tobacco also affect your mental health? Does smoking lower your intelligence?
To find out the result, a study was conducted on 20,221 Israeli 18-year-old male recruits. It is reported that non-smokers had higher IQ than smokers. It can be concluded that smoking may have an effect on the human brain, in other words smoking harms the human brain and affects the level of IQ. In fact, it is the nicotine and carbon monoxide in cigarettes that work!
Tobacco contains a large number of harmful substances, such as nicotine, carbon monoxide, tar, etc. These substances can cause damage to the neurons in the brain, leading to a decline in neuronal function and affecting intelligence.
First, let’s see how exactly does smoking affect your intelligence?Are non-smokers really smarter than smokers?
- Brain atrophy: Long-term smoking will damage the cardiovascular and cerebral blood vessels reducing the ability of blood vessels to carry oxygen, while the harmful substances in tobacco will also impede the absorption and utilization of oxygen resulting in long-term brain hypoxia, which triggers cerebral atherosclerosis and insufficient blood supply to the brain, then brain cells gradually atrophy and probably lead to dementia, memory loss and other symptoms that affect the normal function of the brain.
- Insufficient blood flow to the brain: Smoking leads to an increase in carbon monoxide, which causes insufficient blood flow to the brain. A mild lack of cerebral blood flow is accompanied by dizziness, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and other discomforts, but has no negative effect on brain cells and no effect on intelligence. However, if the cerebral blood supply is insufficient for a long period of time, it will cause damage to the brain cells, resulting in numerous symptoms (memory loss, slow action, generalized weakness, etc.), which will affect the normal functioning of the brain, thus affecting intelligence.
- Sympathetic overexcitation: Nicotine and other harmful ingredients in cigarettes may trigger sympathetic over-excitement, and prolonged sympathetic over-excitement have a negative impact on intelligence.
- Cerebral vascular damage: Smoking causes vasospasm in the brain, making the blood vessel wall thinner and more susceptible to rupture and bleeding. Cerebral hemorrhage will cause dramatic trauma to the brain, leading to the death of brain cells, affecting the normal function of the brain.
- Decrease in plasma folate concentration: Decrease in plasma folate concentration may affect the synthesis and metabolism of neurotransmitters, leading to neurological dysfunction, thus affecting the performance of intelligence.
In conclusion, long-term smoking will affect the intelligence of the brain and cause specific damage and intellectual problems.
However, it is not difficult to see that the main culprits that affect intelligence are carbon monoxide and nicotine.
Why does nicotine have such a strong effect on the human brain and intelligence?
Nicotine, a name derived from the scientific name of the tobacco plant “Nicotiana tabacum”, is also an organic compound known as nicotine. Its chemical formula is C10H14N2, containing highly toxic. This substance can be widely found in tobacco plants or plants in the Solanaceae family (e.g. tomatoes, goji berries, etc.).
Nicotine’s mechanism of action is primarily through interaction with nicotinic acetylcholine acceptors, which are mainly located in the paranephric medulla and other sites of the autonomic nervous system, as well as in the central nervous system. At low concentrations, nicotine enhances the activity of these receptors and has a weak direct elevating effect on other neurotransmitters. At high concentrations, however, nicotine has a depressant effect on these receptors.
In the brain, this mechanism of action of nicotine can lead to a number of physiological and psychological changes. On the one hand, nicotine can affect neurotransmitter balance and signaling in the brain, then has a significant impact on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects of performance. On the other hand, prolonged exposure to nicotine can lead to internal structural and functional changes in the brain, increasing the risk of neurodegenerative diseases.
Note: For your safety, you should not smoke or consume too much nicotine!
Furthermore, why does carbon monoxide have such a significant influence on the human brain and intelligence?
Carbon monoxide is a carbon-oxygen compound, chemical formula CO, colorless and odorless gas, insoluble in water, molecular weight of 28.0101, which is not easy to liquefy and solidify. As for toxicity, higher concentrated CO can make people suffer from different degrees of poisoning symptoms. If humans inhale higher concentrations that will be combined with hemoglobin, resulting in hypoxia and poisoning symptoms. At the same time, long-term exposure to low concentrations of carbon monoxide also has a bad influence on intelligence, leading to neuronal damage in the brain and mental retardation, memory loss, concentration and reaction ability decrease, and affecting learning and work performance. In addition, the sequelae of carbon monoxide poisoning include but are not limited to mental retardation, behavioral problems, and mood disorders, and these effects may be related to nerve cells damaged in the brain and destruction of myelin.
Therefore, exposure to carbon monoxide should be avoided and effective ventilation and safety precautions should be taken to minimize exposure.
However, it is rare for carbon monoxide poisoning from smoking, which is because the lowest lethal concentration for human inhalation is 5000 ppm (5 minutes), and the carbon monoxide produced from a single cigarette is relatively low in concentration. Moreover, the smoking duration of one stick is very short, and people will not be exposed to high concentrations of carbon monoxide for a long time. Therefore please be careful not to smoke a large number of cigarettes in a short period of time, as this will increase the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Back to the initial topic: Is vaping with less harmful intellectual impact than traditional cigarettes?
For those who have been following and scribing our updated articles on ANTBAR official website, you should have realized that we have mentioned many times how the nicotine content of e-cigarettes compares to that of traditional cigarettes. One qualified e-cigarette contains nicotine as much as 3 to 5 packs of 10 traditional cigarettes. The body is far less exposed to nicotine than traditional cigarettes when vaping e-cigarettes. In addition, e-cigarettes are also available in nicotine-free liquids, which further enhances their safety.
We all know that e-cigarettes convert nicotine into vapor through atomization and other technologies, and do not contain the carbon monoxide found in traditional cigarettes. This feature reduces the likelihood of e-cigarettes triggering problems such as insufficient blood supply to the brain and Cerebral atrophy.
Now can we assert that smoking e-cigarettes has less impact on lowering human intelligence?
The answer is obvious. Although we don’t have proof that e-cigarettes are completely harmless, their effect on people’s intelligence will be on the low side compared to traditional cigarettes.
Caution: Please do not try nicotine-containing e-cigarettes if you are under the legal age.
