Nicotine Use Disorder

25% of the United States has a Nicotine Use Disorder. Young adults ages 18 to 25 have the highest rate of current use of tobacco products (35%). This is the worst addiction in the world. It earns the #1 position because:

  • The loss of life caused by cardiovascular disease, cancer, and lung disease (According to the CDC, more than 480,000 deaths each year are caused by cigarette smoking.)
  • the loss of productivity of a society because of these illnesses
  • the breakup of families because a parent dies at a young age while their children are still dependent on their parents
  • the numbers of people worldwide using nicotine
  • it is the hardest addiction to treat

There is essentially no unmanageability in the addict’s life until they have developed a disease that is irreversible such as emphysema, lung cancer, or had their first heart attack. Without the addict feeling the unmanageability in their life, there is limited incentive to stop until it is too late. These diseases took at least 10 years to develop and if the addict started smoking cigarettes at the age of 15, then by 25 years old the disease has a good start and by 35 to 45years old the addict may be dead.

The evolution of vapes is opening the use of nicotine to younger age groups and more people as an easier way to become dependent on nicotine which is the carcinogenic agent. Very few smokers use vapes for their intended us of helping the addicted nicotine user to stop smoking cigarettes. Vapes were invented to help with the oral fixation part of the withdrawal from nicotine.

Lung cancer is now the most common cancer killer of men and women. From 2000-2010 the additional risk of lung cancer for women smokers jumped nearly tenfold to 25.7 x that of nonsmoking women. Men who smoke now have a 25x higher risk of lung cancer than nonsmokers.

This latest Surgeon General's report (2014) also evaluated the evidence concerning other cancers, and concluded that smoking is a cause of liver cancer and of colorectal cancer, the fourth most diagnosed cancer in the United States and the cancer responsible for the second largest number of cancer deaths annually. The report suggests that smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke causes breast cancer. The report also found that smoking increases the risk of dying from cancer and other diseases in cancer patients and survivors, including breast and prostate cancer patients though smoking is not a cause of prostate cancer.

Recent studies show that the relative risk for COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) in women has risen greatly, reaching 22.4x higher risk as comparedto “never” smokers, and similar to the risk in men. COPD is a horrible illness. Lung tissue becomes brittle from the smoke and will not absorb oxygen to the blood stream. These individuals literally slowly suffocate themselves to death and there is no treatment to stop this process. People with asthma who are passive inhalers can go into severe attacks and have to be hospitalized. Evidence reported over the last decade is sufficient to lead to a conclusion that smoking increases the risk for tuberculosis and for dying from tuberculosis.

Although lung cancer is often assumed to be the largest smoking-attributable cause of death in the United States, cardiovascular diseaseactually claims more lives of smokers 35 years of age and older every year compared with lung cancer. Exposure to second hand smoke causes significantly more deaths due to cardiovascular disease than due to lung cancer and this new report finds that exposure to secondhand smoke is also a cause of stroke. Exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk for stroke by an estimated 20-30%.

This report concludes that smoking is a cause of type 2 diabetes mellitus, and that the risk of developing diabetes is 30-40% higher for active smokers than nonsmokers. Furthermore, the risk of developing diabetes increases as the number of cigarettes smoked grows.

Smoking is a cause of systemic inflammation and impaired immune function. One result of this altered immunity is increased risk of pulmonary infections among smokers. Smoking is known to compromise the equilibrium of the immune system increasing the risk for several immune and autoimmune disorders. This report says that smoking is a cause of rheumatoid arthritis.

Maternal smoking during early pregnancy is causal for orofacial clefts in infants, and evidence suggests that smoking could be associated with certain other birth defects. There is a causal relationship between smoking and erectile dysfunction in men.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a disease that gradually destroys the macula in the retina of the eye and can ultimately lead to loss of vision in the center of the eye. This report finds that smoking is a cause of AMD.

The age-standardized relative risk, comparing the all-cause death rate in current smokers to that of never smokers, has more than doubled in men and more than tripled for women during the years since the release of the first Surgeon General's report on smoking and health. Smoking shortens life far more than most other risk factors for early mortality. Smokers are estimated to lose more than a decade of life. Smoking cessation by 40 years of age reduces that loss approximately 90%.