Nicotine, Good and Bad.

Is it any wonder millions of people smoke? A cigarette helps calm us down and even lose weight. The problem is, once a lot of us start smoking, we can't stop. The habit's addictive! Why?

 

Tobacco contains nicotine, the drug that keeps us coming back. And as we all know the risks of puffing away outweigh the benefits. Nicotine hooks us in, but it's the other 4,000 chemicals that are released as tobacco burns that cause many of the diseases we associate with smoking.

For many years, scientists have been channelling their research efforts into nicotine's addictive qualities, the reason why we keep smoking, even though we know it's bad for us. Their findings have been surprising.

Nicotine does seem to boost concentration, improve memory and control body weight! The downside is, it also adversely affects babies in utero and may explain the link between smoking and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The hope for the future is that drug companies will be able to separate nicotine's positive properties from the negative and develop drugs for the treatment of everything from Alzheimer's disease to weight control.