Obviously I know that nicotine is addictive and a smoker craves it; but what are the scientific reasons for...
Why do smokers crave a cigarette after eating?
Why do smokers crave a cigarette while drinking alcohol?
Why do smokers crave a cigarette after sex?
2006-08-09 01:04:44 · 16 answers · asked by Yasmin H 3 in Health ➔ General Health Care ➔ Other - General Health Care
Its like having a desert ofter your meal, after something nice then you then you finish it off with something else you enjoy
2006-08-09 01:10:57 · answer #1 · answered by claire1731manchester 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It seems a lot of people have already mentioned the psychological aspects. One person has mentioned drug uptake into the bloodstream with alcohol. Therefore I will talk about dopamine.
One of the chemical reasons (the main one) that smoking is addictive is that it causes dopamine to be released in the brain. This is one of the body's natural sedatives, stimulants, and pain killers.
When people smoke, the body habituates, and adapts to produce less dopamine than it normally does - it becomes dependant on the stimulant from the nicotine to trigger dopamine production. Therefore the smoker needs to smoke in order to feel normal. The effect is fairly immediate.
Essentially smoking takes the "edge" off life. The peaks of experience have their tops cut off, and the lows have their troughs cut off (picture a sine wave put through a compressor).
Ignoring for a moment the psychological aspects (which are a big part of it):
After eating, there are chemical highs and lows generated by food in the body-brain chemistry that cause a smoker to want the dopamine release.
Alcohol works similarly, but also there is the added factor, that alcohol and nicotine stimulate many of the same pleasure centers of the brain therefore easily become associated with each other. Alcohol also causes many other chemicals that are the body's natural painkillers and mood drugs to be released. Dopamine is just a special case. Again the association is natural.
After sex cravings are again related to the body & brain chemistry being drastically changed, and the body's natural mood drugs being released in the brain. After which, ordinarily, a natural release of Dopamine would occur - but of course as we mentioned earlier, the smoker's brain has habituated and therefore no longer produces Dopamine in the natural way (although that's not to say it doesn't produce any - they'd be unable to function at all if that were the case).
That's a very simplistic explanation of it, but you get the general idea.
2006-08-11 14:10:47 · answer #2 · answered by gsp100677 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
With eating and sex it's the time without a cigarette during the activity which makes the tab afterwards all the more satisfying.
With smoking and drinking it is how the ethanol and nicotine stimulate the receptors in your brain e.g. alcohol allows better uptake of nicotine.
Incidently Grapefruit has the same effect as alcohol in this case in that it allows increased drug uptake to the bloodstream.
2006-08-09 08:18:12 · answer #3 · answered by Andrew C 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
We associate smoking with something we like. Not all smokers want one after sex, eating and with alcohol, but most do, and it's because of the association.
2006-08-09 09:07:40 · answer #4 · answered by Imani 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That's the phsychological aspect of the addiction. Those things are called "triggers." They got into the habit of having a cigarette at those times, and now whenever they do those things, they feel like they need to light up. Smoking is both a physical and mental addiction, you have to treat both sides of it.
2006-08-09 08:09:31 · answer #5 · answered by nimo22 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
when the smokers feel a pinch of smoke inside their lungs and the respiratory path, they feel as they get a little bit relaxed. This is y most of them use cigar after sex, eating, n drinking alcohol.
2006-08-09 08:10:32 · answer #6 · answered by Pravin P 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
its all psychological really its all associated with sitting down and relaxing and becomes a natural reaction once relaxed. i don`t smoke during the day and its the last thing on my mind but as soon is i relax at the end of the day and open a beer the craving for a smoke is massive.
2006-08-09 08:15:51 · answer #7 · answered by chopps . 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We are addicts to nicotine. The after meals and with drinks is just a comfort zone for the habit.
2006-08-09 08:11:15 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Those are times they smoke out of habbit. I used to drink red wine while watching the news at ten - nowerdays if I watch any news it puts me in a wine mood.
2006-08-09 08:10:40 · answer #9 · answered by monkeymanelvis 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most of the addiction is psychological not chemical, it is purely down to a need or habit in their adiction.
2006-08-09 14:35:08 · answer #10 · answered by Kasha 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋