Tobacco (2024)

FAQs

What are good tobacco questions? ›

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Cigarette smoking is costly to your health because nicotine is highly addictive. The need to smoke (or chew) speeds up the progress of cancers, heart disease, stroke, lung infections, and others.

The widely recommended 5A's strategy for brief smoking cessation includes five tasks: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange. Assessments of the 5A's have been limited to medical-record review and self-report. Using observational data, an instrument to assess the rate at which the 5A's are accomplished was developed.

General Questions:

How do you feel about your smoking? What are your recent thoughts about quitting smoking? What do you know about smoking and your family's health? What do you think it would be like to stop smoking?

Every year in the U.S., more than 480,000 people die from tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke, making it the leading cause of preventable death in this country. Tragically, each day thousands of kids still pick up a tobacco product for the first time.

First, nicotine can harm the developing brain. It can be harder for kids who smoke to learn new things or to pay attention. They're also likely to become addicted very quickly (even more so than adults). Nicotine is also linked to depression and anxiety in young smokers.

Why do people smoke? ›

Nicotine creates an immediate sense of relaxation, so people smoke in the belief it reduces stress and anxiety. This feeling is temporary and soon gives way to withdrawal symptoms and increased cravings. Smoking reduces withdrawal symptoms but doesn't reduce anxiety or deal with the reasons someone may feel that way.

There is no safe form of tobacco. Staying tobacco free is the best way to protect your health. Tobacco hurts and kills people. In fact, smoking causes about 1 out of every 5 deaths in the United States.

This is because nicotine can change the way the brain works, causing cravings for more of it. Some tobacco products, like cigarettes, are designed to deliver nicotine to the brain within seconds,¹ making it easier to become dependent on nicotine and more difficult to quit.

Nicotine releases a chemical called dopamine in the same regions of the brain as other addictive drugs. It causes mood-altering changes that make the person temporarily feel good. Inhaled smoke delivers nicotine to the brain within 20 seconds, which makes it very addictive—comparable to opioids, alcohol and cocaine.

The clinician can motivate patients to consider a quit attempt with the "5 R's": Relevance, Risks, Rewards, Roadblocks, and Repetition.

People say that they use tobacco for many different reasons—like stress relief, pleasure, or in social situations. One of the first steps to quitting is to learn why you feel like using tobacco.

Production of tobacco for smoking, chewing, and snuffing became a major industry in Europe and its colonies by 1700. Tobacco has been a major cash crop in Cuba and in other parts of the Caribbean since the 18th century. Cuban cigars are world-famous. In the late 19th century, cigarettes became popular.