Archive for the ‘General Awareness’ Category

Nicotine Addiction

Monday, December 28th, 2009

Tobacco products contain the drug nicotine. Nicotine is an addicting drug that stimulates the reward centers in your brain. The acute effects of nicotine include increased heart rate and blood pressure, increased ability to concentrate. Nicotine enters and leaves your system very quickly, leaving people who smoke with unpleasant withdrawal symptoms after going a few hours without smoking. These withdrawal symptoms (including irritability, difficulty concentrating, nausea, and anxiety) are unpleasant to go through, and can lead to strong “cravings” for tobacco.

Most people who use tobacco products began experimenting with smoking or dipping as teenagers. Unfortunately, many who experiment with smoking go on to be addicted to nicotine by the time they reach young adulthood.

How addicted are you? Hear are two simple “tests” to see if you are addicted. First, those who smoke more cigarettes tend to be more dependent on nicotine than those who smoke less. Second, how soon after waking do you have your first smoke? Those who smoke soon after waking (like within the first 5 or 10 minutes) tend to be more dependent on nicotine.

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Besides the physical addiction to nicotine, there is also a strong learning component to the nicotine addiction. For example, people begin to develop “conditioned cues” for smoking after smoking for a few years. These cues are situations that have become associated with smoking. For example, many smokers report strong cravings for smoking at certain times (such as after meals, with coffee, while relaxing, when stressed out, and others). Note that a pack a day smoker puffs on a cigarette over 70,000 times each year! This means that there are a lot of opportunities for a smoker to become “conditioned” to smoke at certain times and situations. Importantly, these situations can be environmental (such as while driving), physiological (like craving a cigarette when you haven’t wanted one in a while), or emotional (like smoking when you are “stressed”). Each time that smoke in one of those situations, it helps to occurs again, it triggers the desire for a cigarette.

Ready to Quit?

Research has indicated that the most important factor in success at quitting smoking is a person’s desire to quit. Regardless of how you choose to quit smoking, none are likely to work if you are not ready to quit. Once you get over the hurdle and are ready to seriously commit toquitting, your odds of success increase dramatically.

Another important thing to remember is that even though most effective quit strategies reduce the cravings for nicotine, none will remove all of your cravings. Because of this, you need to be prepared and motivated to push through the discomfort associated with quitting. If you are, then consider one of the quit strategies described below. If not, you need to review your reasons for smoking or not smoking until you are ready to quit.

Eco Friendly

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

Do you feel that summers are getting hotter every year? Well it is not just your imagination; temperatures are rising every year at an alarming rate. And the main culprits are greenhouse gases.

Greenhouse gases trap the sun’s heat in the atmosphere instead of letting it escape again. This leads to a term we are all now most familiar with – climate change.

Some naturally existing gases like water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane have greenhouse properties. These provide the earth with the warmth it needs.

But since the industrial revolution the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has gone up by a whopping 30 per cent, trapping more heat than necessary.

We release these gases every time we burn petrol by running a car, burn coal or even run the AC longer than needed.

Greenhouse gases can be reduced by planting trees because trees absorb these gases and while you’re at it, recycle paper and save existing trees as well.

To do your bit for the environment, just remember the four Rs. They are:

  • REFUSE plastic bags at the grocery store
  • REDUCE packaging by reusing bags
  • RE-USE old appliances by repairing them and giving them away instead of throwing them away
  • RECYCLE newspapers and containers.
  • CAUTION: The Earth is Coughing Too Much

    Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

    Pollution may be defined as the contaminants which are spread into the earth’s atmosphere that causes instability, harm or disorder to the environment. This will change the earth temperature and also it will change the seasonal climatic changes. Our ecosystem may become uncomfortable, if pollution is not kept under control. Pollution is of many types, some of them are as follows: air, noise, water, soil, light and thermal, etc. Pollution is developed because of the pollutants that are released by various industries, vehicles, machines, etc.

                    Pollutants are the tiny particles that are present in the waste materials disposed by industries, vehicles, etc. Severity of the pollutants depends upon these factors: chemical nature, persistence and concentration.

                    Air pollution is mainly caused by combustion, vehicle exhaust, industrials exhaust, etc. Motor vehicle emission is the one of the leading factors of increasing the pollution in the earth’s atmosphere. Carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides are the main air pollutants. Water pollution is due to the release of waste materials into the nearby water resources without any water treatment. This pollutes the water and they will reduce the oxygen content level in the water. Soil contamination occurs by the underground leakage and also when the waste materials are spitted over the soil. Noise pollution is due to the industrial, transport and machinery noise. Light pollution is when over illumination occurs. Thermal pollution occurs when there is temperature change in the environment, this may raise the temperature of the surrounding water bodies. When water is used as a coolant in the power plants it leads to thermal pollution.

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    Look at the life

    Monday, October 5th, 2009

    Most of the people are keen to earn money. Money matters a lot. But it may sometimes leads to a dark life. I had an experience in my life. One of my friends loved money more than his family. He is a widower too. He was very much keen on earning money only. He didn’t even take care of his child also.

    His son got frustrated as no one was there to look after him. He led a stressful life always. Ultimately the consequence was that his son became a drug addict. He struggled hard to bring back his son back to the vivid life. Now he realizes that money is just a part of life. Money can just take over all the entertainment in one’s life. If one runs for money, he will have to fall into the deep hitch from which he can never bounce back.

    Money is essential to lead a life. But it should not be the life. If one looks out for money he may lose small things that may happen in his life. Life is a gift and one must enjoy it each and every minute. He must look around to discover life first.

    Everyone have sorrow, love, and happiness in their life. It is not possible for one get back into the childhood. We should not waste even a minute. We must enjoy all parts of our life. Money can’t provide all the joy in the single day. I pray to god that no one must fall in to darkness like my friend.

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