Smoking Tobacco and the Brain :: Biology Smoke Cigarette Nicotine

Cigarette smoking, the chief avoidable cause of premature death in this country, is responsible for more than 300,000 premature deaths each year. Smoking is an avoidable cause of death. The way to avoid it? Quit smoking. But people can't quit because it's too hard -- because smoking is addictive. The Surgeon General issued a report entitled Nicotine Addiction. Throughout its 600+ pages he gives a highly detailed explanation of just why nicotine is addictive. The Surgeon General listed criteria for establishing a drug as addictive and showed how nicotine adheres to these criteria. The following are some of those criteria for determining that a drug is addictive (all information is based on US Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiction: A Report of the Surgeon General 1988.): Users develop a compulsive use of the drug despite damage to individual or society. Smoking causes lung cancer, other cancers, chronic obstructive lung disease, heart disease, complications of pregnancy, and several other adverse health effects. Smoking has been associated with antiestrogenic effects such as earlier menopause and increased osteoporosis. Nicotine is known to enter the amniotic fluid, umbilical cord of the fetus, and the breast milk of expectant mothers. Despite these known negative effects of smoking, people continue using cigarettes. The drug is rewarding and drug seeking takes superiority over other important priorities. In a study by Henningfield, Miyasato, Jasinshki (1985) nicotine was seen to act as a euphoriant and at high doses acted similar to stimulants such as cocaine or amphetamines. Nicotine has been seen to produce other desirable effects as well. It is possible that nicotine improves attention, however most studies in this area compare smokers smoking to smokers not smoking, thus it is unsure whether smoking enhances attention or abstinence for someone who regularly smokes impairs attention. Due to a wide range of results, studies have not been able to conclusively show that smoking improves learning or memory; nonetheless, many smokers claim it does both. They also assert that smoking is relaxing and causes pleasurable feelings. Indeed studies have associated the onset of smoking during the teenage years with high levels of stress present at this time. Because smokers believe smoking to cause all of these beneficial effects, smokers will often stop what they are doing to take breaks for smoking in order to maintain the nicotine level to which their body has grown accustomed. The drug produces changes in a person’s mood that are mainly controlled by effects in the brain.

Compare and Contrast Authors

Alan Alexander Milne and Alexander McCall Smith are two of the world’s most beloved authors, and share much more than the name Alexander. These two authors wrote several children stories, and were quite famous. Although, their writing styles may differ, they share the ability for you to unhinge your mind and let it be free. Milne started out as a comedian writer for a magazine in New York, and he eventually evolved into a champion for children’s. Both Smith’s and Milne’s written work is currently viewed on TV around the globe.The portion of Milne’s work that is broadcasted on television is the famous â€Å"Winnie the Pooh† series. â€Å"Winnie the Pooh† was the story that engraved Milne’s name into history books, and was even made into several other products. Now, Smith’s book â€Å"No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency† is one of the world’s most popular series, and a very well known television show. Unlike â€Å"Winnie the Pooh† Smith’s series won several awards including New York Bestseller and Booker Prize for Fiction Judges. Inspiration can come in many forms.It may come as a bird with a tied message, a child, war, or even your own home. As for Milne’s inspiration it came from different sources, such as WWI and his son. One of Milne’s stories, â€Å"Peace with Honor†, was written after his resignation from the army, and is a reflection on war. As for â€Å"Winnie the Pooh†, it was originally written for adults in order to bring out the inner child. The inspiration behind the Pooh books was Milne’s child. Milne’s inspiration is very different from where Smith derived. For Smith, many of his stories are enthused from African folk tales. The â€Å"No. Ladies’ Detective Agency† was inspired from watching a woman chase a chicken in her front yard, and at that moment McCall Smith literally wanted to write about an Afr ican woman, thus the â€Å"No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency† was born. But even now Smith writes a series known as â€Å"44. Scotland Street†, which is inspired from†¦nothing. Smith was merely dreaming up an interesting story at the time, and had no need for some great inspirational event to happen. A writer’s style is always identified by reading a majority of his/her books, and is usually found to have a narrow writing style.Whether it be mystery, comedy, adventurous, or drama, Milne seemed to write whatever he felt like writing, even if the public’s opinion opposed it. Many of Milne’s stories seemed to have a plot of a child’s book, but as we all know many were meant for the child within us. Smith’s style of writing is similar to Milne’s; they’ll both make you form a slight grin on your face because you might find the situation a bit humorous. However, in â€Å"No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency†, Smith wrote about adventurous mystery solvers, who would grab your attention on every page.After a story is read there is always some reflection to what was just read, and even compared to another book that was just read. In this situation A. A. Milne would win. Even though McCall Smith may be more adventurous and silly (much like me) I find having the child brought out within is much more surreal when reading one of A. A. Milne’s book. Neither fame nor an interesting birth place will help Smith, for his stories are too simple and plain much of that of a child’s brain. As for Milne, his wide view of writing style, and interesting characters are key to a reader’s enjoyment.

Influence of The Metamorphoses and Paradise Lost in...

Influence of The Metamorphoses and Paradise Lost in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Frankenstein, possibly Mary Wollstonecraft Shelleys most well-known work, is considered by some to be the greatest Gothic Romance Novel. Due to her marriage to Percy Bysshe Shelley and close friendship with other prolific Romantic authors and poets, namely Lord Byron, Shelleys works permeate with Romantic themes and references. Also present in Frankenstein are obvious allusions to The Metamorphoses by Ovid and Paradise Lost by Milton. Shelley had been studying these two novels during her stay at Lord Byrons villa, and at the time she was composing Frankenstein. The use of these references and themes prove that Mary Shelley was a product of her†¦show more content†¦No one can concieve the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiaasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. Walton expresses in his letters his bouts of solitude; he is extremely lonely because he has nno friend with whom he can share his Romantic visions nor with whom he can share his enthusiastic response to life. This loneliness will also be felt by Frankenstein when he leaves his homeShow MoreRelatedFrankensteins Origin: Assessing Thompsons Argument for the Creatures Literary Ancestors 1443 Words   |  6 PagesThe greatest modern stories often hai l from ancient myths, and Mary Shelleys novel, Frankenstein, proves no exception to this claim. Replete with references to John Miltons Paradise Lost and the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus, the story of Frankenstein seems, in many ways, very much like the Creature himself—which is to say, cobbled together from various scraps of previously existing parts. Terry W. Thompson, however, argues convincingly that scholars continue to ignore one of FrankensteinsRead More Mary Shelleys Frankenstein as a Portrait of Evil Essay1701 Words   |  7 PagesFrankenstein as a Portrait of Evil   Ã‚  Ã‚   Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is more than just a story of a creation gone bad; it is rather a story of evil that compares Victor Frankenstein to Prometheus and his monster as a God-like figure. Mary was able to do this by all of the influences that she had. These influences made her able to write a new, modern, Prometheus that did not directly call upon God, but, however, it did directly call on evil.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The influences that Mary ShelleyRead MoreMary Shelley s The Rights Of Woman2944 Words   |  12 Pagesthey said or what they stated in their writing like Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley. Mary Wollstonecraft s Vindication was the first of many replies. It is an interesting and rhetorically powerful work in its own right as well as a necessary introduction to the Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Mary Shelley wrote prolifically, most noticeably the plays Midas and Proserpine, the novel Matilda, and Valperga, a historical novel. Mary tudor might have been conceived done SpitalfieldsRead MorePolitics and The English Language: George Orwell ´s Literature3705 Words   |  15 Pagesimplements a paradoxical set of literary devices throughout his thesis, which has arguably forged him as one of the greatest social commentators of modern history. The thesis which spans over the body of Orwell’s work extrapolates upon the integral influence that writing has on society and to reinstate the integrity of the writer. Orwell’s essays have sparked a plethora of adverse and auxiliary opinions regarding the imperishability of his work, from those whom believe that his efforts are archaic, to