Interview with an Expert!

We asked Natalia Michaylovna Monogova, a vascular surgeon from Novosibirsk to answer our questions about smoking.

Interviewer: Natalia Michaylovna, we are students from Lyceum NSTU. We are doing a project about teenagers with students from Mexico and the USA . One of our topics is addictions.
We would like to ask you several questions about smoking. Do you have teenagers among your patients?

N.M. Only ten years ago our patients were adults mainly. But nowadays patients staff is getting younger. There is a number of teenagers who are ill because of other reason but majority of teenagers in our clinic are those who started smoking and drinking early.

I. We heard many doctors tell that starting smoking in teen age is very dangerous for health and that it is worse than starting smoking in adulthood. Is it really true and if so, why?

N.M. It is true that smoking is more harmful if started at this period.
Death dose of adult smoker is one pack of cigarettes if they are smoked one after another, for teenager it is half pack (10 cigarettes) and sometimes even several cigarettes.
Teenagers organism is growing actively. It is not easy period for body. A lot of strength is needed to help with growth difficulties. Smoking in this age becomes a big interference in all growth processes. Nutrition of organism with oxygen (so much needed at this age) becomes much worse, because under smoke influence the vascular become narrow. That is why smoking teenagers usually have problems with memory, concentration and with physical condition in general. You can not tell me any organ that stays unaffected.
Smoking is also a good basis for your future children illnesses.

I. If smoking is so bad, why do teenagers continue it?

N.M. As you know, smoking is called "addiction", that is dependence. Substances that cigarettes contain are included very quickly in organism processes and to continue functioning, you need to smoke. It is paradox: smoking is ruinous but once you started, you can not continue without it.
The reason for this is our brain. That is where addiction is formed and your brain dictates you to smoke.

I. Are light cigarettes not dangerous?

N.M. There are no light cigarettes. There are cigarettes that contain less nicotine but it is only small part of influence. Cigarettes and products of their burning contain many harmful substances, so the reduce of nicotine does not really make any difference.
Besides, if a person begins to smoke such cigarettes, he will breathe them more or smoke more of them, in this way the nicotine number will stay the same.

I. Is it true that smoking helps to lose the weight? Many teenager girls start it for this reason.

N.M. It is one of funniest method I have ever heard. Effect of a very little weight loss (of several kilos) can really be seen sometimes but it is only because of worse work of stomach or other organs.
Such result can be reached by other methods very easily and less expensive.

I. At the moment we have a lot of advertisement about anti smoking centers that can help you get rid of addiction, new medicines appear that help.

N.M. Yes, it is true, such medicines and centres exist but they are not of much help.
People have not invented medicine that would help to fight with smoking effectively. Some of them and special therapy measures can really help a little, to get rid of physical dependence.
But the danger of smoking is psychological dependence that is much stronger than physical.
Minimum one year needed to get rid of brain dependence and often more. Only very strong willed people can manage with it and they are very rare.

I. What about coding method? It is not very expensive and it is advertised that this helps to block the pleasure centre in the brain.

N.M. I am very suspicious to this method and would not recommend it. I have heard about successful cases but there were cases of bad consequences. It is never good to interfere in brain activity and sometimes people become mentally ill after this method.
There were cases when people asked to recode, that is to return to the previous state, because for some reasons they found it uncomfortable to live without smoking.
It is true that coded person does not want to smoke (besides cases when the method did not work because of individual peculiarities). But if he takes only one cigarette, maybe, under pressure of others, after drinking a lot and forgetting prescriptions or just of curiosity (What will happen?) the risk of mental problem is very big.
In any case, this method is not usually used for teenagers.

Translated by Nika (R)