Is it normal to feel dizzy when smoking?

Although in recent years the consumption of tobacco has been reduced in general, the action of smoking is still today something frequent and a habit that, although harmful and dangerous for health in the long term, continues to carry out a large amount of people.

Most smokers find some pleasure and a sense of tranquility in consuming this substance, being also something socially accepted and traditionally associated with maturity or virility / femininity. However, it is a substance exogenous to our body that will have different effects on the body. For example, many people have reported on occasion that they have reached feeling dizzy when smoking. Is this normal? Why happens? In this article we are going to try to answer these questions.

• Related article: "The two faces of tobacco dependence (chemical and psychological)"

Nicotine: type of substance and effects on the body

One of the main substances that are part of tobacco (although a lot of other substances can be found in a cigarette, many of them toxic) is nicotine.

This substance has psychoactive properties, and it is the main responsible for the fact that tobacco generates physical addiction. It is considered a psychostimulant substance, despite the fact that continued consumption ends up causing depressant effects. That is why most regular smokers feel feelings of relaxation when consuming it and tend to smoke more frequently when they feel nervous.

The mechanism of action of nicotine is based on its action on acetylcholine receptors, specifically nicotinics. It acts as an agonist of this substance, having an effect on the central nervous system (in the cortex, system limbic and basal ganglia, among others) and peripheral, as well as on the cardiovascular system and the adrenal. However, with long-term consumption it ends up having a blocking action of this neurotransmitter.

At low doses, it initially generates an increase in cholinergic activity, causing an increase in the level of activation and alertness. Higher doses generate feelings of pleasure by helping to activate the limbic system through the synthesis of dopamine. It also has an effect on increasing cortisol levels., ACTH, prolactin, vasopressin, and growth hormone. At the cardiovascular level, nicotine causes vasoconstriction, so that the blood passes faster and with greater pressure. This causes the heart to accelerate, and at the same time it carries less oxygen, also increasing the inhalation rate.

In the adrenal cortex, nicotine acts by generating a stimulation that results in the release of adrenaline. Finally, it hinders the action of the pancreas by reducing the release of insulin (which allows us to break down blood sugar).

Dizziness when smoking: is it normal?

Smoking, as indicated by the different advertising campaigns that we can see today, can have serious long-term harmful effects, especially at the respiratory level. Emphysemas, lung injuries and diseases or different types of cancer (such as lung or trachea) have been significantly associated with continued tobacco use.

But in addition to these effects, it can also cause various discomforts and unpleasant effects during the act of doing it or after it. Among them are the presence of nausea, vomiting and dizziness, the latter being something relatively frequent.

Why do we feel dizzy when smoking?

Generally, the presence of dizziness is more common in people who begin to have their first consumption of tobacco or in people who return to smoking after a long time without doing so, as well as in those people who quit tobacco in a abrupt. These dizziness can be caused by various circumstances.

First of all, you have to take into account the fact that smoking is, mainly, repeatedly inhaling a substance that is going to enter the lungs, this substance being irritating and making it difficult for the respiratory system to integrate a sufficient level of oxygen in brain. In addition, the vasoconstrictive effect of nicotine causes blood vessels to compress, passing the blood much faster than usual and can generate hypertension. All these effects are some of the reasons why in the first consumptions or after spending long periods without smoking, the body reacts by producing dizziness.

Another reason can be found in intoxication if the amount that has been consumed is excessive, or well when they have consumed other substances such as alcohol that could interact with the effects of tobacco. The inner balance you are used to our body suffers an alteration that can cause various symptoms to appear.

In addition, dizziness due to lack of oxygen it does not have to occur only in smokers who have just started. Taking into account that this substance damages the respiratory system, if any lung disease for this or other reasons, tobacco use can generate these effects more habitual.

Another time when dizziness usually appears is at the time when a person who has acquired tolerance and dependence on nicotine its consumption stops abruptly. And it is that the body has become accustomed to a certain balance that suddenly undergoes a change. We would find ourselves in this case before a symptom of withdrawal syndrome.

Blocking the cholinergic action caused by long-term exposure to nicotine and an increase in the number of receptors nicotinic substances generated by habituation would in this case be responsible for the body not being balanced and generating symptomatology.

Bibliographic references

• Pozuelos, J.; Martinena, P.; Monago, L.; Viejo, D. and Pérez, T. (2000). Nicotine Pharmacology. Integral Medicine, 35 (9): 409-417. Elsevier