Nicotine hijacks the survival instinct of the brain

Have you ever gone without smoking and developed an overwhelming craving that felt like, "I'M GOING TO DIE OR GO CRAZY IF I DONT' HAVE A CIGARETTE!"?
If so, nicotine has hijacked the survival part of your brain. From the very first puff of a cigarette, nicotine produced a powerful effect on the primate part of our brain that controls our survival instincts. Often people will say that smoking is

Smoking causes surgical complications

The doctor was running late for my pre-operative appointment and I had time to talk with Jeanni, the patient coordinator at UCLA. In September I had a bilateral mastectomy (mandatory) with immediate (elective) DIEP-flap (tummy tuck) reconstruction. In two weeks I will have the second stage of the reconstruction. This surgery is on the cutting edge of breast reconstruction and offers the best