Gutka is a mixture of tobacco, areca nuts, slaked lime, paraffin, catechu and sweet flavoring agents. It is carcinogen consumed by millions of adults in Asain and pacific countries. Owing to its cheap and easy availability many children below the age of 15 years also are addicted to this tobacco product developing the symptoms of oral and throat cancers in a tender age. It is indeed a social challenge for the governments to protect the lives of common citizens from the harmful effects of betal quid with tobacco intake through commercial bans.
Betal Quid with Tobacco – Gutka: How Harmful is Gutkha?
Apart from causing the dreadful cancer in the throat and the mouth, gutkha leads to complications like loss of appetite, difficulty in getting sleep, dry mouth, difficulty in opening the mouth, dilated pupil, worsening of asthma, muscle stiffness, tremours and strained teeth.
Arecoline, pilocarpine, and muscarine are the three cancer causing alkaloid chemicals present in the betal nut. When it is mixed with tobacco during gutka preparation, these three deadly alkaloids get a scope to react with the 4000 plus chemicals present in the tobacco. The result is multiple harmful chemical reactions with dangerous consequences in our body. In this way, the risk of cancer spreads to other vital organs like lung, liver, stomach, prostate and esophagus.
Several research studies carried in India and other foriegn countries have proved that the carcinogens or the cancer causing chemicals of the ghutka also have the ability of increasing the number of tumor cells, thus, playing their vital role in the progression of the disease.
Similarly, this tobacco product has an ability to abruptly vary the blood pressure in the body. This can lead to cardiovascular complications like blurred vision, dizziness, irregular heart beats or palpitations, chest pain, heart attack and stroke.
Some of the gastrointestinal effects of consuming gutka are abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, acid reflux and dehydration. It causes loss of control over bowel movements. Research studies also found that the toxic chemicals in this product can alter the blood sugar levels in diabetes people too.
The effects of ghutka on pregnancy was researched in a 2004 study carried out in Mumbai, India. The chief researcher of the study later revealed that consumption of betel quid with tobacco during pregnancy increased the risk of stillbirth by 210 percent. The chemicals present in the areca nuts were responsible for most of the defects in a child at the time of birth like very low weight.
Lack of awareness on these harmful effects of ghutka in rural women is the only cause of birth related complications in children born to them. Non-governmental organizations associated at the grass root level of helping these uneducated rural women also have very less medical knowledge on this subject. This further increases the seriousness of the problem and makes the addressing of it a remote possibility.
It is not easy to give up this bad habit after a prolonged use of this recreational drug. Its addictive nature causes the person willing to quit the habit go through terrible withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, memory lapse, irritation and confusion. Family support and determination are only two safest means of coming out of the harmful effects of gutkha.