Researchers Light Up for Nicotine, the Wonder Drug

[MonkeyMonk]

katinik, thanks!

Recently, I had made a lot of progress switching from analogs to vaping. I was overly cautious so the nicotine dosage was kept pretty low, sometimes at 0 nic. End result for me was that I needed to go back on my antianxiety/antidepressant medicine inorder to function efficiently with paperwork and housework and caregiving. Thus, I agree with a lot of what I read in those articles about the benefits of nicotine in "brain functioning" and I, too, fear BP will go for patents like they did with naturally occurring vitamin B6.....BP needs a good kick in the pants because they are the snake around the cross in the medical profession.

[TropicalBob]

Not paranoid at all, Katink. BP would be thrilled to see all nicotine regulated and delivery systems controlled. It isn't Big Tobacco that makes nicotine; it's Big Pharma. They stand to be the big winners if e-smoking is dashed to oblivion. And they alone have the money to fund the studies (which often conclude what a funding body supports).

I do, however, have worries about nicotine's relationship to cancer. It it fertilizes cancerous cells, some of us might have a problem. I smoked for 50 years. How do I know there is not one rebellious, mutant, cancerous cell in my lungs, waiting only to be fertilized into reproduction? Without nicotine, it might stay dormant and impotent. With nicotine ... that's what scares me.

Most of us are probably former cigarette smokers. Did we sow the cancer field and now await only a flush of growth that nicotine might provide?

[katink]

True Bob; it's a worry, a risk. Part of the price we pay by remaining addicted. But it isn't a cause... and also, by stopping nicotine-intake you don't get a guarantee for any current starting cancer to not grow either (in fact: didn't we discuss a while back that precisely getting off nicotine gives extra danger for a number of years? Brain isn't quite clear on what we learned then... but that fact does emerge still...)

[TropicalBob]

That was a thread, yes. I don't remember the exact figures, but they supported the common belief that cancer INCREASES in the five years after a smoker quits. In those five years, ex-smokers get more new cancers than continuing smokers. No studies singled out nicotine.

I told my wife today while we were riding in a car that no matter how I die, short of trauma, I'll be listed as a "smoking-related disease death." I was a smoker. I am no longer. Makes no difference. How can I ever know what damage lies undetected inside me, ready to explode an organ when some undetectable time bomb hits the zero hour? I can't, but no matter when or where it happens, I'll be marked on the hospital chart as being a cigarette casualty. I'm sure of it.

[katink]

You can always end like this (like those uncles of yours, I think?): 95, you ask the nurse in that old-age home to take you to your bed for a nap, and you simply don't wake up anymore... no 'tobacco-related death' on your chart then.

[warp1900]

Call me crazy guys, but here is what i came across since i started vaping.
1- I have smoked for 32+ years about 1.5 packs of cigs.
2- I started on my vaping with medium nicotine liquids.
3- I dropped analogs on the very first day i started vaping.
4- After about 2 weeks i was curious to find out how much nicotine my body was used to, so i ordered 0 nicotine juice and i never went back to others since.
As far as i can conclude from my findings, i am addicted to the smoke effect, not to the nicotine, i dont ever crave for analogs or nicotine on my pen style.
Maybe its only me, but that is how it worked in my case..if it works for others, i might have come across one more of hundreds of SCAMS by our scientists/government by pure luck. If we dont really crave the nicotine, then they can't ever have an excuse to take the vaporizers from us .

[warp1900]

Call me crazy guys, but here is what i came across since i started vaping.
1- I have smoked for 32+ years about 1.5 packs of cigs.
2- I started on my vaping with medium nicotine liquids.
3- I dropped analogs on the very first day i started vaping.
4- After about 2 weeks i was curious to find out how much nicotine my body was used to, so i ordered 0 nicotine juice and i never went back to others since.
As far as i can conclude from my findings, i am addicted to the smoke effect, not to the nicotine, i dont ever crave for analogs or nicotine on my pen style.
Maybe its only me, but that is how it worked in my case..if it works for others, i might have come across one more of hundreds of SCAMS by our scientists/government by pure luck. If we dont really crave the nicotine, then they can't ever have an excuse to take the vaporizers from us .

SORRY
P.S. if i dont puff vapor as much as i used to puff on analogs, i do get massive cravings for analogs...any similar situations for anyone?

[gashin]

SORRY
P.S. if i dont puff vapor as much as i used to puff on analogs, i do get massive cravings for analogs...any similar situations for anyone?

When I first switched over from analogs, I used to vape way more than I smoked. When my atomizers died, I smoked a whole pack in the course of 8 hours - the first time I ever smoked an entire pack in one day

[gashin]

True, true - smokers are stigmatized by the medical community. However it is very ironic that many medical professionals smoke, particularly respiratory therapists and even some doctors!

That was a thread, yes. I don't remember the exact figures, but they supported the common belief that cancer INCREASES in the five years after a smoker quits. In those five years, ex-smokers get more new cancers than continuing smokers. No studies singled out nicotine.

I told my wife today while we were riding in a car that no matter how I die, short of trauma, I'll be listed as a "smoking-related disease death." I was a smoker. I am no longer. Makes no difference. How can I ever know what damage lies undetected inside me, ready to explode an organ when some undetectable time bomb hits the zero hour? I can't, but no matter when or where it happens, I'll be marked on the hospital chart as being a cigarette casualty. I'm sure of it.

[gashin]

It is well known that schizophrenics tend to smoke more to relive their symptoms - possibly a new treatment for mental illness?

Researchers Light Up for Nicotine, the Wonder Drug

This is a very interesting read from June 2007

Just a little chunk of text from the article:

..."Nicotine is highly stigmatized -- and for good reason, because the delivery system is so deadly," says Don deBethizy, CEO of Targacept. "But the drug itself and the research generated by studying its effects on the brain both show great promise for helping us improve our physical and mental health." ...

...Now drugs derived from nicotine and the research on nicotine receptors are in clinical trials for everything from helping to heal wounds, to depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, anger management and anxiety. ..
.