Missing the Urge and Pleasure or Something Else?

FireDragon1138;12642980 said:

That sensation is due to the other alkaloids in tobacco besides nicotine. You will never really get that vaping nicquids. A few weeks or months into a quit, some people will get depressed. This is due to the absence of these alkaloids. Their effect is not as immediate as nicotine, and while their absence won't make you crawl the walls or rip somebody's head off, they can contribute to not feeling like yourself.

"Whole Tobacco Alkaloids" were mentioned earlier and these might be worth trying if you miss that feeling. Tobacco has a lot of minor alkaloids, like cotinine or anatabine. Anatabine in particular contributes to a feeling of well-being and has anti-inflammatory effects, one reason perhaps that smokers tend to have less auto-immune diseases than non-smokers.

There is not a huge difference in the effect between WTA and nicotine, but I do notice I tend to vape less when vaping WTA and WTA deals with stress-vaping better than nicotine. It's a small difference that might be enough for some people to just go back to smoking analogs unsatisfied with vaping.

It's actually true, nicotine itself is not particular addictive... more like caffeine than the powerful addiction that cigarettes present. Rats will turn down nicotine administration in favor of other drugs. The tobacco control community is woefully behind the science if it thinks nicotine patches and gum are adequate ways to address the allure of the cigarette. The cigarette is a synergy between various alkaloids, administered in a carefully manufactured delivery device, and attached to a lot of rituals and culture that cannot simply be replaced with mint flavored nicotine.

Natural tobacco has even more of those MAOI's and alkaloids- it was not something that tobacco companies had to engineer (and one reason snus and snuff are so satisfying even though some brands are minimally engineered products). I have found American Spirits and Good Stuff RYO way more satisfying than cheap store-bought smokes, even though I can feel the nicotine levels are similar. The reason is that American Spirit has more of those alkaloids and they contribute to a feeling of satisfaction in addition to the nicotine. Manufactured cigarettes, on the other hand, have the nicotine levels manipulated through the use of sheet (reconstituted) tobacco, made from very low grade lug leaves, without really being concerned about minor alkaloids.

On the other hand, the absence of minor tobacco alkaloids in e-juice means that e-cigarettes are less effective harm reduction strategies, because some smokers will not be able to make the switch, especially if they have psychiatric or physical conditions or constitutions that benefit from those alkaloids.

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