Nicotine in the lungs

[Medieval Barber]

I am in paramedic school and my anatomy professor who is a doctor made an interesting statement, she said one of the reasons that analogs are so dangerous is because of the nicotine. nicotine stuns the cilia ( which are hairs that act as a cleaning device) of the lungs and trachea, when a smoker wakes up with smokers cough in the morning it's because he cilia are active so to stop it they smoke an analog and it stops. I have read the cassa reports and seen the X-rays of lungs that are cleared up by people who have started vaping. my question is does the delivery of nicotine through vaping enter/affect the longs differently?

 

[Medieval Barber]

Continuing. If they made 0 nicotine analogs smoking would be not as dangerous, because the tar and other stuff that gets stuck in the lungs and causes problems would be cleared out of the lungs by the cilia.

 

[damthisisfun]

Experts have told me that nico from analogs is in somke form and is absorbed mostly in the lungs. Nico from vaping is in "vapor" form - larger molecules and is absorbed mainly in the mouth. Maybe that is the difference.

 

[damthisisfun]

Also this is the first time I hear that nico is the main problem with analogs - thought it was the tar, CO and 60 other carcinogens and the 300 or so other chemicals...........

 

[l337acc]

I am in paramedic school and my anatomy professor who is a doctor made an interesting statement, she said one of the reasons that analogs are so dangerous is because of the nicotine. nicotine stuns the cilia ( which are hairs that act as a cleaning device) of the lungs and trachea, when a smoker wakes up with smokers cough in the morning it's because he cilia are active so to stop it they smoke an analog and it stops. I have read the cassa reports and seen the X-rays of lungs that are cleared up by people who have started vaping. my question is does the delivery of nicotine through vaping enter/affect the longs differently?

Okay I'll say it - is the doc sure analogs aren't dangerous because of the other...i don't know... 4,000 chemicals/carcinogens?!

I'm definitely not a doctor. But nicotine is found in tomato's, eggplant, peppers, etc. (I know, small quantities). So I guess we need to stop eating salsa...

In my opinion, nicotine is a stimulant like caffeine - and ecigs are no more dangerous than a cup of coffee.

But I can be completely wrong (I usually am).

 

[Medieval Barber]

Too, clarify, she didn't say that 0 nicotine would make analogs safe, she just stated that the cancer rate would be reduced because the Cilia would clear a portion of that crap out of the lungs. Also, in terms of nicotine and vaping, She was refuring to analogs only. It was during class and I did not want to interrupt the class to start talking about vaping.

 

[gthompson]

Nicotine isn't much different from caffeine all by itself.

 

[gthompson]

And no, 0 nicotine cigarettes would not be "safe".

 

[SuziesMom]

Back when I took anatomy they said it was the ammonia that stunned the cilia. I don't know if that's 100% accurate, but that's what I was taught. I just tried to google it, and did find a study about workers at an ammonia factory who did have significantly decreased lung function, but it didn't mention cilia specifically.

I call BS on the whole lungs would clear out the tar if it weren't for the darn nicotine. Have you ever touched tar? It won't come off your hands for weeks unless you use some harsh solvents on it.

Cigarettes coat your lungs in a toxic sludge. No one ever said vaping is good for you- it will just kill ya slower than analogs.

 

[zuzette]

i am uncertain about your teacher's statement too. im not saying she is wrong. when i read web md, and other med info sites they most commonly say only that the cilia is weighted down by tar and chemicals in smoke. but perhaps, that is simply inaccurate or incomplete info.

i still dont think we have the full picture from your post. in any case, you said you have seen the improved lungs of former smokers,/ current vapers, that would indeed suggest there is more going on than "nicotine supresses cilia movement"

 

[denali_41]

Nicotine isn't much different from caffeine all by itself.

that is correct,,it is the properties of smoke that coat and weigh down the silica of the lungs ,just like the wallls of a smokers house,car or any other contained area .

ammonia helps the lungs absorb the nic something like 100 times faster and better

we all use to light up in the morning because we had a bad addiction to all those chemicals [4000] in the smoke ,,that and it helped to "break things" loose ,

 

[scalewiz]

NAYSAYERS BE DAMNED ! ! I feel better, I breath better without all the coughing, I crap better, I smell better, and I have lots more money!
No one can tell me in any way that vaping is not a VAST improvement. I might be killing myself slower, but I'll feel a whole lot better about doing it.

 

[denali_41]

I crap better, I smell better,

for me,,some how those two comments don't belong in the same paragraph...


dam my crap really stinks bad since i quit smoking,or maybe i can smell the fecal molecules better ?? lol

 

[njay23]

I think your teacher misspoke there. When you look at a set of smokers lungs they are all brown and clogged with tar, not nicotine. Nicotine by itself is pretty benign. It raises your BP but not much else. Actually like gthompson said above, not much different than caffine.

 

[Rickajho]

Not to beat up on the teacher here, but, that statement sounds very hypothetical. I mean, short of observation of live tissue exposed to nicotine - a pretty impossible thing to do, I think - how would anyone know? I would need to see some research that actually backs this up.

 

[Spazmelda]

I've just been looking at pubmed (used the search term "nicotine cilia" and it seems to be a confusing question to address and answer. There are some studies that show nicotine increases the beat frequency of cilia, some say that it depresses it. Some experiments are done with nicotine and some are done with smoke (or a solution made from smoke). Some are done in vivo, some in vitro, some in situ. Most are done using an animal model of some kind, but some are done on human explants. Various types of ciliated tissues are used (trachea, adenoid tissue, Fallopian tubes, eustachian tubes, nasal mucosa, etc...).

This was one of the most interesting abstracts I saw because it broke the "cigarette smoke condensate" into various fractions and tested each fraction (study from 1985):

The inhibitory effect of tobacco smoke compound on ciliary activity.
Pettersson B, Curvall M, Enzell C.
Abstract
The embryo chicken trachea was used as an in vitro model to study the ciliotoxicity of the volatile part of the particulate phase of cigarette smoke condensate (CSC). We also report on the ciliotoxicity of 11 phenols belonging to the semi-volatile fraction. The particulate phase of CSC was divided into a semi-volatile (SV) and a non-volatile (NV) fraction. The toxicity of CSC, SV and NV was approximately the same, giving ciliostasis within 21-28 minutes at a concentration of 1 mg/ml. The SV-fraction, constituting 12 percent of the particulate phase, was further divided into 4 subfractions: acids, phenols, bases and neutrals. The neutral fraction was significantly (p less than 0.001) more toxic than any of the other fractions, giving ciliostasis after 17 minutes at a concentration of 1 mg/ml. Least toxic was the basic fraction, mainly consisting of nicotine. At a concentration of 3 mg/ml, the mean value for ciliostasis was 64 minutes. From the investigation of phenols it was found that alkylated phenols were more ciliotoxic than phenol. The toxicity was enhanced with increasing chain-length of the substituent, i.e. with increasing lipophilicity.

Emphasis is mine, and by least toxic I'm pretty sure they mean least toxic to the cilia, as in slowing them down the least of all the fractions tested.

 

[rondasherrill]

According to THIS nicotine itself(as in, outside cigarette smoke) INCREASES ciliary beat frequency, as opposed to paralizing the cilia...

Of course, I could be completely misunderstanding it.

 

[Butters78]

I wouldn't take to heart that much of what a doctor who teaches at paramedic school has to say.

 

[Spazmelda]

According to THIS nicotine itself(as in, outside cigarette smoke) INCREASES ciliary beat frequency, as opposed to paralizing the cilia...

Of course, I could be completely misunderstanding it.

I think you are reading it right. Here's an abstract showing a similar effect in Rabbit:

Effects of nicotine bitartrate on mucociliary activity.
Lindberg S, Hybbinette JC, Mercke U.
Abstract
The in vivo effect of nicotine bitartrate on mucociliary (mc) activity in the rabbit maxillary sinus was investigated. An animal model was used, which permitted administration of drugs directly into the artery feeding the sinus and simultaneous recording of changes in the mc activity. When nicotine was given ia (0.5-10.0 micrograms/kg) it resulted in a brief (1 min at most) acceleration of the mc wave frequency. The response was dose-dependent and a maximum increase of 34.9% was recorded at a dose of 10.0 micrograms/kg. The response was inhibited by a preceding injection of the ganglionic blocker hexamethonium (0.2 mg/kg) or the cholinergic antagonist atropine (0.2 mg/kg). The alpha and beta-adrenoceptor antagonists phentolamine (0.2 mg/kg) and propranolol (0.2 mg/kg) did not influence the response to nicotine injection. It is concluded that the acceleration of mc wave frequency after nicotine administration is probably mediated via stimulation of nicotinic receptors on postganglionic parasympathetic nerve cells.

 

[vsummer1]

From what I learned in my anatomy class nicotine was not the cause but the actual smoke and its compounds stunning the cilia. I found this, and do not see nicotine named at all. Perhaps you misunderstood what the instructor was saying, or perhaps she got her words mixed up:

How does Smoking Affect the Cilia?

The most common reason to suffer damaged or paralyzed cilia, however, is smoking. Normally, healthy cilia in the bronchial tubes work in sync with specialized cells that produce mucous to capture and remove impurities out of the lungs. Smokers, on the other hand, are subjected to about 4,000 toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke, including arsenic, methane, and carbon monoxide. The cumulative effect of smoking on the cilia is that dirt, environmental pollutants, and toxins from cigarette smoke remain in the lungs. Furthermore, these toxins migrate from the lungs via the bloodstream to other organs.

In response to the presence of excess irritants, mucous cells in the lungs become stimulated to produce more mucous than they normally would. Of course, with damaged cilia, the lungs have no means of moving the mucous out. This usually results in an unproductive cough. In fact, the damage to cilia caused by smoking leaves the smoker at significantly higher risk for frequent respiratory infections, or chronic bronchitis.

Continued smoking may eventually lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema) or lung cancer. In fact, smoking eventually destroys the cilia, which may then be displaced by an excessive number of basal cells, or cancerous squamous cells. Over time, these cells may become cancerous. They may also become rogue, escaping through lung tissue and invading other parts of the body.

Remarkably though, smoking cessation can undo the damage to cilia rather quickly. In fact, the cilia begin to repair themselves and regenerate in number within only three days after quitting. It should be noted that coughing is a common side effect to this process and may last from a few days to several weeks. This is because the restored cilia are working overtime to remove impurities and mucous from the lungs. However, if cough persists for more than eight weeks, a physician should be consulted.