Nicotine, the Wonder Drug?

[Mossy]

This article from 2014 was linked on the vapers uk site.

I have not read this before (sorry if it has been posted)..........it is very informative. I wonder how the powers that be (TC and GOV'T) can bury this stuff so easily?

Nicotine, the Wonder Drug? | DiscoverMagazine.com

nice quote
" Perhaps most surprising is that, in studies by Boyd and others, nicotine has not caused addiction or withdrawal when used to treat disease. These findings fly in the face of nicotine’s reputation as one of the most addictive substances known, but it’s a reputation built on myth."

 

[skoony]

@Mossy This has been known about nicotine more or less since the 1964 Surgeon Generals Report on Smoking said as much.
This has been totally ignored by the anti-vaping/smoking crowd and almost totally ignored by
a large percentage of vapers that seem to want to insist that it was evil BT and the nicotine that
addicted and enslaved them to smoking. It is inhaling smoke into the lungs that is addicting.
All other forms of tobacco use are believed to have a dependency rate from 3 to 5% including
cigars and pipes which normally are not inhaled. Note, dependency does not mean acute addiction
which is the extreme form of dependency. Cigarette smoke which is inhaled normally has a dependency
rate of 30% Some say because the nicotine is inhaled it is more addictive. Your just as likely to become dependent if a light smoker or heavy smoker. A heavy cigar smoker is just as likely to not become dependent as any other cigar smoker.
Vapers seem to absorb more nicotine than by smoking.Others and myself have routinely reported having lowered the amount of total vaping and also lowering the nicotine levels we use with little or no effort.Many have reported going down to zero nicotine with a lot reporting quitting both vaping and smoking. If nicotine was as addictive as many believe we should have found lowering nicotine and or lowering consumption more difficult and taken a greater period of time to accomplish. I personally had not given it any thought as my former two and a half pack a day habit is gone and I believe vaping to
be so much safer as not to be worried about vaping at all. Yet I have reduced my consumption considerably with out consciously thinking about it. It just happened. It wouldn't have happened with
cigarettes. I have started reducing my nicotine levels from 18 to 12. I will lower them in the future and see how far it goes.

Regards
Mike

 

[M4rtin]

Thank you for posting this. I have copied the article and saved it for future letters to lawmakers.

Who knows, maybe one day they will realize that vaping IS a smoking cessation aid that WORKS!

 

[Kent C]

Thanks Mossy for posting for those who didn't know this......

I'll never go to zero nic because of the above and other ailments that benefit from nicotine. (I've had two older cousins who, I think, developed Alzheimer's as a result of quitting smoking/nicotine. I knew how much they smoked, when they quit and when the onset of the disease began - about a year after quitting.)

Also think that it is other things in cigarettes that cause the addiction rather than nicotine. I can go hours without vaping - never could do that when smoking.

Nicotine is also a drug that both focuses and relaxes - you'd have to take both uppers and downers to do that and that is not only dangerous but not as workable :- )

And nicotine is normally it's own protection against overdose - it induces vomiting. Many (including myself) get hiccups - a precursor to vomiting - when they use higher than their normal nic mg - for me 24mg or more will give me hiccups. A close cousin to the tobacco plant is named pukeweed (Lobelia inflata) and was used in some cultures to induce vomiting when someone ingested a poison.

 

[Bill Godshall]

It is inhaling smoke into the lungs that is addicting.
All other forms of tobacco use are believed to have a dependency rate from 3 to 5% including
cigars and pipes which normally are not inhaled. Note, dependency does not mean acute addiction
which is the extreme form of dependency.

While cigars, pipe tobacco and hookah have very low daily dependence rates (i.e. <5% of past year users), smokeless tobacco products and cigarettes both have similarly high risks/levels of daily dependence, and both are similarly difficult to quit using.

But cigarettes are the only tobacco products that are "addictive", since the term "addiction" technically requires both daily dependence and harm to the user.

Unfortunately, in 1987 US SG Koop basically reclassified nicotine as an addictive drug when he published the SG Report with that claim in its title. Ever since then, government health agencies, tobacco controllers and the news media have claimed that nicotine is not only an addictive drug, but the most addictive drug.

Since 2010, the tobacco controllers have similarly lobbied to redefine smokefree vaping as "smoking".

 

[skoony]

@Bill Godshall Thanks for filling in the finer details. I generally go by what i have experienced and my limited study on the subject of addiction. I have always known dependency rate has nothing to do with
actual harm. Sounds scary though.
Regards
Mike

 

[supertrunker]

Governments are being two-faced about the entire issue of nicotine because on the one hand they accept that it is all about the method of delivery, and nicotine patches are available, in the UK for example to children as young as 12, with no time limit on their use. So they know it's relatively harmless.

Then on the other hand we have those same people insisting that vaping is as dangerous as cigarette smoking which is complete cobblers!

Nicotine is only dangerous and addictive when you get your fix from inhaling burned tobacco. That is because the ammonia (!!) in your tobacco is like freebasing the nicotine.


T

 

[Mossy]

I don't intend to give up the nic in my vape...........I have read to many interesting discussions with regard to mental illness,Alzheimer's etc......like Kent C I can go for hours without vaping, but when I was smoking analogues full time I couldn't put them down, as Supertrunker said I think its the ammonia that is the problem.

 

[Frenchfry1942]

Then why for the first 3-4 days of my switch did vaping satisfy my urges?

 

[supertrunker]

What level of nic were you using to begin with? I started using 36mg nic when i stopped smoking - that satisfies nic urges!

I've not used any nic for about 7 months now, just because it's an extra thing to have to do in a recipe - so it's easier for me to leave it out. Never missed it.

If the scientists prove that nic does help stave off Alzheimers then (what was i gonna say?) i'll maybe even add some back in, for health reasons!

The nic is not/never was the problem.

T

 

[Frenchfry1942]

But is that what created the urges? I am getting the impression that it is other chemicals.

I started at 36mg also. at 1.5 -0 now

 

[Kent C]

If the scientists prove that nic does help stave off Alzheimers then (what was i gonna say?) i'll maybe even add some back in, for health reasons!

There are studies that suggest it and there will be more by this professor, a leader in the area:

Study explores nicotine patch to treat memory loss

Study finds nicotine safe, helps in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's

"Nicotine binds to very specific receptors in the brain that are important for thinking and memory and may have neuroprotective effects.

People with Alzheimer’s disease are known to lose some of those receptors."

 

[milandjikic]

Nicotine is not addictive drug, but it is a brain stimulant, that's all i know. Never went into depth of a research because i had no interest in that. My interests were proven on me. Since i stopped smoking everything has gone for better. I feel healthy and full of life, no more daily headaches, no more bad breath, short breath, caugh. It's all gone. My bedroom activities have increased substantially, everything smells and tastes much better, and nowadays i can easy go like 8 hours without even thinking about vape or having any cravings. For me, that's enough. The thing i came across regarding cigarettes is the fact they have proven that the stinky sticks manufacturers have started to using some sort of a drug that was increasing our desire for smoke, making us more addicted then we really were addicted. When i look back in past, i can see there is something to it. I am just a truck driver, but i know that smokes were the worst thing i hooked up my self onto. Thank God, those days are over now

 

[supertrunker]

My bedroom activities have increased substantially

I never felt the need to make the bed that much anyway.

T

 

[Mossy]

My bedroom activities have increased substantially

I am very pleased about this

I am just a truck driver,

You are a truck driver (not just) and a very valuable member of our society....................

 

[milandjikic]

To you it may sound funny, hell, it sounds funny to me aswell, but working long days behind steering wheel and smoking in average 3 packs a day makes your blood strem in lower parts a little clogged up. I wasnt realising that till i stopped smoking

 

[DC2]

I've been off nicotine now for 8 weeks as of tomorrow.
I did it because I didn't want to pay an extra $50/month for my health insurance through work.

I will be going back to using nicotine as soon as I can.
Which means, as soon as it is prudent.

I just hope I don't screw up my brain too much in the meantime.
But if I do, my wife will sue them all for making me stop using nicotine.

And I'll be drooling and trying to find my way back home.

 

[nicnik]

I've been off nicotine now for 8 weeks as of tomorrow.

Other than the neuro-protective issue, do you miss your nicotine? Miss the throat hit, or the effects of nicotine in your system? Has it been difficult to abstain?

 

[DC2]

Other than the neuro-protective issue, do you miss your nicotine? Miss the throat hit, or the effects of nicotine in your system? Has it been difficult to abstain?

I don't miss the nicotine at all and it hasn't been even remotely difficult.

I have switched to using menthol flavors to replace the missing throat hit.
I never smoked menthols, and I never vaped menthol either until now.

But I need something to replace that throat hit, so it is what it is I guess.

 

[nicnik]

I don't miss the nicotine at all and it hasn't been even remotely difficult.

I have switched to using menthol flavors to replace the missing throat hit.
I never smoked menthols, and I never vaped menthol either until now.

But I need something to replace that throat hit, so it is what it is I guess.

I think the most difficult part for me would be not having the throat hit. I don't like menthol, but some other type of cooling flavor might help me if I were to try.

I have a new insurance company this year, and they charge smoking rates for vapers, unless it's temporary, and done for the purpose of smoking cessation. I'm paying the higher rates, and not happy about it, since it's based on evil lies about vaping.