Question about DIY 0 Nic Juices.

[John D in CT]

Oh, what you do is up to you only .... Intolerant fanatics stimulate high blood pressure in themselves and others far more then nicotine ever could.
@John specifically- dont like it dont use it.

"I don't think anymore that Zero nicotine should be the ideal goal for me or anyone else" just doesn't seem to go very well with "Oh, what you do is up to you only".

And I hope you're not referring to me as an intolerant fanatic, because I'm neither. I just like to try to get at that elusive, ephemeral, possibly unattainable commodity known as "the truth". Far from not liking nicotine, I have liked it very much, and probably "too much". Like your rich entrees, the pluses with it have to be weighed against the minuses. The wild card is the addictive property of nicotine; the fact that it alters dopamine receptors in the brain, requiring its continued use to maintain a given sense of well-being. Heady stuff, quite literally.

There's just something very appealing to me about living "on the natch", and not being addicted to anything except, as I've said, food, air, and water.

 

[elfstone]

The wild card is the addictive property of nicotine; the fact that it alters dopamine receptors in the brain, requiring its continued use to maintain a given sense of well-being. Heady stuff, quite literally.

That's debatable. Chocolate does the same to some extent. Exercise basically hooks you on opiates. Practice of religion or being in love alters the dopaminergic system and hooks you on opiates The biochemisty of the brain is designed for the animal, in the wild, so it seeks food and sex and avoids predators and cold and famine. We humans have learned to play with ourselves. Yeah, I know... But my point is that homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto, and that includes tweaking my body's chemistry to my heart's content.

That said, before they all went nuts on the crusade against the "nicodemon", scientists had reliable animal data showing nicotine to be a "poor conditioner" and human data showing nicotine addiction to be weak one. That's probably "the truth" still, but there are two equally motivated groups that push the limits of hyperbole in what nicotine addiction is concerned: smokers (who want to be seen as victims to tobacco companies, not as indulging vice ridden hedonists) and anti-smoking campaigners (who want to equate nicotine use to "drug" abuse). Both have point while nicotine use is associated with the horrible effects of unsafe tobacco consumption, but when you remove that from the equation, the harm involved drops to a level where the entire discussion becomes quite silly, really.

 

[John D in CT]

I don't think it's debatable (or at least, not debate-worthy) that nicotine alters brain chemistry in a way that perpetuates dependence on it. I think the main difference between the effects of nicotine on the brain and some of the other activities you mentioned, with the possible exception of chocolate consumption, is that those activities don't involve a substance that is not normally produced by the human body. Nicotine has the striking property of altering dopamine receptors so they (in layman's terms - I don't pretend to know the precise process) become skewed toward recognizing and accepting nicotine molecules, and less receptive to other substances that would otherwise have been able to bond to them. (I sometimes liken the action of nicotine molecules in the brain to Al Haig's famous "I'm in charge here" line immediately following the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan). Thus, I disagree with your assessment that religion (for example) and nicotine are equally addictive. Religion doesn't introduce a foreign substance into the body; it, and most of the other activities you mentioned, just prompts the body to produce substances that the body is capable of producing by itself.

I don't think that it's necessarily "silly" to closely examine what nicotine by itself does to the human body, but I think I've been clear that vaping is infinitely preferable to smoking. I'm just not sure I'm 100% comfortable with being dependent on a substance that does have profound effects on the body. I think these effects include increased heart rate and blood pressure and increased adrenaline levels, and those effects don't strike me as trivial.

I think we'll see a lot more good research in the near future about the effects of nicotine alone, without any of the conflation of the added effects of cigarette smoke. The presence of MAOIs in tobacco smoke is extremely interesting, since it seems to me to be true that they significantly increase the addictiveness of nicotine. Maybe that's for another thread.

I'll conclude by agreeing with you that it's very nice to be able to tweak one's brain chemistry; it's just that the brain is very complex, and I think great caution should be exercised when mucking around with it.

Cheers.

Nicotine Molecule

 

[electrotimba]

John, no I didnt mean you, but anti smoking talibans in general. One of the reasons I like vaping more then smoking cigars is that apart I can do it whenever wherever without fun spoiling comments of health fanatics.
I am under impression you are taking the whole issue over seriously, are too hard on yourself.
The most important factor about vaping is to enjoy it. Same way as people enjoy eating ice cream, chocolate, drinking good Scotch whatever.
Addiction to religions caused more deaths, sufferings then all the tobacco ever smoked since times immemorial. I believe smoking tobacco to be healthier then burning people on stakes, partying to be better then wars.

 

[elfstone]

Well, let me make a desperate attempt to return to the topic.

Anybody tried this? http://www.ecigexpress.com/flavoring-flavourart-condensed-c-16_29/flash-e-liquid-select-size-p-610

It sounds (if it's any good) like a great solution to the throat hit conundrum

 

[electrotimba]

I hate it, and so everyone I gave it to try. Lousy taste ( I believe it can spoil any flavour) and no TH. Waste of money. It was my first order from Flavourart 100ml (- few ml) that will be probably thrown away.