Posted on 04/08/2014 4:55:27 AM PDT by jjsheridan5
I hear you. I remember, not too long ago, playing basketball all day, often all weekend, only taking a break every hour or so to grab some water and a quick cigarette. When I quit smoking, however, it was like suddenly I couldn’t even walk up the stairs without coughing and pain. On those occasions where I did go back to smoking, I was shocked at how easy it was.
E-cigs definitely result in some mild irritation. Personally, I find that it goes away within a few days, but for others, it seems to be a permanent feature. One thing that may help me, and you may want to try, is that I drink a ton of water (an old habit from weightlifting days).
Some good information mixed with some absolute falsehoods.
Nicotine is addictive all by itself.
Nicotine without combustion byproducts does affect microcirculation, the consequences of those changes are not well researched.
Straight nicotine probably does have positive effects but the risk versus benefits are not known and it would be unwise to subject yourself to a lifelong addiction without fully knowing that it will provide more benefit than harm over the long haul.
” I still use the legal delivery system for my daily dose of Ol’ nic”
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Mt too,having one right now with good,strong black coffee.
Been doing this for 60 years.
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Tobacco is not cured with ammonia. Wherever you read that or whoever told you that does not know what they're talking about. Ammonia occurs naturally in tobacco leaves. The curing process "sweats" this naturally-occurring ammonia out of the tobacco leaves, removing it, leaving the finished golden brown product with that vaguely spicy, warm scent for which tobacco is known and loved.
Smoked my entire adult life (35 years). Slowly developed violent coughing bouts every night. Feared I could not quit.
My Dr prescribed one month of Wellbutrin (Anti Depressant) and the patch.
My cough was gone in two days. Knew I had quit in Four days.
Always felt Wellbutrin was the key. Talk to your Dr about Wellbutrin.
Should get a pipe. Much better tobacco without all the added chemicals and crap :)
When you quit after smoking fairly heavily for a long time, the years of accumulated "tar" begin to shed in your lungs and you start hacking it up. The worst of it passes in a week or so, but it may go on for weeks. The majority of any cumulative effect on the lungs typically clears up over a matter of a few months' time for most, leaving apparently healthy, pink tissue with little evidence other than perhaps some scarring. Due to this, some will still go on to develop emphysema and/or COPD later in life. If the repeated irritation caused sufficient cell mutation and that mutation begins to reproduce out of control, then you have cancer. The odds sound terrible for smoking-related diseases, ten times more likely, twelve, twenty times more likely than a non-smoker, but understand that it's minuscule in nonsmokers and slightly less minuscule in smokers. They've been called coffin nails since the eighteenth century, so it's not as if people weren't aware of negative health consequences from smoking heavily. But, there are benefits. Concentration, energy, mood, it's a very useful chemical or group of chemicals for everyday life. So, people still smoke.
You are entirely correct. I was actually referring to the fact that ammonia is added back in to tobacco after curing, at least for some cigarette manufacturers. I was using the word “curing” far too loosely, when I should have said “manufacturing”.
My grandmother lived until she was 93. My grandfather to 96. My grandmother played tennis twice a week until she was 72, when her doctor finally prevailed upon her to quit smoking. She did, and her health started failing almost immediately, and never really returned.
What is not commonly reported is that if you’ve been smoking for more than 30 years, and you are above age 60, they no longer tell you to quit, but to cut down.
Unfiltered Pall Mall’s. I used to mail home plug tobacco from North Carolina and Georgia, where you can still get Peachy Plug, and other of the older brands of plug tobacco. They would go out in the backyard in the sun and enjoy a slice.
Science is in bad shape.
Nicotine induces the same dopamine release pathways seen with other addictions. Physical and psychological withdrawal is seen with cessation just like with other addictions. Behaviour with use is the same as with other addictions. Addiction rate with use is significantly higher than with use of some other addictive substances such as alcohol.
The question is not whether it is addictive but whether it matters.
And from this you're willing to ignore the overwhelming amount of established science that tells us that nicotine is a highly addictive substance?
Cigarette smoking is more addicting that nicotine by itself, but to claim that nicotine isn't the main cause of addiction to tobacco requires some serious, and willful, avoidance of facts.
These researchers want to deny that nicotine is addictive by itself, and claim that animal and human studies support them, but that just isn't the case. People can say just about anything they want to say in these articles and there will always be a contingent of people who are willing and eager to buy into it hook, line, and sinker. Even I believe that they believe what they're telling you. But they are wrong. Very wrong.
Aside from the first sentence, is any of what you just said in reference to nicotine, or to tobacco? While you provide no sources, so I have to guess, you are in all likelihood referring to tobacco. This article is about nicotine, not tobacco.
Please answer the question, since you are clearly of the opinion that nicotine alone is addictive: why, if nicotine is addictive, do trial participants who ingest nicotine (not tobacco), not display any of the symptoms of addiction, even though their serum levels of nicotine are kept at elevated levels for months at a time?
It is a simple question. Absent an answer, it completely undermines the proposition that nicotine alone is addictive.
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My grandmother lived until she was 93. My grandfather to 96.”
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Sounds like my family.
I’m 81 and have told my doctor that I won’t stop smoking or having my daily,large cup of coffee. I have cut down on both,though.
I also have refused to have certain routine tests done because I feel they are a waste of time and money.
I have had the same doctor for 30 years and she tolerates me-—in fact we like each other.
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You have good genes. Enjoy your life and thank your parents. At 81, I think I would do the very same thing.
Final Report A recent theory of addiction suggests that the ability of a drug to activate and persistently sensitize the brain reward system is what makes it addictive. This ability creates a positive feedback cycle that enhances the psychologically rewarding effects of the drug and encourages repeated use. However, the effects of nicotine do not appear to be entirely consistent with this theory. Nicotinic receptors in the brain containing a4 and (32 subunits bind nicotine and stimulate the reward system of the brain. Chronic nicotine exposure increases the density of these receptors in the brain but it does not always lead to an increase in the brain nicotinic response. In fact, chronic nicotine exposure appears to irreversibly inactivate a large fraction of rat brain nicotinic receptors expressed in frog oocytes. Thus, chronic nicotine exposure does not always lead to sensitization of the nicotinic response. The specific aims of our research were to (1) characterize nicotine-induced irreversible receptor inactivation and (2) discover the biochemical mechanism responsible for inactivation.
To study inactivation, we expressed rat brain (c4p2) nicotinic receptors in Xenopus oocytes and measured their acetylcholine (ACh) response before and after a prolonged incubation in nicotine. The results showed that the x4(32 ACh response remained depressed for 24 h after a 1 or 12 h incubation in 10 pM nicotine, compared to controls incubated for an equal time in nicotine-free media. However, a 12 h incubation in 101 .LM nicotine did not affect the number of total or surface a4(32 receptors measured by [3H]epibatidine binding. Thus, a 12 h exposure to 10 [LM nicotine appeared to irreversibly inactivate brain nicotinic receptors expressed in oocytes. We initially hypothesized that receptor phosphorylation or de-phosphorylation was responsible for this irreversible inactivation. To test this hypothesis, we used biochemical techniques to demonstrate that rat a4P2 nicotinic receptors were phosphorylated in Xenopus oocytes. Then, we constructed a chimeric ocl/oc4 subunit that removed all the phosphorylation sites in the a4 subunit. Surprisingly, prolonged nicotine incubations still inactivated receptors formed from this chimera and wild-type (32 subunits even though all the phosphorylation sites were removed and the receptor displayed no detectable phosphorylation. These results suggested that changes in receptor phosphorylation were not responsible for nicotine-induced inactivation. We then hypothesized that nicotine uptake and release from the oocytes could cause apparent irreversible inactivation. Nicotine has a pKa of 7.84. Thus, it is only partially ionized at pH 7.4 (74%). Uncharged nicotine could diffuse across the plasma membrane and accumulate inside intracellular acidic vesicles because it is a weak base. Therefore, oocytes could slowly take up and release nicotine into the wash media. Because the equilibrium dissociation constant of a4(32 nAChRs for nicotine is small (4-7 nM), even minute amounts of nicotine released into the wash media could desensitize these receptors and make it appear, as if they were irreversibly inactivated. To test this hypothesis, oocytes expressing (x4(32 receptors were co-incubated with un-injected oocytes that were pre-soaked in 10 g.M nicotine for 12 h. The nicotine-soaked un-injected oocytes released enough nicotine to desensitize the (x4(32 receptors and account for all the apparent irreversible inactivation caused by a 12 h exposure to 10 pM nicotine. These results showed that nicotine release from the oocytes caused the apparent irreversible inactivation of nicotinic receptors following prolonged nicotine incubations. To confirm this hypothesis, we incubated oocytes expressing a4(32 receptors in a saturating concentration of ACh for 12 h or a very low nicotine concentration (5 nM) and measured the effects of the incubation on the ACh response. ACh is fully ionized at pH 7.4 and cannot easily cross the plasma membrane or accumulate inside acidic vesicles. A 12 h incubation in 300 pM ACh or in 5 nM nicotine (which resulted in negligible nicotine release from the oocytes) did not irreversibly inactivate (x402 receptors. We also measured the amount of nicotine released by nicotine-soaked oocytes using radioactive nicotine. Oocytes soaked for 12 h in radioactive nicotine released enough nicotine into the media to desensitize (x4(32 receptors. Finally, we showed that even continuous rapid rinsing with nicotine-fee saline fails to prevent nicotine-soaked oocytes from releasing enough nicotine at the surface of the plasma membrane to desensitize a4P2 receptors. Thus, our results conclusively show that nicotine does not irreversibly inactivate brain nicotinic receptors expressed in frog oocytes but, rather, desensitization caused by nicotine release from the oocytes into the wash media makes it appear as if the receptors are irreversibly inactivated.
The results of our research have several important implications for nicotine addiction. First, they show than nicotine-induced inactivation is not involved in nicotine addiction. Second, they suggest that nicotine is addictive because it persistently sensitizes the reward system of the brain by increasing the density of nicotinic receptors in the brain. Thus, the well documented finding that smoking increases the density of nicotinic receptors in the human brain suggests that chronic tobacco use sensitizes smokers to the effects of nicotine and creates a positive feedback cycle that promotes nicotine addiction. The next step in this research would be to study nicotine uptake and release in mammalian cells expressing brain nicotinic receptors.
You are playing with the banks money anyway at this point. I smoke cigars, chew leaf tobacco during baseball season, drink whiskey occasionally, and coffee most of the time.
I avoid anything ‘diet’. I am cutting down on carbs, and increasing proteins and fats. I’ve lost weight and feel better, especially with exercise.
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