I understand tobacco and chew and vapes aren’t good for you, because of all the other shit in there, but is nicotine itself as a chemical bad for you?
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Well this is Reddit so I can’t be bothered to give sources BUT nicotine by itself (the chemical) is actual beneficial for us in moderate doses.
And in fact we actually ingest it quite often but only as a trace element in things like tea or potatoes.
But it is good for the brain
Nicotine by itself is a stimulant that raises blood pressure. This by itself will cause negative health outcomes with prolonged use.
Nicotine is a alkaloid poision found in the tobacco plant, which is a member of the Nightshade family of plants, which in the classical era’s were used by some to piosion others. Not all Nightshade plants however are piosionous, as this also includes tomatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers, eggplants, and potatoes. In low doses, it acts as a stimulant. Low doeses being up to 5mg The Surgeon General reccomends no more than 1 mg a day. The typical cigarette contains anywhere from 11.9 – 14.5 mg of nicotine, of which about 2mg ends up being absorbed by the body. The lower limit does for fatal outcomes is 500mg – 1000mg, or about 13mg per kilogram of body weight. In high amounts such as this, it can act as a paralytic for the respiratory system shutting down the lungs as well as nicotine poisioning or organ failure. Nicotine can also cause birth defects, and affect adolescent brain development in children and people under 20. Not only is it bad for you, it’s also highly addictive making the user come back to it because it spikes dopamine levels. This why cigarette manufactures do not remove it, and actually add it to e-cigarettes and vapes. By making it addictive, people feel a need to keep using it because it triggers the release of dopamine which is a feel good drug in the body. And vapes themselves have other issues with the use of oils in the chemical makeup of the aresol agents used in them. Those oils when inhaled can affect the lungs and coat them in oil causing respiratory issues among other things.
While it is bad on it’s own, nicotine is at just low enough levels in cigarette’s to not be the major cause of cancer from cigarettes or e-cigaretts. It’s use is limited to just enough to make the person addicted and keep them coming back to smoke again and again. As far as Cancer is concerned, in cigarette and e-cigaretts it is normally attributed to tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Keep in mind, none of this overall is good for you. And the cigarette industry for decades has funneled money into a smear campaign to downplay the dangers of smoking, and help prevent politicians from banning cigarettes altogether. Even what you read on the internet about nicotine and cigaretts may be a downplayed or washed over source of this information.
I’ve read things about nicotine reducing or stopping cytokine storms. The positive feedback loop of inflammation that killed many during covid. Crucify me internet!
Nicotine alters your brain. When you take it, it changes your reward chemical receptors to nicotine receptors. That’s why it’s addictive: it literally replaces happiness.
Nicotine affects your immune system (I only learned this recently because of my dad). He’s a long time smoker and now he has “all the cancers” (kidney, bladder, pancreatic, skin, colon), but not lung cancer. Seemed strange to be so I started reading. The short version is that nicotine fucks up your immune system so cancerous cells that are normally taken care of by your immune system aren’t taken care of. So smoking is basically inviting cancer to all parts of your body (not just your lungs).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1782971/
Nicotine is a poison and a dose of 50-60 mg can kill a 150 lb human. In smaller doses it is a highly addictive stimulant that will have negative long term effects on your circulatory system. This can result in losing toes and fingers and more, as well as receding gums that can result in tooth loss and getting dentures.
Yes nicotine is actually really really bad for you.
Andrew Huberman has a great episode on the “positive” effects of nicotine. He makes a great distinction between using it for its benefits and abusing it as an addictive substance. Anecdotically one of his friends who is a professor chews nicotine gum for a “pick me up”.
The episode is called: Huberman Lab – Nicotine’s effects on the Brain and Body.
I’d argue against vapes being harmful as all it is is vegetable glycerine, propylene glycol, nicotine and flavouring. I’d also argue against nicotine being ‘frighteningly’ addictive.
I smoked for decades and vaped for a decade. I eventually decided to move down through nicotine levels until I got to zero. None of the drops in level were noticeable to me even to zero. I vaped zero for 3 months. Nicotine well out of my system. I ran out of zero nicotine juice and decided now was as good a time as any to put away the vape for good……I was crawling the walls within 30 minutes as soon as tried to do anything where I would usually smoke/vape. ie. IMHO most of the addiction to smoking/vaping is not the nicotine but the psychological addiction to the hand & mouth actions of smoking/vaping. ie. The adult equivalent of the baby/toddler addicted to its soother/pacifier.
Nicotine is frightfully addictive, and also extremely easy to overdose and poison yourself with.
Nicotine is similar in many ways to neurotransmitters in the brain, and temporarily makes the brain’s work easier, so it’s easy to get addicted to it.
The difference between a “useful” dose and a fatal one is very small though, and it can be absorbed directly through the skin. In a lot of places the sale and/or possession of liquid Nicotine is illegal because of this toxicity.
I knew a guy who had a vape that used liquid Nicotine as a replacement for smoking. He said he had to smuggle it in from overseas (that may be an exxageration on his part, but he certainly couldnt get it locally), and he was extremely careful any time he handled the Nicotine vial.
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