Nicotine
Nicotine is a naturally occurring stimulant found primarily in tobacco plants, which belong to the nightshade family. Known for its addictive properties, nicotine promotes heightened alertness and energy, as well as reduced appetite, making it appealing for recreational use. Historically, nicotine was introduced to Europe in the 16th century and quickly became popular for its energizing effects, alongside its use as an herbicide. Despite its stimulating effects, nicotine poses significant health risks, including increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and potential developmental issues in fetuses, leading health experts to discourage its use during pregnancy.
In recent years, nicotine replacement therapies, such as patches and gum, have been developed to assist individuals in quitting smoking by alleviating cravings. Research into nicotine's effects has also spurred discussions about its potential cognitive benefits and therapeutic uses, although more investigation is needed in these areas. The rise of e-cigarettes in the 21st century has further complicated the conversation around nicotine, as these devices deliver nicotine vapor without burning tobacco. While proponents argue that vaping may reduce some health risks, critics emphasize the need for more research on its long-term effects, particularly on young users. The regulation of e-cigarettes by the FDA highlights ongoing concerns regarding nicotine's addictiveness and the health implications associated with its use.
Nicotine
Nicotine is a naturally occurring substance found in plants of the nightshade family, most notably including tobacco plants. When mammals ingest small amounts of nicotine, the substance acts as a stimulant. This effect accounts for the highly addictive nature of tobacco use (and non-tobacco nicotine products such as e-cigarettes). In larger doses, nicotine can have toxic effects. It has often been used as a weed killer by various cultures around the world, and is an effective insecticide. Nicotine is not believed to have any significant therapeutic properties apart from its use in small (and gradually diminishing) doses to help wean users off their dependence on the substance.
Brief History
Nicotine received its name in honor of the tobacco plant, Nicotiana tabacum. Nicotine, by way of tobacco, was first brought to Europe in the sixteenth century, by Portuguese explorers who brought the plant back from their expeditions to Brazil. Within a hundred years of its arrival, Europeans were using nicotine as an herbicide and as a recreational drug. Its reputation was that it gave smokers more energy and a greater ability to concentrate, while also soothing agitated nerves. One of nicotine’s side effects is to reduce a person’s appetite, so those wishing to lose weight have often taken up smoking as a way of making it easier to resist their pangs of hunger.
Researchers have puzzled over how nicotine can act as both a relaxant and a stimulant; they postulate that the difference in the effect produced can be traced back to the behavior of the smoker. Smokers seeking relaxation take longer, deeper inhalations from the cigar or cigarette, which causes the amount of nicotine in the smoker’s blood to rise. Smokers seeking alertness and energy tend to take shorter and more frequent inhalations, producing lower nicotine levels in the blood.
Nicotine produces a host of negative effects in the body. Most notably, the ingestion of nicotine causes the heart to beat faster and causes blood pressure to rise, placing users at greater risk for strokes and heart attacks. Nicotine is also related to several serious developmental problems that can affect a developing fetus, so health experts strongly discourage people from using tobacco or vaping while pregnant. Nicotine appears to interfere with the ability of the fetus to receive adequate oxygen and nutrition from the mother, and this impacts the fetus’s physical and cognitive development. There is also some evidence that nicotine, while not directly carcinogenic, does act indirectly on the body of the smoker to promote the development and growth of tumors.
For many years, the major producers of cigarettes in the United States maintained that tobacco and nicotine had no deleterious health effects, even going so far as to conceal the results of their own research that had demonstrated the opposite to be true. Beginning in the 1990s, tobacco companies lost a series of major lawsuits by states seeking to establish the harmful effects of tobacco and recover some of the costs that the state health systems had incurred as a result of caring for sick smokers.
Medical Use and Research
Despite the known adverse effects of nicotine use, most scientists and health experts agree that these are secondary to the other negative effects of tobacco use (and especially smoking). This has led to the development of alternative methods for the delivery of nicotine into the body as a way to help people quit smoking. Such nicotine-replacement therapies (NRTs) include skin patches, chewing gum, and lozenges that deliver controlled doses of nicotine. They have shown strong clinical effectiveness in reducing cravings and withdrawal symptoms when used as directed. Some studies have found use of NRTs can double a person's chances of quitting cigarettes.
While nicotine's effects on the heart and lungs have been relatively well studied, advances in neuroscience have led to new insights into the substance's effects on the brain. Some studies have suggested that nicotine may be of benefit as a cognitive enhancer, that is, a substance that allows the user to think more quickly and more clearly. There has even been research into the potential use of nicotine to treat neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease or schizophrenia. However, the scientific consensus is that much more research is needed before nicotine can be recommended for any therapeutic use other than smoking cessation.
Nicotine and E-Cigarettes
The advent of electronic cigarettes (also known as e-cigarettes, vapes, and many other names) in the early twenty-first century brought fresh attention to the health impacts of nicotine use. Rather than burn tobacco, e-cigarettes heat a solution containing nicotine, flavoring agents, and other chemicals to the point at which it vaporizes, thus allowing the nicotine to enter the lungs. Proponents of "vaping" argued that it eliminates the most harmful elements of tobacco smoking while still allowing users to enjoy the pleasant sensations produced by nicotine. However, critics asserted that vaping has its own health concerns, many of which required more evidence to fully understand. While many critics of e-cigarettes pointed above all to the potential presence of various harmful chemicals due to lack of regulation and oversight, some also raised concerns about the effects of nicotine itself, especially on young users.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2016 announced that it had finalized a rule that extended its regulatory power to include e-cigarettes. In regulating the manufacture, import, packaging, labeling, sale, and advertising of e-cigarettes, the agency stipulated that the devices' packaging must display the mandated warning about the addictiveness of nicotine.
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