Is nicotine in itself, bad for you?

[Taverner]

I am not talking about the delivery method (smoking, chewing, etc) but nicotine.

Reason I ask is that I chew nicotine gum - been doing it for 3-4 years. I'm at the point where I really don't crave cigarettes, but I do the gum!

[HopeHoops]

1. Give up the nicotine gum. Go for massive amounts of hard liquor.

I don't know. It just sounds like a plan.

[hifiguy]

5. As Otter said to Flounder

"My advice to you is to start drinking heavily."

This guy got the point

[LeftyMom]

16. Too late!

[hobbit709]

2. Consider that nicotine extract is a commercial insecticide.

[JonLP24]

3. Similar to caffeine

Not completely safe but short answer - no. (Researched this when I started on e-cigs)

Edit-The worst part of nicotine and this is where the major difference between caffeine is that nicotine is highly addictive which I'm sure you know.

[Skittles]

4. hey Taverner

the same thing happened to me - I replaced a cig habit with a gum habit - then one day I realized the gum cost as much, if not more, than the cigs - so I quit the gum. Do it now before you waste any more money!

[freshwest]

6. Turns your hair white. Constricts the blood vessels in the brain, etc. Don't ask.

[Taverner]

7. So its not just like caffeine?

[JonLP24]

10. I wasn't trying to say the affected the body in exactly the same way

I was trying to say generally it won't kill you but has some harmful affects so it is a good idea to keep your doses low for both caffeine and nicotine. Nicotine tops caffeine overall because it is more addictive.

Anyways both caffeine & nicotine are vasoconstrictors so in that regard they are the same. Not sure about turning hair white, haven't read that before. Doesn't mean it isn't true, just that I haven't read about it yet.

[Taverner]

11. Ah true

Thing is I gots ADHD - which means Nicotine is like a godsend for me sometimes

Of course, one of the other side effects of ADHD is that I only have 'ON' and 'OFF' switches, no knobs or gradual dimmers

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. It's poisonous in large doses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine_poisoning

[Aristus]

13. Poisonous in small doses, too. You just get poisoned slower.

:P

I'd weigh in with my medical opinion of nicotine, but no doubt some smokers will thrash me for my lack of compassion... :hide:

[Frank Cannon]

18. I've worked with a lot of spine patients, and I can tell you that almost every one...

that had to go in for "redoes" on their fusion surgeries was a smoker. Nicotine impedes healing like nothing else in this world.

And don't even get me started on diabetics who smoke.

[CBGLuthier]

9. Commonly used as poison in mystery novels

So I don't think it can in any way be particularly good for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine_poisoning

[REP]

12. It is vitally important to this human's happiness

And some studies have shown it is of some benefit to controlling some symptoms of Crohn's disease (not a great reason to smoke, mind). It's poisonous in large enough quantities.

And DELICIOUS.

[Duer 157099]

14. It depends

The research shows that nicotine has both positive and negative effects on certain cells, depending on the circumstances. It is a very active area of research, trying to figure out how to optimize the benefits and minimize the negatives.

It's fascinating, actually.

[KT2000]

17. I read where many

of the researchers on smoking and nicotine are actually smokers themselves.

[Odin2005]

15. It's an insecticide, nasty shit.