What is Nicotine?

What even is Nicotine?

🚬 Nicotine is a legal stimulant, considered one of the most addictive and widely available drugs behind only heroin and cocaine. Nicotine use is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States🤯

👓Nicotine use can result in short-term feelings of pleasure, reduced stress, increased focus, and suppressed appetite. Once use stops, the opposite effects are seen - this withdrawal is part of the reason nicotine is so addictive🛑

😄Nicotine indirectly causes the release of dopamine in the brain, which targets reward pathways. Nicotine also imitates another neurotransmitter called Acetylcholine, which constricts blood vessels and increases blood pressure. Because nicotine is often inhaled, it reaches the brain almost immediately after ingestion. This instant onset of positive feelings is a key factor in creating addiction⏲

🧪Nicotine itself is a carcinogen (causes cancer). When combined with the 5000 other chemicals found in cigarettes - from preservatives to glue, cigarette smoking can result in cancer of almost any part of the body🩺🏥

⚰️Many of us already know that tobacco use alone is incredibly harmful, killing over 7 million people per year. Yet inhaling smoke or vapors of any kind means inhaling carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas. Carbon monoxide prevents blood from carrying oxygen around the body, which can result in feelings of fatigue, heart problems, and cell death🚫🩸

⚖️Are e-cigarettes any safer? While e-cigarettes and vapes have not been available long enough to compare long-term cancer risk to cigarettes, flavored versions are already known to be more addictive than cigarettes. Cigarettes and e-cigarettes also both suppress respiratory immunity, making a user more likely to get sick🦠

🍿Over 70% of e-cigarette liquids contain diacetyl, which has been shown to reduce lung capacity and cause irreversible respiratory diseases like bronchiolitis obliterans (popcorn lung). Diacetyl is also known to cause DNA damage in lung cells, a precursor to cancer. Other diacetyl stand-ins have also been shown to cause respiratory damage in animal models🐀