What Exactly Does Nicotine Do To Your Body?

As vaping began to take off, one of several issues surrounding e-juice content was its nicotine concentration. Since it’s associated with cigarettes, nicotine has gained a bad reputation. From claims of how toxic it is to the body, to the myth that it causes cancer, it’s been viewed as a threat. Critics claim that nicotine is highly addictive, causes heart problems, and harms brains.

Because of nicotine’s reputation, vaping has drawn suspicion and restrictive legal treatment. In some places around the world, vaping is allowed; but e-juices containing high levels of nicotine are banned - some countries like Australia ban nicotine completely.

Nicotine’s heavy use in the tobacco industry has caused it to be vilified, but scientific fact doesn’t actually prove nicotine really is harmful - at least not at the doses consumed in tobacco or vapor products.

Vaping is still new, but nicotine replacements have been around for a while. From gum to patches, various health institutions have used these products to help smokers quit. Instead of accepting its demonization, it’s better to base your opinion on evidence, rather than claims. So, let’s start with the basics of what nicotine actually is.

Nicotine is one of the most well-known chemicals to the general population. It’s an alkaloid, which means it contains nitrogen and is chemically similar to caffeine. Besides tobacco plants, the chemical is also found in <a href=“http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199308053290619#t=article”>potatoes, tomatoes, and many other plants</a>, though in smaller amounts. Statistically, there’s about 20 mg of nicotine in each 1 g of tobacco; in tomatoes, there’s 0.0000071 mg of nicotine per 1 g of tomato, making the consumption of about 20 pounds of tomatoes roughly around the smoking of one cigarette.

Cigarettes usually contain about 10 mg of nicotine, which isn’t completely used when smoking. Between the burning of the tip, to being trapped in the filter, the entire 10 mg isn’t consumed. Plus, only about 1 mg of nicotine per cigarette is absorbed by the body.

Once you consume the nicotine, it passes through your lungs’ membranes and into the bloodstream. Once in the blood, the nicotine reaches your heart, is transferred into your arteries, and travels up to the brain.

Vaping’s a bit different, since the nicotine is absorbed mostly in your <a href=“https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/nicotine-without-smoke-tobacco-harm-reduction-0/”> mouth and upper throat,</a> instead of your lungs. It still reaches your blood, but notably slower than it does when smoking. This is one of the reasons why vaping is less addictive than tobacco.

When you vape, the first thing you’ll notice are the short-term effects. Since nicotine is a stimulant, it’ll create a pleasurable feeling, as well as an increased heart rate and an improved ability to pay attention and remember things. Nicotine, though, also has a biphasic effect. This means that if you consume a little bit, it’s acts as a stimulant; but if you consume a greater amount, it’ll chill you out.

For vaping, if you want a quick kick, take short, shallow hits. If you want to feel more relaxed, take longer, heavier hits.

All of these effects occur when the nicotine chemical grabs onto neurotransmitters in your brain. These are like messengers, which, when activated by the binding, tell your brain to release certain compounds, mainly dopamine, which causes a release of several pleasure hormones.

Dopamine is a natural compound that causes you to remember rewards, leading to the release of the pleasurable feelings. It also helps you remember negative experiences, keeping you away from performing the cause.

This factor explains why nicotine can become addictive. When it regularly stimulants the receptors that cause the dopamine release, your body reacts by reducing the number of receptors, limiting its ability to make dopamine on its own.

Because of this, the same amount of nicotine won’t have the same effect anymore. The inability to get the same effect from a certain amount of nicotine is called “tolerance,” which you’ve probably heard associated with other addictions. Once this happens, if you don’t consume more nicotine, you’ll begin to feel withdrawal due to your deficiency of dopamine, leading to anxiety, restlessness, and the inability to concentrate.

Because of this withdrawal, nicotine replacement therapy through patches, gum, and especially e-cigarettes become extremely helpful. It lessens the symptoms of withdrawal, and rids your body of the tobacco risks.

Critics, though, still claim that nicotine is harmful. Their association makes complete sense since nicotine is in tobacco, which is ultimately dangerous. To them, tobacco is harmful, and since nicotine is in tobacco, it’s harmful as well. Just because nicotine is the most well-known chemical in tobacco doesn’t mean it causes all the negative effects. But, is it responsible for any of them?

There’s a myth that 60 mg of nicotine can kill you, but the researchers at E-Cigarette Direct have disproved <a href=“https://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk/ashtray-blog/2013/12/eliquid-nicotine-lethal-dose.html”> this.</a> The lethal dose is actually about 500 to 1,000 mg, which is nowhere near the amount used in e-liquid mixing or smoking.

There’s one exception, which is associated with mixing your own juice. If you use a strong nicotine base (mixers start with a nicotine base with up to 100 or even 1000 mg/ml), you may be crossing the border into dangerous. Nicotine can be absorbed through your skin and these high levels can be risky. So, if you do mix your own juice, make sure you’re always wearing gloves.

Another claim is that nicotine causes cancer, since nicotine is in tobacco, which does cause cancer. In truth, it’s the myriad other chemicals found in smoldering tobacco, not the nicotine, that causes the cancer.

A study found that although cigarette smoking was linked to cancer, there was no connection between non-tobacco nicotine products like gum and e-cigarettes and cancer development.

Although there have been reports of nicotine stimulating the growth of some tumors, there’s no proof that it solely causes cancer.

Finally, perhaps the most important issue with nicotine is its impact on the heart. Since it’s a stimulant, it does have some immediate effects on your heart. The noradrenaline released when you consume nicotine will increase your heart rate. This reduces the amount of blood that reaches your heart and makes it work harder, but the effects remain mild and disappear rapidly.

A serious issue is nicotine’s effect on the endothelium, which is a thin layer of cells that line the inside of your blood vessels. Because of their role in how the blood vessels function, if something damages them, it could lead to strokes, heart attacks, coronary artery disease, clogged arteries, and high blood pressure.

Long-term nicotine use may impact these cells over time, but this is still just a theory, as nicotine use independent of tobacco use hasn’t been tested. Whether or this happens to common nicotine users is still unproven.

Overall, it’s best to say that if consumption of nicotine through vaping does cause heart problems, it’s still a much smaller risk than smoking. Heart health should be a deciding factor when switching to vaping, and so far, it seems to be the better choice.

Like caffeine, nicotine is a mild stimulant and has some short-term effects on your body. Most people who consume the chemicals do so without any issues.  It isn’t fair, though, to say nicotine is exactly like caffeine, but is more of a broad “cousin.” If you don’t smoke, you shouldn’t pick up vaping as casually as you pick up a cup of coffee. But if you do, you should consider vaping as an alternative. It’s a safer way to access the chemical that draws you to the the cigarette tip.

The best thing to say is that if we aren’t worried about people drinking coffee, we shouldn’t be worried about people who consume clean sources of nicotine.