I have read and tend to believe that nicotine itself is not addictive. However, used in the form of cigarettes the hundreds of other added chemicals are designed to be addictive. I too, was once addicted to nicotine, hence, cigarettes, for many years. My habit started from birth, meaning all my family were smokers. We used to have regular family get-togethers that would include a room so filled with smoke it burnt your eyesto be in the same room! Don't look down on my family, the docs said smoking was a "healthy" thing to do. At age 12 I began stealing from my parents cig packs and was a pack and half smoker for the 40+ years. I used "pouch" tobacco to get my "hit" as a way to protect my lungs since my father had lung cancer earlier. It helped with respiratory (smoker's cough, morning phelm, shortness of breath during exertion, etc.) symptoms which to me seemed a normal part of life. Finally, when I embraced my faith seriously desiring to know real truth, nicotine addiction seemed to be the only thing that troubled my conscience. So I determined to quit, once more, after hundreds of failed attempts over past years. It finally came down to a test of my own sincerity and whether or not I had a faith that would truly deliver. If I believed in a power to ressurect my dead body and the same Word gave testimony that He would give life to my "mortal" body, the one I'm in now, then it was up to me to excercise that faith. Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
With this new found true faith power I quit all tobacoo 10 or 15 years ago. Give God all the glory because I had not the strength within myself until I found this understanding and stepped into His promise. For me, the first three days was the toughest and I reasoned if He could carry me for 72 hours of the worst, I could return my commitment to His promise for less difficult days to come. At this point each day became easier than the ones I had already conquered leaving me with the responsibility to stay the course or else take the responsibility for any failure I might allow. Now, the only thing about smoking that bothersme is not you blowing your smoke in my face or wishing for somethng from the past that I truly enjoyed (but was injurious to me physically and spiritually) but for dirty ash trays. Dirty ash-tray smell makes me want to puke!
I now use chewing gum nicotine on occasion as remedial prevention with covid. I do not like chewing it and have to make myself do this, so I have absolutely no fear of developing a habit.
I hope this helps someone. I feel God may have given us tobacoo for a reason but the greedy capitalist took advantage of it just as they have everything else.
There are those who say it is not addictive. But they are a very small minority. I have been vaping for 10+ years, with none of the chemicals used to enhance addiction in cigarettes. So believe me when I say, nicotine is very addictive. They say gum and patches doesn't give you that quick hit to the brain like smoke or vaper, which they believe increases the addiction.
When they bury me, they are gonna have to pry the E-cig out of my hand. Of course it is not healthy, but it still way less dangerous than cigarettes. I have given up many vices in my life, this one I will keep. And as you touched on, it may have been of benefit to me throughout the pandemic.
There are statistics showing smokers were less affected by long-COVID. I think we now know why.
You seem to be a very strong willed person, having transitioned strongly with faith in faith. Not many would be able to, even those who are other wise strongly faithful. As you rightly said in the end, God may have created tobacco as a healer, but man had other unsavoury ideas with it. May God bless you and reward you with a long, healthy life.
Yes, that's why I haven't used Dr. Ardis as a reference. He does explain quite nicely how to use patches and gum,... and how to minimize the negative effects. But his premise that nicotine is not addictive is ridiculous. Yes, they use many chemicals in cigs to enhance addiction. They even made a major motion picture with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe, based on a true story of a Big Tobacco whistleblower exposing this. But that doesn't mean nicotine itself isn't addictive. Only that the chemicals added,... greatly enhance the addiction. For every study Dr. Ardis would like to use in support of his argument, I can supply 100's that don't.... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=nicotine+addiction&filter=years.1997-2025
Very well. First, you will never impress me with evidences sourced from PubMed, NCBI, and particularly the NIH. I do refer to them personally but I try not to promote them to others. Even pagans occasionally present truthful statements to cloak their deceptions. These organizations will be found at the root of many of our problems.
As for addictions, almost anything with a peculiar trait will be found to be "addictive" to certain persons. There is much more going on with addictions besides the stimulus a chemical or substance may provoke. Sex for example, in itself is not addicting, but we have many porn addicts (and they're not even getting the real thing). Actually, they are most likely addicted to dopamine and sex is one of the triggers that turns on dopamine. Don't blame sex for a persons bad choice. Do we understand all we need to understand about nicotine or for you particularly, about vaping? If I were to decide to make a habit of nicotine once more it would definitely never be to vape. I would grow my own tobacco and wrap it in it's own leaf and use filters. Think smoking "mullein", or maybe marijuana in some cases. Vaping can be extremely dangerous for many reasons. Personally, I just chew a little gum when I feel I've been exposed to spike proteins. My main reason for responding once more is to present a powerful question in response to your position. Here it is, if you consider nicotine to be so powerfully addicting that you would never find yourself able to choose to give it up, can you accept that the power I found to overcome a life of it must be an evidence of something or someone supernal? It's a trick question but very worth seriously considering. :)
" you will never impress me with evidences sourced from PubMed, NCBI, and particularly the NIH."
What you fail to realize, is that it is a library, a catalog of studies from all over the world. That's all it is. Every study listed there, can be found elsewhere in the scientific journals where they were originally published. You can't dismiss a global collection of studies just because the NIH compiled and organized them for easy access. That's silly.
"Do we understand all we need to understand about nicotine or for you particularly, about vaping? If I were to decide to make a habit of nicotine once more it would definitely never be to vape."
Exactly what I was trying to convey. Don't vape or smoke. Vaping is only an option to get off cigs, nothing more. It's a 1,000 times less dangerous than smoking. Vaping has been in existence for decades. Safety signals would have arisen by now if it were, as you say "extremely dangerous". That's not to say it is safe. Far from it. But it can help those quit cigs.
Vaping got a bad rap a few years back, when some idiots were vaping liquid marijuana (wax) that they made in their basements. Using substances harmful to lung tissue, causing popcorn lung. That's when the government came down hard on vaping products. The kids weren't admitting that they vaped pot (illegal). So everyone assumed vaping in general was dangerous. In the 20 years prior, there was never an incident of popcorn lung from vaping. But it goes without saying, you are still better off not putting anything into your lungs.
Dopamine is the same chemical released in nicotine usage. Hence, why sex can be addictive to some as well.
I know many people who have went cold turkey. None of them were particularly religious. I just don't have the will power I guess.
I appreciate both answers (you and Morris). As a non-addictive person I find it hard to understand smoking or vaping in the first place. I think there is more to addiction than just a certain substance or chemical. Dopamine has a lot to do with it I would assume, but also maybe a person's stress level or history may play a part as well. Thank you for your opinion on this subject, both of your answers had interesting points.
You find it hard to understand.... How do you think I feel? I was the last kid on the block to pick up that nasty habit. I was in my early twenties. Hated my father smoking, stinking up the house. Hell, I was doing drugs way before I started smoking. But after 30 years you can imagine the grip it could have on you. Cigs, not the drugs. Never had a problem with drugs or alcohol, surprisingly. I had friends that could stop and start any time they pleased. And they would get mad at me for smoking after they quit. When it was them that got me started in the first place. I am grateful vaping came around when it did. I don't think I could have stopped any other way. When I quit, I was smoking 50 cigs a day. For me, patches were only temporary, until you can go to the store to buy a pack. They weren't a long term fix. Vaping was. I'm pretty sure I'd be dead by now if I didn't stop. It's the tar that kills you, not the nicotine.
As a retired industrial organic chemistry researcher ( not drugs, a PhD) with reading interests in medicinal chemistry, the structure of Nicotine has fascinated me as a potential anti viral. I have explained it in many other fora. I used to wonder if smokers were less prone to covid infection and you indicate that some statistics supports this premise. This chemistry applies as well to the vaccine spike proteins too. Its suspected addiction propensity ( not as tobacco) should be a concern if used as a long term course. I think intermittent courses of nicotine products should be, depending on the extent of the symptoms. I have suggested another approach to some researchers, without any response, slightly involved. This is adding one mole of a Cetyl group ( one step synthesis) to Nicotine. There are two moles of Nitrogen - one aromatic (pyridine) and one saturated ring tertiary nitrogen. These two nitrogens then will become partially cationic ( one mole). This will look very similar to Cetyl Pyridinium Chloride ( CPC), the common mouth wash ingredient, known to have killed the virus in seconds. Both will be cationic molecules. The idea here is that this will even improve the performance of Nicotine, without probably the addiction potential, as it becomes a therapeutic drug. If you know any researcher interested in this chemistry and potential, you may put him onto me. I am from India, 9886628784.
I know nothing about chemistry and have no contacts. Chemistry always confused me. I was more interested in biology. And when papers and studies get into the biochemical/molecular interactions, like in aerobic respiration, I am lost. The incredible complex mechanisms of ATP synthesis is just too much for me to grasp... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXpzp4RDGJI
And understanding the electron transport chain, that makes this possible, is a total lost cause. I understand the concept on why it exists, but how it happens, fuggedaboutit. I just refer all this as cellular respiration.
In the papers I used in my post, they go into detail, the molecular binding of the specific part of the spike that attaches to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. And as you can see in my post,.. I went nowhere near trying to explain that mechanism. LOL!
I have read and tend to believe that nicotine itself is not addictive. However, used in the form of cigarettes the hundreds of other added chemicals are designed to be addictive. I too, was once addicted to nicotine, hence, cigarettes, for many years. My habit started from birth, meaning all my family were smokers. We used to have regular family get-togethers that would include a room so filled with smoke it burnt your eyesto be in the same room! Don't look down on my family, the docs said smoking was a "healthy" thing to do. At age 12 I began stealing from my parents cig packs and was a pack and half smoker for the 40+ years. I used "pouch" tobacco to get my "hit" as a way to protect my lungs since my father had lung cancer earlier. It helped with respiratory (smoker's cough, morning phelm, shortness of breath during exertion, etc.) symptoms which to me seemed a normal part of life. Finally, when I embraced my faith seriously desiring to know real truth, nicotine addiction seemed to be the only thing that troubled my conscience. So I determined to quit, once more, after hundreds of failed attempts over past years. It finally came down to a test of my own sincerity and whether or not I had a faith that would truly deliver. If I believed in a power to ressurect my dead body and the same Word gave testimony that He would give life to my "mortal" body, the one I'm in now, then it was up to me to excercise that faith. Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
With this new found true faith power I quit all tobacoo 10 or 15 years ago. Give God all the glory because I had not the strength within myself until I found this understanding and stepped into His promise. For me, the first three days was the toughest and I reasoned if He could carry me for 72 hours of the worst, I could return my commitment to His promise for less difficult days to come. At this point each day became easier than the ones I had already conquered leaving me with the responsibility to stay the course or else take the responsibility for any failure I might allow. Now, the only thing about smoking that bothersme is not you blowing your smoke in my face or wishing for somethng from the past that I truly enjoyed (but was injurious to me physically and spiritually) but for dirty ash trays. Dirty ash-tray smell makes me want to puke!
I now use chewing gum nicotine on occasion as remedial prevention with covid. I do not like chewing it and have to make myself do this, so I have absolutely no fear of developing a habit.
I hope this helps someone. I feel God may have given us tobacoo for a reason but the greedy capitalist took advantage of it just as they have everything else.
There are those who say it is not addictive. But they are a very small minority. I have been vaping for 10+ years, with none of the chemicals used to enhance addiction in cigarettes. So believe me when I say, nicotine is very addictive. They say gum and patches doesn't give you that quick hit to the brain like smoke or vaper, which they believe increases the addiction.
When they bury me, they are gonna have to pry the E-cig out of my hand. Of course it is not healthy, but it still way less dangerous than cigarettes. I have given up many vices in my life, this one I will keep. And as you touched on, it may have been of benefit to me throughout the pandemic.
There are statistics showing smokers were less affected by long-COVID. I think we now know why.
You seem to be a very strong willed person, having transitioned strongly with faith in faith. Not many would be able to, even those who are other wise strongly faithful. As you rightly said in the end, God may have created tobacco as a healer, but man had other unsavoury ideas with it. May God bless you and reward you with a long, healthy life.
Yes, I heard that same thing from Dr. Ardis that nicotine is not addictive. The chemicals added to it in cigarettes is what makes it addictive.
Yes, that's why I haven't used Dr. Ardis as a reference. He does explain quite nicely how to use patches and gum,... and how to minimize the negative effects. But his premise that nicotine is not addictive is ridiculous. Yes, they use many chemicals in cigs to enhance addiction. They even made a major motion picture with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe, based on a true story of a Big Tobacco whistleblower exposing this. But that doesn't mean nicotine itself isn't addictive. Only that the chemicals added,... greatly enhance the addiction. For every study Dr. Ardis would like to use in support of his argument, I can supply 100's that don't.... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=nicotine+addiction&filter=years.1997-2025
Very well. First, you will never impress me with evidences sourced from PubMed, NCBI, and particularly the NIH. I do refer to them personally but I try not to promote them to others. Even pagans occasionally present truthful statements to cloak their deceptions. These organizations will be found at the root of many of our problems.
As for addictions, almost anything with a peculiar trait will be found to be "addictive" to certain persons. There is much more going on with addictions besides the stimulus a chemical or substance may provoke. Sex for example, in itself is not addicting, but we have many porn addicts (and they're not even getting the real thing). Actually, they are most likely addicted to dopamine and sex is one of the triggers that turns on dopamine. Don't blame sex for a persons bad choice. Do we understand all we need to understand about nicotine or for you particularly, about vaping? If I were to decide to make a habit of nicotine once more it would definitely never be to vape. I would grow my own tobacco and wrap it in it's own leaf and use filters. Think smoking "mullein", or maybe marijuana in some cases. Vaping can be extremely dangerous for many reasons. Personally, I just chew a little gum when I feel I've been exposed to spike proteins. My main reason for responding once more is to present a powerful question in response to your position. Here it is, if you consider nicotine to be so powerfully addicting that you would never find yourself able to choose to give it up, can you accept that the power I found to overcome a life of it must be an evidence of something or someone supernal? It's a trick question but very worth seriously considering. :)
" you will never impress me with evidences sourced from PubMed, NCBI, and particularly the NIH."
What you fail to realize, is that it is a library, a catalog of studies from all over the world. That's all it is. Every study listed there, can be found elsewhere in the scientific journals where they were originally published. You can't dismiss a global collection of studies just because the NIH compiled and organized them for easy access. That's silly.
"Do we understand all we need to understand about nicotine or for you particularly, about vaping? If I were to decide to make a habit of nicotine once more it would definitely never be to vape."
Exactly what I was trying to convey. Don't vape or smoke. Vaping is only an option to get off cigs, nothing more. It's a 1,000 times less dangerous than smoking. Vaping has been in existence for decades. Safety signals would have arisen by now if it were, as you say "extremely dangerous". That's not to say it is safe. Far from it. But it can help those quit cigs.
Vaping got a bad rap a few years back, when some idiots were vaping liquid marijuana (wax) that they made in their basements. Using substances harmful to lung tissue, causing popcorn lung. That's when the government came down hard on vaping products. The kids weren't admitting that they vaped pot (illegal). So everyone assumed vaping in general was dangerous. In the 20 years prior, there was never an incident of popcorn lung from vaping. But it goes without saying, you are still better off not putting anything into your lungs.
Dopamine is the same chemical released in nicotine usage. Hence, why sex can be addictive to some as well.
I know many people who have went cold turkey. None of them were particularly religious. I just don't have the will power I guess.
I appreciate both answers (you and Morris). As a non-addictive person I find it hard to understand smoking or vaping in the first place. I think there is more to addiction than just a certain substance or chemical. Dopamine has a lot to do with it I would assume, but also maybe a person's stress level or history may play a part as well. Thank you for your opinion on this subject, both of your answers had interesting points.
You find it hard to understand.... How do you think I feel? I was the last kid on the block to pick up that nasty habit. I was in my early twenties. Hated my father smoking, stinking up the house. Hell, I was doing drugs way before I started smoking. But after 30 years you can imagine the grip it could have on you. Cigs, not the drugs. Never had a problem with drugs or alcohol, surprisingly. I had friends that could stop and start any time they pleased. And they would get mad at me for smoking after they quit. When it was them that got me started in the first place. I am grateful vaping came around when it did. I don't think I could have stopped any other way. When I quit, I was smoking 50 cigs a day. For me, patches were only temporary, until you can go to the store to buy a pack. They weren't a long term fix. Vaping was. I'm pretty sure I'd be dead by now if I didn't stop. It's the tar that kills you, not the nicotine.
As a retired industrial organic chemistry researcher ( not drugs, a PhD) with reading interests in medicinal chemistry, the structure of Nicotine has fascinated me as a potential anti viral. I have explained it in many other fora. I used to wonder if smokers were less prone to covid infection and you indicate that some statistics supports this premise. This chemistry applies as well to the vaccine spike proteins too. Its suspected addiction propensity ( not as tobacco) should be a concern if used as a long term course. I think intermittent courses of nicotine products should be, depending on the extent of the symptoms. I have suggested another approach to some researchers, without any response, slightly involved. This is adding one mole of a Cetyl group ( one step synthesis) to Nicotine. There are two moles of Nitrogen - one aromatic (pyridine) and one saturated ring tertiary nitrogen. These two nitrogens then will become partially cationic ( one mole). This will look very similar to Cetyl Pyridinium Chloride ( CPC), the common mouth wash ingredient, known to have killed the virus in seconds. Both will be cationic molecules. The idea here is that this will even improve the performance of Nicotine, without probably the addiction potential, as it becomes a therapeutic drug. If you know any researcher interested in this chemistry and potential, you may put him onto me. I am from India, 9886628784.
I know nothing about chemistry and have no contacts. Chemistry always confused me. I was more interested in biology. And when papers and studies get into the biochemical/molecular interactions, like in aerobic respiration, I am lost. The incredible complex mechanisms of ATP synthesis is just too much for me to grasp... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXpzp4RDGJI
And understanding the electron transport chain, that makes this possible, is a total lost cause. I understand the concept on why it exists, but how it happens, fuggedaboutit. I just refer all this as cellular respiration.
In the papers I used in my post, they go into detail, the molecular binding of the specific part of the spike that attaches to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. And as you can see in my post,.. I went nowhere near trying to explain that mechanism. LOL!