turns out nicotine may not be that bad after all...

[timouse]

from Wired magazine.

Smoking may be bad for you, but researchers and biotech companies are quietly developing pharmaceuticals that are decidedly good for brains, bowels, blood vessels and even immune systems -- and they're inspired by tobacco's deadly active ingredient: nicotine.

Nicotine acts on the acetylcholine receptors in the brain, stimulating and regulating the release of a slew of brain chemicals, including seratonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. Not surprisingly, the first scientific work that identified these chemicals and how they affect the body came out of nicotine research -- much of it performed by tobacco companies.

Now drugs derived from nicotine and the research on nicotine receptors are in clinical trials for everything from helping to heal wounds, to depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, anger management and anxiety.

"Nicotine is highly stigmatized -- and for good reason, because the delivery system is so deadly," says Don deBethizy, CEO of Targacept. "But the drug itself and the research generated by studying its effects on the brain both show great promise for helping us improve our physical and mental health."

Edited June 20, 2007 by Guest
spellinq.

[d_rawk]

I've known of physicians who have prescribed nicotine patches to non-smokers for management of tricky cognitive complaints .. FWIW.

[larry_llama]

Yeah... it's not so much that nicotine is that horrible for you on its own. The main problem is that it keeps you coming back for more smokes, and it's all the other shit that's in them that really kills ya...

[SaggyBalls]

I quite like nicotine and one thing I've said more than most others is 'I know a lot of non-smokers that could really use a cigarette'

I just hate the nausea and poisoned feeling I get from 3/4 of a tailor-made smoke.

Smoking IS cool but it stinks and it's an expensive habit and crazy addiction.

It's not just the nicotine that keeps people coming back for more.

Real tobacco IS a sacred plant and as long as these studies continue and are brought to light we'll probably see organic tobacco more readily available.

I think it's a step toward more respect for the ways of our indiginous peoples, as even now many people have nothing to say about Canada's native population as they're very much apart.

Perhaps this is one little way we could be brought together. I think it'd be great to get a native elder involved with WOOFing practices so our heady farmers could learn even more.

[paisley]

Do coffee and cigarettes protect against Parkinson's? - from New Scientist

though: "relative to lung disease and heart disease, Parkinson's disease is far less common."

[Hal Johnson]

Ive always wondered why they just dont inject cigs with all sorts of good stuff, like vitamins and the like. I mean, if we can split the bloody atom.

[djmelbatoast]

There was a guy in Quebec a few years ago who was selling "health" cigs. He injected the tobacco with vitamin C and whatnot. He was getting sued though because apparently you can't absorb Vitamin C into your body in smoke form.

[phishtaper]

basic chemotheraphy is a just combination of toxins. so yes, one could make the argument that in context, everything is potentially good, even nicotine.

bottom line, though. cigarettes contibute more to society via taxation than they cost via healthcare, so there is considerable inertia to maintain the stauts quo.

[timouse]

I just hate the nausea and poisoned feeling I get from 3/4 of a tailor-made smoke.

i used to smoke drum rollies, and was always amazed at the different buzz that came from a dumaurier or other tm smoke. i'm sure that buzz is due to the laundry list of stuff that gets added to tobacco.

after one year of no smokes, i feel better than i have since...well, since before i had my first smoke

[d_rawk]

If I remember the scenario correctly (not likely) most of the totally crazy additives in cigarettes came as a result of trying to keep the same taste/feeling after adding filters. Filters were added because of hysteria over the tar content.

Smoke is carcinogenic no matter how you slice it (not that you can slice smoke ..), but I'd take an old style tobacco cigarette over a contemporary chemical-cocktail one any day.

But really I should just quit. I'm glad to hear you feel better off the darts, timouse. That's one more inspiration to somehow see it through.

[timouse]

good on you, d_rawk.

my inspiration came from Allen Carr. His book changed my life...or more correctly, his concepts changed my thinking. every time i have quit in the past, i felt that i was giving something up, and i would inevitably cave to the desire to have "just one," which inevitably landed me back smoking.

once you admit that you are addicted, and that you will have to duck outside every hour and a half for the rest of your life to do something that is outrageously expensive and deadly, then you start to see that you are not giving something up but breaking free of an evil addiction. that simple mental turnaround has meant everything...

check his book out.

[d_rawk]

Thanks

Yeah, my sister gave me a copy of that book, and it promptly disappeared before I managed to read it. So I downloaded an audiobook copy, and my harddrive promptly died on me.

Heh, the universe conspires ...

[popo weenie]

cigarettes are a habit to ourselves that only we can break and the friggen government adds shit every year to keep me additcted now i am having a few ha ha but the air in miramichi is a sure killer with the pulp mills as i feel better after a week and 2 days away no shit

besides the water full of cancer causing chemicals from domtar that was in our water wells a few years ago but they know more than me as i don,t bullshit i tell the truth , it will take a lot of green bills to keep me quiet which i will not do as to me i am living on this earth that god created not man , like man did with our cigarettes so all in all i feel let god be god and myself the country will destroy

god bless must go have a beer my choice

love you all

po po weenie

thanks dr. evil mouse for doc dvd

sorry i am off topic

xoxoox

[headymamamyrna]

Sorry but i am not sure what you are talking about!

[d_rawk]

... and the friggen government adds sh!t every year to keep me additcted

I love ya hon, but the government isn't adding anything to your anything. The government is what is setting up the support lines to help you quit, and jacking up the sin taxes as frequently as possible to make it harder and harder to buy the damn things (and, yeah, to boost margins on taxation).

I think they should just grandfather the fuckers .. I don't see who would complain about that.

cigarettes are a habit to ourselves that only we can break

That I agree with. I smoke because there is some sort of catharsis in (gentle and slow) self-destruction. I think. I wonder if Carr addresses that in his book?

[popo weenie]

Sorry but i am not sure what you are talking about![/quote

put on your thinking cap ha ha

good for the mind to try and figure out my posts

as long as d_rawk understands

he sure is a special person and the world needs more like him

[popo weenie]

I love ya hon

you are a person to be treasured and loved which we all do

[Tooly]

i knew a guy that worked at imperial tobacco (who make DuMaurier, etc) and this guy said to me that they throw old pizza boxes+crusts, half sandwiches, cardboard boxes, all sorts of shit that shouldnt EVER get tossed into the tobacco shredder into the shredder.

once the govt started putting fire retardant into the cigs last year or so, we switched to the native smokes, i find they dont taste as chemically. if you live near a reserve maybe try them, i dont think they are as fulla chems, but who knows.

sure is hard to quit. all this talk and typing about smoking i think i need me a smoke.

[Tricky]

But is the study propegated by the tobacco industry? Are the researchers funded by the industry?

Most people think that MILK is good for you because of the "studies" done by researchers hired by the Dairy industries.

[timouse]

But is the study propegated by the tobacco industry? Are the researchers funded by the industry?

Most people think that MILK is good for you because of the "studies" done by researchers hired by the Dairy industries.

Nicotine acts on the acetylcholine receptors in the brain, stimulating and regulating the release of a slew of brain chemicals, including seratonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. Not surprisingly, the first scientific work that identified these chemicals and how they affect the body came out of nicotine research -- much of it performed by tobacco companies.

"Nicotine is highly stigmatized -- and for good reason, because the delivery system is so deadly," says Don deBethizy, CEO of Targacept. "But the drug itself and the research generated by studying its effects on the brain both show great promise for helping us improve our physical and mental health."

DeBethizy worked for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for 15 years -- he was one of the first to publicly declare that tobacco is addictive -- before he spun Targacept off as a separate company. RJR retains a 4 percent share of the Winston Salem biotech, which has one mission: to develop drugs that target the so-called "nicotinic receptors" in the human central-nervous system.

so yes, the studies are funded by tobacco companies, or tobacco companies masquerading as pharmaceutical companies.