Kaleb Castro

Mr. Meyer
P3
Senior Capstone Project
May 16, 2016

Is Nicotine Bad for you?

Nicotine is an addictive, harmful, terribly awful substance found in many products
today. Or is it? There has been widespread dispute for years over whether nicotine itself
is an addictive substance or if the addictive nature comes from other substances
accompanied by nicotine. If nicotine is in fact addictive, when isolated, is it harmful to
the body? There has been great difficulty in separating the effects of nicotine on the
body from other residues found in products utilized to deliver the nicotine into the body,
and due to the nature of the subject, the majority of studies regarding the matter are
very biased one way or the other.
Man has been using nicotine for a very long time. It is believed that Tobacco
began growing in the Americas about 6,000 B.C(udayton) and it was first written about
in 1571 which isnt very surprising, since during the sixteenth century, there was a major
expansion of botanical gardens in Pisa, Florence, Bologna, and all throughout
Europe(pubs). This was also the era of the exploration of the new world by European
explorers. The exploration of the new world let to countless types of plants and other
materials being brought back to Europe to be tested for their medicinal values and
various other uses. Travelers held high hopes for the tobacco leaves that they had seen

the natives both smoking and using to heal wounds (pubs). There was so much hype
surrounding tobacco in Europe in the 1600s, that it was said to cure 36 ailments, from
bad breath too cancer. It was so popular during that time that it was frequently used as
money (udayton). To receive the benefits of the magical tobacco, the people smoked it.
Because of the huge popularity of the substance, it only took fifty years for tobacco to
be used regularly throughout all of Europe. Back then, nicotine was seen as such a
good, positive thing. It wasnt until the actual makeup of tobacco was more understood
and scientists began to realize the potential health risks of smoking, that nicotine was
given a bad name (udayton).
Believe it or not, neither the natives nor the early Europeans were crazy to
believe in the medicinal benefits of nicotine. Colleen McBride, the director of the cancer
prevention, detection, and control program at Duke University Medical Center said,
"Nicotine has a lot of therapeutic uses. There's growing evidence that it may be useful in
treating Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's - their level of concentration, their ability to
focus. Those of us who are caffeine users understand that. Fortunately, coffee hasn't
been shown to be a negative or harmful delivery system."(Duke) There is ongoing
research to determine the true medical benefits of nicotine, because nicotine itself is not
the bad guy, it is the mode of administration thats harming people. Despite its potential
health benefits, nicotine still receives a negative connotation to the majority of the
public.
Nicotine is addictive substance, but there are two separate types of addictive
substances. There are physically addictive substances, which alter the way in which
your body works. It will begin compensating for the introduced substance and will result

in withdrawal symptoms when the substance is taken away (todayifoundout). Nicotine

has been shown to cause slight levels of physical dependence as well as psychological
dependence. The actual effects of nicotine may surprise you though. When introduced
to the body, nicotine works on the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors or NCRs. It binds to
the NCRs, resulting in a sudden release of multiple neurotransmitters including
dopamine. The reaction only takes seven seconds, so the nearly instant release of feelgood chemicals causes nicotine cravings. While reacting with NCRs nicotine also
causes an increase in the amount of calcium produced. This leads to an excess of
epinephrine being released. Epinephrine is basically adrenaline and causes increased
heart rate and blood pressure (todayifoundout). All of these reactions and imbalances
cant be good for you right? Wrong! These effects are nearly identical to those of
caffeine (tobaccoharmreduction). The true dangers lies in the delivery system of the
nicotine.
Nicotine by itself causes effects to the brain similar to those caused by caffeine,
but when paired with a courier as damaging as a cigarette, the effects become much
more harmful. Instead of affecting neurotransmitters and blood pressure, smoking
cigarettes affects every major system in the body (ucanquit2). While the most serious
effects take place in the heart and lungs, smoking also affects the brain, DNA, blood,
immune system, muscle, bones, causes erectile dysfunction in men, and I wont even
get into the fact that smoking leads to cancer. Higher blood pressure from nicotine
paired with lack of oxygen from smoking, sticky blood, and fatty deposits from smoking,
put tremendous stress on the heart. This puts smokers at risk of heart attack or stroke.

Blockages in blood vessels also leads to amputation of feet or toes in extreme cases
(smokefree).
The lungs of smokers are severely damaged. I know that I said I wouldnt talk
about the undeniable correlation between smoking cigarettes and cancer, but in 1985,
lung cancer became the leading killer of women (udayton). Cancer isnt the only
damage that cigarettes cause to the lungs though. Smoking irritated the lungs. This
irritation causes inflammation of the tissues. If the already inflamed tissues are
continually irritated, they begin to scar. These scarred lungs make breathing difficult and
lead to a chronic cough. The irritation of smoking not only inflames the lungs, it also
destroys the alveoli. When these tiny air sacs are destroyed, not only are you
permanently damaging your lungs, because they never grow back, but their destruction
also leads to a disease called emphysema. Emphysema makes breathing even more
difficult and can lead to death (smokefree). All of these damages are caused by the
delivery method of nicotine, not the substance itself.
As history has shown, if people want to smoke, they are going to smoke.
However, I believe that the solution to the epidemic caused by big tobacco is to expand
research into alternative delivery methods of nicotine. When people smoke, they do it
for the nicotine, not for the thousands of chemicals and carcinogens found in cigarettes.
If there was a viable delivery method free of those harmful substances, hundreds of
thousands of people would be saved. All alternative methods of nicotine delivery have
their faults, but they are taking steps in the right direction. If we were able to develop a
chew without the cancer causing carcinogens (medicinenet), a nicotine patch without
the rashes and headaches (quit), or a regulated e-cigarette market, smoking cigarettes

could become a thing of the past and nicotine will regain its positive household
connotation.

Works Cited
"Effects of Nicotine." - UCANQUIT2.ORG. Web. 16 May 2016.
"TobaccoHarmReduction.org." FAQ: Menu:Tobaccoharmreduction.org. Web. 16 May 2016.
Fletcher, Hewitt Grenville. "The History of Nicotine." - Journal of Chemical Education (ACS
Publications). Web. 16 May 2016.
"Side Effects." Nicotine Patches Side Effects. Web. 16 May 2016.
Randall, Vernellia R. "The History of Tobacco." The History of Tobacco. 1998. Web. 16 May
2016.
Ray, C. Claiborne. "The Nicotine Blast." The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 Sept.
2008. Web. 16 May 2016.
Smith, Cabell. "Medical Uses for Nicotine." Duke Today. 10 Aug. 2001. Web. 16 May 2016.
"18 Ways Smoking Affects Your Health." Smokefree.gov. Web. 16 May 2016.
Stoppler, Melissa Conrad, MD. "Chewing Tobacco: Click for Side Effects and Cancer Risks."
MedicineNet. Web. 16 May 2016.
Scott. "Why Is Nicotine Addictive." Today I Found Out. 30 July 2013. Web. 16 May 2016.