Science finds Nicotine Enormously Helpful to Humans

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That's right, the very same drug that America is trying to outlaw without actually doing it directly.

Quote:

In an article in the journal Science, Yale University researchers describe experiments on mice which found nicotine activates neurons to send signals the body has had enough to eat.

However they are not the same neurons which trigger a craving for tobacco.

As a result, the researchers say nicotine-based treatments could help control obesity.

A research team from Yale University School of Medicine and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston performed a combination of molecular, pharmacological, behavioural and genetic experiments on mice.

They found that nicotine influences a collection of central nervous system circuits, known as the body's hypothalamic melanocortin system, by activating certain receptors.

These receptors, in turn, increase the activity of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons, known for their effects on obesity in humans and animals.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13711975

This story is starting to go the way of the alcohol story, where first the American puritans yack about how it is pure evil and try to browbeat others into not using it, then science comes along as says not so fast, this stuff can be good for us. Pesky Science!

EDIT: And caffeine as well, it was just 5 years ago that I often heard loads cute neurotic women either fretting about their caffeine consumption or gloating about their being able to sacrifice it, back when caffeine was supposed to be so bad for us. Now science has shown that it regulates blood sugar and keep diabetes at bay, they are checking into what else good it does for us. OOPS!

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Type: Discussion • Score: 7 • Views: 6,521 • Replies: 94

I first read about the medical benefits of nicotine several years ago. The trouble is that smoking it is still harmful to your lungs. They recommend inhalers or patches or other ways to deliver it so smokers shouldn't really celebrate this news.

1 Reply

@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

I first read about the medical benefits of nicotine several years ago. The trouble is that smoking it is still harmful to your lungs. They recommend inhalers or patches or other ways to deliver it so smokers shouldn't really celebrate this news.

even better to my sense of HA HA is that science is back to working with LSD, after taking decades off due to political pressure. During the 60's it showed great promise with alcoholism.

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@hawkeye10,

Your title doesn't match the content of the article, at all. Your analysis following the part you quoted is also inaccurate.

Not that there's much new in these observations.

I would point out that a single drop of refined nicotine - one drop - that was on a knife, and cut you, would kill you. It's an ancient assassin's poison. Not something you want to be putting in your body, and certainly not something you want to be using in an unregulated fashion.

Cycloptichorn

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@Cycloptichorn,

Quote:

Your title doesn't match the content of the article, at all. Your analysis following the part you quoted is also inaccurate.

Not that there's much new in these observations.

You claiming that something said is wrong but not stating how it is wrong and documenting your assertion is nothing new......you seem to love doing drive bys.

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

Quote:
Your title doesn't match the content of the article, at all. Your analysis following the part you quoted is also inaccurate.

Not that there's much new in these observations.
You claiming that something said is wrong but not stating how it is wrong and documenting your assertion is nothing new......you seem to love doing drive bys.

I thought it so elementary that it didn't need pointing out. But, since you asked: Science has NOT found that nicotine is 'enormously helpful' to humans. And those who have been speaking out against it's use, and that of tobacco in general, aren't proven wrong in any way by the piece you linked to.

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Quote:

I thought it so elementary that it didn't need pointing out. But, since you asked: Science has NOT found that nicotine is 'enormously helpful' to humans

Obesity is the scourge of our times healthwise ( Mrs. Obama has told us so), and Nicotine tricks the nervous system into wanting less food, that is an enormous benefit.

Quote:

And those who have been speaking out against it's use, and that of tobacco in general, aren't proven wrong in any way by the piece you linked to.

Over the years I have seen a lot of justifications for regulating and outright outlawing nicotine delivery systems on the argument that this substance has no benefit to the health of the body thus the ability to use it should not be a protected right. This point has now been proven false, the argument is now voided.

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

The receptors that nicotine activates do result in a reduction of appetite; people have known that for many years. Ask just about any young woman why she smokes and she will tell you she does it to control her weight, but other chemicals can also do that without triggering the addiction effect. That finding was a key result of identifying he receptors involved. There are several other health benefits to smoking that researchers have documented over the years, but they are outweighed by the damage from lung cancer. The only thing new in this article is that they were able to identify the receptors involved.

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you will never win against the anti-smoking lobby no matter what the evidence says, cause the "brain washed" mass, are "brain washed". smoking kills fullstop, passive smoking kills fullstop knowing someone who smokes killlllls fullstop seeing a cig on tv killllsss fullstop etc etc etc

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I watched two people I cared about very much die a long, slow, degrading death from smoking related illnesses. I watched my once handsome, athletic uncle dissolve into a skeleton sucking on an oxygen tube trying to catch his breath with his remaining lung. In the end, his son had to carry him from room to room when his wheelchair couldn't fit though doorways. Compared to his non-smoking brothers he died young, in his early 60's, his brothers are now in their 80's and have had many extra years of travel and family events. It took my FIL 5 years to die of his nicotine related diseases. Towards the end he was so weak from not being able to take a full breath that he couldn't walk to the bathroom and had to face the indignity of being in diapers and changed by either his wife or a nurse. He tried to kill himself once by overdosing on pills, but failed. I don't think either of these men thought nicotine was "enormously helpful" to in their lives. They both died very thin and never had weight problems, so maybe that is the point of this article.

1 Reply

@engineer,

Quote:

The receptors that nicotine activates do result in a reduction of appetite; people have known that for many years. Ask just about any young woman why she smokes and she will tell you she does it to control her weight, but other chemicals can also do that without triggering the addiction effect. That finding was a key result of identifying he receptors involved. There are several other health benefits to smoking that researchers have documented over the years, but they are outweighed by the damage from lung cancer. The only thing new in this article is that they were able to identify the receptors involved.

No, because now all those who claimed that smoking helped them to maintain their desired weight have had their claims documented by science. And as I said, all those who claimed that Nicotine adds nothing to the health of the body have been proven wrong.

You Engineer in the past have tended to be a pretty honest thinker, I am disappointed in your poor performance here.

1 Reply

@Green Witch,

bullshit, i watched my granny die with "smoking related diesease", my aunty die with a "SMOKING RELATED DISEASE", uncles the same, "YET" none of them smoked or where around smokers, so fear monger with your brainwashed BS somewhere else, did u ever think think that they coulda become ill because if something else which our governments don't want to reveal, like large chemical plants pumping toxins into the air, car exhausts, and any other factory that burns things after dark. Wake up....

1 Reply

@BDV,

So you think cigarette smoking is harmless?

1 Reply

@Green Witch,

doubtful, but the dangers posted by governments is a smoke screen to other causes which they don't want you to know. I lived beside a certain US chemical plant that puffed smoke after dark from their massive chimleys, the area i lived in was covered in "Powder" many times, which we had the joy of breathing in, the best thing about it they blamed another company, yet when it closed, the same thing kept happening. Look at the facts and figures and don't jump to conclusions and don't allow media hype to dictate your viewpoint. Nothing in this world is black or white. The country who smoke the most, start earliest, have the lowest death rates. Hardly fits the "Smoking Kills" BS.

1 Reply

@BDV,

Quote:

The country who smoke the most, start earliest, have the lowest death rates.

Could you be more specific?

I do look at facts and figures. Cigarettes kill. It's a fact.

Do you smoke?

By the way, my FIL grew up in one of the cleanest areas in USA. He grew-up and spent a large chunk of his life on a ranch in Montana. He never lived in an industrial area. He died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) due to smoking cigarettes. The other members of his family all lived into their 90's. It's not the least bit gray, but rather very black. Philip Morris & Co. produced the toxins that he chose to put into his body via cigarettes and smoking killed him.

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My dad was a heavy smoker all his life, until, at age 62 the doctor told him he had virtually no lung capacity left, due to smoking. He quit cold turkey. He got a few more years, but died of COPD well below the average age for his demographic. His last months weren't pretty. He'd wake up at night gasping for breath, and my mom or I would have to massage him to get the cramps it caused him out of his chest and shoulders.

I spent decades surrounded by smokers, particularly in music clubs, breathing the secondhand smoke they so casually produced, and came home with all my clothes and my hair smelling like an unemptied ashtray. I have significantly reduced forced vital capacity as a result.

You can take your "enormous health benefits" and stick them in your ear. Or any other handy orifice. In your lungs would also be good.

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I have zero sympathy for any so-called "smoker's rights". As far as I'm concerned, they violated my rights for decades.

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@BDV,

The evidence of millions of smokers and second hand smokers who have their lifespan greatly shortens because of smoking?

Sorry heart and lung damage alone far far far outweighs any benefits from weight loss due to smoking,

Kind of like suggesting we should promote heroin use as it sure seems to aid runways models in keeping themselves bone thin.

A am shock that hawkeye would loan his support to this nonsense,

1 Reply

@BillRM,

Quote:

A am shock that hawkeye would loan his support to this nonsense,

Me, the individual rights advocate, coming out in support of the right to smoke....who would have thunk it right Bill?

1 Reply

Have you heard the old line, "Your right to swing a fist ends at my nose", hawkeye?
Similarly, your right to puff noxious and toxic crap into the air ends at my nose. If there is no way to avoid breathing the stuff you create, I don't think there is any right for you to create it. That is my individual right. Do feel free to kill yourself smoking, though.

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Science finds Nicotine Enormously Helpful to Humans

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